I have recently come across ClassicPress as a lightweight and simplified alternative to WordPress. The idea of a CMS that focuses on simplicity, stability, and no forced Gutenberg editor really appeals to me. My website is relatively straightforward a blog and a few static pages for showcasing my work. However, I am also thinking about scalability and long-term maintenance.
I would love to hear from the community about your experiences with ClassicPress.
How has it performed for your projects in terms of speed and security: ??
Are there any plugin compatibility concerns, especially for those migrating from WordPress: ??
For someone without extensive coding experience, how user-friendly is ClassicPress compared to WordPress: ??
Lastly, do you see it as a viable choice in 2024 and beyond for small to medium-sized websites: ??
Welcome! I’ve migrated a few of my simple sites over to ClassicPress recently and found they loaded faster and nearly all of the plugins carried on working. They are blogs with a few pages and sound similar to your site.
The biggest hurdle I’ve hit so far is page builders, so if you rely on one of the main page builders I’d make a test site and try things out before committing.
I’d say the control panel is at least as friendly as WordPress, and being fairly new myself, I’ve found the community very welcoming and helpful
How has it performed for your projects in terms of speed and security?
Incredible speed, compared to WordPress. In some cases, it’s almost instant. Security is the same as WordPress, with the added advantage of blocked XML-RPC by default (correct me if I’m wrong), and updated PHP compatibility.
Fun fact: I have ClassicPress on the same server as WordPress (for my full-time agency work), and all WordPress websites have been hacked (I blame the server person for this), but not ClassicPress.
Are there any plugin compatibility concerns, especially for those migrating from WordPress?
Yes, it depends on what WordPress plugins you are currently using. Some may be compatible, some may not.
For someone without extensive coding experience, how user-friendly is ClassicPress compared to WordPress?
It’s the same interface, without the block editor. And faster. Just like the motto says - “instantly familiar”
Lastly, do you see it as a viable choice in 2024 and beyond for small to medium-sized websites?
I run both simple and complex sites on ClassicPress. I still manage some sites for my employer on WordPress and, when I work on them, I’m always shocked about how slow it is. ClassicPress is so much faster!
As for XML-RPC, it’s not off by default, but you can turn it off by checking a box towards the bottom of Settings->General. While you’re at it, I’d recommend checking the box to Disable Emojis too. (Don’t forget to hit Save Changes!)
I’m a CP newbie myself and the first thing I noticed after installing CP is the loading time, that is much faster than WP. So I agree with other claims about this.
Support at this forum is great, so far always a quick reply.
I have 2 things that might be interesting for you:
Currently CP is fully translated in a couple of languages (Chinese, English (British), Dutch and German).
The WooCommerce plugin won’t work. CP has its own version (a fork called Classic Commerce). If you’re using additional plugins for adding extra features, please make sure those plugins work with Classic Commerce as well.
The recent work done on ClassicCommerce allows for an almost current version of (forked) WC, but without its react parts (mostly statistics).
A lot of plugins that on the surface seem not to work are actually just superficially “not working”, eg. WP Super Cache, which just raised its required WP Version number, but aside of that its completely functional (tested with CP 1.x and 2.x). The fix in this case is just changing the required WP version to eg. 4.9 (both in the readme.txt as well as the plugin base file).
For non-tech-savvy people, this just means: In cases such as this, just ask for help on this forum, and there certainly is gonna be somebody willing to assist you in finding a fix or alternative plugin options
