If you have convinced clients to switch from WordPress to ClassicPress, we would love to hear your feedback. Some things that would be helpful to know:
All input is welcome.
If you have convinced clients from WordPress to ClassicPress
Nope.
And yet, I have answers to these:
- What objections did they have against switching to ClassicPress?
- What did you tell them to overcome those objections?
That I run it meanwhile myself on my sites and that I am heavily involved in the project meanwhile.
- And lastly, how are they liking ClassicPress after the switch?
Nothing after since they did not (yet) switch but they are highly interested because pissed at WP in general how it messes up their sites
I have tried hard to convince but back then, honestly they where plain out right. Not even myself I trusted this thing is going anywhere. Meanwhile, 5 months later, I trust it for my own stuff. Thus, I am again leaning into sharing the word. This time, I have stuff to backup my offers to them, however, still I can’t provide them the “easy to use” theme or plugin they have so many of in WP.
That, is still the main hold-back. This is also why I am investing massive amounts of my time to create a full set of plugins (ShortCodes, Forms, Search, Access and Templating, plus a theme for starting off).
At least, once that is done, I can say “Here, we have these stable things that can help you, and there is the number of developers who are eager to be hired”
(They don’t mind hiring, as long theres someone available for it)
That’s the other issue that scares them off, while they see that no seasoned WP dev is yet really experienced in React, there is literally NO one on platforms like Upwork that tagged themselves with ClassicPress.
Thus, many fear they wont find collaborators.
Additionally, WP guys are very active in telling people “Do NOT ever install CP/Do stick with Blocks/It is safer/It is better”. Allover in social media and else. Thus, when people see the “official” guys saying “do not”, then it is very hard to convince them else.
These are the major points holding the owners I know back. But if we proceed at this pace, they soon will start to drop in. I hope.
Me: “I’m building you a site”
Client: “Ok, here’s $x or an equivalent in barter”
Me: “Here’s your site. Here’s how you edit this content. Let me know if you have any questions”
Only one person has ever noticed and asked why I chose to use ClassicPress instead of WordPress. My answer was that I’m directly involved in the building and maintenance of the project, and I consider it a much better bet for long-term stability: when they invest more time and money in their site, it will be to improve an outcome related to their business, and not because thingyblockybob Z is going to break if they don’t. They were satisfied with that answer.
As far as plugin and theme availability, clients don’t even need to have access to install plugins - in my opinion it’s usually better if they don’t. And trying to switch themes themselves - this definitely voids the warranty.
Your willingness and drive to collect this kind of feedback and then work to improve specific items is extremely valuable to this project. Contributions like this make a huge difference to CP’s success over time.
I tried tagging myself as CP on Upwork, but I am just one… And if people aren’t searching for the tag it’s useless.
All of my clients sites are CP.
Notice that I don’t have a lot of sites because paper is my main incoming source.
I’ve picked up a bunch for hosting, converted to CP changing plugins when needed. I billed for the conversion. They wanted to stick to the old editor.
Every new site is CP, using a custom plugin, some “developed for CP” plugins and “solid” WP plugins as updraft for backups. Themes are “developed for CP” or commercial ones.
No one complained about running ClassicPress.
“Switch over” - not really. But creating NEW sites with CP, yes, we do have.
“Lets do the next project with ClassicPress” - “Why?” - “For the following reasons”
I also tend to use susty[1] as base for the client-specific custom themes I build, so thats completely free of any WP 5.x-only cruft.
cu, w0lf.
[1] There is going to be a starter theme release by humble me in the nearby future, current working title “snarky”, based on susty and some best practices, ACF Pro-enabled, with Bootstrap 4 / 5 as base CSS framework of choice. Obviously its “built for CP”, but is also not gonna fall apart when being used within WP 5.