There are so many reasons, I don’t even know where to start.
Let’s start with the fact that you would like to have full control over your web project, here it is simply annoying that WordPress is being taken hostage by some elite developers. Gutenberg is definitely not a bad thing, but it should have stayed optional. Gutenberg causes WordPress to bloat, the constant changes and adjustments cause an enormous amount of maintenance, which is a reason not to use WordPress and Gutenberg, especially in productive systems (we don’t even want to talk about the security problems that it entails here).
React is also a point that severely limits the developer-friendliness of WordPress.
Sure, not everything is super and perfect with ClassicPress either, but I can count on it to be stable and fast, very fast in fact. Since there are no major changes that turn the entire structure upside down, the maintenance effort is also significantly lower, after all, time is money and the customer saves a lot.
One of the downsides is that more and more plugins for WordPress are becoming obsolete and no longer compatible, since it is hardly worth developing for two systems, especially since Gutenberg and React are making development for WordPress more and more complex.
I simply see the greatest danger for the future of ClassicPress in the fact that there are no plugins and themes available for the run-of-the-mill user without skills that cover every need with a click of the mouse, but users also have to make do with HTML, CSS, PhP and JS skills, which is not bad per se, even desirable, but fails due to the laziness of the masses.
For me, however, ClassicPress is my first choice for almost all web projects because it gives me the freedom and stability that a sustainable, long-term web project requires.
And I’ve been using ClassicPress for a number of years now, so I’ve accumulated a small collection of plugins/themes that only run on ClassicPress and which I also maintain for ClassicPress.
At this point I would like to invite you again to take a look and I am happy about every one of the vlt. maintain one or the other tool in this collection together with me in the spirit of ClassicPress.
Simple for me: Less is More! The smaller the footprint; the faster a site will load. Not getting into details about if this is a true statement 'cause laws of physics say, cleaner, less cluttered code loads faster than more code (WP).
Just running Hello World would be the way to compare CP to WP. No plugins to bother the page load test and nothing to contest this discussion point as right or wrong in philosophy or opinions.
Also… “I think the market is lack of lightweight solutions and here may be a big opportunity for ClassicPress.” as someone stated in another discussion thread.
Just give me a base footprint to Manage my Content with and let this developer do the heavy lifting of how much code will occupy the System.
I’ve been moving back and forth between ClassicPress, Wordpress and Directus (headless CMS) everyday for the past week, I’m starting to understand why I like ClassicPress more.
Keeping things simple - - I’m not a pro coder, I just know enough HTML, CSS, PHP to get by. I try to avoid JS because I’m terrible at it Old wordpress and its HTML/CSS/PHP/SQL backbone is simple, practical and feels really familiar. The Gutenberg editor looks like I stepped into a Wix dashboard or something, it’s unsettling.
Performance
No bloat - - I hate having code on an install that isn’t getting used, or will never be used. None of my sites will use any of the embed features of Gutenberg, I don’t want it sitting around and making my admin experience slower and more cluttered.
Thankfully, older versions of many plugins still work. A fellow forum member sent me older versions of GeneratePress and Elementor, they’re both compatible. Older versions of Support Board plugin work, older versions of Mailpoet work. And Pods 2.7.31 works, which is my go-to for CPTs. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that every v.4.9 compatible plugin I tested (from the wp plugin website) worked.
For me, although I’ve not moved my site to it yet in live, is that it is much less bloated. I’ve developed a plugin (probably not the best in the world but it works) which allows me to put lots of stuff into posts and Gutenberg and blocks just kills it off and I don’t have the skills to re-write it so it works.
I used to like WP because it was customisable by people who weren’t professional developers and it just worked.
I’ve switched from Wrodpress to ClassicPress back in March 2019 because I didn’t want to see my website become the “lab” for the research and development of the Gutenberg editor that was full of bugs, it was incompatible with most of the plugins, it was more complicated to use and had performance issues as well.
I didn’t and don’t want to spend my time trying to fix whatever doesn’t work out of the box, or trying to relearn or struggle to do the most very basic function of every website platform that is to publish some text and some images.
The Wordpress’ developers ( owners) idea of having a very complicated page builder as an editor was stupid from the very beginning because the average and not related that much with IT users don’t want to rebuild their website on each and every single post they make. They just want to publish their damn content and just update their website every now and then.
In other words to do their work without having to find a specialist to save every other day.
And ClassicPress does exactly what I need it to do. It is there and it works.
I use ClassicPress because I detest Gutenberg. And so do most of the long-form serious writers I know.
Some of them are forced to use Gutenberg because they have clients using it. They’re still having issues getting it to work correctly.
You may find this useful, @viktor. This is a screen capture of the results of a poll I did in the Content Creation Mastermind Group inside of the BizSugar Mastermind Community:
These are the results as of 4/5/23. Also note that many who answered that they do use Gutenberg are ONLY using it for a few PAGES and NOT for their posts.
Here is some additional information from the comments in that poll:
Kevin Ocasio I can’t stand Gutenberg and looked for a way to use Classic almost immediately after they rolled it out. I use the Classic Editor plugin and am not looking forward to them discontinuing it. I’ll have to look into ClassicPress and any other options that are out there before Classic Editor is removed as an option for good. Getting rid of Classic is such a weird move for them to make…
Ann Smarty I think Gutenberg is awful and I’ve been using for a couple of years now. I really wanted to like it but it is just counter-productive. Different blocks have different issues. I switch to a new block in several attempts. Everything slows me down…
Poulomi Basu Classic Editor may no longer work? Oh nooo!!! I cannot, cannot, do Gutenberg. I tried hard, but I just can’t type well there. Why does everything need to be a block? It’s not made for writing, really. Which is weird because WordPress started as a blogging system. I really don’t know what I would do without Classic.
David Leonhardt
Blocks suck. Adobe does the same thing with “components”. It’s the LCD philosophy.
Deborah Anderson
I “know how” to use Gutenberg, so I can help clients facilitate their desired content on WordPress, even if they are Gutenberg fans. But, one of the first things I do on my sites (30+) is to enable the Classic Editor plugin to turn off everything Gutenberg.
Why? There is a lot of excess code that is not only unneeded but oftentimes causes problems, like page speed. I don’t need damaging code on my sites so I keep it clean and stick with Classic. Besides, if someone wants to use “blocks” there are plenty of ways of doing so with clean code and without damaging one’s site with Gutenberg.
If you want to quote any of the above Mastermind members, I know all of them personally and can get their permission or put you in touch with them.
I never wanted Gutenberg and never used it. Nevertheless, I always had unnecessary code in the HTML source code that came from Gutenberg. At some point I got frustrated with having to fix things I never wanted to. That’s why I wanted to get away from Wordpress and ClassicPress was the easiest and fastest way to do that.
Not only I work with WordPress and ClassicPress daily. I might as well support both because is fun and enjoyable. I do this for fun and not something I do for money.
In short, for me, if ClassicPress never moves beyond being WordPress without the block editor then it was what I was looking for. I am not unhappy with WP, but should the day arrive when use of the classic editor is no longer possible, then I would be in a spot, since I do not like green eggs and ham. That is my basic logic for starting to test and use CP.
With regard to themes and plugins, through the years I have considered submitting some of my projects using official channels, but always decided against it. I understand the standards and security issues for sure, but in some ways the stuff I made for myself but would have liked to offer did not follow all those standards. Since I do this for fun / as a hobby, I did not feel that changing them away from what I wanted and all the other baggage that can go along with an official add on was a good fit for me.
Hello all,
i speak in english but is not my native language(i am french). sorry for uggly words ))
first thanks you for classicpress.
long year ago that have not used wordpress the old version was fine.
two days ago i installed wordpress to build a project about insulin calculator ,but it was not the same wordpress than i met before: uggly block editor and no way to disable it without break lot of things, problems with old plugins and others.
if i well understood ,wordpress developper do not want listen community and they took they owns choices by force.
i want help : i am not a developper but if you need someone for translation (english to french),or others things ,it will be a pleasure to help.
Thank you all for sharing why you’re using ClassicPress. If you have a moment, consider leaving a review for ClassicPress on G2 to help others find and use it: https://www.g2.com/products/classicpress/reviews
Your review has been successfully submitted and is in queue for evaluation by our moderation team.
If it doesn’t show up, let me know and I’ll search for an email from them. I get so much spam to the email I share with platforms (except this one - I trust you guys) that I miss a lot in there.
I’m happy to assist wherever I can. (But I’m not a developer, sorry.) And I shared my email I only give to clients with CP (and nowhere else). So I should see it if you email me.
I use ClassicPress for three reasons. The first is curious. I like to try new things and ClassicPress is relatively new to me.
The second reason is that I dislike how heavy and clumsy Wordpress has become. We went from being able to write a quick blog post to having plenty of bloat. I also like that it’s PHP, which brings me on to my third reason.
I have an intense dislike to anything to do with facebook, including react. I feel that by moving to React all websites now look the same. That’s why php, css, Vue and other tools become more interesting.
I have spent time studying Ruby, JavaScript, Python, CSS and more but so far I find that PHP is the most intuitive to use, because if you make a mistake the error will tell you what to fix, without having to figure out abstractions.
I know that people dumped WordPress because of blocks, but for me, it’s React.
As an aside I was experimenting with WordPress and ClassicPress in parallel and found that ClassicPress 2.0 plays more nicely with Mastodon than WordPress, at least with “featured” images. (This might change as I am still experimenting)
When I am convinced that ClassicPress and the Fediverse play well together, I will migrate my blog to ClassicPress from WordPress. I see the Fediverse as the future of online community. Recently I got a taste of the power of having a blog integrated to the Fediverse, and now I’m hooked.
a. It’s what I am comfortable with - rather than spending too much time with plugins, customization, “look and feel” of the site (which I have done enough of in the past), I was looking for simplicity - many of my posts are LONG (@ 3000 words or more), my aim was to concentrate on the content, and not the bells and whistles.
b. Backstory- how I discovered ClassicPress - in a WP forum on FB, there were the usual ‘afiliate bombers’ for some WP providers- I thought the rates were very high, given the “upsell” that WP is resource heavy, and therefore everyone requires a rocketship to run their WP site. I am a big believer in frugality - and began looking for “alternatives to WordPress”. Experimenting with several CMS’s later, I discovered ClassicPress (this was around 2019, version 1.2 or 1.3… ) It had its limitations, but it did the job well.
I even wrote a long post on “How to host your blog for under 10 US dollars a year” (later changed to under 5 US dollars a year) - ClassicPress was the obvious choice for tinkering around.
Fast forward 2023, when I launched my new blog (notes. amarvyas.in, for those interested) - my first CMS of choice was a non - WP, flat file cms… Budit. I like that CMS, but found too many compatibility issues with my workflow. Formatting was a big headache. Enter ClassicPress.
Is it perfect? No. It is for everyone ? Probably not. Does it work as intended without too much hand-holding? Yes.
(I might post a variation of the above on G2 in the coming days).
-An experimenter, an explorer, and a tinkerer’s view of ClassicPress.
Old wordpress and its HTML/CSS/PHP/SQL backbone is simple, practical and feels really familiar. The Gutenberg editor looks like I stepped into a Wix dashboard or something, it’s unsettling.
