The evolution of WordPress (and PHP) developer

[LuckyTrends]

I have been working as a WordPress developer for over five years and have created a huge number of websites and extensions in various fields. It has been a very interesting and exciting adventure, but it's time to move on

Now I am faced with the choice of which direction to take, choosing between different programming languages.

For now, I am considering whether to stick with PHP and learn well-known frameworks such as Laravel, or switch to another language and platform.

Please advise me on the best choice for 2025. What do you think about web development areas such as Node,js or perhaps .NET?

Personally, I am most inclined to study the ASP.NET stack. It will be a real challenge for me, but I think it's worth it. There are many promising projects here and higher salaries

 

[SirLouen]

This is a hard question. I don't really think that there is "a better" language unless you move into something like Go or Rust but for web dev, none of thse two are top picks.

For web development, Javascript has been massively surging lately and the amount of iterations it's having it's totally crazy. On the other side anything related to .NET, still have a brutal amount of companies that for some reason, decided to go that way as precisely an alternative to PHP back in the day (PHP has always been really annoying historically and devs took a long time to realize this because they have been the kings for too long).

But there is a catch: PHP is also surging and specially for those who want to go big stakes, you can consider playing around servers like Openswoole or FrankenPHP. You will literally destroy almost any other programming language out there in terms of performance, but in exchange a lot more difficult development. But this is the point of being a "pro" in something: if you keep just playing around the surface, you will never become essential, nor special. PHP is not going to be the king anymore and all seems to indicate that for now, JS is going to take the place for a while.

But personally, I prefer to recommend sticking to what you already know or at best, try out something else, but keep juggling around.

 

[LuckyTrends]

This is a hard question. I don't really think that there is "a better" language unless you move into something like Go or Rust but for web dev, none of thse two are top picks.

For web development, Javascript has been massively surging lately and the amount of iterations it's having it's totally crazy. On the other side anything related to .NET, still have a brutal amount of companies that for some reason, decided to go that way as precisely an alternative to PHP back in the day (PHP has always been really annoying historically and devs took a long time to realize this because they have been the kings for too long).

But there is a catch: PHP is also surging and specially for those who want to go big stakes, you can consider playing around servers like Openswoole or FrankenPHP. You will literally destroy almost any other programming language out there in terms of performance, but in exchange a lot more difficult development. But this is the point of being a "pro" in something: if you keep just playing around the surface, you will never become essential, nor special. PHP is not going to be the king anymore and all seems to indicate that for now, JS is going to take the place for a while.

But personally, I prefer to recommend sticking to what you already know or at best, try out something else, but keep juggling around.

Thanks for your reply, man!
Yes, I was thinking about switching to JavaScript, for example, to become a full-fledged Node or TypeScript (hi to blockchain) developer. But at the same time, I am seriously considering moving away from scripting languages, primarily because of their mass marketability and high competition for entry. I think it's difficult to become a truly valuable employee in such conditions; it would be relatively easy to replace you.
That's why I turned my attention to C-like languages. They have a fairly high entry barrier, but if you manage to gain a foothold, you will always be a sought-after specialist, and the projects can be much more “deeper.” As I understand from your answer, ASP.NET may be a questionable choice for further development in the web. However, I am not thinking only about working in the web field (despite my extensive experience and the large amount of time spent), so I can try to switch to modern languages such as Go or C#, or maybe even C++, and change the field of development.

 

[GetwpDone]

stick with PHP and learn frameworks in my opinion

 

[atnovi33]

Man this is super helpful, been doing WP for a bit and was kinda lost on what to learn next. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[LuckyTrends]

stick with PHP and learn frameworks in my opinion

This is probably the most reasonable and straightforward option. I think it's worth trying frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony, and then we'll see how it goes

 

[LuckyTrends]

Man this is super helpful, been doing WP for a bit and was kinda lost on what to learn next. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I hope you haven't been banned from Google

 

[Panther28]

I moved away from the noobs favoorite blogging platform wp, and too joomla. Its still php, and a cms, if your making anything content related, but its more secure to program in, and better experiance to program with overall as it uses MVC approach

 

[LuckyTrends]

I moved away from the noobs favoorite blogging platform wp, and too joomla. Its still php, and a cms, if your making anything content related, but its more secure to program in, and better experiance to program with overall as it uses MVC approach

Why did you choose new CMS instead MVC framework such Laravel?

 

[wehihidaj2009]

If i will be you i will stay with PHP is not going anywhere .....try to use Ai to help you with the codes and you can learn from php as well other languages then

 

[Panther28]

Why did you choose new CMS instead MVC framework such Laravel?

Could use larvel suppose. I just like joomla. I have fond memories, of my first pretty good business making me money via a site, i have no idea how i managed to turn into a working ecommerce site! lol

I still want to develop content, and i have experiance with wordpress for a little while programming. So joomla is an easy step. Laravel, i dont know much about, and i dont think it has been around for as long as joomla. I think its for a different thing. If you are php based, and you want to build an app, from the ground up then laravel. I want to take advantage of what joomla has to offer already, and build on that.

 

[LuckyTrends]

Could use larvel suppose. I just like joomla. I have fond memories, of my first pretty good business making me money via a site, i have no idea how i managed to turn into a working ecommerce site! lol

I still want to develop content, and i have experiance with wordpress for a little while programming. So joomla is an easy step. Laravel, i dont know much about, and i dont think it has been around for as long as joomla. I think its for a different thing. If you are php based, and you want to build an app, from the ground up then laravel. I want to take advantage of what joomla has to offer already, and build on that.

It turns out that PHP will live and develop for a long time to come, so you can breathe easy, stick with it, and move forward!

 

[Panther28]

so you can breathe easy

Thanks but i was holding my breath waiting all this time on your answer, and now am deed! lol

 

[topninja]

I recommend learning:

• React for frontend development (with both JavaScript and TypeScript)
• .NET (Core), Java (Spring Boot), or Django (Python) for backend development

WordPress (as a CMS) is suitable mainly for startups or simple landing pages.
Medium and enterprise-level businesses typically don’t use WordPress for their main platforms.
They might use it for marketing or landing pages, but not for core applications.
The reason is that CMS platforms are great for beginners and quick setups, but they tend to be slow, heavily dependent on plugins, and prone to security vulnerabilities.
For example, a friend of mine had their WordPress site compromised through a vulnerable plugin — a common issue when relying on third-party extensions.

 

[Builder Dave]

You can do well with any programming language as long as you are a proper pro with it. Digging deeper into what you know best and becoming even better at it has it's certain benefits and so does expanding your horizons with a different programming language. If you are already good with php, stick with php and get even better at it.

 

[LuckyTrends]

I recommend learning:

• React for frontend development (with both JavaScript and TypeScript)
• .NET (Core), Java (Spring Boot), or Django (Python) for backend development

WordPress (as a CMS) is suitable mainly for startups or simple landing pages.
Medium and enterprise-level businesses typically don’t use WordPress for their main platforms.
They might use it for marketing or landing pages, but not for core applications.
The reason is that CMS platforms are great for beginners and quick setups, but they tend to be slow, heavily dependent on plugins, and prone to security vulnerabilities.
For example, a friend of mine had their WordPress site compromised through a vulnerable plugin — a common issue when relying on third-party extensions.

Thanks for replay!
I agree with you on all points. Despite the fact that learning the .NET and Java is a real challenge, it can pay off in the future with high salaries, interesting projects, and overall demand as a specialist.

I don't even know if PHP is used in serious enterprise-level projects, banking, and so on

 

[LuckyTrends]

You can do well with any programming language as long as you are a proper pro with it. Digging deeper into what you know best and becoming even better at it has it's certain benefits and so does expanding your horizons with a different programming language. If you are already good with php, stick with php and get even better at it.

It might be worth exploring modern technologies such as multi-threading and asynchronous. I am considering trying Guzzle promises + curl_multi for parallel processes and OpenSwoole and RoadRunner for asynchronous.
Perhaps then it will be possible to get involved in an interesting and modern PHP project

 

[Deleted member 752298]

For now, I am considering whether to stick with PHP and learn well-known frameworks such as Laravel, or switch to another language and platform.

WP will always be a part of the online ecosystem; but what I see is an increase of WP headless websites. Mostly with Nextjs and WP; tbh it works pretty good.

 

[LuckyTrends]

WP will always be a part of the online ecosystem; but what I see is an increase of WP headless websites. Mostly with Nextjs and WP; tbh it works pretty good.

Thanks for the tip about headless WP sites It's a very interesting thing, I think I'll try it out soon. It's a great opportunity to improve my skills in REST API and GraphQL, which is very useful!

And of course React! It's used everywhere on the web now, must have skill

And then we'll see, maybe I'll go into mobile development. As far as I know, headless WP sites greatly simplify the development of mobile applications for websites.

I'll stay a WP developer for a while longer, as I'm still interested in developing certain things there. I have developed my own plugins for WP and want to upload them to the official WordPress plugins directory. This will be a real challenge for me, as I need to get my code verified by other developers, which requires good preparation, but it will be interesting! And then we'll see, maybe WordPress is here to stay. At least it's developing and doesn't seem to be slowing down

 

[4440]

WP will always be a part of the online ecosystem; but what I see is an increase of WP headless websites. Mostly with Nextjs and WP; tbh it works pretty good.

headless wordpress is a solid choice, i am slowing moving into it.