Best of WordPress — 2025

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   Laravel Dev·15w

   PHP Is Alive But No Longer Strategic

   PHP remains functional and profitable but has lost its strategic position in modern development. Laravel and WordPress sustain the ecosystem, yet GitHub activity shows declining innovation. Full-stack JavaScript offers superior development speed through unified language usage across all layers. The PHP user base skews toward older developers maintaining legacy systems. While PHP continues serving existing applications, it no longer drives modern architecture patterns like distributed systems and event-driven design.

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   Codrops·1y

   10+ Best Web Design Tools & Resources For 2025 (Free & Paid)

   Innovation in web design goes beyond aesthetics, requiring advanced tools that prioritize speed, security, and scalability. In 2025, web design will center around sophisticated eCommerce, data visualization, and seamless booking systems. Tools such as Trafft White Label for scheduling, wpDataTables for data handling, and LayerSlider for animations, offer robust solutions for modern web design needs. Choosing tools that provide regular updates, performance optimization, and flexibility will be crucial for staying ahead in web development.

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   The React Community·1y

   “🚀 My New Portfolio – Built with Next.js & TailwindCSS! + WP RESTful API as Backend 🎨💻”

   Launched a new website to showcase work in UI/UX design, front-end development, and digital product strategy. Built using Next.js, TailwindCSS, and Wordpress RESTful API for the backend. Visit at https://iuiux.com and share feedback.

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   WordPress Beginner·47w

   How to Get a Virtual WhatsApp Number for Your Business

   Using a virtual number for WhatsApp Business may lead to issues like account blocking and non-acceptance by WhatsApp due to verification requirements. A better approach is to set up a legitimate business phone number, ensuring compliance with WhatsApp's terms and facilitating smoother business communications. The post provides a tutorial on integrating WhatsApp chat into WordPress using Click to Chat plugin.

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   roadmap.sh·18w

   NEW ROADMAP: WordPress

   A new learning roadmap for WordPress has been released on roadmap.sh, providing a structured path for developers to learn WordPress development. The roadmap was created with support from Melapress.

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   Charity·17w

   Moving from WordPress to Substack

   A developer announces their migration from WordPress to Substack after a decade of blogging. The move is motivated by frustration with WordPress and the desire to join the more vibrant tech writing community on Substack. The author is working on the second edition of "Observability Engineering" and plans to share insights from that process. Email subscribers are being migrated, but comments cannot be transferred, and the original site will remain accessible to preserve existing links.

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   Codrops·17w

   Spain Collection: Evolving a Luxury Website into a Digital Ecosystem

   A detailed case study of redesigning Spain Collection's luxury travel website into a comprehensive digital ecosystem. The project evolved from a single-purpose site into a platform managing 100+ experiences across trips, stays, weddings, and VIP services. The design approach emphasized editorial aesthetics inspired by high-end fashion, implemented through a modular WordPress system with 50+ flexible components. Technical implementation included ACF Flexible Content for content management, GSAP and TaxiJS for animations and transitions, and a custom WebGL/Three.js petal rain effect for the weddings section. The architecture solved complex UX challenges through smart filtering, modal-based navigation, and content correlation across multiple service categories while maintaining visual consistency and scalability.

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   WordPress Beginner·1y

   How to Bypass WordPress Login (7 Expert Tips)

   Being locked out of your WordPress site can be frustrating, but there are several methods to regain access. Common issues include forgotten passwords, plugin conflicts, and hacked websites. Solutions include using the direct login URL, resetting your password via email or database, disabling security plugins via FTP, creating a new admin user, and restoring your site from a backup. Professional help is available if the technical solutions are too complex. Prevent future lockouts by using a password manager, setting up an SMTP plugin, keeping a backup of your login URL, enabling two-factor authentication, and creating regular backups.

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   WordPress Beginner·43w

   WordPress vs. Django: Which Is Better for Your Website?

   WordPress and Django CMS serve different audiences and use cases. WordPress excels in ease of use, making it ideal for bloggers, small businesses, and non-developers who want quick setup with extensive themes and plugins. Django CMS offers superior performance and security out-of-the-box but requires coding expertise and higher development costs. WordPress wins for content management, customization without coding, community support, and affordability. Django CMS is better for complex enterprise applications requiring custom development and high scalability. Most users should choose WordPress for its user-friendly approach, while Django CMS suits developers building sophisticated web applications.

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    PHP Dev·50w

    WordForge - An opinionated MVC structure from Wordpress Plugins development

    WordForge is a lightweight MVC-style framework designed to simplify WordPress plugin development by offering Laravel-style routing, clean query builders, and form request validation, all with no external dependencies. It aims to make plugins more maintainable and scalable, addressing common chaos in plugin code structure.

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    Tech With Tim·21w

    Is PHP the best back end language for you to use?

    PHP remains a practical choice for backend development despite its reputation. It powers a significant portion of the web, particularly small business websites and platforms like WordPress. The language offers strong job opportunities, especially for maintaining legacy systems and e-commerce sites, with relatively few new developers entering the field creating demand for PHP skills.

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    Make WordPress Core·18w

    Planning for 7.0

    WordPress 7.0 development is underway following the 6.9 release. Core contributors are focusing on Phase 3 collaboration features, including improvements to the Notes feature with better diffing mechanics and change reconciliation. Navigation workflow simplifications are planned to make menu management more intuitive. The team is exploring streamlined editing experiences for composite blocks and design patterns, plus more intuitive page navigation in the site editor. Additional blocks and tools are being added to expand capabilities for theme builders.

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    Community Picks·1y

    The Next-Generation Visual Builder for WordPress

    Clutch is a next-generation visual builder for WordPress that offers professional creators complete design and functional freedom. It features extensive styling options, real-time collaboration, seamless integration with essential plugins, and advanced optimization for site performance using Next.js and Vercel. Clutch supports custom component creation with TypeScript and React, ensuring powerful functionality without performance compromises.

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    CSS-Tricks·17w

    Search CSS-Tricks Raycast Extension

    Jelte Lagendijk created a Raycast extension that enables quick searching of CSS-Tricks articles directly from your desktop. The extension fetches content from the WordPress REST API and provides real-time search results with summaries and browser links, offering a faster alternative to searching the site directly.

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    Article

    ACF·1y

    How to Build WordPress Blocks

    Learn how to create custom WordPress blocks using React or Advanced Custom Fields (ACF). This guide covers methods including setting up a development environment, creating and registering custom blocks, and best practices for scalable block development with both JavaScript and PHP. Enhance flexibility and development efficiency with practical examples and step-by-step tutorials.

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    WP Mayor·21w

    Better Block Editor Review: A Lightweight Block Editor Companion for Next-Level Responsive Design

    Better Block Editor is a free WordPress plugin that extends the native Block Editor with responsive controls, animations, and hover effects without requiring custom CSS. It adds breakpoint-specific settings for layouts, visibility controls for different screen sizes, and customizable navigation collapse points. The plugin maintains content portability by building on core WordPress blocks rather than proprietary components, making it suitable for developers who want enhanced responsive design capabilities while staying within the WordPress ecosystem. It includes site templates and works with any Block theme.

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    ACF·26w

    ACF 6.6.1

    Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) 6.6.1 patch release fixes several issues including Color Picker palette display with large custom color sets, WYSIWYG field rendering in ACF Blocks, block render function type signatures, and multiple V3 Blocks problems affecting preview updates, widget editor compatibility, DOM rendering, and field display consistency.

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    Web Tools Weekly·52w

    JS Libraries, Git/CLI Tools, React

    Rapyd.Cloud is a fully-managed WordPress hosting solution that offers enterprise-grade infrastructure, high performance, free migrations, 24/7 support, and top security. It is optimized for different WordPress scenarios including e-commerce, community websites, and online courses. The service includes features such as a content delivery network (CDN), SSL certificates, DDoS protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), and real-time monitoring. Users can test the performance of their hosting and leverage customer testimonials and an extensive knowledge base for support.

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    Make WordPress Core·52w

    WP_Query changes in WordPress 6.8

    WordPress 6.8 introduces caching optimizations in the WP_Query::get() method and the WP_Query::$query_vars property to enhance performance, especially for sites that do not use persistent caching. These changes may impact how themes and plugins handle queries. Developers are advised to check code compatibility and use specific methods for array comparison due to these updates.

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    ACF·34w

    Practical Guide to REST API Resource Modeling

    REST API resource modeling requires defining independent, logically grouped data chunks that clients can address directly. The independence test validates proper resource boundaries by ensuring one resource can be modified without affecting others. Key practices include using plural URIs for collections, mapping HTTP verbs correctly, implementing pagination and field selection for performance, and avoiding over-granular resource splitting. Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) simplifies WordPress REST API resource modeling through visual field groups and REST API toggles, extending existing endpoints while maintaining security through WordPress permissions.

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    freeCodeCamp·35w

    What WordPress Development Looks Like in the Age of AI

    AI is transforming WordPress development by automating time-consuming tasks like content creation, theme setup, and initial site configuration. Tools like 10Web generate complete WordPress sites in seconds based on simple descriptions, while open source alternatives offer more customization flexibility. This shift allows developers to focus on high-value work like performance optimization and security rather than repetitive setup tasks. For hosting providers, AI-powered WordPress tools reduce customer churn and support tickets by delivering ready-to-use websites instead of blank installations.

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    Make WordPress Core·43w

    Introducing a new SQLite driver for WordPress – WordPress Playground

    WordPress has released a new SQLite driver that provides better MySQL compatibility through advanced query parsing and emulation. The driver features a complete MySQL lexer and grammar parser written in PHP, supports complex SQL operations like subqueries and UNION statements, and includes MySQL information schema emulation. It's currently available as a feature flag in the SQLite Database Integration plugin v2.2.1+ and powers WordPress Playground. The new architecture enables more robust MySQL feature support and lays groundwork for future database engine compatibility within WordPress.

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    WordPress Developer·22w

    Introducing the WordPress Abilities API

    WordPress 6.9 introduces the Abilities API, a unified functional interface that enables plugins, themes, and external tools to discover and execute WordPress capabilities programmatically. The API provides a central registry with machine-readable schemas, built-in validation, and permission controls. Developers can register abilities using wp_register_ability() with input/output schemas, making functionality accessible across REST endpoints, blocks, and AI agents. The implementation demonstrates converting a plugin's core function into a reusable ability that works seamlessly in admin pages, REST APIs, and the Block Editor without duplicating code.

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    Make WordPress Core·19w

    Coding Standard Proposal: Allow the use of the PHP short echo tag

    WordPress proposes allowing the PHP short echo tag (<?=) in its coding standards. Since PHP 5.4, this tag is always available regardless of configuration settings, making it safe to use. The proposal allows but doesn't mandate its use for single statements in template files, requiring no immediate changes to existing WordPress core code. Projects wanting to maintain the restriction can configure PHPCS accordingly.

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    The Hacker News·50w

    Fake Security Plugin on WordPress Enables Remote Admin Access for Attackers

    Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a malicious campaign targeting WordPress sites using a fake security plugin, `WP-antymalwary-bot.php`, which grants attackers admin access and enables stealth reinfection and JavaScript ad fraud. The plugin camouflages itself while pinging to a command-and-control server, spreading malware, and injecting ads. Known variants include `addons.php` and `wpconsole.php`. The malware's rise since January 2025 suggests Russian involvement. Other incidents include fake font domains for card skimming and deceptive CAPTCHA verifications leading to Node.js-based backdoors, attributed to the Kongtuke traffic distribution system.

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