Why I hate working with WordPress. Do you?

I’ve had a few WordPress projects now. It has been a very unpleasant experience. It has been different tasks ranging from writing custom logic plugins in WooCommerce to simple page content changes in LearnDash.

One of the most annoying things with WordPress is changing the design and content of pages. I always feel like I have to do ugly workarounds to change text for example or add a custom widget. Like you have to do some JavaScript that searches for the right div and customize it that way. It’s like you’re taking a finished (sometimes shitty and buggy) product and keep covering layer after layer of code with your own customizations, instead of changing the source code. You can’t change the source code directly because it will be overwritten if you update that theme or plugin holding that widget or text. You have to build some stupid acrobatics JavaScript shit to cover over what you don’t want instead of first removing- and replacing it like you would in any other type of project. Sometimes there are nice hooks and filters, but often there aren’t so you have to do some workaround JavaScript.

In general, I often feel like I have to keep twisting and bending it into something it’s not made for. I do it because the customer wants WordPress and to make the designer happy who wants those customizations. But underneath that beautiful customized shell is an ugly mutated monster with a heap of plugins and hackish workaround code to cope with the bullshit and obstacles of WordPress.

WordPress might be nice sometimes because you get a lot from start, like WooCommerce or LearnDash. But making even tiny customizations to suit your needs is often very painful, limited and takes some serious twisting and bending.

Do you agree? Can you relate?