Why I Built a Free WordPress Security Scanner
I built WP Vanguard because I got tired of finding out about security problems the wrong way. Here is the founder story behind the free WordPress security scann…
Writing
Notes from inside the studio
WordPress, BuddyPress, Laravel, Astro, AI. Search the archive or filter by topic.
Introducing Jetonomy: A New WordPress Forum Plugin Built for Scale
Jetonomy is a free, open-source WordPress forum plugin with dedicated database tables, trust levels for self-moderation, Q&A spaces, idea voting, and 61+ REST A…
Stop Specializing. Master Everything. AI Makes It Possible.
The ‘specialize in one stack’ advice is dead. AI collapsed the learning curve. Now you master everything because you can — and because you have to.…
Micro Jobs Are Dead. Here’s What Replaces Them.
The $500 WordPress gigs are getting automated. The future belongs to developers who think like enterprise architects and execute with AI speed.…
Everyone’s Quitting Software Dev. I Just Rebuilt My Entire Product Line.
While Reddit debates quitting software development, I discarded our entire old addon library and rebuilt from scratch with AI. Here’s what actually happened.…
bbPress vs wpForo vs Jetonomy: The Past, The Present, and The Future of WordPress Communities
A hands-on comparison of bbPress, wpForo, and Jetonomy from someone who has built WordPress communities with all three — features, performance, BuddyPress integ…
WordPress vs Webflow in 2026: An Agency Owner’s Honest Comparison
An honest, experience-based comparison of WordPress and Webflow from an agency owner who has built with both — covering pricing, lock-in, customization, and whe…
WordPress vs Astro in 2026: What You’re Actually Trading When You Go Static
We are in the middle of converting store.wbcomdesigns.com to Astro. So I am not writing this from a position of theory or fear. I … Read more…
What I Include in My WordPress Maintenance Retainers (and What I Charge)
What a WordPress maintenance retainer includes, what it excludes and what it costs: from about $150 to $800 a month, and the three factors that decide the price…
How I Built a Private AI Assistant for WordPress That Never Sends Data to OpenAI
How I built WP Private AI — an open-source proof of concept that runs an AI chat assistant entirely on your own server using Ollama and llama3.1:8b, with zero d…
Is WordPress Really Open Source? What That Means for Developers and Agencies
Yes, WordPress is open source under the GPL. What that means for developers and agencies, what the 2024 governance dispute exposed, and the honest risks of buil…
Claude’s 1M Context Window and WordPress: What Actually Changes for Developers
Anthropic made 1M token context generally available. Here is what that concretely changes for WordPress plugin developers — cross-plugin conflict analysis, full…