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Moving Beyond WordPress: Why I Chose Phoenix

After years of publishing quickly needed web pages using WordPress, I decided to build something different. Here's why I chose Phoenix Framework and Elixir for my next-generation personal website platform. Built from scratch with great tools.

Moving Beyond WordPress: Why I Chose Phoenix

For years, WordPress has been the go-to solution for personal websites and blogs. It’s familiar, has thousands of plugins, and just about anyone can set it up. But as a developer, I knew I could build something better—something tailored, performant, and maintainable.

The WordPress Pain Points

Don’t get me wrong—WordPress is fantastic for what it does. But after maintaining WordPress sites for years, I encountered recurring issues:

Performance Bottlenecks

  • Heavy plugin ecosystem creating conflicts and slowdowns
  • PHP’s synchronous nature limiting concurrent requests
  • Database queries multiplying with each plugin
  • Complex caching strategies required for decent performance

Security Concerns

  • Constant plugin updates to patch vulnerabilities
  • Popular target for attacks due to market share
  • File permission complexity
  • Admin panel accessible to bots and attackers

Developer Experience

  • Mixed PHP/HTML templates that are hard to maintain
  • Global state and side effects everywhere
  • Complex debugging with nested plugin interactions
  • Limited type safety leading to runtime errors

Scalability Limitations

  • Vertical scaling only (more server resources)
  • Session state tied to single server
  • Real-time features require external services
  • Difficult to modernize without breaking plugins

Why Phoenix Framework?

After evaluating Next.js, Ruby on Rails, Django, and several other frameworks, I chose Phoenix for several compelling reasons:

Performance by Default

Phoenix leverages Erlang’s BEAM VM, which was built for telecom systems requiring 99.999% uptime. This means:

  • Handles 2+ million WebSocket connections on a single server
  • Sub-millisecond response times for most requests
  • Automatic load balancing across CPU cores
  • Graceful handling of traffic spikes

Developer Productivity

  • LiveView: Build real-time, interactive UIs without writing JavaScript
  • Ecto: Powerful database layer with compile-time query validation
  • Pattern Matching: Write cleaner, more maintainable code
  • Immutability: Eliminate entire classes of bugs

Built-in Features

Out of the box, Phoenix provides:

  • WebSocket support via Channels
  • Real-time presence tracking
  • Built-in authentication generators
  • Database migrations
  • Internationalization (i18n)
  • Testing framework
  • Asset pipeline

Maintainability

Elixir’s functional approach and Phoenix’s conventions create codebases that are:

  • Easy to understand even years later
  • Simple to test thoroughly
  • Resistant to common bugs (no null pointer exceptions!)
  • Self-documenting through pattern matching

The Decision Process

I created a comparison matrix evaluating:

Technical Requirements:

  • Real-time updates (LiveView was a game-changer)
  • Media management with image optimization
  • Multi-language support
  • SEO-friendly URLs and metadata
  • Markdown-based content editing

Developer Experience:

  • Hot reloading during development
  • Clear error messages
  • Strong typing and compile-time checks
  • Comprehensive documentation

Operational Needs:

  • Easy deployment
  • Minimal server resources
  • Built-in monitoring
  • Database migrations
  • Background job processing

Phoenix checked every box and exceeded expectations in many areas.

The Path Forward

Building a personal website platform from scratch might seem like overkill, but for me, it was about:

  1. Learning: Deepening my Elixir/Phoenix expertise
  2. Control: Owning every aspect of my web presence
  3. Performance: Delivering the fastest possible experience
  4. Flexibility: Adding features without plugin conflicts
  5. Fun: Enjoying the development process

In the next article, I’ll dive into how I integrated Tailwind CSS and Catalyst UI components to create a beautiful, modern interface.

Key Takeaways

  • WordPress is great but has inherent limitations for modern web apps
  • Phoenix offers exceptional performance and developer experience
  • LiveView eliminates the need for complex JavaScript frameworks
  • The BEAM VM provides reliability and scalability
  • Sometimes building from scratch is the right choice

Next up: Crafting a Modern UI with Tailwind and Catalyst