WordPress as a Self-Hosting Platform  ## Metadata - Author: [[kirk.at]] - Full Title: WordPress as a Self-Hosting Platform - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [#wordpress, #selfhosting, #openweb, #webinfrastructure, #platform] - #wordpress - #selfhosting - #platform Author: Alex Kirk Source: alex.kirk.at Reference: [WordPress as a Self-Hosting Platform (2025-01-24)](https://alex.kirk.at/2025/01/24/wordpress-as-a-self-hosting-platform/) date created: 2025-05-16 23:01 --- # Title: 🏠 WordPress as a Self-Hosting Platform ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ### References: - Alex Kirk, “[WordPress as a Self-Hosting Platform](https://alex.kirk.at/2025/01/24/wordpress-as-a-self-hosting-platform/)” (2025-01-24) --- ## 📝 Summary: The article by Alex Kirk explores the idea of positioning WordPress not just as a blogging or website builder tool, but as a robust self-hosting platform capable of running a wide range of web apps. Kirk argues that, thanks to WordPress’s vast ecosystem, extensibility, and open-source nature, it’s uniquely suited to become a foundational “platform” for personal and small business web infrastructure—much like cPanel, but friendlier and more open. He discusses technical, practical, and community challenges that must be solved to achieve this vision. --- ## 📖 Main Content: Alex Kirk’s piece kicks off by challenging the perception of WordPress as just a blog or simple CMS. Instead, he frames it as a possible “web operating system” or platform for self-hosted applications. He draws parallels between WordPress and cPanel or Plesk, noting that WordPress can already install plugins and themes, manage content, and—crucially—can be extended to host and manage third-party web applications. Kirk points out the enormous reach of WordPress: powering over 40% of the web, it’s arguably the most familiar interface for non-technical users in the self-hosting space. With improvements to APIs, site management tools, and block-based editing, WordPress has become much more than a blogging engine. He suggests WordPress could “appify” plugins, making it possible to install everything from forums to photo galleries, CRMs, or custom integrations—similar to how mobile platforms offer an app store. However, the article candidly addresses the limitations. WordPress isn’t currently built with true multi-tenancy or strong process isolation, which are critical for securely running third-party web apps. Plugin and theme code is not always sandboxed, and there’s an ongoing security and maintenance burden for site owners. Kirk proposes that solving these technical gaps, strengthening security, and improving discoverability and onboarding for “apps” could allow WordPress to compete as a self-hosting alternative to SaaS platforms. He concludes by arguing that WordPress’s biggest asset is its vibrant community and open ethos. If the ecosystem can coordinate around a vision of “WordPress as a platform,” it could dramatically lower the barrier to personal and small-scale web self-hosting, building a more open web in the process. --- ### 🗒️ Notes - **WordPress’s Untapped Potential** - Not just a CMS/blog, but could serve as a “platform” for running all kinds of web apps. - Existing plugin/theme system is akin to an app ecosystem but lacks true process isolation. - **Comparison to Hosting Panels** - WordPress could replace (or compete with) cPanel/Plesk for non-technical users. - Offers easier UX, familiar admin interface, and a vast ecosystem. - **“Appification” Vision** - Envisions an “app store” experience built atop WordPress plugins. - Allows installation of various web apps (forums, CRMs, photo galleries, etc.). - Would require improved discoverability, onboarding, and update processes. - **Technical and Security Barriers** - Lacks multi-tenancy and process isolation; plugins/themes run in the same PHP space. - Security risks: a vulnerable plugin could threaten the whole site. - Maintenance (updates/backups) can overwhelm non-technical users. - **What’s Needed** - True app sandboxing, improved security, and one-click app installs. - Better user education and automation for site management. - Coordinated community effort to shift perception and practice. - **WordPress Community’s Role** - The power of open-source, huge contributor base, and wide familiarity. - Could democratize personal and small-business web hosting. - The community must unite behind a “WordPress as a platform” mission to succeed. --- ## 📖 References: - [Alex Kirk’s original article (2025-01-24)](https://alex.kirk.at/2025/01/24/wordpress-as-a-self-hosting-platform/) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. **Original:** “WordPress has the reach and flexibility to become more than just a CMS; it could act as a ‘platform’ for self-hosting a variety of web applications, making personal and small-scale web infrastructure more accessible to everyone.” **Paraphrased:** Given its popularity and adaptable structure, WordPress could evolve beyond content management into a core platform for running many types of web applications, democratizing access to web self-hosting. 2. **Original:** “The main challenges are technical—WordPress plugins and themes aren’t sandboxed, and the security/maintenance load can be too much for everyday users. Overcoming these issues could make WordPress the ‘friendly face’ of open web infrastructure.” **Paraphrased:** The big hurdles are technical: plugins and themes don’t operate in isolation, which poses security and maintenance headaches for typical users. Fixing these would let WordPress lead as an accessible, user-friendly foundation for the open web. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: 🚀 **Is WordPress the Future of Self-Hosting?** Alex Kirk makes a compelling case that WordPress could become more than your favorite blog engine — it might just be the world’s friendliest “web platform” for personal hosting. With its plugin ecosystem, WordPress could someday offer one-click app installs (think: forums, photo galleries, even CRMs!) and replace clunky tools like cPanel for everyday users. The catch? WordPress needs better app isolation and easier site management to truly compete. If you’ve ever dreamed of the open web, this is a must-read. 🔗 [Read the full article](https://alex.kirk.at/2025/01/24/wordpress-as-a-self-hosting-platform/) --- ## ✅ Action Items: - **Open Source Advocacy:** - Highlight WordPress as a model for accessible, democratized self-hosting in talks, workshops, and onboarding resources. - Encourage contributor discussions about building a true “app platform” vision — including plugin sandboxing, security, and user experience. - Draw from WordPress’s vast contributor base to experiment with app isolation and “one-click” installs for new use cases. - **Contributor Engagement:** - Initiate community brainstorming on WordPress-as-platform use cases and pain points. - Collect feedback from both end users and developers on desired app install/update experiences. - Foster open discussions about tradeoffs between flexibility, security, and UX. - **Education:** - Create training materials or workshops around site security, plugin maintenance, and platform extensibility. - Advocate for improved onboarding and educational resources for less-technical users. - **OSPO Director Goals:** - Use the “WordPress as a platform” concept as a blueprint for organizational adoption of open source. - Emphasize collaboration, transparency, and DEIB as foundational values in any platform evolution. - **Transparency & Inclusivity:** - Promote shared governan - Summary: When people think WordPress, they think publishing platform. And, of course, that’s its nature. - URL: https://alex.kirk.at/2025/01/24/wordpress-as-a-self-hosting-platform/ Leaving the current drama around WordPress.org aside for now, I believe that there is a use case for WordPress that is heavily underutilized: Using WordPress as a platform for self-hosting. When people think WordPress, they think publishing platform. And, of course, that’s its nature. It was built for expressing yourself publicly on the internet. But as we have seen over the years, it is also a pretty good framework on which—through its plugin system—almost anything can be built on top of it. This is especially interesting considering that you can get WordPress hosting easily and for cheap. Even NAS systems like Synology or QNAP support installing WordPress on them. There are so many services on the internet that have self-hosting options. An interesting website about this is [selfh.st](https://selfh.st/). It’s a [compilation of different apps](https://selfh.st/apps/), amongst others: * [RSS Readers](https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=RSS), * [Photo Management](https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=Photos), * [Bookmarking](https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=Bookmarks), * [Recipes](https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=Recipes), * and around [165 more categories](https://selfh.st/apps/). A downside of this plethora of self-hosting apps is that they each have their unique software stack and requirements. While this complexity can be alleviated with virtualization solutions like Docker, it means that with every additional app, the hardware requirements for your host go up. When using WordPress as a basis for self-hosting, the software requirements for all plugins are about the same, namely PHP and MySQL. This means as soon as you have WordPress hosting, you have your basis for self-hosting, without having to go through software requirements. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, WordPress out of the box is open and public. Thus, if you want to self-host just for yourself (and friends and family, i.e. logged-in users), the first step needs to be to install [a “Private WordPress” plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/private/). Then, also, there are not yet many plugins that provide a self-host experience. While I am only doing this on the side (for now), I am working on changing this by building more of these plugins. I recently realized that this was a big part of what I am trying to do with my [Friends plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/friends/). While it even has a public component (you might reblog what you read in it), I framed it as the center of your online activity. From a self-host perspective, it’s a combined RSS Reader with a publishing platform that has ActivityPub support (thus making it a [full Mastodon instance](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/06/13/your-wordpress-as-your-personal-mastodon-instance/)), e-mail and keyword notifications, post format support, etc. Additionally, its independence from major third-party social networks is equivalent to the goals of self-hosting. It can’t be shutdown on you because the service was bought or turned out to be not profitable enough. Also, you can choose where to host it. So what does WordPress offer for self-hosting yet? Maybe let’s just revisit what I build and am using myself. These are all WordPress plugins: * RSS Reader: [Friends](https://wordpress.org/plugin/friends/) * Bookmarking: [Post Collection](https://github.com/akirk/friends-post-collection) * Read it Later: [Send to E-Reader](https://github.com/akirk/friends-send-to-e-reader) * Wiki: [Family Wiki](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/01/19/keeping-a-family-wiki/) * Private Family Blog: just WordPress, with [a forked Network Privacy plugin](https://github.com/akirk/ra-network-privacy/) * Mastodon Apps Compatibility: [Enable Mastodon Apps](https://wordpress.org/plugins/enable-mastodon-apps/) For Bookmarking, I also have ported my old project [thinkery.me](https://thinkery.me) to [a Thinkery WordPress plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/thinkery/), hopefully I’ll have time to give it the finishing touches. I would love to store my family’s recipies in such a WordPress environment, too. While self-hosting photo management also sounds tempting, I actually think that a private family blog is a superior alternative. We’re drowning in photos and videos, but being able to keep them along with a title and a story is much better than the endless streams in Google Photos and the like. I don’t know whether WordPress will ever offer as [large a selection of self-hosted apps](https://selfh.st/apps/) as WordPress plugins. But I do think that it’s a path worth following. It might not be a nerd’s favorite choice, but easy hosting and administration could allow WordPress to democratize self-hosting next., WordPress as a Self-Hosting Platform, kirk.at, 01jjptphy79hjrrzdmkrbn8svr.