Hi Reader,

This week, I stumbled upon this post on X:

I was prepared to scroll past, as it just seemed to be yet another attempt at bashing modern WordPress.

But then I saw this follow up:

So, really, it's not about WordPress; it's about the customers of this particular plugin.

But I found this fascinating because it gave me insight into the thinking of a plugin author. I've wondered for a long time why plugin authors are not more proactive with adding proper block editor support to their plugins.

In this email I want to get into the reasons why, even after all these years, we still have to deal with shortcodes. And what you can do about it.

A misguided prioritization strategy

Product design, meaning what features to include in a plugin, is a huge challenge:

• Include not enough or the wrong features, and you won’t make any sales.
• Include too many or the wrong features, and customers will complain about bloat. Even worse, you’ll have to maintain code that gets little usage.

So, a proven strategy is to look at analytics and user feedback data to figure out what to add to a plugin.

In practice, this means:

• Support requests and pre-sales inquiries.
• Data gathered from customers' WordPress installs.

So, given this, why don’t more plugins support the block editor?

Plugin authors point out that only a few customers use the block editor. And that there's no user demand for block support.

However, this is the wrong way to think about it. Because block editor support isn't the same as other feature requests.

Let’s say you use a plugin, and it does most of what you need. But there’s one thing it doesn’t. In that case, since you are a happy customer, it makes sense to reach out to the plugin author and put in a feature request.

But block editor support is entirely different. If all the plugin offers is shortcodes or widgets as a theme integration, that is a crucial shortcoming.

So, these plugins are excluded from being considered, a task made easier by the fact that plugins are a dime a dozen in WordPress.

Since everybody wants to compete for the biggest market share, plenty of plugins in the same niche offer the same features.

Just look at SEO. There are differences between Yoast, Rankmath, and All-In-One SEO. But most of their functionality is similar, and you can switch from one to the other without any issues.

WordPress moves slowly, so it's not like a lack of editor support creates an immediate drop in paying customers for these plugins. Because current installs are a lag metric, not a lead metric.

What this means is that most sites, once set up, rarely get changed. So even if a plugin isn't great, it's cheaper to keep it--even if it's a paid plugin. Because the cost of replacing it is much higher than the license fee.

But of course if the site ever changes, you can be sure that the plugin will disappear. So that drop in paid users will come, and when it does, it will be too late to regain those customers.

WordPress isn’t just another plugin

Another mistake I see is that plugin developers treat WordPress Core just like any other plugin.

Let’s take Bricks as an example. As a newcomer to the builder scene, I can understand why not every plugin adds Bricks support.

However, the block editor is different. It has been the default content-editing experience since 2018, and block themes have been the default theme-building experience since 2022. This is what users first see when they install WordPress.

For a while, I could have chalked it down to a misunderstanding. As I wrote about in The Big Gutenberg Misconception, one could think that you could continue to use WordPress as usual. And that even though Matt Mullenweg clearly said otherwise in 2017.

But as of 2024, most people are now getting the message that everything in WordPress that is not needed for the block experience only receives the absolutely necessary fixes—no improvements whatsoever.

I wouldn't want to spend my money on a plugin from a developer that doesn't get where WordPress is going. If they don't get that, who is to tell me that they understand the market at all?

Lack of knowledge and skills

This, unfortunately, seems to be a major cause behind the lagging block support in plugins.

This tweet is a good example of this:

The thread is worth reading, as several people are chiming in. In essence the issue is that developers with a traditional PHP background expect block development to be exactly the same as WordPress development.

But as I pointed out in the thread, a custom block is an extension of the block editor. And the block editor is a standalone single page application.

Even though it appears like being part of WP Admin, in reality it isn’t. This is why you can run the block editor outside of WP Admin, as you can see here on the WordPress.org Gutenberg demo. Or even run it out outside of a WordPress context, as the Tumblr block editor shows.

This railing against “overly complicated” WordPress in 2024 is anachronistic. It just shows how little the developer knows about WordPress, and web development in general. It’s a bad look, and a huge red flag to me.

Because technology is one aspect. And a very solvable one. It’s just a matter of putting in the work to learn new development skills.

But the user interface is another aspect. How do you expect a plugin developer to create an elegant interface if they have never used the block editor?

With the admin changes that Gutenberg phase 3 introduces and the changes to the meta box experience that are in the works, it's clear that the days to the old school approaches are numbered.

So, what's the solution?

While I do not wish bad on anybody, I also need to be aware that business is business.

And if a business is not performing, then what's the point in being a customer?

I recognize this is a process that I have gone through over the last couple of years. My online education business WPDevelopment.courses is my first experience running a business independently.

And from the first day on it was important for me that the consulting income I make as a Principal Engineer at Human Made does not subsidize the online courses venture.

Which is why the courses are hosted on Teachable instead of a WordPress-based learning management system. From a cost to benefit ratio, it's a lot better than any WordPress solution. Which is not too mention that none of them offered any block theming support at the time. And some don't even have a block theme today!

Unlike the WordPress pendants, Teachable keeps innovating and adding features. There's the built-in Community feature that I use, plenty of e-commerce features, and so on.

So, if using something other than WordPress makes sense from a business perspective, then use it. There's no need to be sentimental here.

That applies to plugin choices as well. Over the last two years, I've said goodbye to many plugins I've used for years. They are just no longer worth the investment. Poor user experience, shoddy PHP8 support, and obnoxious branding are just some of the reasons to stop using plugins.

In 2020, I drafted a post called "The Big Plugin Extinction". I didn't publish it, which, given the click-bait title, was a good idea. But the point I made in this article is that changes to WordPress, related to the interface, JavaScript-driven building, and modern PHP, will make many plugins go extinct.

Not only free plugins, for which the authors might not have the skills and desire to keep them updated. But also paid plugins, which have too thin profit margins to be able to make the transition from hobbyist to professional software development.

And that is a good thing for us in client services. Because we are the ones that have to deal with these poor plugins. There are plenty of free and paid plugins out there that are worth your time and money. Those will stay around, and the others won't.

While I don't like being negative, sometimes we do have to be. And this is one of these situations.

Next week, we'll focus on something more uplifting.

Cheers,
Fränk

P.S. If you have a plugin that is stuck in yesteryear and you struggle to find a replacement, let me know. Maybe I know a better alternative.