{"id":857,"date":"2025-12-11T13:46:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T13:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/?p=857"},"modified":"2025-12-11T17:30:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:30:53","slug":"revamping-my-website-from-react-js-to-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/revamping-my-website-from-react-js-to-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Revamping My Website: From React.js to WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After years of running a React.js version of my personal website, originally built as a learning project (but also I had to have company page), I finally decided it was time for a complete rebuild. Not because the old site was bad, but because maintaining and updating it had become more work than it needed to be. I wanted something simpler, faster to update, and far more flexible, especially now that I\u2019m planning to publish blog posts on a (kinda) regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so began the journey of moving everything over to WordPress\u2026 and honestly, I was surprised by how smooth the transition was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-heading stk-block-heading stk-block-heading--v2 stk-block stk-e413a94\" id=\"why-i-switched-from-react-js-to-word-press\" data-block-id=\"e413a94\"><h5 class=\"stk-block-heading__text\">Why I Switched from React.js to WordPress<\/h5><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>My old React.js site was a great sandbox. It taught me a lot, helped me practice modern web development, and allowed me to deploy a custom-made website completely for free using Netlify. If you\u2019re experimenting with front-end development, Netlify is still something I wholeheartedly recommend. Fantastic platform, zero cost, extremely developer-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But React.js comes with a cost that isn\u2019t financial&#8230;it\u2019s time.<br>Even a simple text tweak required a code change, a rebuild, and a redeploy. And when you\u2019re juggling family, projects, clients, content creation and overall entrepreneur stuff, that friction really adds up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress, on the other hand, offered exactly what I needed right now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A visual interface<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Quick edits without touching code<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Easy content publishing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A huge ecosystem of plugins and themes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Massive flexibility for future ideas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>After not touching WordPress for years, I somewhat expected a learning curve\u2026 but it was shockingly simple to use (still). The ecosystem has matured even more, interfaces are clean, and modern themes give you a lot of design power without having to write a single line of code (I know I didn&#8217;t with this page, if you don&#8217;t count couple API integrations).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-heading stk-block-heading stk-block-heading--v2 stk-block stk-35874c3\" id=\"keeping-it-budget-friendly\" data-block-id=\"35874c3\"><h5 class=\"stk-block-heading__text\">Keeping It Budget-Friendly<\/h5><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my priorities was to keep the entire rebuild as budget-friendly as possible. Since I was doing all the work myself, the only real cost should ideally be the domain\u2014just like before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the full stack of tools and services I used:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hosting: Wasmer.io<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I deployed the new WordPress site to Wasmer, which offers free hosting and <strong>150GB of monthly bandwidth<\/strong>. More than enough for a personal website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Contact Form: MailJet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the contact form, I integrated MailJet.<br>Completely free.<br>Up to <strong>6,000 emails per month<\/strong>.<br>Simple setup.<br>Works perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Newsletter Signup: Sender.net<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the newsletter, I needed something reliable, modern, and free for early growth.<br>Sender.net fit the description exactly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Up to <strong>2,500 subscribers<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Up to <strong>15,000 emails per month<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Free<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And it integrates beautifully into WordPress. Actually, I could have skipped this one as Mailjet could handle this&#8230; but wanted to have it separated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-heading stk-block-heading stk-block-heading--v2 stk-block stk-12c4764\" id=\"setup-time-one-day-start-to-finish\" data-block-id=\"12c4764\"><h5 class=\"stk-block-heading__text\">Setup Time: One Day, Start to Finish<\/h5><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This surprised even me.<br>Setting up the React site originally took longer, mostly because it was a coding project. But this WordPress version took <strong>one day<\/strong>, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Installing WordPress<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Setting up the theme<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Configuring plugins<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integrating MailJet<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integrating Sender.net<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Importing content<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Redesigning the layout<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything just worked. And that alone made the switch worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-heading stk-block-heading stk-block-heading--v2 stk-block stk-79f7714\" id=\"react-js-vs-word-press-my-thoughts\" data-block-id=\"79f7714\"><h5 class=\"stk-block-heading__text\">React.js vs. WordPress: My Thoughts<\/h5><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Both approaches are valid, but they serve different purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>React.js<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Great for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Learning front-end development<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Building custom experiences<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Full control over the UI<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Projects where coding is the point<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Not so great for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Frequent non-technical updates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rapid content publishing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People who don\u2019t want to dig into code every time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>WordPress<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Great for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Websites where content comes first<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Easy updates and redesigns<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integrations without coding<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Speed of deployment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SEO and blogging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Not so great for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Highly custom, interactive front-ends (not needed on this one)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Complex, app-like experiences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For my website, WordPress was the obvious winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-heading stk-block-heading stk-block-heading--v2 stk-block stk-654f947\" id=\"so-how-much-did-it-cost-at-the-end\" data-block-id=\"654f947\"><h5 class=\"stk-block-heading__text\">So\u2026 How Much Did It Cost at the end?<\/h5><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I had to pay only the domain (which I already have).<br>The same as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything else, hosting, email delivery, newsletter system, plugins&#8230; was completely <strong>free<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And for a small site that I can update in minutes, that\u2019s a huge win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re running a hand-coded site and feel the maintenance friction growing, or you want to start publishing content more frequently, consider giving WordPress another try. It\u2019s come a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-heading stk-block-heading stk-block-heading--v2 stk-block stk-0ebe66f\" id=\"anyway\" data-block-id=\"0ebe66f\"><h5 class=\"stk-block-heading__text\">Anyway<\/h5><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Since you&#8217;ve come this far&#8230; guess you liked this post. I plan to add more of blog posts here, so maybe you&#8217;d like to put yourself on newsletter list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-button-group stk-block-button-group stk-block stk-973feb7\" data-block-id=\"973feb7\"><div class=\"stk-row stk-inner-blocks stk-block-content stk-button-group\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-button stk-block-button popmake-851 stk-block stk-cbb360d popmake-851\" data-block-id=\"cbb360d\"><a class=\"stk-link stk-button stk--hover-effect-darken\" href=\"\"><span class=\"stk-button__inner-text\">Subscribe to newsletter<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>and Why It Was Absolutely Worth It<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":41,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,10,9],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-react","tag-webdesign","tag-wordpress"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgefuse.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}