Moving From WordPress to Kirby for Client Websites

This blog still runs on WordPress. It’s a theme I have designed and developed years ago in B2, which was the father of WordPress. I coded the theme from scratch using only PHP hooks specifically for my blog. Even to this day, my theme has three files: index.php, style.css, screenshot.png.

These days WordPress has become way too complex to start from scratch. I can still take a starter theme like Gutenberg and go from there, but it already packed too many things I don’t need. I prefer to have control of WordPress instead of the other way around. I want to know exactly how my HTML ended up in the browser. I tried not to sweat it and just lived with whatever an existing theme spits out, but it just feels wrong.

I would love to learn how to make a WordPress theme from scratch using the Gutenberg’s blocks. I have not found any tutorial like that. If you do, please let me know.

Because WordPress has lost me, I can no longer develop clients’ website with it. I turn to Kirky instead. Kirby is not free, but it is worthwhile paying for. Kirby allows me to stand up a site quickly and doesn’t get into the way I design the website. Every piece of HTML is rendered exactly the way I have coded. The best part is that the panel knows which piece can be updated by content editors. As a result, Kirby is an ideal CMS for a small websites.