Is WordPress No Code or Low Code?

WordPress no code or low code? That is the question. WordPress could arguably be classified as one of the oldest no code/low code platforms around. I’ve been using WordPress since the beginning and back then, it was very much in the low code space. Its functionality was limited, which often required dropping down to the code to make a tweak, or write a full on feature. These days, it has migrated into the no code space with the help of a huge ecosystem of plugins and themes.

Between the thousands of themes and plugins available, you can build pretty much anything you want without writing any code. That being said, you still have full access to the source code for you to modify as you require or go into full developer mode and create your own functionality.

Why not both?

I’d say that WordPress is both no code and low code, depending on who you are and what your use case is. Thanks to the proliferation of WordPress capable hosting companies, you can quickly get a blog, company site, online store, education site, a community and more.

WordPress no code mode

There are plenty of use cases that don’t require touching the WordPress code base, including this site. The majority of WordPress users have been using it in no code mode since they started their journey. Hosted options have made it quick and easy to get a blog or business site online without needing to handle hosting, security or updates. People are able to quickly launch a site, configure the appearance and get to work.

Thanks to the likes of the many page builder plugins and themes out there, you can build pretty much any kind of site you want, all with no code. Elementor, WP Bakery, DIVI and Oxygen builder are a few of the most popular page builders available today. Form builders are another great way to add functionality to your WordPress powered site, and two of the most popular are GravityForms and WP Forms.

With just WordPress, GravityForms and GravityView I was able to build a complete research platform for internal use, all without needing to write any code.

WordPress low code mode

If you require a feature for your site, there is a very high chance that there is already a plugin or theme that provides that functionality. All code free and ready to go. Sometimes, however, you’ll need to change how something functions or write an entirely new feature. This is where WordPress enters the low code mode.

Being the founder and lead developer of a complex plugin, I wrote WC Vendors to be very extensible, both via settings and from actions and filters. This means that there are times when our users need to drop to code and modify how something works with a code snippet. I’d classify small, easy to copy code-snippets as low code options.

My Setup

I’m going to keep this site as lean as possible. For that reason, I’m using the awesome GeneratePress theme from Tom Usborne. I’ve used GeneratePress on my sites for many years. It doesn’t get in the way, doesn’t require a page builder, and it is insanely fast.

I’m currently hosting this site on SiteGround as I already have an account with them. So it was a matter of minutes to get this site online. Almost all decent WordPress capable hosts these days make creating a site easy. SiteGround is no exception.

I will be attempting to not touch a single line of code on this site. I’m going the WordPress No Code route with this site. This will be difficult for me as a developer and someone who knows their way around WordPress. My aim will be to do everything with only the help of my theme and plugins. That doesn’t mean that I’ll install 100 plugins to get the functionality I need, but I’ll do my best to stay away from any and all code.