Why Open Source + WordPress Are Powerful

Leveraging WordPress as a Development Framework

There are many factors to consider when choosing the framework or platform you are going to use to build your micro SaaS product. Solo-founders-programmers who are considering to use WordPress often ask the question: What is the biggest advantage of building a micro SaaS using WP? Answer: You will 100% own and control your platform.

Here are 3 big advantages to using WP:

• #1 – Robust, Flexible, Reliable Tech-Stack
• #2 – Benefits of Open-Source
• #3 – The Gigantic WP Ecosystem = Thousands of plugins / themes / consultants / companies generating $600 billion

But when you talk to successful solo-founders / solo-programmers, they will often reply that the number one thing they value the most is ownership and control – both of their online products and businesses, as well as their time and attention.

So does WordPress offer this advantage? Yes it does!

To demonstrate how WP enables this ownership, let’s look at 4 factors we can use to evaluate this objectively:

• Startup-ability
• Scalability
• Sustainability
• Sale-ability

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Startup-ability

By startup-ability I mean the difficulty level of getting a microSaaS project up and running as a bootstrapped startup.

• With 100% control, you can run your SaaS virtually anywhere (shared, server, VPS, cloud)
• Theoretically the lowest possible startup costs (mostly hosting)
• Contrast with bubble.io (hundreds $/month)

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Scalability

This relates to the number of users you will have, the amount of content/data stored, the number of visitors, etc.

• With lower recurring costs, WP allows you to keep scaled down and still be profitable
• Also allows you to easily scale up with cloud servers
• WP is demonstrated to be able to handle incredibly large projects (wordpress.com)

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Sustainability

This means the long term stability of the product / business you are creating. The main thing you need to watch is risk caused by your development choices. WordPress offers a huge advanatge in that you control everything and can move the entire system to any server or system.

• Reduced risk from the platform (like bubble.io) from:going out of business
• flagging your usage, users, content
• raising prices

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Sale-ability

Even though we are focusing most of our energy at developing long-term, sustainable, micro-scaled businesses, we also should look at possible end-games. One of the rip-cords you can pull is the sale of your microSaaS. Developing it in WordPress gives you some real advantages.

• You own a tangible propertyyour configurations
• your custom plugin code
• your domain and intellectual property
• You can easily backup, export everything

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2 Steps To Get Started

If you are still not sure about things, maybe my own personal career story might help you related to this approach. I am kinda reluctant to do this, but of course it is optional to read the next section. Only do it if you want to understand my mindset and my evolution.