Modern Web Stack for WordPress Developers
If you have built WordPress sites for years and the modern-stack conversations have started to feel like a language you only half-speak, this is for you. Sixteen short modules, each mapping one piece of the modern web back to something you already know from WordPress: Next.js, Vercel, Supabase, the edge, Docker, CI/CD, and the rest.
The goal is fluency, not depth. Enough to hold the conversation, make the right call for a client, and tell real progress from hype. Every module comes with an audio companion if you would rather listen on a walk than read at a desk.
Cluster A Foundations
1Why Modern Web Feels Alien to WordPress DevsIt wasn't inevitable, and two things drove it. What we ask the web to do changed: we went from publishing documents (blogs, brochures, news) to running…2JavaScript and TypeScript for PHP PeopleIf your last serious encounter with JavaScript was jQuery selectors and $.ajax, brace yourself. The language grew up. These patterns appear constantly: // Imports and exports:…
Cluster B Frontend
3React, in WordPress TermsA React application is a tree of components. A component is a function that takes some input and returns markup. The framework re-runs the function whenever…4Next.js: The WordPress of ReactReact on its own is a UI library: components, state, and an efficient way to update the DOM. Build a real application with just that and…5When NOT to Use Next.jsA few cases where another framework saves you time and frustration. Content-heavy site with light interactivity: Astro Marketing sites, documentation, blogs and brochure sites with a…
Cluster C Data & Auth
6Beyond Shared MySQL: Cloud Databases for WordPress DevelopersThe database stopped being part of the host and became a product in its own right. In a traditional WordPress setup, MySQL runs on the same…7From WPDB to Drizzle, Prisma, and KyselyAn ORM lets you query a database from application code without writing raw SQL strings. Three things follow from that. Type safety The ORM knows your…8Auth in 2026: What Replaced wp_usersAuth is three things, and most of the confusion comes from blending them. Identity Identity is who the user is: an email address, a third-party account…
Cluster D Hosting, Deploy & Infra
9Hosting Beyond Kinsta: Vercel, Fly, Railway, Cloudflare, and FriendsHosting used to be one thing and is now three. The runtime The runtime is where your application code executes. In WordPress it was always the…10Serverless and Edge Functions, Finally ExplainedStart with the model you already have. A WordPress request goes from the visitor to Nginx, then PHP-FPM, which boots WordPress, which queries MySQL, which feeds…11Docker for WordPress DevelopersA container is a packaged unit of software that includes the code, the runtime (Node, PHP, Python), the system libraries, and the configuration needed to run…12CI/CD: Goodbye FTP, Hello GitHub ActionsCI/CD is two related ideas bolted together. Continuous integration means merging code into a shared branch often, with automated checks on every change: tests, type-checking, linting,…
Cluster E Operations & Polish
13Observability When You Can't Just SSH InObservability means understanding what's happening inside your application from the outside. It's usually split into three pillars. Logs Logs are text records of what happened, the…14Tailwind, shadcn/ui, and the New Design-System MetaTailwind is a utility-first CSS framework. Instead of class names that describe what an element is (button-primary, nav-item), you write class names that describe what it…15Headless WordPress: The BridgeHeadless means using WordPress as the content management system while rendering the frontend with something other than its PHP templates. The backend keeps doing what it's…
