Why I Switched to WordPress from Custom CodeIgniter
March 23, 2010I spent some time initially setting up my personal blog using a custom CodeIgniter structure. It went well, but then, as things can do, I began to falter in terms of time to put into the project.
It got me thinking about the more general idea of building something in software versus using a pre-built solution. When do you go with one instead of the other? How is that decision made?
After thinking about it, it really comes down to two things:
- Does the pre-existing solution fit what you need?
- If not, can it be extended?
What I realized is that spending time on making my own custom software with all of the bells and whistles wasn’t proving my merit, it was getting in the way of me building other, more exiting things that hadn’t been done a million times over before.
It made me realize that, while every decision is different, in many cases it can be far better to take a pre-existing solution and extending it versus building your own from scratch. Sure, it’s not your code, but your overall productivity (the ultimate measure in many ways), can be greatly enhanced from it.
