---
title: "WordPress 6 and the Gutenberg question."
date: 2022-05-28
url: https://remiam.co.uk/notes/wordpress-6-and-gutenberg
tags: [WordPress, CMS, Content]
read_time_minutes: 7
description: "WordPress 6 and the Gutenberg block editor — when to ship WordPress in 2022, when to reach for headless or Nuxt Content instead."
---

# WordPress 6 and the Gutenberg question.

*Published 2022-05-28 · 7 min read · by Liam (Remiam)*

WordPress hit version 6 last week, and the block-editor era is now firmly the default. We still ship WordPress sites. We are also more careful about when to.

WordPress 6 shipped in May. The block editor — Gutenberg — has been the default since 5.0, but the rough edges are mostly gone now. We still ship WordPress sites every year, and we still hold opinions about when it's the right tool.

## When WordPress still wins

- Content-managed marketing sites where a non-technical team owns the day-to-day.
- Anywhere the client already has a WordPress operation and a writer who knows it.
- Blogs and editorial sites — WordPress is genuinely the most usable CMS in this category.
- Anything with a third-party plugin ecosystem requirement (membership, paid courses, BuddyPress).

## When we steer away

- Heavily interactive product surfaces. WordPress wasn't designed for that and the patches show.
- Anything where SEO of a fast-loading SPA is the primary need — modern Nuxt or Astro is a better fit.
- Headless setups where the content team is small and disciplined — they'll outgrow the WordPress admin within a year.

## The decision matrix we apply

| Brief shape | CMS we reach for | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Editorial site, daily content team | WordPress | The admin is what editors already know |
| Marketing site, occasional updates | Nuxt Content | Smaller, faster, easier to host |
| Headless product with a real CMS need | Sanity / Strapi / Payload | Content modelled like data, not pages |
| One-off marketing landing page | Static HTML or Astro | No CMS overhead at all |
| Membership / course platform | WordPress + LearnDash / MemberPress | The plugin ecosystem genuinely earns its keep here |

*Which CMS we reach for, brief by brief.*

## Gutenberg, honestly

The block editor in 2022 is fine. It's still not as composable as a real headless model, and bespoke block development is heavier than the equivalent component work in a modern framework. But for a marketing team who needs to publish a Tuesday blog post about a Wednesday event, it works and it scales.

> If the content team is the primary user, WordPress is on the shortlist. If the engineer is the primary user, it isn't.

Our rule of thumb: if the content team is the primary user, WordPress is on the shortlist. If the engineer is the primary user, it isn't.

## References

1. [WordPress.org — official site](https://wordpress.org/)
2. [Gutenberg block editor handbook](https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/)