[GNC] Proposal to Redesign the GnuCash Website with Wordpress

[Brad Morrison]

Hi GnuCash users & developers,  

Timo: thank you for the offer to redesign the GnuCash website using
WordPress! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress &
https://wordpress.org/  

While I have not seen anything about this offer other than the 9 emails
in this conversation and I am not a decision maker with the GnuCash
leadership or responsible for any aspect of GnuCash, I would assume that
a sample of Timo's website development work would be required in order
to assess whether such an offer is appropriate.  

Timo: could you share a link to your website and/or web design
portfolio?  

https://bugs.gnucash.org/buglist.cgi?component=Website&product=Website&resolution=---
- there are a number of existing bug reports related to the GNUCash
website.  

https://www.facebook.com/GnuCash/ - GnuCash also has a social media
presence on Facebook (another type of "content management system") 

In the conversation so far, I noted that both Geert & David shared their
security concerns about WordPress websites -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress#Vulnerabilities  

I also noted that both Ken & John had concerns about WordPress being
more of a content management system/CMS
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system) than GnuCash
needed AND that a WordPress website might be heavier in terms of
resources than the current hardware that the current host of
https://www.gnucash.org/ and its associated websites might be able to
handle.  

John also noted concerns about the cost of hosting a heavier WordPress
as the current host of the GnuCash website(s) donates the space on their
server. I have included a few WordPress hosts listed here, to see if
they might be interested in giving feedback or if anyone has any further
questions about hosting costs - https://wordpress.org/hosting/  

I do not have much experience with WordPress. The experience I have with
content management systems/CMS is mostly around using SalesForce at a
previous employer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce  

I do not know if the hardware & software resource concerns that were
expressed can be mitigated by paring down the components of WordPress to
only what a newer, still lightweight version of a GnuCash website would
use...?  

WordPress is open source software, so it may be possible to only use the
parts of it that are necessary for this specific website proposal and
those limitations might reduce the security risks that some are
concerned about.  

Maybe limiting the types of content that a new, WordPress website would
use would also alleviate some security risks/concerns & the resource
usage concerns - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management  

---
Thanks, 

Brad - https://www.facebook.com/brad.morrison.12327/ &
https://nextdoor.com/profile/01mP46jj8KCzj3sP4 &
https://norcal.social/@BradMorrison 

On 2025-06-12 09:01, R Losey wrote:

> For what it's worth, I'm not a big fan of WordPress myself... I'd also
> rather see it done in some HTML editor.
> 
> On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 6:23 AM Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be>
> wrote:
> 
> Hi Timo,
> 
> Thank you for your offer.
> 
> I agree with you the project's website is showing its age and can use some
> love.
> 
> I'm maintaining a wordpress site in another context myself. From that
> experience, I don't
> lean towards wordpress any more though.
> For our needs I'd rather have a revamped site implemented using a static
> website
> generator. So far I only have experimented with Hugo as example, but I
> know there are
> more.
> 
> In my experience a CMS like wordpress brings quite a bit of additional
> maintenance. It's a
> huge code base of which we'd only use a small part, but which leave much
> room for
> uncaught bugs.
> 
> That is however just my 2 cents as a currently inactive gnucash dev. I'd
> be interested to
> hear what the others think of this.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Geert
> 
> Op woensdag 11 juni 2025 17:36:10 Midden-Europese zomertijd schreef Timo
> Volkov via
> gnucash-user: Hi,
> 
> I wanted to share some honest feedback: the current GnuCash website looks
> quite outdated, which may discourage potential new users. As someone who
> loves open source and has been using GnuCash for both business and personal finances, I truly appreciate what the project offers--especially compared to other accounting software that often comes with high costs and
> restrictions.
> 
> I believe GnuCash deserves more attention and a broader user base. To help with this, I'd like to offer my skills to redesign the website using
> WordPress, creating a modern and user-friendly interface. My goal is to
> make the site more inviting and informative for newcomers, helping them
> better understand the software's features and benefits.
> 
> If you're interested, I'd be happy to create an initial draft (such as a new landing page) for your review. If you like the direction, I can continue
> with the other necessary subpages.
> 
> I have experience building websites and would love to contribute to the
> project in this way. Please let me know if you're interested or if you have any questions.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Timo
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