Vibe Coding: Building WordPress Plugins with AI
Vibe Coding simply means developing software through AI. My friend Gary, a digital marketer, used Cursor to build an SEO tool whose main feature was using AI to check website articles for duplicate content and provide improvement suggestions. After finishing, he asked me how to get the tool online.
Since his website runs on WordPress, I suggested rewriting it as a plugin — just upload it through the admin dashboard and activate with one click. The next morning at 4 AM, he sent me a message saying he had already rewritten the program as a WordPress plugin and pushed it to GitHub.
Why WordPress?
This got me thinking: although AI is incredibly powerful at writing code, getting a finished tool to commercial use or even generating revenue involves countless pitfalls in between. Is there a framework that can guide AI in writing code while making it easy to share the results — and if there’s market demand, quickly set up a sales page, integrate payment processing, and issue electronic invoices? The answer is WordPress.
“WordPress is hard to use, too bloated, insecure, slow” — these criticisms are common in tech communities, but no one can dispute its market share. Over 40% of websites worldwide are built with it, and the ecosystem behind it is enormous. A massive ecosystem means more practitioners, which means more solutions available when you encounter problems.
If you want to sell your creation, you’ll need: a membership system, shopping cart, order management, customer service system, design tools, analytics reports — WordPress’s ecosystem has ready-made solutions for all of these.
WordPress’s Greatest Advantage: It’s Fun
I think WordPress’s greatest advantage is that it’s “fun.” If you’re drawn to Vibe Coding, you’re probably someone who loves challenges and enjoys building things yourself. What makes creating fun is largely the freedom — when you can implement your ideas exactly as you envision them, the sense of accomplishment from building something from nothing is unmatched.
I first encountered WordPress in 2008, and I still find it incredibly engaging. Because it’s open source, every tech wave brings new WordPress-specific tools — from mobile apps, blockchain, NFTs to today’s AI explosion, there are always plugins available to install and use.
This is something closed online services could never achieve. Every company has limited resources and can’t add whatever it wants. But WordPress’s open-source community — developers from around the world — can build plugins for whatever interests them, benefiting users globally.
The Stage for Vibe Coding + WordPress
Freedom equals fun. In the WordPress ecosystem, the stage for Vibe Coding is already set for you. You can create tools that every WordPress website can use, or build your own product on top of it.
Whether you want to make a small tool for personal use, a useful plugin to share with friends, or a commercial product for the global market, WordPress can be your starting point. With AI’s help, the path from idea to product is shorter and smoother than ever before.