Why Nelson Pires Doesn't Use WordPress — and What He Uses Instead

Nelson Pires writes on nelsonpires.com that he doesn't use WordPress, and the alternative he names is aspBlast CMS, a content management system he wrote entirely himself. The site's own summary of his position is brief: WordPress "started out as a blogging platform," and he places his own CMS in contrast to it. The published material supports the fact of his choice and the name of his alternative; it does not lay out a detailed list of technical objections, so any specific reason beyond that framing should be read as his stated preference rather than a documented comparison.

What the site actually says

The article "Why I don't use WordPress" (dated 10 August 2019) opens with a short history: WordPress began as a blogging platform, and Pires recalls the early blogging era when Moveable Type was also widely hyped. He notes he even started his own blogging platform, which he never released. The excerpt on the site stops there — it does not continue into a point-by-point critique.

The companion article "What is aspBlast CMS" (20 November 2019) describes the alternative: "another CMS but not just any other CMS," 100% written by himself. He is explicit that it is not yet a marketable product, but says he has been able to develop a working system.

So the two articles together form one position: a developer who prefers to build and run his own tooling over adopting WordPress.

The alternative: aspBlast CMS

If you are evaluating aspBlast as an option for your own site, the site gives you no download link, license, feature list, or support terms in the material available. Treat it as a personal project described in a blog post, not a product you can currently adopt on the strength of these pages.

How to read this as a build-vs-buy decision

Pires's choice is a familiar one for developers: keep control of the stack and the codebase rather than inherit another project's conventions and release cycle. The trade-off is equally familiar — a self-built CMS carries the maintenance, security patching, and documentation burden on its author, which is consistent with his own note that aspBlast is still far from marketable.

If you are weighing the same decision, the practical test is scope. A personal site with a handful of article types, as on nelsonpires.com, can be served by a small custom system. A site that needs a plugin ecosystem, multiple editors, or hosted updates is a different problem, and the site offers no evidence that aspBlast is intended for that case.

Where to read the original arguments

Both posts are on the site's home page under "Software development and general topics," in the General category:

• "Why I don't use WordPress" — 10 August 2019
• "What is aspBlast CMS" — 20 November 2019

The home page excerpts are truncated with a "More" link, so the full reasoning, if any, sits behind those article pages rather than in the summary text.