Best Tech Stack for a WordPress Plugin as a Solo Developer

WordPress powers over 40% of the web. Building a plugin for that ecosystem means access to hundreds of millions of websites and a marketplace where solo developers regularly pull in $10k-100k+/month. The challenge is navigating WordPress's aging architecture while maintaining modern development standards.

Here's the stack that lets you build a professional WordPress plugin without losing your mind.

Recommended Stack at a Glance

Backend: PHP 8.1+ (No Way Around It)

WordPress is PHP. Your plugin is PHP. There's no alternative here, but modern PHP is actually pleasant to work with. PHP 8.1+ gives you enums, fibers, readonly properties, named arguments, and match expressions. It's a far cry from the PHP 5 spaghetti that gave the language its reputation.

Structure your plugin using OOP principles from the start. Use namespaces, autoloading via Composer, and proper class organization. A clean plugin structure looks like this:

your-plugin/
  src/
    Admin/
    API/
    Models/
    Services/
  assets/
    js/
    css/
  templates/
  your-plugin.php
  composer.json
  package.json

Use Composer for PHP dependency management and autoloading. Even if you have zero dependencies, the PSR-4 autoloader alone is worth it. No more chains of require_once calls.

Frontend / Admin UI: React via @wordpress/scripts

WordPress has gone all-in on React for admin interfaces. The block editor (Gutenberg) is built with React, and the @wordpress/scripts package gives you a zero-config build setup that's pre-configured for WordPress development.

For plugin settings pages and admin dashboards, React with @wordpress/components is the modern approach. You get UI components that match WordPress's design system, and the build tooling handles everything: JSX compilation, CSS processing, chunk splitting, and dependency extraction.

If your plugin is simple (just a settings page with a few toggles), you can skip React entirely and use the WordPress Settings API with basic HTML forms. But if you're building anything interactive, like a dashboard, visual editor, or data management interface, React is the right tool.

For the public-facing side of your plugin (what visitors see), keep it vanilla. No React on the frontend unless absolutely necessary. WordPress sites are performance-sensitive, and loading a React bundle on every page load will get your plugin uninstalled fast.

Database: WordPress $wpdb + Custom Tables

You're locked into MySQL/MariaDB since that's what WordPress uses. The question is whether to use WordPress's built-in tables or create custom ones.

Use WordPress options/meta tables when: You're storing settings, per-post metadata, or user preferences. The WordPress API handles caching, serialization, and sanitization for you.

Create custom tables when: You're storing structured data that will grow (logs, records, submissions, analytics). Custom tables with proper indexes perform dramatically better than stuffing everything into wp_postmeta.

Use the $wpdb class for custom table operations and always use $wpdb->prepare() for parameterized queries. WordPress's database abstraction isn't an ORM, but it gets the job done safely.

For migrations, create a version-tracking system in your activation hook. Store a db_version option and run migration functions on plugin update. The dbDelta() function handles table creation and modification.

Local Development: wp-env or LocalWP

wp-env is the official WordPress development environment. It uses Docker to spin up a WordPress instance with your plugin mounted. One command: npx @wordpress/env start. Clean, reproducible, and what the WordPress core team uses.

LocalWP is the friendlier alternative if you want a GUI. One-click WordPress sites with built-in SSL, email catching, and PHP version switching. Great for quick testing across different WordPress and PHP versions.

Pick whichever you prefer. The important thing is not developing against a shared server or production environment.

Licensing and Updates: Freemius

If you're selling a premium version, Freemius is the standard for WordPress plugin licensing. It handles:

• License key generation and validation
• Automatic updates (even outside wordpress.org)
• In-dashboard checkout
• Subscription management
• Usage analytics

The alternative is building your own license server, which is a significant time sink for a solo developer. Freemius takes a revenue cut (typically 7%), but saves you weeks of development time and handles edge cases you haven't thought about.

If you prefer a simpler approach, LemonSqueezy with a custom update checker works too, but you'll write more code.

Testing: PHPUnit + WordPress Test Suite

WordPress has an official test suite based on PHPUnit. It bootstraps a test WordPress installation, so you can test your plugin against real WordPress functions, hooks, and database operations.

Set it up with wp scaffold plugin-tests your-plugin and you get a working test configuration. Write integration tests for your core functionality and unit tests for business logic that doesn't depend on WordPress.

Nice-to-Haves

• PHP_CodeSniffer with WordPress Coding Standards - Catches WordPress-specific issues
• WP-CLI - Command-line management for testing and automation
• Query Monitor plugin - Spot slow queries and hook issues during development
• GitHub Actions - Automate testing, SVN deployment to wordpress.org, and ZIP generation

Monthly Cost Breakdown

If you're distributing a free plugin through wordpress.org, your total cost is literally zero. For premium plugins, Freemius's revenue share only kicks in when you're making money.

Conclusion

The optimal WordPress plugin stack for a solo developer: PHP 8.1+ with Composer for the backend, React via @wordpress/scripts for admin UI, WordPress's built-in database layer, and Freemius for licensing if you're selling premium.

WordPress plugin development isn't glamorous, but the business opportunity is massive. The ecosystem has billions of page views, an established marketplace, and users who are accustomed to paying for plugins. Focus on solving a real problem that existing plugins handle poorly, keep your codebase modern despite the legacy ecosystem, and let WordPress's market share do the distribution work.