No luck with WordPress, will MODX be easier for me?

[hyponym]

How are you getting on with your site? When I was organising the UK MODX meetup last June, many UK developers were no longer using MODX.

That said, there’s a few agencies:
GEL Studios in Swindon run by Graeme, Addido in Winchester, Maple Design in Hampshire.

And a few individuals: Keith(Buckinghamshire) and Simon (Cambridge) came along and there’s me (Julian) in Brighton.

You could likely contact Simon or Keith via the meetup group chat: MODX UK | Meetup

However, everyone else as you’ve seen is very helpful

[AustinSmith]

@mrwriter

So I’ve spent the last month trying to get my head around WordPress to build a simple website – I’m a photographer, with a simple Home, Portfolio, About and Contact pages. I’ve watched about 40 hours of YouTube tutorials, set up an Ionos WordPress based hosting package, paid people (some dodgy) on Fiverr to help me out a little, but all to no avail. I just can’t get my head around the WordPress back end, the templates are impossible to edit to get them to look how I want and the whole system just seems to be a logistical nightmare that I find impossible to learn and figure out, even though it is supposed to be easy.

So my question is, will MODX be a better option for me, personally?

I’ve done some basic research and the general consensus is that MODX has a steeper learning curve and requires some coding skills etc, but it is easier to get websites to look exactly how you want them, is faster and more secure etc and is better for larger businesses that require larger more sophisticated websites.

So will it be a good choice for me, somebody who has zero coding skills and struggled, and gave up, with WordPress, hell, I even found WIX impossible to get the site to look exactly as the pages that I put together in Photoshop.

My site is only to be a simple one with: Home page, Portfolio page, About page and simple Contact page with basic form.

I’ve given up on trying to pay somebody to do it for me because after Googling ‘Web developer near me’ (and yes, I don’t want to get scammed by some dodgy guy from one of the usual geographical locations) all I have managed are people who will do a Squarespace site for me for a few hundred quid (this is not web developing and I could do that myself, but the site would not look ‘exactly’ as I’ve planned), or a WordPress site using Elementor, no thanks, looked into that and I’m sure you MODX people will be cringing at the thought so no need for me to explain why I don’t want to go that route. Finally there are the large agencies with a huge building (with huge rent and bills) and several staff all being paid a yearly wage, who typically say ‘Our packages start at 5k’, yeah, right. I haven’t earned 5k as a photographer in 30 years so that ain’t going to happen either.

I tried my luck on Fiverr, and had loads of chancers offering to do it for £150 to £250, but who knows which are scams and most only want to do it with WordPress and Elementor anyway so that’s out.

So back to MODX. I do have another website (I’m an author of fiction too, so have a site for my books) and this is built with MODX, but I didn’t do it, a friend from yesteryear did it for me and he always made any changes for me, but I’m no longer in touch with this person.

So I’m looking for guidance here with regard to MODX, so I suppose my questions are:

1. Is MODX the way to go, over WordPress for me personally, based on what I’ve said above?
2. I would not know where to start with MODX so are there any simple video guides or written tutorials with images on a MODX website somewhere?
3. Is there a help forum where I can annoy people with ‘How do I do this, that and the other, dumb questions’?
4. Are there any MODX developers in the UK who could perhaps develop this basic site for me, for a fee of course, but no ‘agency’ prices as I’m flat broke at the moment. Message me if you can help.

Thanks so much, guys and girls.

Totally understand your frustration—WordPress and other builders can be tricky when they don’t match your vision. MODX is powerful but has a steeper learning curve and may be tough without coding experience. If you want full design control, hiring a reliable freelance developer (not an agency) might be your best bet. There’s also a MODX community forum for support, but learning it solo could be just as challenging.