Atlas SShRugged 🤷♂️
Right before the DE(CODE) 2021 conference, WP Engine founder and CTO Jason Cohen announced WP Engine’s new Headless WordPress service, which is called Atlas. A new developer relations team “with focus on headless WordPress” — Matt Landers, William Johnston, and Nate Archer — was also announced in a blog post.
During the first session at DE(CODE) 2021 on Thursday, Jason explained how Atlas works:
“WPEngine has the entire stack for headless, so instead of piecing together various technologies, all the pieces are all in the same place for one price and one support team to call.”
Atlas allows developers to choose any JavaScript framework, it auto-deploys from Github, and it provides scripting and CLI tools.
Jason said Atlas uses Server-Side Rendering (SSR) to make WordPress “as fast as static” content management systems. He also emphasized the mission of WPEngine is to make WordPress the “number one headless CMS in the world.”
More details and commentary will be forthcoming, I’m sure. But I doubt WP Engine will be the only hosting company in the Headless WordPress space. I think back to Matt Mullenweg’s comments recently on a Clubhouse call and during 2020’s State of the Word. Back then Matt gave the impression that headless was not the next “big thing” for WordPress.
Time will tell. In the meantime, you might enjoy this older Post Status Draft podcast episode about headless WordPress. 🗣️🪓
