What Is Bedrock? Modernizing WordPress for Developers
WordPress has long been the go-to platform for building websites, but its default setup often leaves developers frustrated. The core files, themes, and plugins are all bundled together in ways that make scaling, updating, and securing projects more difficult. That’s where Bedrock steps in.
Bedrock is a modern WordPress boilerplate designed to bring best practices from the broader software development world into WordPress projects. It restructures WordPress installations, integrates Composer for dependency management, simplifies environment configuration, and provides a cleaner, more secure foundation for serious web development.
Why Bedrock Stands Out
A Clean and Organized Structure
With Bedrock, your project isn’t just dumped into a single folder. Instead, the WordPress core is separated from your application code. Your public web root becomes web/, while application files like themes, plugins, and uploads live in a dedicated app/ folder. Sensitive configuration files sit outside of public access, improving both security and maintainability.
Composer for WordPress
One of Bedrock’s biggest contributions is Composer integration. Instead of manually downloading and uploading plugins or themes, you declare them as dependencies. Updates become safer and reproducible, and your Git repository remains clean since you don’t commit third-party code.
Environment-Specific Configurations
Managing credentials across development, staging, and production can be messy. Bedrock solves this by relying on environment variables and environment-specific config files. Each environment can have its own database credentials, debug settings, or API keys without requiring separate WordPress installs.
Security Improvements
By keeping WordPress core files and configuration outside of the public directory, Bedrock reduces the chances of accidental exposure. It also prevents plugins and themes from being directly edited in production, encouraging proper development and deployment workflows.
Streamlined Version Control
Instead of bloating your repository with plugins and WordPress core updates, you only track your custom code. This makes collaboration smoother, diffs easier to read, and deployments far less error-prone.
How to Get Started with Bedrock
Launching a new project with Bedrock involves just a few steps:
- Install Bedrock using Composer.
- Set up a
.envfile with your database, salts, and environment variables. - Configure your server so that the
web/folder is the document root. - Manage your plugins and themes as dependencies in
composer.json. - Deploy with confidence, knowing your environments are consistent.
What to Consider Before Using Bedrock
Bedrock isn’t a silver bullet. Some shared hosting providers don’t allow you to change the document root, which is necessary for Bedrock’s structure. Certain plugins that assume WordPress’s traditional file layout may need adjustments. And for developers used to the classic workflow, Composer-based management can feel like a steep learning curve.
However, if you are building complex WordPress applications, managing multiple environments, or working in a team that values clean version control, Bedrock is an excellent choice.
The Bottom Line
Bedrock brings WordPress development closer to modern web development standards. It separates concerns, enforces best practices, and simplifies scaling and deployment. While it may not be the best fit for quick one-off blogs, it’s a strong foundation for professional developers who need structure, maintainability, and security in their projects.
