Could HEY World Replace a WordPress Blog?
A practical look at whether HEY World could realistically replace WordPress for blogging, and what you’d give up if you tried.
I’ve been using WordPress in one form or another for a long time. It’s flexible, powerful, and — for better or worse — endlessly customisable. So when HEY World launched as a simple publishing space attached to an email service, I found myself wondering the same thing others probably did:
Why I moved from WordPress to Ghost
After spending time with HEY World, the answer is clearer than I expected. In short: it depends what you want from blogging.
What HEY World gets right
HEY World is intentionally simple. There’s no setup, no plugins, no themes, and no configuration rabbit holes. You write, you publish, and that’s it.
That simplicity is refreshing. There’s no CMS overhead, no decisions about hosting, caching, security, or updates. You can focus entirely on writing, which is something WordPress doesn’t always make easy once a site grows.
For short posts, thoughts, or ongoing commentary, HEY World feels frictionless.
Where WordPress still pulls ahead
That same simplicity is also HEY World’s biggest limitation.
WordPress isn’t just a writing tool — it’s a publishing platform. You control structure, URLs, metadata, images, archives, internal linking, and long-term organisation. You can evolve a WordPress site over time, change direction, add features, or refactor content as your needs change.
HEY World doesn’t really offer that. Posts live in a stream. There’s little sense of hierarchy, taxonomy, or long-term content strategy. That’s fine for some use cases — but it’s a hard limit if you care about discoverability, structure, or ownership.
Comparison: HEY World vs WordPress
Here’s a high-level comparison that reflects how the two actually feel in practice.
If you’re reading on mobile, scroll the table sideways.
| Feature | HEY World | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Setup & maintenance | Very simple (no setup) | Needs setup + ongoing maintenance |
| Writing experience | Clean and distraction-free | Flexible, but depends on editor/theme |
| Design control | Limited | Extensive (themes + customisation) |
| SEO control | Minimal | Full control (plugins/settings) |
| Content structure | Stream-based | Pages, posts, categories, tags |
| Ownership & portability | Tied to the platform | Portable (export/migrate) |
| Extensibility | Very limited | Plugins, themes, custom code |
| Long-term scalability | Limited | High |
This isn’t about which is “better” — it’s about what problem you’re trying to solve.
Different tools for different kinds of writing
HEY World works well if:
- You want a place to write regularly with zero overhead
- You don’t care about design or custom structure
- You’re comfortable with platform constraints
WordPress still makes more sense if:
- You want control over URLs, metadata, and layout
- You care about search, archives, and internal linking
- You see your blog as something that evolves over time
For me, those things still matter.
So could HEY World replace my WordPress blog?
Not really — but that’s not a criticism.
HEY World feels more like a public notebook than a blog platform. It’s great for thoughts, notes, and lightweight publishing. WordPress is better suited to building something that lasts, grows, and adapts.
In the end, the question isn’t whether HEY World can replace WordPress — it’s whether you want it to.
For some writers, the answer will be yes. For my blog, it isn’t.
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