EmDash: A Full-Stack TypeScript CMS Built on Astro + Cloudflare — Can It Replace WordPress?

Originally published at recca0120.github.io WordPress powers 43% of the web, but it was born in 2003. PHP + MySQL, plugins with full database access, content stored as HTML coupled to the DOM. After twenty years, it's fair to rethink the whole thing. EmDash is that attempt. Full-stack TypeScript, running on Astro, backed by Cloudflare infrastructure. Still in beta, but the architecture is worth examining. How It Differs from WordPress Let's start with the biggest differences. Sandboxed Plugin Isolation 96% of WordPress security vulnerabilities come from plugins. The reason is straightforward: plugins run in the same PHP process as the core, with full access to the database and filesystem. One bad plugin exposes the entire site. EmDash uses Cloudflare Workers' Dynamic Worker Loaders for isolation. Each plugin must declare a capability manifest listing exactly what permissions it needs: export default () => definePlugin({ id: "my-plugin", capabilities: ["read:content", "email:send"],