Mhondoro

Introduction: A Mid-Year Crisis of Code

It had been on my mind for a while. Wordpress the dinosaur. The tired general that needed to be retired, and that itch wouldn’t go away. I have been using WordPress for years, long enough to hear all the horror stories about security vulnerabilities, bloated plugins, and "The Update That Broke Everything." Then the war with WP Engine began, it took away the little confidence i had left.

Dont get me wrong, its not all doom and gloom though. I still use the old horse regularly, we all know WordPress had its strengths, but something about it feels a bit... off. It is too general, too one-size-fits-all for my liking, especially when I start thinking about the African market.

I wanted to build something different—something tailored to the needs of African entrepreneurs, young developers, and businesses with big dreams but tight budgets (I guess you find them across the global). That’s when I started my journey.

WordPress: The Love-Hate Relationship

Let’s start with the good and the ugly of WordPress because it was the cornerstone of this journey.

The Pros of WordPress (with a little bit of shade)

Ease of Use: WordPress has an interface so intuitive that even your grandma could start a blog (an ugly one if she tempers with the wrong things in the theme settings).

Plugins Galore: Need an analytics tool? There’s a plugin. E-commerce? Yep, plugin.You can add as many as you want (and watch it go slow and fall apart, sometimes)

Community Support: It has thousands of developers, forums, and tutorials all over the internet. (This is Gold)

Flexibility: Whether you're a small blog or a massive e-commerce site, WordPress scales (and so do the problems with it).

The Cons of WordPress (The Dark Side)

Security Concerns: You have heard about the frequent hacking attempts and malware vulnerabilities.

Performance Issues: Slower load times due to excessive plugins or themes.(some performance plugins work and some just make it worse)

Bloated Plugins: Half the plugins feel like they’re dragging a cinderblock behind them.

Updates Gone Wrong: One update, and suddenly your site is down or your theme breaks.

Generic Approach: It works, but it doesn’t feel tailored for any specific audience or market. It was this generic approach that pushed me to seek alternatives.

Statamic: Love at First Sight (It's artsy, Its opionionated)

Enter Statamic, a Laravel-based CMS that seemed perfect, the documentation is easy to understand, it has character and humor. I mean, who wouldn’t fall for its:

Flat-file CMS: No database (YES! no fumbling with mysql or any of that, but guess what?, you can use one if you want),and it has lightning-fast performance.

Beautiful UI: It’s modern and polished, like WordPress’s cooler, more mature cousin who went to private school.

Customizability: Tailor it to your heart’s content with a flexible API and with tailwind you can have whatever frontend your dreams can conjure.

But then came the price tag, and suddenly, the romance fizzled. While Statamic is worth every dollar/Rand/Kwacha/Metical, I realized that many of my target users—young African web designers, startups, and small businesses—wouldn’t have the budget. I needed a solution that was equally powerful but affordable (preferably free. We like it like that here).

Finding My Tribe with FilamentPHP

I stumbled upon FilamentPHP, and it was like meeting someone who just gets you. The rocket on their homepage promised me the stars and it was love at first sight. Built on Laravel, it offered all the modern tools I needed to create something truly unique.

Here’s why it stands out:

Advantages of FilamentPHP Over WordPress and Statamic

Cost: FilamentPHP is open-source (We are Ubuntu, we are all about community, sharing is caring as the old saying goes). It has zero upfront cost meaning it is perfect for African startups and young underpaid freelancers.

Community and Resources: It has a growing community, extensive straight to the point documentation, and high-quality free plugins. (since they are free, not all of them have great support but I guess if you also support the creator they will support you. Ubuntu)

Developer-Friendly: Filament’s modular structure makes building apps efficient and flexible. Run a couple of commands in the terminal and you have a functional dashboard.

Modern Admin UI: Its admin panel is sleek and easy to navigate, with a focus on functionality. Its also getting better with every release.

Customizable: Filament gives you the freedom to design exactly what you need—no unnecessary fluff, blot or random adds reminding you that you could be using the premium plugin everytime you visit your dashboard (just saying).

Performance: Built for speed and efficiency, without the Weight often associated with WordPress.

Focus: Filament isn’t trying to be everything for everyone; it’s a toolkit for serious builders who want to build specific products.

The Birth of Afroprenuer Online

Armed with FilamentPHP, Youtube tutorials and the documentation, I started developing Afroprenuer Agency Online. This wasn’t just another app; it was a movement aimed at empowering African entrepreneurs and developers. My initial focus was on service providers, these could be freelance developers, creatives, agencies and so forth. It was about addressing my immediate problems. With my undiagnosed ADHD I needed a place to organise my business processes, from receipting, managing tasks, keeping track of leads and clients. Many of my artist friends are like this (Neurospicy), I figured, they also need this. The goal is to have different variations for different industries, from manufacturing to tourism and cater for everyone with specific tailor made industry solutions.

NOTE: (more projects on the way including add-ons, plugins and Afroprenuer Hospitality Online as one example)

Here’s what the project Afroprenuer Agency Online is all about:

The Vision

To create a platform that enables African entrepreneurs and artists offering services to showcase their talents globally while solving local challenges in an easy and organised way.

The Features

Admin Panel Built on Filament v3: A sleek, user-friendly interface for managing users, projects, and the nitty gritties of your business.

Project Management Tools: A Kanban board, nested tasks, and notes attached to projects or tasks make collaboration easy.

Lead and Client Management: Convert leads into clients seamlessly with the click of a button. Simplified and clear-cut, "Easy skanking" as Bob Marley would say.

Content Management: Tools like Filament Fabricator and Tiptap Editor simplify creating dynamic pages, posts/articles, services or a portfolio.

Media Asset Handling: I opted for the centralized and efficient management of media files using Filament Curator. Its beautiful.

Role Management: Integrated robust user and role management with Filament Shield. A legend in the game.

Analytics and Performance: I integrated Google Analytics and Spatie Health for tracking and optimization. Stats are everything, they should be easily accessible.

Why Afroprenuer Online Matters

Africa is buzzing with potential. From startups to freelance developers, there’s a growing need for digital tools tailored to the continent's unique challenges:

Accessibility: Tools need to work even with limited resources. No data connection, it will update when you are online. Notifications sent to Whatsapp. Do you get the picture?

Affordability: High subscription fees are a dealbreaker, we want to grow together and earn together, enabling each other.

Community: We’re building more than apps; we’re building connections, we are expressing who we are and developing for our needs.

FilamentPHP allows us to create solutions that address these issues while fostering innovation.

The Call to Action: Join the Movement

Afroprenuer Online isn’t a solo project—it’s a collaborative effort. It is a work in progress and If you’re a developer, entrepreneur, or even just someone curious about Laravel, I invite you to:

Contribute Code: Fork the repo, add new features, and make pull requests.

Share Feedback: Found a bug or have an idea? Let me know!

Learn to be a developer: Watch tutorials from the community, read articles, and ask for help

Join the Community: Let’s empower African businesses and developers together.

Here’s the GitHub repository to get started.

What’s Next?

The journey is far from over. My goal is to keep improving Afroprenuer Agency Online, adding features, and building a thriving community of African developers solving real-world problems. Let's go Web3.0, let’s solve our problems.

Together, we can redefine what it means to be a digital creator on this continent.