WordPress Packagist VS git-updater

If I have to use WordPress for something, I'll build it as a standard PHP project, requiring WordPress and any themes/plugins as a Composer dependencies from johnpbloch/wordpress and WordPress Packagist (more info here). If I need to do any significant templating, I like to use Timber.

Use it together with https://wpackagist.org/ and you can update all plugins/themes by latest or by version number.

Another option you can look at is Bedrock by Roots - that is sets WP as an app with composer already set up. It allows you to install WP plugins (from official WP repo) via composer (WP Packagist). The structure is set up to allow for git workflow. Also helpful if you want to make use of a bunch of composer packages on your site.

https://wpackagist.org/ in the example you see "repositories", now in that array you can put your plugins github-link and set the other settings. with composer install you install them and with composer update you update them

Side question: I know that the WordPress ecosystem has been moving toward better support for Composer – e.g., with WPackagist. But wouldn't plugins installed/updated via Composer run into the same issue?

Oh! In that case Github and https://github.com/afragen/git-updater

I built in my own licensing requirements on my server before delivering the update, but the core is built off of git-updater. I’d suggest starting there if you use GitHub, it was simple to get set up.

We use this in every project https://git-updater.com

I have a repository for each theme and plugin. I use https://github.com/afragen/git-updater which you link to tour github profile. When you make a new release in a linked github repo, git-updater will add the update button to your theme/plugin in the WP admin, just like officially hostes themes and plugins. You can manage compiling with a github actions script that runs whenever a new release is made in the repo.

github-updater