CodeWP is an AI code generator for WordPress. In this article, we’re going to take a look at how to use it, the various features it brings to the table, the snippets it generates, pricing for the platform, and more.
It’s an impressive piece of technology that leverages the cutting edge of artificial intelligence to create code snippets specifically for WordPress and products in the ecosystem.
CodeWP is trained on millions of lines of WordPress code, and its various AI plugin-specific modes are also refined with code directly from plugin code bases. For example, the Oxygen Builder conditions AI mode was trained on dozens of examples of conditions using the Conditions API.
Core Features
At it’s heart, CodeWP is a tool that leverages AI to create code snippets that solve problems for WordPress creators.
But it’s also a lot more. Here’s a quick introductory video to show you all of the features of the platform has the offer, and several practical use cases.
As you can see, there’s a lot to cover in this review
AI Modes
A flagship feature of this platform is the AI mode. There are dozens of modes, with new ones being added every other week or so. Each mode corresponds with a specific plugin, use, case, or product.
When you switch into a specific mode, you change the underlying AI to a specific variation that has been trained on the code base of the plugin or product. What that means is that you get hyper specific and accurate generations for the individual platform.
This is what sets this product apart from many other offerings on the market. It truly is focused on WordPress and WordPress alone, and the generations and modes only get better with time.
Here’s an example of the AI modes and how it works. A popular custom field framework with developers is Carbon Fields. It’s very powerful, but requires you to have a good understanding of PHP, and how WordPress works. Because of this, it’s very cold, heavy, and even if you are a completely proficient developer, it can sometimes be a bit tedious to create code that registers meta-boxes, custom fields or options pages.
If I switch into that mode, and give a unique prompt, I’ll get a generation that reflects the syntax and structure required for this specific framework/plugin.
Switching into the mode in the generator
Prompting
The code output
Comparing that to reading the documentation and writing it myself, this is a much more efficient way to go about doing things, and typically more accurate.
This is really helpful to create more accurate generations, and with the upcoming Elementor Widget and Bricks Builder Widget modes, it can only get better from here.
Creator Modes
The creator is where you get all of your work done. It’s a fully featured code, editor with many different AI generation options, including the modes, that we just mentioned above. It has three core options… let’s break it down.
Standard Generation
Takes a text prompt, and convert it into code (text to code, or TTC AI). It’s a simple as that, all you need to do is enter what you want generated into the prompt and submit it, and a generation will soon populate the editor.
The prompt used to generate a snippet
Edit
Once you have generated a snippet, sometimes you’d like to change specific aspects of it. For example, what if you generated a contact form, short code but the generation never sanitized the text fields leading to security issues.
All you need to do is switch into Edit mode, enter what you want, changed, and click the green button. Once the edit is made, the screen will change to look something like the screenshot below.
This gives you a great visual representation of what was changed in the code. Anything that’s red was removed. Anything that’s green was added.
Then, you can open the snippet in a new tab by clicking on the generation ID (or ctrl+o), and review all of your edits, as well as the original generation.
Explain
In addition to these three core options, you can switch modes which we discussed above, and also provide feedback to the platform which aids in creating better generations in the future.
This header toolbar allows you to search for existing snippets and insert them into the editor to be explained, or edited, favorite generations for easy access, write them good or bad, and even export it into a JSON format, which can be imported into popular code snippet plugins. If you’re a avid reader of our blog, you’ll know that we love Code Snippet plugins, and have reviewed several:
Scripts Organizer Review: Schedule Scripts, Save Time
Advanced Scripts Review: Better Than Code Snippets
The Best Code Snippet Managers For Devs
Something else that’s also great about the editor experience is that you can completely navigate using the keyboard, from opening the prompt, to submitting it, to switching modes, to ranking the generation.
Support for 11+ Languages
For developers and users who don’t natively speak English, there’s also multilingual support with the platform.
11+ languages are officially supported, but we’ve seen many generations in languages that aren’t officially supported.
Romance languages, like Spanish typically yield the best results, but there’s also support for Hindi, Chinese, Russian and others.
Snippet Management & Sharing
Once generated, do you have access to a wealth of information about the snippet, and the code itself.
The initial screen only shows you the snippets that you have favorited it, but you can see all generations in the second tab. Any generations that were made public can be found in the third. There’s also a bunch of filtering options where you can filter by the AI mode, search for keywords, and source snippets b generation date, length and more.
Everything in this snippet is accessible, including your previous edits, explanations, and sub snippets. You’re also able to favorite and rate directly from here. You’ll note that there are tags which are generated by AI, and also a record of what mode and language was sad when the code was generated.
Example explanation tab (mind the typo 😉)
On the topic of snippet management, you also have the ability to generate CSS and JavaScript sub snippets for complex PHP creations. For example, if I wanted to create a contact form, my initial generation would likely create a shortcode, the function to handle the submission.
However, in most situations that form would have no styling, and may not inherit my themes generic styles. To combat that, I can make use of the CSS sub snippet generator to create some simple styles based on the PHP code itself. Same goes for JavaScript… maybe the form needs JavaScript to submit data using POST… that JS subsnippet will do just that.
By default, the snippets are private, and only accessible to your account if logged in. This protects sensitive information from getting out. However, if you would like to share this with interested parties, there’s a unique sharing feature.
Here, you can copy a URL with a unique access code attached to it. If the code is incorrect, or not present, the link won’t work. However, if the code is correct (ie, as copied), you’ll be able to share it with anybody who has that link. The same works for the social share feature.
Additionally, you can email the snippet to anybody you’d like. Here’s what that email looks like:
You can also export the snippet, as mentioned above, directly from the individual snippet page.
How Does It Work?
By now we’ve covered the main features. I know there’s a lot there, so my best suggestion is to sign up for the free plan, which gives you 10 generations a month in access to most features on the platform. That way, you’ll be able to click through it and see for yourself. Improvements and additions to the platform are added at lightning speed, as you can see on the blog, so it’s best to give it a look for yourself.
A question that I’ve seen a lot is how does this tool actually work? Without revealing too many secrets, CodeWP leverages a massive, artificial intelligence trained on millions and millions of lines of PHP code. From that, we have our general WordPress PHP mode, which powers most of the platform. This is trained on the WordPress PHP code base, as well as many different examples.
Then, each AI mode is trained even further on an additional code base and examples. From there, the platform leverages the generations created by users that are favored, or ranked “👍” to further direct the AI to create high-quality and accurate code snippets. As more and more users leverage the platform to benefit their WordPress workflow, the generations simply improve and get better.
Some Examples Of What You Can Create
There’s a library of examples that are 100% generated by the AI modes under the Snippets page.
Let’s take a look at a couple of the generations:
This code creates a unique shortlink solution. When a post is published, it’ll create a unique string, and from it a shortlink to the post. It also gives a shortcode to display this link on the frontend. When a visitor accesses this post via the link, they’re redirected to to complete link and slug.
This snippet will add a link to individual plugins on the plugin management table. When clicked, it’ll download that plugin as a ZIP to your computer.
This code is specific to Oxygen Builder, and adds a new condition to the editor that can be used to conditionally show/hide elements based on the weather in the visitors location.
This code will display a flag in a new column in the user table that corresponds with the billing address on file.
Each of these generations are generated in 1 shot from the original prompt. And, as you can see, these snippets solve complex problems.
You’ll notice that the two snippets to the right are using different AI modes than the standard WordPress PHP one; WooCommerce PHP and Oxygen Builder conditions. These will give you a good idea of how each AI mode changes the output to be hyper specific to the product it’s intended for.
Pricing
Paid plans start at $8/mo, billed annually.
There are three pricing tiers, free, pro and agency.
The free plan gives you 10 generations per month, using the general WordPress AI generator. It’ll create surprisingly complex snippets, but is more of a general mode, when compared to something like ACF mode.
The quota resets every month on the day you registered. It’s a great option for anybody who works with WordPress, because, 1) it’s free, and 2) it’s the perfect problem solver for big problems that require hours of Googling and trial and error.
The Pro plan unlocks all major platform features. Edit, Explain and Generate modes are now all available to you in the editor. Additionally you get access to all of the AI modes, including Breakdance & Oxygen conditions, ACF & Metabox, WooCommerce and several more.
Pro starts at $8/mo if you buy for the year, and $12/mo if you opt for monthly.
And of course, you go from 10 generations to unlimited, meaning that you can be liberal with your prompts. Something getting you close to what you need, but the generation isn’t 100% perfect? No worries, you can prompt it 10 more times with different variations to get what you need.
The agency plan, which isn’t out yet, brings scale-savings and collaborative features. You’ll be able to invite up to 5 members and work with each other in real time in the editor.
Here’s a great overview of the free plan, as well as what the Pro plan brings to the table.
What’s the ROI/ value prop here?
Looking at the Pro Pricing, if you buy for the year, it comes out to $96/yr.
The plugin, mentioned in the comments is WooCommerce’s Custom Thank You Pages. That will run you $50/yr, and CodeWP created a snippet in about 10 seconds that does the same thing.
Another popular plugin, also $50/yr, is the Checkout Field Editor. CodeWP can create custom fields for the checkout with ease.
This is (no doubt) a SaaS tool, different from plugins, but if you compare it to the yearly fees for plugin licenses, it’s pretty darn similar. Where it’s value prop really begins to shine is when you start eliminating the need for dozens of other plugins because this tool generates the same thing in code snippet form.
Conclusion
CodeWP brings WordPress creators a robust, cutting edge platform that leverages AI to create code snippet generations. Features and modes are being added weekly, and for the low cost of eight dollars a month, you can seriously improve your efficiency, minimize your expenses, become a better WordPress creator because of it.