Does FastAPI Work With WordPress?
FastAPI and WordPress don't integrate directly, but FastAPI excels at building a headless API layer to augment or replace WordPress's REST API.
Quick Facts
How FastAPI Works With WordPress
FastAPI and WordPress operate in fundamentally different domains—WordPress is a server-rendered PHP CMS, while FastAPI is a Python async framework for APIs. They don't have native integration, but the real value comes from using them together architecturally. You can run FastAPI as a separate service that either wraps WordPress's REST API with enhanced functionality, provides a custom API layer for a headless WordPress setup, or handles authentication and caching in front of WordPress. This pattern works well because FastAPI's automatic OpenAPI documentation, async performance, and Python ecosystem fill gaps in WordPress's REST API. You'd typically deploy FastAPI on the same server or containerized separately, with WordPress handling content management and FastAPI handling API logic, validation, and transformations. The developer experience is smooth if you're comfortable switching between PHP (WordPress plugins) and Python (FastAPI services), but it requires understanding microservice architecture and API proxying patterns. This approach shines for high-traffic scenarios where you need WordPress's content management flexibility but FastAPI's performance and modern Python tooling.
Best Use Cases
FastAPI as WordPress REST API Proxy
pip install fastapi uvicorn httpx python-dotenvfrom fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException
from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
import httpx
import os
app = FastAPI(title="WordPress API Proxy")
# Enable CORS for frontend requests
app.add_middleware(
CORSMiddleware,
allow_origins=["*"],
allow_methods=["*"],
allow_headers=["*"],
)
WORDPRESS_URL = os.getenv("WORDPRESS_URL", "http://localhost:8080")
@app.get("/api/posts")
async def get_posts(per_page: int = 10, page: int = 1):
"""Fetch and cache posts from WordPress"""
async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
response = await client.get(
f"{WORDPRESS_URL}/wp-json/wp/v2/posts",
params={"per_page": per_page, "page": page}
)
if response.status_code != 200:
raise HTTPException(status_code=response.status_code)
return response.json()
@app.get("/api/posts/{post_id}")
async def get_post(post_id: int):
"""Fetch single post with custom transformations"""
async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
response = await client.get(f"{WORDPRESS_URL}/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/{post_id}")
if response.status_code != 200:
raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Post not found")
post = response.json()
# Custom transformations here
return {"id": post["id"], "title": post["title"]["rendered"]}Known Issues & Gotchas
WordPress and FastAPI use different authentication systems (WordPress cookies/JWT vs FastAPI JWT/OAuth2)
Fix: Implement a token exchange layer in FastAPI that validates WordPress nonces or uses JWT tokens, or use WordPress plugins like JWT Authentication to standardize token handling
WordPress plugins and theme functionality don't carry over to FastAPI—you're building API logic from scratch
Fix: Use WordPress REST API endpoints as data sources in FastAPI rather than trying to replicate functionality; leverage WordPress plugins that expose REST endpoints
Deployment complexity increases significantly when running two separate services
Fix: Use Docker Compose or Kubernetes to orchestrate both services; ensure proper networking and use environment variables for service discovery
CORS issues when FastAPI frontend calls WordPress REST API directly
Fix: Configure CORS in FastAPI middleware or use FastAPI as the proxy layer to handle all cross-origin requests
Alternatives
- •Next.js + WordPress Headless CMS: Use Next.js for frontend with WordPress REST API, keeping everything JavaScript/TypeScript based
- •Strapi + React: Headless CMS built in Node.js with better API-first design than WordPress, paired with modern frontend frameworks
- •Django + WordPress: If you need Python backend anyway, use Django ORM with WordPress as pure content management layer via REST endpoints
Resources
Related Compatibility Guides
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