If this is true, OP can consider writing tests of the website using a frontend test suite like Cypress, especially with access to local instances connected to local databases.
There's no value to retroactive unit testing. Retroactive tests should be end-to-end or integration level, which you certainly can do without a framework.
Framework are not needed to test. I've been testing and validating my code way back, in C. Not because I was an early adopter (I'm still not), but because I needed to debug it, so... faster.