We recently wrote about whether we build and maintain non-WordPress sites, and the answer is absolutely yes. We work with Shopify, Webflow, BigCommerce, and other platforms regularly. But after nearly 20 years of building and maintaining websites across just about every platform out there, I want to make the case for something we see play out over and over again: for most businesses, WordPress is still the right call.
That’s not blind loyalty to a platform. It’s what the data and our experience keep telling us.
The Numbers Tell a Pretty Clear Story
WordPress powers roughly 43% of all websites on the internet. Among sites using a known content management system, that number jumps to around 60%. The next closest competitor, Shopify, sits around 5%. That gap is massive, and it didn’t happen by accident.
WordPress earned that position because it works for an incredibly wide range of use cases. Blogs, business sites, ecommerce stores, membership sites, directories, portfolios, nonprofit sites, event sites, you name it. When a platform can handle that many different types of projects well, it tends to stick around. And WordPress has been doing it for over two decades.
Flexibility Is the Real Advantage
The reason WordPress fits so many businesses is that it doesn’t box you in. With over 60,000 plugins and thousands of themes available, you can build almost anything without starting from scratch. Need a booking system? There’s a plugin for that. Need to integrate with your CRM or your email marketing platform? There are multiple options. Need a full ecommerce store? WooCommerce powers millions of online shops worldwide.
That flexibility also means your site can grow with your business. You’re not going to hit a ceiling where the platform can’t do what you need and you have to start over on something else. With WordPress, we can add features, integrate with third-party tools, and customize functionality in ways that managed platforms simply don’t allow.
You Don’t Have to Use WordPress
I want to be clear about something. We wrote that other article for a reason. There are real scenarios where Shopify, Webflow, or another managed platform makes more sense. If you’re running a straightforward ecommerce store and don’t need heavy customization, Shopify is a great option. If you want a visually polished site with minimal ongoing maintenance overhead, Webflow can be a solid fit.
With managed platforms, more of your monthly retainer goes directly toward content updates, design improvements, and things that grow your business because the platform handles a lot of the maintenance work behind the scenes. That’s a real advantage we don’t shy away from talking about.
But here’s the thing. Most businesses eventually need something their managed platform can’t easily do. A custom integration. A specific workflow. A feature that goes beyond what the platform was designed for. That’s usually when the conversation about WordPress starts.
WordPress Maintenance Is Real, But Manageable
The honest trade-off with WordPress is maintenance. Plugin updates, core updates, security patches, compatibility testing. These are real tasks that require real time and attention. We’ve written extensively about this in our WordPress maintenance guide, and we don’t sugarcoat it.
But here’s what we’ve learned over nearly two decades of doing this work: with a solid maintenance routine, WordPress sites run reliably for years. We’ve built systems and processes specifically to make that maintenance efficient. We treat it like adding a bedroom to your house instead of moving. You extend the life of what you already have and avoid spending tens of thousands of dollars on a full rebuild.
The businesses that run into trouble with WordPress are typically the ones that skip maintenance entirely. They don’t update plugins. They don’t run backups. They let security fall behind. That’s not a WordPress problem. That’s a maintenance problem, and it would cause issues on any platform.
The Talent Pool and Community Matter
One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough is what happens when you need help. WordPress has one of the largest developer communities in the world. If you need to find a developer, a designer, or an agency that can work on your WordPress site, you have options. Lots of them.
With smaller or more niche platforms, you can end up locked into a very small pool of people who know the system. That’s a risk. If your current developer disappears or your agency relationship doesn’t work out, you want to know there are other qualified people who can pick up where they left off.
This is something we’ve seen firsthand. Many of our clients come to us after a bad experience with another provider. Because they were on WordPress, making the transition to our team was straightforward. That portability and the depth of available talent is a real asset.
Your Team Probably Already Knows WordPress
This one is easy to overlook, but it matters a lot in practice. When we onboard new clients, there’s almost always someone on their team who has at least some experience with WordPress. Maybe they’ve updated blog posts before. Maybe they’ve managed pages on a previous company’s site. Maybe they just know their way around the dashboard enough to feel comfortable making basic content changes without calling us first.
That familiarity saves real time and money. When your team can handle routine content updates on their own, you’re not burning retainer hours on things like swapping out a photo or fixing a typo. You’re saving those hours for the work that actually requires a developer. With less common platforms, there’s often a learning curve that means your team is more dependent on us for even the simplest changes. WordPress is familiar enough that most people can get up to speed quickly, and that independence is good for everyone.
AI Readiness Is Another Factor
As AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews continue to change how people find information online, having control over your site’s structure and metadata matters more than ever. WordPress gives you the flexibility to optimize for these systems in ways that many managed platforms make difficult. We’ve been doing a lot of work in GEO and AEO optimization for our clients, and WordPress consistently gives us the most room to implement those strategies effectively.
The Bottom Line
You don’t have to use WordPress. We’re happy to work with whatever platform makes sense for your business. But if you’re starting a new project or evaluating your current setup, it’s worth considering that WordPress is the right fit for the majority of business websites. The flexibility, the ecosystem, the talent pool, and the long track record of growth and development are hard to beat.
If you’re not sure which direction makes sense for your situation, reach out to us. We’ll give you an honest assessment. Sometimes that means recommending WordPress. Sometimes it means pointing you toward Shopify or Webflow. What it always means is recommending what’s going to work best for your business, not just what’s easiest for us.