Website PlatformsWordPress review
The open-source CMS that runs a huge share of the web: endlessly extensible, and yours to own.
Is WordPress right for you?
WordPress is the open-source CMS behind comfortably north of forty percent of all websites, and it stays there for one reason: there’s almost no ceiling. If you can describe the functionality, it can be built with a plugin, a theme, or custom code, and the site is yours rather than rented from a builder that owns the walls.
It’s the platform we’ve built on longest. When thought leaders like Brendon Burchard, Jeff Walker, and plenty of others came to us wanting a website with a real system behind it, we put them on it, custom-themed, with whatever back end each business needed. Some of our developers have contributed to WordPress and its plugin ecosystem, not merely used it.
The software is free. Running it is not, and that’s the part people misread. You own the hosting, updates, security, and the occasional plugin conflict, which is why good managed hosting is a companion decision, not an afterthought. Plugin sprawl is the other tax: every plugin adds code to every page, and sites collect them for years without anyone auditing what still earns its place. It’s the most common reason a WordPress site feels slow, and a reason to maintain it deliberately, not to leave.
So we remain proponents, with clear eyes. If you want to point-and-click a site up this weekend and never see the machinery, this is more than you need. If you want a site that grows with you for years and belongs to you at the end, the flexibility is unmatched, and the upkeep is what that costs.
Questions about WordPress
What people usually want to know before committing, answered the way we'd answer them on a call.
Is WordPress free?
The software is free and open source; running it is not. You pay for hosting, then in maintenance: updates, security, backups, and the occasional plugin conflict. That's the trade for owning it outright instead of renting space in someone else's builder. Budget for good managed hosting from the start. It's the biggest lever on whether WordPress feels solid or fragile.
Read the WP Engine reviewIs WordPress still relevant?
It's still the eight-hundred-pound gorilla: upwards of forty percent of all websites run on it, and that number doesn't turn over quickly. More to the point, nothing else combines endless flexibility with real ownership. If you can describe it, it can be built, and the result belongs to you, not a platform that owns the walls. We still recommend it, and we still build on it.
Should I move off WordPress?
Usually your WordPress site is slow or fragile because of how it was built, not because it's WordPress. Rebuilding elsewhere without understanding that just moves the problem. Plugin sprawl is the usual culprit: every plugin adds code to every page, and sites collect them for years unaudited. We wrote it up in full.
How to optimize your website for speedIs WordPress.com the same as WordPress?
No, and the distinction costs people real money. WordPress.org is the free, self-hosted, open-source software this review covers: you install it wherever you like, and it's fully yours. WordPress.com is a hosted commercial service built around it, with plans and limits, closer in spirit to Squarespace. Both are legitimate; know which one you're looking at before comparing prices.
Who is WordPress genuinely the right choice for?
A business whose site needs to do something specific, and that has technical help or will pay for it. Custom content types, unusual functionality, real content scale, an integration nobody else supports: that's where the flexibility becomes the reason you chose it. If your site is a few well-designed pages and a contact form, a hosted builder does that with far less to look after.
Still deciding?
Not sure if WordPress is the right call?
The tool is rarely the hard part; fitting it to what you've already got is. Five minutes with the concierge: honest fit, no pressure, and a real person follows up.
More Website Platforms
The rest of this shelf, if you're weighing your options.
Squarespace
Substack
Wix
WebflowDisclosure: there's no affiliate link on this page. We don't earn anything if you sign up for WordPress; it's here because it's good. Other tools in the toolkit do carry affiliate links, and each of those pages says so.