Is WordPress Still the Best Choice for Small Businesses in 2025?

The Honest Pros, Cons, and What No One Explains Clearly

I know, I know... A Wix & Squarespace web designer writing a blog post on WordPress might be a little shocking, but I'm a designer who doesn't live in a bubble. I like to make sure I stay up to date with what's happening in the world of all website platforms, so that I can help my clients and potential clients make an informed choice. While I exclusively design on Wix and Squarespace, I'm not someone who's willing to lie to a client to get their business. If another platform would best suit your business, I'll let you know! So that's why today we're gonna talk about WordPress in 2025 as we're heading into 2026. So let's do it!

WordPress has been the go-to website platform for small businesses for over a decade. If you’ve ever Googled “how to build a website,” there’s a good chance WordPress showed up within the first three results.

BUT here’s the truth most business owners don’t hear until after their site is live:

WordPress isn’t automatically the best choice anymore—especially for small and medium-sized businesses in 2025 and beyond.

That doesn’t mean WordPress is “bad.” It means the landscape has changed, business owners’ needs have changed, and the hidden costs and tradeoffs of WordPress matter more now than they used to.

So let’s break this down in real terms—no developer jargon, no fear-mongering, and no “one platform fits everyone” nonsense.

First: What WordPress Actually Is (and Isn’t)

WordPress is not an all-in-one website platform.

It’s a self-hosted content management system, which means:

• You choose your hosting

• You choose your theme

• You choose your plugins

• You’re responsible for updates, maintenance, and performance

WordPress gives you freedom—but freedom comes with responsibility.

And that’s where many small businesses start to feel friction.

1. Security Is the #1 Ongoing Issue (and It’s Not Optional)

WordPress powers over 40% of the web, which makes it the largest target for hackers. The core software itself is generally solid, but most security issues don’t come from WordPress itself.

They come from:

🚫 Outdated plugins

🚫 Poorly maintained themes

🚫 Infrequent updates

🚫 Cheap or abandoned third-party tools

Here’s the part business owners usually miss:

If you’re not actively maintaining your WordPress site, you are accepting risk.

Miss an update?

Install a plugin that stops being supported?

Forget about your site for six months?

That’s how malware, redirects, and blacklisting happen.

Hosted platforms (like Squarespace or Wix) handle this for you. With WordPress, it’s either your responsibility—or something you pay someone else to manage.

2. “Flexible” Often Turns Into “Fragile”

One of WordPress’s biggest selling points is flexibility.

But in practice, that flexibility usually looks like this:

• Need a form? → plugin

• Need SEO tools? → plugin

• Need backups? → plugin

• Need speed optimization? → plugin

• Need security? → plugin

Before you know it, your site is running 15–25 plugins, all created by different developers, all updating on different schedules.

And plugins don’t always play nicely together.

This is where small businesses run into:

👎🏼 Broken layouts after updates

👎🏼 Features randomly stopping

👎🏼 Confusing errors no one knows how to fix

WordPress can do almost anything—but it often does it by stacking complexity behind the scenes.

3. Performance Isn’t Automatic (and Google Cares More Than Ever)

In 2025, site speed is literally a non-negotiable. Period.

Google prioritizes:

• Fast load times

• Mobile performance

• Core Web Vitals

• Clean, efficient code

WordPress sites can be fast—but they’re not fast by default.

Performance depends on:

• Hosting quality

• Theme optimization

• Plugin bloat

• Image handling

• Caching and CDN setup

A lot of small businesses don’t realize their site is slow until:

• Rankings stall

• Bounce rates climb

• Conversions drop

Other platforms bake performance optimization in at the platform level. With WordPress, it’s something you actively have to manage.

4. The “Cheap” Platform That Isn’t Actually Cheap

WordPress is marketed a lot of times as the affordable option.

And technically, yes—you can start cheaply.

But over TIME, real costs add up:

• Premium themes

• Paid plugins (often yearly)

• Managed hosting

• Maintenance services

• Occasional developer fixes

• Advanced integrations and features as your site's needs grow

Most small businesses end up paying more long-term than they expected—just in less obvious ways. Meanwhile, hosted platforms roll:

• Hosting

• Security

• Updates

• Support

…into one predictable monthly cost.

Neither approach is wrong—but pretending WordPress is “free” is misleading.

5. Maintenance Is a Business Cost, Whether You See It or Not

This is the quiet issue no one talks about. WordPress requires:

• Regular updates

• Backups

• Security monitoring

• Compatibility checks

If you’re doing this yourself, you’re spending mental energy and time.

If you’re outsourcing it, you’re spending money.

Either way, WordPress isn’t a “set it and forget it” platform—and most small business owners don’t actually want another system to manage.

6. Scalability Takes Planning (Not Just Plugins)

Yes, WordPress can scale.

But scaling well requires:

• Strong hosting infrastructure

• Clean builds

• Performance monitoring

• Sometimes developer involvement

Many businesses hit a ceiling where their site:

• Slows down under traffic spikes

• Breaks during promotions

• Needs rebuilding instead of tweaking

Platforms that control their infrastructure can handle scaling behind the scenes. WordPress gives you control—but you have to architect it intentionally.

7. Content Ownership vs. Simplicity (The Real Tradeoff)

This is where WordPress still shines, truthfully...

You own everything:

• Your content

• Your database

• Your files

No platform lock-in. But that ownership comes with responsibility. Other platforms trade some ownership flexibility for:

• Simpler workflows

• Fewer things to break

• Less ongoing maintenance

For some small businesses, that trade is actually worth it.

So… Is WordPress Bad for Small Businesses?

No. But it’s also not automatically the best choice anymore.

WordPress is a strong option when:

• You need super advanced customization

• You have a maintenance plan with someone who knows their stuff and can handle all the heavy lifting for you

• You value ownership and flexibility

• You’re okay with technical tradeoffs

WordPress is often a poor fit when:

• You want minimal upkeep

• You don’t want plugin dependency

• You want predictable costs

• You just want your site to work

The Bigger Truth Most People Miss

Choosing a website platform isn’t about what’s “most powerful.” It’s about:

• How much time you want to spend managing it

• How much risk you’re willing to accept

• How simple you want your systems to be

The best platform is the one that supports your business reality, not the one developers argue about online.

If you want help figuring out which platform actually makes sense for your goals, workflows, and growth plans—I’m happy to help you think it through clearly and honestly. No hype. No pressure. Just clarity.