WordPress powers approximately 43.6% (as of the date of this article by W3Techs) of all websites today, making it the world’s most popular content management system.
Yet many business owners still wonder if it’s truly the best choice for their website. With so many options available like Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow, the decision can be overwhelming.
We’ve been building WordPress websites for over a decade, and we’ve seen firsthand how it can transform businesses online. Let’s explore 17 compelling reasons why WordPress should be your platform of choice for your next website project.
Table of Content
Open Source Nature: Cost-Effective and Flexible
One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is that it’s completely free to use. As an open-source platform, there are no licensing fees or mandatory subscriptions required. You only pay for hosting, a domain name, and any premium themes or plugins you choose to use.
Unlike proprietary platforms like Wix or Squarespace that charge monthly subscription fees, WordPress gives you complete freedom without ongoing platform costs. This makes it particularly attractive for small businesses and startups with limited budgets who still want a professional website.
The open-source nature of WordPress also means thousands of developers around the world continually improve the platform, fix bugs, and enhance security. You benefit from this global community’s expertise without additional cost.
Unmatched Customization Capabilities
WordPress offers virtually unlimited customization options. Whether you want a simple blog, a complex e-commerce store, a membership site, or a corporate portfolio, WordPress can handle it all. With access to the source code, developers can modify any aspect of the site to meet specific client needs.
We’ve built everything from small business websites to complex enterprise solutions using WordPress, and its flexibility never disappoints. The block editor (Gutenberg) makes it easy to create visually appealing layouts even without coding knowledge.
Think of WordPress as digital clay that can be molded into any shape you need, whereas platforms like Squarespace or Wix often feel more like pre-built structures with limited modification options.
The WordPress Theme Ecosystem
WordPress offers thousands of free and premium themes designed for various industries and purposes. These themes provide ready-made designs that can be customized to match your brand identity. From minimalist portfolios to feature-rich magazine layouts, you’ll find a theme for nearly any need.
Premium themes like Divi, Elementor, and Astra offer even more flexibility with drag-and-drop builders that make customization easier for non-developers. This means our clients can get unique websites without the cost of building everything from scratch.
Many themes are also optimized for specific industries or business types, giving you a head start on design that’s relevant to your field.
Plugins Extend Functionality Seamlessly
One of WordPress’s greatest strengths is its plugin ecosystem. With over 59,000 free plugins available, you can add almost any functionality to your site without custom coding. Need a contact form? There’s a plugin for that. Want to optimize your SEO? There’s a plugin for that too. Looking to add e-commerce capabilities? WooCommerce has you covered.
This modular approach means websites can grow with your business. Start with basic functionality, then add features as needed without rebuilding from scratch. This scalability is a major advantage over more rigid platforms.
Some essential plugins we recommend include WordPress maintenance plugins to keep your site running smoothly, security plugins to protect your data, and performance plugins to ensure fast loading times.
WordPress vs. Competitors: Why WordPress Wins
When comparing WordPress to other popular website platforms, it consistently comes out ahead in key areas that matter most to businesses. Let’s look at how it stacks up against three major competitors.
WordPress vs. Wix
While Wix offers an intuitive drag-and-drop builder that appeals to beginners, it falls short in several important areas compared to WordPress:
- Limited customization: Wix offers fewer options for deep customization and has strict template limitations
- Higher long-term costs: Monthly subscription fees add up over time, making Wix more expensive in the long run
- Limited scalability: As your site grows, Wix can become limiting for more complex needs
- SEO limitations: WordPress offers more comprehensive search engine optimization tools
- Content ownership concerns: Moving your content off Wix can be challenging
WordPress might have a slightly steeper learning curve, but it offers vastly more room to grow and adapt as your business evolves.
WordPress vs. Webflow
Webflow has gained popularity with designers who appreciate its visual development approach, but WordPress still holds several advantages:
- More affordable: Webflow’s plans become expensive quickly, especially for client sites
- Larger support community: WordPress has a massive ecosystem of developers and resources
- More plugins and integrations: WordPress’s 59,000+ plugins dwarf Webflow’s limited integrations
- Easier content management: WordPress’s admin interface is more intuitive for clients to use
- Better for complex functionality: WordPress handles complex features more easily
Webflow excels at creating visually stunning sites with complex animations, but for overall business functionality and cost-effectiveness, WordPress typically provides more value.
WordPress vs. Squarespace
Squarespace offers beautiful templates and an all-in-one solution, but lacks the flexibility businesses often need:
- Limited customization: Squarespace restricts how much you can modify templates
- Fewer third-party integrations: You’re limited to what Squarespace offers or supports
- Higher ongoing costs: Monthly subscription fees instead of just paying for hosting
- E-commerce limitations: WooCommerce on WordPress offers far more e-commerce features
- Less control: You don’t truly own your website as you do with WordPress
Squarespace works well for simple portfolio sites, but for growing businesses with changing needs, WordPress provides much more flexibility and control.
Superior SEO Capabilities
Search engine optimization is crucial for business success online, and WordPress excels in this area. The platform is built with clean code that search engines can easily crawl and index. Plus, you can control every aspect of your site’s SEO, from meta descriptions to image alt text.
With plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or SEOPress, WordPress sites can be optimized for search engines with minimal technical knowledge. These tools provide real-time content analysis, keyword optimization suggestions, and readability scores to help improve your rankings.
WordPress also allows for customizable permalink structures, XML sitemaps, and easy integration with Google Search Console and Analytics, all essential for effective SEO. This level of optimization control simply isn’t available on most other platforms.
Mobile Responsiveness and Accessibility
Today, having a responsive website is non-negotiable. Modern WordPress themes are designed to be fully responsive out of the box, ensuring your site looks great on smartphones, tablets, and desktops alike.
Beyond responsiveness, WordPress also emphasizes accessibility, making it easier to create websites that comply with WCAG guidelines. This ensures your site can be used by people with disabilities, which is not only good practice but also increasingly required by law in many jurisdictions.
The platform’s focus on responsive design and accessibility helps businesses reach the widest possible audience without additional development costs.
Powerful E-Commerce Capabilities
If you’re selling products or services online, WordPress with WooCommerce offers one of the most robust e-commerce solutions available. WooCommerce powers approximately 31% of the top million e-commerce sites globally, making it a proven solution for online sales.
Unlike some all-in-one platforms that charge transaction fees, WooCommerce allows you to keep more of your profits. It also offers extensive customization options for your store, from product displays to checkout processes.
The platform supports multiple payment gateways, shipping methods, tax calculations, and inventory management systems. You can start with a simple store and scale to thousands of products as your business grows.
Enhanced Security Features
Website security is a top concern for businesses of all sizes. While no platform is completely immune to threats, WordPress takes security seriously with regular updates, vulnerability patches, and a proactive approach to addressing potential issues.
With security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri, or iThemes Security, you can add multiple layers of protection to your WordPress site, including:
- Firewall protection
- Malware scanning
- Login security measures
- Regular security scans
- Brute force attack prevention
When maintained properly, WordPress sites can be extremely secure. If you use a custom WordPress theme built with security best practices and keep plugins updated, you minimize vulnerability risks significantly.
Simplicity of Content Management
For businesses that regularly update their content, WordPress offers an intuitive dashboard that makes content management simple. The block editor allows for easy creation of visually appealing posts and pages without HTML knowledge.
WordPress also excels at organizing content with categories, tags, and custom taxonomies. This makes it easy for visitors to find relevant information on your site and improves SEO by creating logical content structures.
Features like scheduled publishing, revision history, and user roles make WordPress particularly valuable for teams. Multiple people can contribute to the site with appropriate permission levels, streamlining your content workflow.
Multilingual Capabilities
If your business operates in multiple regions or serves diverse language populations, WordPress makes it easy to create multilingual websites. With plugins like WPML or Polylang, you can translate your content and provide a localized experience for international visitors.
This capability is especially important for Canadian businesses operating in both English and French markets or companies expanding globally. Creating a multilingual site with WordPress is far simpler than with many other platforms.
Integration With Third-Party Services
Modern businesses rely on various digital tools, CRM systems, email marketing platforms, social media networks, and analytics tools. WordPress easily integrates with virtually any third-party service through plugins, APIs, or direct code integration.
Whether you need to connect your site with Salesforce, MailChimp, Google Analytics, or social media platforms, WordPress can accommodate these connections. This integration capability creates a centralized digital ecosystem for your business, improving efficiency and data flow.
Scalability for Growing Businesses
As your business grows, your website needs will evolve. WordPress scales effortlessly with your business, from a simple site to a complex online presence. The platform can handle high traffic volumes when properly configured with caching and a robust hosting environment.
Many major brands use WordPress, including The New York Times, BBC America, Sony Music, and Disney. With the right infrastructure, WordPress can support enterprise-level requirements while maintaining the flexibility that makes it popular with smaller businesses.
This scalability means you won’t need to migrate to a different platform as your business grows, saving significant time and money in the long run.
Ownership and Portability
When you build a site on WordPress, you truly own it. You control your data and can move your site to different hosting providers as needed. This portability is a major advantage over proprietary platforms where your site essentially “lives” within their ecosystem.
If you’re dissatisfied with your hosting service or find a better deal elsewhere, you can migrate your WordPress site without rebuilding from scratch. This freedom from vendor lock-in provides long-term security for your business’s online presence.
Robust Community Support
The WordPress community includes millions of developers, designers, and users who contribute to forums, documentation, tutorials, and events. This massive support ecosystem means you’re never alone when you encounter issues or need guidance.
WordPress resources are available in virtually every language and for every skill level. Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced developer looking to solve a complex problem, you’ll find the information you need within the community.
This community support reduces your dependency on a single vendor or agency, though having a reliable WordPress partner like WP Expert ensures you get professional help when needed.
Regular Updates and Long-Term Viability
WordPress receives regular updates that improve security, add features, and enhance performance. These updates ensure the platform remains modern and competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
With its massive market share and open-source nature, WordPress has proven its long-term viability. Businesses can invest in WordPress with confidence that the platform will continue to evolve and remain relevant for years to come.
This stability is particularly important for business websites that represent significant investments and serve as critical marketing and sales tools.
Custom Block Development
With the introduction of the block editor, WordPress has revolutionized how websites are built and content is managed. Custom WordPress blocks allow for the creation of reusable content elements that maintain consistent branding and functionality across your site.
These blocks give clients unprecedented control over their content while preserving design integrity. Content editors can rearrange, modify, and create new pages using pre-designed blocks without risking design inconsistencies or requiring developer intervention.
This block-based approach strikes the perfect balance between design control and content flexibility, making WordPress increasingly attractive for businesses that regularly update their content.
Performance Optimization Potential
Website speed directly impacts user experience, conversion rates, and search engine rankings. WordPress offers numerous ways to optimize performance, from lightweight themes to caching plugins and image optimization tools.
With the right configuration and hosting environment, WordPress sites can achieve excellent loading speeds and Core Web Vitals scores. This performance potential ensures your site provides a smooth user experience and ranks well in search results.
When issues do arise, WordPress provides the flexibility to identify and fix WordPress 404 errors and other performance problems with appropriate troubleshooting tools.
Headless WordPress Options
For businesses with specialized technical requirements, WordPress offers headless configuration options. This approach separates the content management backend from the frontend presentation, allowing developers to use modern JavaScript frameworks like React or Vue.js for the user interface while leveraging WordPress for content management.
Headless WordPress combines the user-friendly content management of WordPress with the performance and flexibility of modern frontend technologies. This approach is increasingly popular for businesses that need highly customized user experiences or want to deliver content across multiple platforms from a single source.
Conclusion: WordPress Is the Smart Choice
With its unmatched flexibility, robust feature set, and massive support community, WordPress continues to be the ideal choice for businesses seeking a powerful, cost-effective website solution. Its open-source nature provides freedom and control while its extensive ecosystem of themes and plugins allows for nearly unlimited customization.
Whether you’re launching a simple business site, a complex e-commerce store, or anything in between, WordPress provides the tools and flexibility to achieve your goals. Its advantages over competitors like Wix, Webflow, and Squarespace become even more apparent as your site grows and evolves with your business.
By choosing WordPress, you’re investing in a platform that grows with you, adapts to your changing needs, and continues to lead the web with innovative features and approaches. For businesses seeking a balance of power, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, WordPress remains the gold standard in website development.
