Why WordPress Is the Future of Websites: Two Senior Experts Share Their View

WordPress has been declared outdated more times than most software platforms have existed.

Critics describe it as slow, insecure, dependent on plugins and poorly suited to the new era of AI-generated websites. Newer platforms promise businesses that they can launch a modern website in minutes, eliminate maintenance and replace developers with a single prompt.

Yet WordPress remains the dominant content management system on the web. As of August 2026, W3Techs estimates that WordPress powers approximately 41% of all websites and close to 60% of websites with a known CMS. No competing content management system comes close to matching the size of its installed base or wider ecosystem.

Market share alone, however, does not explain why WordPress continues to matter.

The stronger argument is that WordPress combines something few other platforms can offer: an open ecosystem, a global developer market, deep extensibility, ownership of the underlying website and the flexibility to adapt to technologies that did not exist when the original website was built.

To understand why these qualities still matter, we spoke with two senior WordPress experts:

Their central conclusion is clear:

WordPress is not becoming less relevant. It is becoming the open foundation on which the next generation of websites can be built.

But that conclusion comes with an important qualification. WordPress delivers its greatest advantages only when it is implemented and managed professionally.

WordPress is more than a CMS

The first reason WordPress remains difficult to replace is its sheer ecosystem.

WordPress is not simply a piece of software maintained by one company. It is supported by an international network of developers, hosting providers, agencies, theme builders, plugin companies, security researchers, educators and contributors.

For Max Schwertl, this community is one of the main reasons he has continued working with WordPress.

He describes an environment in which developers can find support for almost any challenge, whether the question concerns WordPress itself, a specific plugin, a hosting configuration or a specialised use case.

“When you run into an issue, it is amazing to have this community as support,” Schwertl explains. “There are forums and communities not only for WordPress itself, but for almost every important plugin and development challenge.”

That community creates more than a sense of belonging. It creates practical business value.

A developer working with a smaller or proprietary CMS may be dependent on the documentation, support department and partner network of a single vendor. A WordPress developer can draw on decades of public documentation, community discussions, code examples, specialised agencies and developers with experience across almost every conceivable type of website.

The ecosystem is also still attracting substantial development activity. The WordPress Plugins Team reviewed 12,713 plugin submissions in 2025, an increase of more than 40% over the previous year. By March 2026, the team reported receiving more than 500 new plugin submissions per week.

The business implication is straightforward:

When a company chooses WordPress, it does not only choose a CMS. It gains access to one of the largest website-development markets in the world.

That reduces the likelihood that the company will become dependent on a rare technology, a small number of specialists or a vendor with a limited roadmap.

The open-source model creates resilience

WordPress’s open-source foundation is often discussed as an ideological principle. For businesses, however, its most important consequence is practical: no single company controls the entire platform.

A proprietary website platform can determine:

• Which features are available
• Which integrations are permitted
• Where websites are hosted
• How prices change
• Which functionality is discontinued
• What can be exported
• How much customisation is allowed

WordPress distributes those decisions across the wider ecosystem.

A business can choose its hosting company, development agency, page builder, SEO technology, analytics setup, security provider and integration stack. Individual components can often be replaced without replacing the entire website.

Joonas Ahosilta sees this as one of WordPress’s most important long-term advantages.

“We do not marry the client to us,” he says. “If they want to leave at some point, they can choose another WordPress agency almost anywhere in the world, and that agency will understand how to continue maintaining the website.”

This is an unusually strong statement for an agency expert. Agencies often try to create customer retention through technical dependency. They use proprietary themes, private plugins, agency-owned licences or undocumented custom code that makes it difficult for another supplier to take over.

Ahosilta argues for the opposite model.

A professionally built WordPress website should be transferable. The customer should own the important accounts, understand the major components and have access to documentation, credentials, backups and licences.

The agency should retain the customer by delivering value, not by making departure technically painful.

WordPress gives SMBs more control over dependency

Every CMS creates dependency somewhere.

A company using Wix, Webflow, Shopify or HubSpot may need less technical support for routine maintenance, but it becomes more dependent on the platform provider. Hosting, functionality, subscriptions, exports and future development remain tied to that provider’s ecosystem.

A company using a custom Laravel application may control the code, but become heavily dependent on the developers who designed the application. Even a small change may require someone who understands the custom architecture, framework, deployment process and database.

WordPress allows SMBs to distribute those dependencies.

A well-built WordPress website lets a business:

• Manage everyday content internally
• Choose between many qualified agencies
• Switch hosting providers
• Replace individual plugins
• Connect different CRMs and marketing tools
• Export its database and files
• Retain control over its domain, code and content

This does not mean that the company will never need outside expertise. It means that no single supplier needs to become an unavoidable bottleneck.

Schwertl summarises the goal as follows:

A professional WordPress setup should be owned by the customer, understandable to the customer and maintainable by another qualified WordPress specialist.

This is particularly relevant for SMBs. A large enterprise may be able to maintain a specialised internal development department. An SMB usually depends on external providers and therefore benefits from choosing a technology with a broad replacement market.

Plugins are not the problem

One of the most persistent WordPress objections concerns plugins.

The familiar story goes like this:

1. A company installs WordPress.
2. A theme recommends several bundled plugins.
3. New plugins are installed whenever a new requirement appears.
4. Different suppliers add their preferred tools.
5. Nobody documents the resulting stack.
6. Updates eventually create conflicts.
7. The website becomes slow or unstable.

The conclusion is then that WordPress itself is unreliable.

Both experts argue that this conclusion confuses poor implementation with a problem in the platform.

“People who approach WordPress with scepticism are not completely wrong,” Ahosilta says. “A badly maintained WordPress website is not a good website. That is simply the truth. But that applies to every CMS. It is not specific to WordPress.”

Plugins are simply reusable software components. Other software ecosystems use comparable dependency models:

• Laravel uses Composer packages.
• JavaScript applications use npm packages.
• Shopify uses apps.
• HubSpot uses marketplace integrations.
• Webflow uses apps and external services.

The existence of extensions is not the problem. The problem is installing them without an architecture.

Schwertl argues that good WordPress development begins before the first plugin is installed.

A developer or agency should first determine:

• What the website needs to accomplish
• Which functionality belongs in the CMS
• Which functionality belongs in the theme or design system
• Which functionality should be handled by hosting
• Which plugins are trusted and actively maintained
• Which components are compatible
• Which functionality can be avoided entirely

“Every experienced WordPress developer has a proven stack,” Schwertl explains. “They know which hosting environments work, which plugins are reliable and which combinations can be trusted for specific use cases.”

Ahosilta describes his preferred approach through the development principle YAGNI: You Aren’t Gonna Need It.

In practical terms, this means:

Only introduce a component when the website has a clear requirement for it.

A lean website does not install three plugins that partially solve the same problem. It does not use a heavy multipurpose theme because one of its 300 demo layouts looks attractive. It does not add a new dependency every time a customer asks for a minor change.

It starts with the smallest reliable system capable of supporting the business.

The number of plugins is the wrong metric

A WordPress website with 30 carefully selected plugins is not automatically worse than a website with ten.

One large plugin may load substantial JavaScript, create multiple database tables, run recurring background processes and duplicate functionality found elsewhere. Ten small plugins may each perform one focused task without adding meaningful overhead.

The important questions are:

• Who maintains the plugin?
• When was it last updated?
• How large is its active user base?
• Does the developer respond to security issues?
• Does it overlap with other components?
• What code does it load on the front end?
• Can it be disabled or replaced cleanly?
• Does the company have a sustainable business model?
• Is the plugin compatible with the selected hosting and builder stack?

The WordPress ecosystem is also strengthening the mechanisms used to assess new plugins. Automated plugin checks now identify a range of potential code and security issues before manual review, while plugin-owner accounts have been subject to stronger security requirements.

The correct response to plugin scepticism is therefore not:

“Plugins never cause problems.”

It is:

“Professional WordPress development treats plugins as governed business dependencies rather than installing them without a plan.”

WordPress is not inherently slow

The same principle applies to performance.

WordPress has a reputation for producing slow websites, but “WordPress” covers an enormous range of implementations. It includes everything from abandoned websites on low-cost shared hosting to highly engineered publisher and enterprise platforms.

Performance depends on choices such as:

• Hosting quality
• Server configuration
• Caching
• Content delivery networks
• Theme architecture
• Page-builder configuration
• Plugin quality
• Image dimensions
• Font loading
• JavaScript usage
• Third-party marketing scripts
• Database queries
• Editorial practices

As Schwertl explains, speed problems often develop when every requirement is solved by adding another unassessed component.

“If you install a separate plugin for every small problem, you will eventually have a difficult setup,” he says. “If you select the stack wisely and build lean, you can create a fast WordPress website.”

A slow WordPress website should therefore not immediately trigger a CMS migration. It should trigger an architectural and performance assessment.

That assessment may reveal:

• An oversized theme
• Unoptimised images
• Excessive tracking scripts
• Poor server response times
• Page-builder elements loading site-wide
• Plugins executing unnecessary database queries
• Missing page caching
• Fonts blocking rendering
• Outdated components
• Third-party scripts outside the CMS’s control

Changing CMS without identifying these underlying problems may simply recreate them elsewhere.

A professional performance strategy must also be continuous. New pages, campaign scripts, videos, fonts and plugins can gradually reduce performance after launch.

For WP SEO AI, this is why page speed is treated as part of the ongoing SEO and website-management process. Performance tools such as WP Rocket can form an important part of the solution, but no caching plugin can compensate for every architectural mistake. Measurement, configuration and ongoing human oversight remain necessary.

WordPress security is an operational discipline

Security is another area in which WordPress’s popularity creates both an advantage and a challenge.

Because so many websites use WordPress, it attracts attention from attackers. At the same time, it also benefits from one of the largest communities of security researchers, hosting companies and extension developers actively looking for vulnerabilities.

Most serious WordPress security problems do not begin with the basic concept of WordPress. They usually involve some combination of:

• Outdated plugins
• Unsupported themes
• Weak passwords
• Shared administrator accounts
• Unpatched vulnerabilities
• Poor hosting
• Excessive user permissions
• Missing backups
• Abandoned installations
• Components downloaded from untrusted sources

“A badly maintained WordPress website can become insecure,” Ahosilta says. “But any CMS that is not actively maintained will become inconsistent, slow or vulnerable over time.”

The most reliable security model is layered.

A professionally secured WordPress website may include:

• Reputable managed hosting
• A web application firewall
• Multifactor authentication
• Unique user accounts
• Least-privilege permissions
• Vulnerability monitoring
• Automated or managed security updates
• Tested backups
• Staging environments
• Restricted administrator access
• Secure deployment processes
• Removal of unused components
• Logging and incident response procedures

A security plugin may support that system, but it cannot replace it.

The more accurate sales argument is therefore:

WordPress is secure when it is operated securely.

No serious developer should promise that a website can never be attacked. A professional provider can reduce the attack surface, patch known problems quickly, detect suspicious activity and restore the website when an incident occurs.

Maintenance is not a WordPress-specific disadvantage

Hosted CMS providers often market themselves as maintenance-free alternatives to WordPress.

That claim contains some truth. The provider manages the underlying platform, hosting and many software updates. This can be attractive to a small company with a simple website.

However, it does not mean the complete website no longer requires maintenance.

The company still has to manage:

• Content accuracy
• Broken links
• Forms
• Analytics
• Consent management
• Integrations
• Accessibility
• Search visibility
• Tracking scripts
• Product information
• User permissions
• Design changes
• Conversion performance

Custom websites and vibe-coded websites require maintenance as well. The difference is that the maintenance may be less visible at the beginning.

Ahosilta has seen customers attracted by the promise of generating an entire website through a prompt, only to discover that later changes were surprisingly difficult.

“Initially, it looks incredibly easy,” he explains. “But what happens in two or three months when you need to change something simple, such as a phone number? Suddenly, it may not be as easy as it appeared.”

WordPress has had more than two decades to develop interfaces, roles and workflows for routine content management. A well-configured website can allow a marketer to update a page, publish an article or change a reusable section without touching code.

That capability matters more over the life of the website than the speed at which the first version was generated.

Vibe coding solves creation, not necessarily ownership

AI-generated development has transformed how quickly interfaces and websites can be created.

A person can now describe a layout, ask an AI to write the code and deploy a functioning website in a fraction of the time previously required.

Both experts recognise the value of this shift. Neither believes WordPress should resist it.

The concern is that website creation is only the first stage of the website lifecycle.

A business website must also remain:

• Editable
• Secure
• Accessible
• Crawlable
• Indexable
• Maintainable
• Backed up
• Measurable
• Compatible with integrations
• Transferable to another supplier
• Stable when content changes
• Able to preserve URLs and organic visibility

Ahosilta says several companies in Finland have already returned to WordPress after experimenting with fully vibe-coded websites.

In some cases, the consequences were severe. Existing content was not migrated correctly, articles disappeared and organic visibility fell dramatically. The businesses believed they were purchasing a modern redesign, but did not understand what would be lost during the transition.

The problem was not the use of AI itself. It was treating the generated interface as if it were already a complete website-management system.

A prompt can create a page. It does not automatically create:

• A durable content model
• An editorial workflow
• Redirect management
• User permissions
• Technical SEO controls
• Structured data
• Versioning
• Backup procedures
• A migration strategy
• Long-term support

The future is therefore unlikely to be a choice between WordPress and AI.

It is more likely to be WordPress operated through AI.

WordPress is becoming an AI-operable platform

This transition is no longer theoretical.

WordPress 6.9 introduced the Abilities API, which creates a central registry through which WordPress functionality can be described and made discoverable to automation systems and AI agents. WordPress 7.0 subsequently introduced an AI Client in core, allowing plugins and themes to communicate with different generative AI providers through a common WordPress interface.

This is a significant architectural development.

Instead of every plugin creating a separate connection to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or another provider, developers can build features against a common interface. The selected AI provider can then be changed without completely rewriting the functionality.

The Abilities API also creates the foundation through which AI systems can discover what a WordPress website is capable of doing.

In the future, an authorised agent could potentially:

• Create and update pages
• Analyse site settings
• Optimise internal links
• Generate media
• Update structured content
• Identify technical problems
• Connect to external systems
• Perform controlled administrative tasks

Early implementations are already moving in this direction. WordPress’s official AI project is experimenting with structured, permission-aware abilities, including read access to eligible site settings.

Elementor and other page-building companies are also introducing conversational and agentic workflows. The direction is becoming visible: developers and marketers will increasingly describe the desired outcome, while AI assembles or modifies the underlying website components.

Schwertl expects this to transform the role of developers.

“Building websites will become conversational,” he says. “Developers will not disappear, but they will increasingly direct systems, define the architecture and control quality rather than manually writing every line of code.”

WordPress is particularly well positioned for this development because it combines an open content platform with thousands of extensible components.

A closed website builder can create a polished AI assistant, but that assistant remains limited to the functions the platform owner permits.

An AI system connected to WordPress can potentially interact with the content, plugins, custom post types, APIs, analytics, SEO systems, forms, e-commerce functionality and custom business logic of the entire website.

That is the difference between adding an AI feature and creating an AI-operable ecosystem.

WordPress is becoming easier to launch

Another common reason businesses consider leaving WordPress is the belief that newer platforms are easier to set up.

Historically, that argument had merit. A business had to arrange hosting, install WordPress, select a theme, configure plugins and manage the technical environment.

Modern WordPress hosting has changed much of that experience.

Today, many providers offer:

• One-click installations
• Automatic SSL
• Staging environments
• Managed updates
• Integrated backups
• Caching
• Security monitoring
• Migration assistance

For an experienced developer with an established stack, a new WordPress environment can be configured extremely quickly.

Schwertl describes the modern setup process as being as easy as “cutting through butter with a hot knife.” An experienced developer can provision the environment, install an approved stack and begin building within one or two hours.

The more important advantage, however, is not the initial installation time. It is repeatability.

A professional agency can reuse:

• Hosting configurations
• Security policies
• Plugin stacks
• Design systems
• Content types
• Form structures
• Analytics setups
• SEO configurations
• Performance standards
• Deployment procedures

The agency is not beginning from zero for every customer. It is applying a tested operating model.

Even simple SMB websites benefit from a strong foundation

One objection raised during the expert discussion concerned very small businesses.

Does a company with one service and a simple website really need WordPress? Would a lightweight hosted builder not be easier and cheaper?

Ahosilta acknowledges that the scale of implementation and maintenance should reflect the size of the business. A one-page website for a local service provider should not be managed like an international e-commerce platform.

However, he argues that the core advantage remains the same.

Whether the company operates a small service website or a large online store, WordPress can provide a consistent foundation for:

• Technical SEO
• Content publishing
• Structured data
• Analytics
• Lead generation
• Future landing pages
• AI-assisted optimisation
• Integrations

“The price and complexity should be completely different,” Ahosilta says. “But the WordPress core can remain the same. That gives us a consistent technical SEO and GEO foundation regardless of the size of the business.”

A simple website may require little more than updates, backups and occasional performance checks. The value lies in retaining the option to grow without immediately changing platforms.

The local service company may later need:

• Location pages
• New service pages
• Appointment booking
• CRM integration
• Multilingual content
• Recruitment pages
• Customer portals
• E-commerce
• Automated SEO workflows

WordPress allows that website to evolve progressively.

Migrations are strategic projects, not copying exercises

One of the strongest warnings from both experts concerns website migrations.

Businesses often treat migration as a technical transfer: move the content from one CMS to another, point the domain to the new website and launch.

In reality, a migration can affect:

• Every URL
• Search engine indexation
• Internal links
• Redirects
• Metadata
• Structured data
• Analytics
• Forms
• Conversion tracking
• Existing integrations
• Images
• Downloadable files
• Historical content
• User accounts
• Page speed
• Organic rankings

Schwertl has seen sophisticated agencies make surprisingly simple but damaging mistakes.

Examples include:

• Forgetting to migrate articles
• Leaving a noindex setting active after launch
• Allowing staging websites to become indexed
• Failing to prepare redirects
• Removing pages that generated organic traffic
• Changing URL structures without mapping them
• Forgetting analytics and conversion tracking

A website can therefore look better after migration while becoming almost invisible in search.

“Migration is not only a technical project,” Schwertl says. “Migration is also a strategic project.”

A good migration is an opportunity to improve the website.

Before launch, the company should decide:

• Which pages should remain
• Which pages should be improved
• Which pages should be consolidated
• Which pages should be redirected
• Which content no longer serves a purpose
• Which high-performing URLs must be protected
• Which new information architecture better supports the business

The challenge is not exclusive to moving away from WordPress. Migrating into WordPress also requires planning. However, the size of the WordPress ecosystem means experienced migration specialists, import tools and established processes are widely available.

The business should nevertheless select its partner carefully. A migration handled by an agency without technical SEO knowledge can destroy years of accumulated visibility.

The future of WordPress is managed openness

The experts’ arguments do not lead to the conclusion that every business should receive an unmanaged WordPress installation and a list of administrator credentials.

Quite the opposite.

WordPress provides freedom, but many SMBs do not have the internal expertise to manage that freedom safely.

The strongest service model combines:

• Open-source ownership
• A carefully governed technology stack
• Managed hosting
• Security monitoring
• Plugin and core updates
• Performance optimisation
• Technical SEO
• Content production
• Analytics
• Human expertise

This is where WP SEO AI’s managed-service model fits into the future of WordPress.

The customer does not merely receive software. The platform performs research, content production, publishing, measurement and optimisation, while specialists manage the strategic and technical decisions.

Ahosilta believes expanding that model into hosting, maintenance, modernisation and migration will solve a recurring customer problem.

Many companies know that their current WordPress website is poorly maintained. But instead of improving it, they consider changing CMS because a new platform appears simpler.

A managed WordPress model offers another path:

Keep the ownership, ecosystem and flexibility of WordPress while removing the burden of managing the technical complexity internally.

This also benefits the service provider. When websites use a documented, secure and consistent stack, SEO work can be delivered more efficiently. Teams spend less time repairing broken environments and more time improving visibility and conversion performance.

WordPress is not always the only correct choice

A credible argument for WordPress should acknowledge that other platforms may be stronger for specific use cases.

Shopify may be the better choice for a company whose entire operation revolves around standardised e-commerce.

HubSpot Content Hub may suit a company that wants its website deeply embedded in the HubSpot CRM and is comfortable building its marketing infrastructure around one vendor.

Webflow may appeal to design-led teams that value visual control and managed hosting.

TYPO3 can be a strong choice for enterprises with complex governance and an established TYPO3 development organisation.

Laravel may be more appropriate when the company is building a custom software application rather than a content-driven business website.

The question is not whether WordPress can technically reproduce every feature of every platform.

The question is:

What kind of website does the business need to own, operate and evolve over the next five to ten years?

For an SMB that depends on search visibility, content, integrations, flexibility and the ability to choose its suppliers, WordPress remains an exceptionally strong answer.

So, is WordPress really the future of websites?

The future of website development will be increasingly conversational.

AI will generate layouts, write code, update content, analyse performance and connect systems. The time required to create a first version will continue to fall.

But as website creation becomes easier, the value of architecture, governance and ownership will increase.

Generating a website is not the same as building a durable digital asset.

A durable website must continue working after:

• The original developer leaves
• The agency changes
• The business adds new services
• Search engines change
• AI platforms emerge
• Security vulnerabilities are discovered
• A plugin is discontinued
• The company enters another market
• The website must be migrated
• The business model evolves

WordPress’s greatest strength is not that it avoids change.

Its greatest strength is that it can absorb change.

It has evolved from a blogging platform into a full content management system, an e-commerce foundation, an application framework, an enterprise publishing platform and now an increasingly AI-operable ecosystem.

Schwertl sees the future of WordPress in its combination of accessibility and unlimited extensibility.

Ahosilta sees it in its ability to provide a consistent, maintainable foundation without permanently locking the customer to one agency.

Together, their message is not that every WordPress website is good.

It is that WordPress gives businesses the ingredients required to build something good—and the freedom to improve it continuously.

WordPress is the future of websites not because it removes every technical decision, but because it keeps those decisions open.

When that freedom is supported by professional architecture, active maintenance and AI-assisted workflows, WordPress becomes more than a CMS. It becomes a durable operating system for a company’s digital presence.

This content was generated with the help of AI and it may contain mistakes