Yes, and the businesses asking this question are usually the ones who’ve had a bad experience with a poorly built site, rather than a bad experience with WordPress itself. I still specialise in building WordPress sites and don’t see that changing any time soon.
So, is WordPress still relevant for your business?
WordPress remains free to use, it’s still under active development, and the last couple of years have brought genuine improvements, not just cosmetic ones. The core software gets more secure with every release, and the editor now has AI-assisted content tools built in, alongside a growing number of AI plugins that handle everything from image generation to SEO drafting. None of that existed five years ago.
The security concerns are real, but they’re not about WordPress
There have been security scares, and I won’t pretend otherwise. Most of the ones that make headlines trace back to the same cause though, sites running outdated installations, plugins and themes nobody’s touched in two or three years, along with hosts’ servers running out-of-date scripting.
WordPress itself updates security constantly. The problem is what happens after launch, when a site gets handed over and nobody looks at it again until something breaks. Often users are simply afraid to make updates in case something breaks. I run monthly maintenance and updates on every site I build, the software isn’t the weak point, neglect is.
A lot of that fear comes down to not knowing what a change will actually do once it’s live. That’s what my training sessions are for, so you understand how WordPress works and can make small changes yourself without worrying you’ll break something.
Slow, bloated WordPress sites are a build problem, not a platform problem
This is the complaint I hear most often, and it’s usually fair, just aimed at the wrong target. A site built by stacking a page builder on top of fifteen plugins, each loading its own scripts and stylesheets, will be slow. That’s not WordPress being inflexible, that’s a site built without much thought for what’s actually needed.
Custom development strips that back. When I build a theme from scratch rather than relying on a page builder, I’m only loading what the page actually needs, and the difference shows up directly in Google Lighthouse scores. I’ve had client sites move from struggling scores in the 50s and 60s, typical for a heavy plugin stack, up into the 90s once rebuilt on a lean custom theme.
That’s not a marginal gain, it changes how the site ranks and how it feels to use. A regular maintenance contract also means I can find a proper solution for additional functionality, rather than you adding a multitude of plugins to patch something in.
Free to run, and you own it outright
This is where WordPress still beats most of the alternatives, and it’s worth being direct about it. You’re not paying a monthly fee, and you’re not locked into an ecosystem if you decide to move on. The site, the content, and the hosting are yours, hosted wherever you choose.
I’ve seen businesses stuck with page builders where switching providers means rebuilding from nothing, because the content doesn’t export cleanly and the design doesn’t travel with it. WordPress avoids that. You can change developers, change hosts, change your entire visual design, and the content underneath stays intact.
Where I’d steer someone away from it
For transparency, if someone needs a single-page brochure site with no plans to add content, blog, or grow it, a simpler builder might genuinely serve them better than WordPress, and I’d give that advice rather than sell them something they don’t need.
WordPress is suited to sites that need to grow, sites with regular content, multiple pages, or functionality that develops over time. For a one-off landing page that will never change, the overhead isn’t worth it.
My take
WordPress in 2026 is exactly as viable as the build behind it. A neglected site with a dozen plugins and no maintenance plan will be slow and vulnerable, and that’s true of any platform left unattended. A custom-built, properly maintained WordPress site is fast, secure, and fully owned by the business running it.
That’s the difference between a WordPress site that lets a business down and one that works quietly in the background for years. If you’re weighing this up for your own site, I’m happy to take a look at what you’ve got and tell you honestly whether it needs rebuilding or just needs looking after.