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Key Takeaways
WordPress software is a good choice for small businesses that want control over design and features, full ownership of their content, and room to grow.
Hosting strongly affects site performance and security. Managed hosting provides isolated resources, monitoring, and support, while shared hosting costs less but limits resources and increases maintenance.
WordPress software supports growth through SEO plugins, lead-generation forms, and added functionality such as eCommerce, bookings, and memberships.
Non-technical teams can manage WordPress websites by starting with simple options, using managed hosting for extra support, or bringing in a developer or agency for the initial build or ongoing maintenance.
WordPress®1 software is a good choice for most small businesses, especially if you want control over your site’s design and features, full ownership of your content, and room to grow.
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that lets you build and update your website without having to code everything from scratch. Many websites choose the WordPress CMS as their home; in fact, it powers about 42% of the web. It’s flexible enough to start as a simple site and later grow into an eCommerce store or a booking system while providing you with tools and layouts to customize your site at any level or for any industry.
Flexibility comes with tradeoffs. Compared to drag-and-drop website builders, WordPress websites take more time and sometimes more money to set up. They also need ongoing maintenance, like updates, security checks, and backups. For a busy small business owner, that can feel like a lot, but there are ways to mitigate these tradeoffs and make WordPress software work for your business.
So is WordPress a good CMS for your business? Let’s walk through why businesses choose it, tradeoffs, site management, real-life examples, and why choosing WordPress software may fit your business over other platforms.
Why small businesses choose WordPress software
Small businesses choose WordPress software because it gives them more control over design and grows with their business, in any direction that they choose.
Gives you ownership and control
With access to thousands of plugins and themes, you can curate your site based on business needs, like adding call-to-action buttons, generating leads, optimizing SEO further, or boosting performance.
There are several ways to build a site on WordPress software, and you can choose the one that fits best. Sites can be built using blocks and tools, but you can also develop sites on a granular level to execute a more exact vision. Either way, designing and creating a professional site is possible using this CMS.
Scale as your business grows
When 81% of online shoppers conduct research before buying, building a website for your small business is important. WordPress software allows you to update its design, build additional features, and support your site to meet your business goals.
Supports content, SEO, and marketing
Growing your business also means improving where you show up in search. Almost 97% of all Google search result clicks are on the first page. Because of its infrastructure and design, WordPress software supports your content and provides a built-in boost to your website’s search result performance. SEO plugins help you optimize titles, descriptions, and pages as you publish.
Works for service sites, local businesses, and stores
WordPress is a highly flexible CMS. Whether you run a service business, a local shop, or an online store, you can shape your site around how you work. With 72% of small businesses already online, a site that fits your business helps you stand out.
The tradeoffs small businesses should know
WordPress software is a good choice for small businesses, but there are tradeoffs to consider before building a site.
It usually needs more setup than drag-and-drop builders
WordPress sites take longer to set up than other platforms. Drag-and-drop builders like Squarespace and Wix focus on making the process as simple as possible. However, you will not get the same scope and design freedom as you would in a WordPress website.
Budget hosting can limit results
Hosting matters for your WordPress site. For small businesses, budget and managed dedicated hosting are popular choices, but each has its own tradeoffs.
Shared hosting places your site with hundreds of others, lowering monthly costs but also limiting the resources available to your site and increasing maintenance on your end.
Managed hosting is typically more expensive, but you receive isolated server resources that deliver better performance. Managed hosting also typically offers greater security and provides constant monitoring and support.
Updates and maintenance matter
Your site needs regular updates, security checks, and backups to stay fast and secure. Skipping them can lead to slow pages, bugs, or security gaps.
The time and cost for site management depend on your hosting provider. Low-cost shared hosting leaves hands-on maintenance to you, whereas managed WordPress hosts usually automate updates and security.
Plugin quality affects performance and security
Plugins can potentially crash your site if there is conflicting software, faulty code, or a security risk. Be sure to add reputable plugins and keep your plugin setup simple, especially if you are starting out with little technical experience.
Is WordPress easy for small business owners to manage?
What does the day-to-day use feel like?
Day-to-day management changes based on your hosting platform and plan. For a managed hosted site, your daily tasks might include optimizing your site, updating outdated content, and double-checking your portal for any issues. On a shared setup, you may have to invest more time and resources to update your site and fix maintenance issues.
What a non-technical team can handle
If you’re a non-technical person managing a site, you might be wondering what it actually entails. There are several ways to handle WordPress software and make it work for you and your business.
To start, build a simple site with three to five plugins and highlight only the pages customers want to see. From there, you can make your site more or less complex depending on your technical expertise. You will have to maintain your site. Managed hosting helps non-technical site managers keep their sites healthy and offers extra support.
Where a developer or agency helps
If you don’t have time to build out your site or have a very specific vision, a developer or agency can handle the initial build. They provide site-building services for businesses that don’t have the time or want to start with a professionally developed site. Developers and agencies can also take care of the recurring maintenance or site refreshes, but this is an expense.
How WordPress software supports small business growth
Building credibility
A majority of users judge your site’s credibility in the first 10 seconds. Using WordPress software, small businesses can build sites with a professional, branded design that promotes user trust.
Making lead generation easier
Through plugins, you can add content forms or lead generators that expand your business beyond website views and gain a larger customer base. To monitor how visitors and new customers interact with your content, you can install dedicated analytics plugins directly on your WordPress site. A managed host may provide some analytics for you. For example, WP Engine provides server-level metrics and billing visits within your User Portal, helping you gauge overall usage.
Powering eCommerce, bookings, or memberships
For small businesses looking to create digital experiences, WordPress software powers eCommerce, bookings, and memberships. Plugins are available that help turn any WordPress site into an eCommerce platform. These plugins can help you build a product catalog on your website and provide tooling, shipping, and back end support.
If your site needs to support bookings or memberships, you can create gated content, add CTAs to connect your website to a scheduling platform, and install additional plugins for functionality.
Real-world examples of small businesses using WordPress software successfully
Millions of sites run on WordPress software, but what do they look like in practice? These four small businesses work in different industries, have different goals, and use it to create professional websites built for growth.
A local service business that uses WordPress software for leads and trust
The Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce site connects local businesses with visitors and residents. Siesta Key, Florida, a popular beach destination, needed a site that matched its vibrant culture. They did this by redesigning their traditional website into a user-centric destination experience and implementing advertising software to meet sales goals.
Using WordPress software and WP Engine managed hosting, the redesigned site saw immediate improvements to site performance and user engagement, including a 94% increase in average session duration. Coupled with strategic planning, this site was able to increase engagement, exceed goals, and build trust through meaningful design.
A small retailer that adds eCommerce later
Functional Body Building, an online fitness community that sells personalized workout programs, needed to upgrade its site during COVID-19 to handle high traffic. Originally, the site included a mix of static content and on-demand videos, but it needed to boost performance and functionality.
To upgrade its eCommerce experience, they added WP Engine’s eCommerce Performance Pack, the WooCommerce® plugin, and redesigned their site. The result was zero downtime, a growing email subscriber list, and the business’s highest revenue month to date.
Scale your business effortlessly
Try WP Engine’s eCommerce Performance Pack to upgrade your site’s shopping experience.
A consulting or agency business that uses WordPress software for authority
Aspire Digital Solutions is a digital marketing agency that helps other businesses build stronger online experiences. When the agency first launched, Aspire Digital set up each new client with an individual hosting plan. As their client base and demands grew, they transitioned to WP Engine’s Managed Hosting for WordPress sites. WP Engine provided Aspire Digital with dedicated agency infrastructure, one-click staging environments, and tools like Smart Plugin Manager.
By automating routine site maintenance, Aspire Digital’s team was able to expand their service to offer customized packages for ongoing support and web development. Because of this, Aspire Digital has been able to provide quality services and scale its business, achieving 100% year-over-year growth since updating its site.
A growing startup that needs flexibility over time
Pleaz is a growing education startup that needed a more personalized website experience as its business expanded. After redesigning the site and moving to WP Engine managed hosting, Pleaz saw performance gains.
These businesses are of different sizes, industries, and have different site goals, but have been able to curate their websites for user experience and performance using WordPress software.
What small businesses need to get right with WordPress websites
To set your business up for success, make sure to build your site with the following in mind.
Choose reliable hosting
Not all hosting is the same. Managed dedicated hosting provides more resources and support, so you spend less time on upkeep and more time on your business. Before you make a purchase, evaluate hosting providers and plans against your business goals to make sure they are aligned.
Use a lightweight theme
WordPress themes control your site’s design and provide additional features and customization options. Choose a lightweight theme that won’t slow your site down and fits your goals.
Build the right pages first
Make sure essential pages are built first before adding additional content. Home, About, Contact, and Product/Service pages should be highlighted and easily accessible.
Install only essential plugins
Plugins add functionality to your WordPress site, but every plugin you install introduces code that can impact speed and security. The more plugins you run, the higher the chance that one contains a security flaw. To keep your site running and protected, only install well-maintained, secure plugins you actually need.
Set up backups, security, and updates
Protect your site and customers by regularly monitoring security and keeping your software up to date.
Downtime hurts businesses and costs you potential sales. WP Engine provides small-business site owners with peace of mind through automated daily backups that proactively back up your data. This ensures that you can easily restore your site, protect revenue, and focus on running your business.
WordPress as a CMS vs Simpler website builders
WordPress as a CMS vs Wix
Wix is built to create live sites with no technical setup. This platform uses drag-and-drop blocks and pre-built templates to create an easy-to-build site for users, but it offers less control over design and functionality than WordPress software.
WordPress as a CMS vs Squarespace
Squarespace is an all-in-one site builder that includes design templates and eCommerce features. Users can work within these templates to build their site easily, but like Wix, they do not have the same design freedom and control you would have with WordPress software.
WordPress as a CMS vs Shopify
Shopify is a site-building platform for eCommerce site creation that provides an easy setup and online shopping functionality for users. This platform offers many eCommerce features but lacks the design freedom and content management capabilities of WordPress software.
All of these site-building platforms provide built-in hosting. For sites built on WordPress software, you can migrate to a different platform or hosting provider.
This is something to consider for small business owners using a site-building platform like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify. If you do not like your experience, migrating your site to a new provider is extremely hard. Also, as your business grows, you may need new features or a refresh in your site design. You will be limited to the features within these platforms.
Which option fits your small business?
Choose the option that best fits your business needs.
| Goals | Platform |
| Want a simple site with minimal upkeep and initial build time? | Wix or Squarespace |
| Mainly sell products and want a commerce-ready website? | Shopify |
| Want full control over design and functionality? | A website built on WordPress software WordPress as a CMS |
| Expect your needs to grow over time? | WordPress as a CMS |
How WP Engine supports small businesses on WordPress software
Reliable infrastructure for growing sites
WP Engine is a managed hosting provider that helps your small business site grow for the future. Starter plans begin at $35 per month and provide additional security, improved performance, maintenance, site monitoring, and 24/7 expert technical support.
Build a site that grows with your business
Power your site with 24/7 expert support, daily automatic backups, and managed security from day one with WP Engine.
WordPress CMS is often the best choice for a small business. The main takeaway about WordPress software is that it can scale with your business: whether you want to create a simple, clean site to start and then add eCommerce functionality, or start with a professionally designed site, you can do it with WordPress software. It allows you to build a site that works best for your business while providing you with limitless options to expand.
FAQs about WordPress CMS for small businesses
Yes. WordPress software gives small businesses control over design and features, full ownership of their content, and room to add tools like eCommerce or booking as they grow. It works best with reliable hosting and a setup built around your business goals.
Cost depends on your hosting plan, your site’s size, and how many premium plugins you use. Shared hosting costs less upfront, while managed hosting costs more and includes added security and support. Overall, building a WordPress site can cost anywhere from a few dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on how much DIY you do, whether you use an agency, the site’s complexity, and your hosting plan.
It depends on your site. With the right tools, WordPress software is accessible to users of all technical levels. Start simple, with a lightweight theme and a few essential plugins. Consider hosting with a managed provider specializing in WordPress websites for additional support and updates.
Yes, especially with the right hosting. Keep your software and plugins updated, use reputable plugins, and run regular backups. Managed hosting adds monitoring and extra security layers to help keep your site and your information safe.
Yes. By coupling a well-designed site and building functionality around your business goals, you can grow your business with WordPress software. It offers a flexible design and plugins that make it possible to grow and own a professional site. Additionally, managed hosting provides performance and support to handle more traffic as you grow.
It depends on your goals. Wix and Squarespace are quicker to launch with less upkeep. WordPress as a CMS takes more setup but offers more design freedom, content tools, and the ability to change your site as your business grows.
- [1] WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the community of WordPress® users. The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Uses of the WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® names in this website are for identification purposes only and do not imply an endorsement by WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. ↩︎
