Compare Website Platforms
The Short Answer
WordPress is the best website platform for most businesses. It powers 43.5% of all websites globally, gives you full ownership of your code and content, has 60,000+ plugins available, excellent SEO capabilities, and the lowest long-term cost.
Wix and Squarespace are easier to start but lock you into their platforms. Webflow suits designers. Vibe coded (AI-generated) sites are too immature for business use.
Website Platform Comparison
Compare the leading website platforms. WordPress powers 43% of all websites globally and 62% of the CMS market.
| Feature | WordPress | Wix | Squarespace | Webflow | Framer | Craft CMS | Vibe Coded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At a Glance Overall Rating | ★★★★★Best Overall | ★★★☆☆Easy Start | ★★★☆☆Design Focus | ★★★★☆Designers | ★★★☆☆Landing Pages | ★★★★☆Enterprise | ★★☆☆☆Too Early |
| Market Position | |||||||
Global Market SharePercentage of all websites worldwide using this platform (Jan 2026) | 5.2% | 3.3% | 0.9% | <0.5% | 0.2% | Too new to track | |
Content Management System (CMS) Market ShareA CMS is software that helps you create and manage website content without coding. This shows the percentage share among websites using a CMS. | 8.5% | 5.4% | 1.5% | <1% | 0.26% | N/A | |
| Live Websites | 8-10M | 3-4M | 500K+ | ~200K | 93K+ | Unknown | |
| Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) & Performance | |||||||
SEO StrengthSearch Engine Optimisation (SEO) is how well your website ranks on Google. Higher SEO strength means easier to get found by customers searching online. | |||||||
Page Speed PotentialHow fast pages can load with proper optimisation. Faster sites rank higher on Google and provide a better user experience. Under 2 seconds is ideal. | |||||||
Schema/Structured DataSpecial code that helps search engines understand your content. This enables rich results in Google like star ratings, business hours, and FAQ snippets. | ✓ Full control | Limited | Limited | ✓ Custom code | Limited | ✓ Full control | |
| Ownership & Control | |||||||
| You Own Your Site | ✓ Full ownership | ✗ Locked in | ✗ Locked in | Export HTML | ✗ Locked in | ✓ Full ownership | ✓ You own it |
| Code Access | ✓ 100% | ✗ | Limited CSS | ✓ | Limited | ✓ 100% | ✓ 100% |
| Choose Your Host | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Functionality & Scaling | |||||||
| E-commerce | |||||||
| Plugin Ecosystem | 500+ apps | 30+ extensions | 150+ integrations | 50+ integrations | 300+ plugins | ||
| Scaling Capability | |||||||
| Multi-language Support | ✓ Full (WPML) | ✓ | Limited | ✓ | Limited | ✓ Built-in | |
| Ease of Use | |||||||
| Learning Curve | |||||||
| Content Editing | |||||||
| Typical Costs | |||||||
| Platform Monthly Cost | $0(software is free) | $17-$159/mo | $16-$65/mo | $19-$212/mo | $0-$25/mo | $0-$299/yr | $20-200/mo(AI tool costs) |
| Total Cost of Ownership | |||||||
| Best For | |||||||
| Ideal Use Case | Business websites, e-commerce, blogs, enterprise sites | Simple sites, portfolios | Portfolios, creatives | Agencies, SaaS sites | Startup landing pages | Agency/enterprise builds | |
Market share data sources: W3Techs, Kinsta, DemandSage (January 2026)
About Vibe Coded Websites
AI-generated websites built with Cursor, v0, Bolt, or ChatGPT are emerging but have significant limitations:
- No plugin ecosystem - Every feature must be custom built
- SEO not out of the box - Meta tags, schema, sitemaps need manual setup
- Easy to start, hard to fix - When things break, you need developer skills
- E-commerce very difficult - Payment, inventory, shipping all manual
- Content editing tricky - Requires understanding prompts to make changes
- No support structure - You're on your own
Our recommendation: Vibe coded sites are fine for quick prototypes and experiments. For a real business website, use a proven platform like WordPress.
Need Help Choosing?
We build exclusively on WordPress because it gives our clients the best long-term value. Talk to us about your project.
Make an Informed Decision
We believe in transparency. Before you decide, understand if we're the right fit for your business.