In short: No platform is right for everyone. The decision comes down to four questions: who maintains the site after launch, what ownership costs over three years, what you can take with you if you switch supplier, and who is responsible for updates and security. WordPress gives you control of the code and a full export, but it needs regular maintenance. Hosted builders take the technical work off you and limit what you can export. Custom development earns its place when the site is part of a working process rather than a shop window.
The figures below are as of 16 September 2026. Platform terms change, so check their current pricing and export pages before you commit.
What are the options, and how widely is each used?
There are three routes to a business website, and the difference is not the design. It is who holds the keys.
- A self-hosted content management system: WordPress is the common example. The software is free, and you choose the hosting, the developer and the plugins.
- A hosted builder on a subscription: Wix and Squarespace, or Shopify for shops. You pay monthly and the provider looks after the server, the updates and the security of the platform itself.
- Custom development: a site written for your case, often with a separate content back end and a separate front end for visitors (headless). Everything is your decision and your responsibility.
For scale: according to W3Techs, as of 16 September 2026 WordPress is used by 40.2% of all websites, which is 58.8% of the sites that use a content management system. Shopify is on 5.4%, Wix on 4.2% and Squarespace on 2.4%, while 31.5% of sites use none of the systems tracked. Popularity does not make a platform right for you, but it does mean there are more people who can maintain WordPress.
What does ownership cost, as opposed to the build?
Compare the three year cost, not the quote for the build. It includes the subscription or hosting, the domain, updates, backups, paid add-ons, payment fees and the time of whoever does the work.
Hosted platforms have one cost that only shows up once the shop is trading. Shopify states a transaction fee when you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, as of 16 September 2026. At volume that is a number which belongs in the calculation from the start.
With WordPress the cost is different: hosting, updates and monitoring. It does not disappear if nobody does the work, it simply turns into risk. What that work involves is covered in our article on WordPress security and plugin maintenance.
ScaleLab tip: Build a simple 36 month table with four rows: subscription or hosting, paid plugins and themes, payment fees, and maintenance hours. The total at the bottom often reverses a choice that looked obvious from the build quote alone.
What can you take with you if you leave?
Ask this at the start, because afterwards it is too late. Here is what the providers themselves say.
- WordPress: Tools, then Export, produces an XML file in the WXR format containing posts, pages, custom post types, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, custom taxonomies and users. The file imports into another WordPress site.
- Shopify: products, customers and orders export as CSV. Shopify states that CSV with UTF-8 encoding is the only format for import and export, and that above 50 records the file is emailed to you rather than downloaded in the browser.
- Squarespace: the export is an XML file, which they describe as set up to import into WordPress. It leaves out page types such as album, cover, index and store pages, more than one blog page, drafts, style settings and custom CSS. Squarespace also states that content cannot be exported from one Squarespace site and imported into another.
- Wix: Wix states that a Wix site is a standard HTML5 site built with Wix technology, and that it needs to be hosted and operated on Wix’s servers to work. The domain can be bought elsewhere, but the site itself does not move.
The conclusion is not that hosted platforms are a bad choice. It is that with them a change of supplier means rebuilding, while with WordPress it means migrating. For a ten page brochure site that is a small risk. For a shop with thousands of products and years of orders it is not.
| Option | Who maintains the software | Content export | Suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress on your own hosting | You or your supplier | Full XML export to another WordPress | Company sites, blogs, multilingual sites, specific forms |
| Wix or Squarespace | The platform | Limited, the site does not move | A small brochure site when nobody in-house is technical |
| Shopify | The platform | CSV for products, customers and orders, design stays behind | Shops that want payments and shipping ready made |
| Custom development | Your team or supplier | Depends on the contract, agree it up front | Sites tied to an ERP, a calculator or a booking system |
Who is responsible for security and updates?
With hosted platforms the answer is short: the provider. That is an advantage when nobody in the company is watching the site.
With WordPress the responsibility is yours, but it is not vague. WordPress applies minor and security updates automatically in the background from version 3.7 onwards, while major releases need a click, and the documentation advises a backup before updating. The risk sits in the plugins: Patchstack’s report of 25 February 2026 recorded 11,334 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem during 2025, 42% more than the year before, with 91% of them in plugins and only 6 in core itself.
The practical conclusion is that the number of plugins is a security decision, not only a functionality one. Every plugin you do not need is extra attack surface and extra work at each update.
What changes for speed, languages and people?
- Speed: all three routes can produce a fast site and a slow one. The difference comes from images, fonts, plugins and hosting, not from the platform’s logo. Which fixes actually move the numbers is covered in our article on site speed and Core Web Vitals.
- Multilingual sites: if the site will run in two languages, check how the platform creates separate addresses per language and how translations are managed. That is decided before the build, not after.
- Who maintains it afterwards: ask who in the company will add news, products and photos. If the answer is “someone in the office”, the editing experience matters more than technical elegance.
- Mandatory content: no platform exempts you from the text a site owes by law. Our article on what a business website must include goes through it.
ScaleLab tip: Before you decide, ask the supplier for test access to the admin and let the person who will publish content add one service and one news item. Fifteen minutes of that says more than any demo.
How do you decide for your own case?
There is no universal answer, so work through these questions and write the answers down.
1. What does the site do
A shop window for services, a shop with payments, or part of a process such as booking appointments or quoting. Each of the three points to a different platform.
2. Who will maintain it
With no technical person and no maintenance budget, a hosted platform removes risk. With a supplier on maintenance, WordPress gives more freedom.
3. How likely is a change of supplier
The bigger the site and the more data it accumulates, the more the export matters.
4. What do three years look like
Add up the subscriptions, add-ons, fees and hours. Then compare the options on that number, not on the build price.
For professional firms, where the site is mainly a source of enquiries, the simpler option with a good structure usually wins: see professional services marketing. For shops the weight falls on payments, shipping and product data: see e-commerce marketing.
In website development the scope and structure follow the goal of the business, in a proposal for your specific case rather than a published price list. If changing platform also changes your page addresses, plan it together with the redirects in a website redesign.
Frequently asked questions
WordPress or Wix for a small company?
It depends on who will maintain the site. Wix handles the technical side, but the site cannot move to another host. WordPress needs maintenance, but gives you a full content export and a choice of supplier.
Do I need Shopify if I sell only a few products?
Not necessarily. Shopify is strong when orders, shipping and payments are daily work. With a handful of products a company site with a simple order, or even an enquiry form, is often enough.
Can I move my site from Wix to WordPress?
Not by moving the site itself. Wix states that the site runs on its servers. In practice the content is transferred by hand and the design is rebuilt, which is why the decision is best made before you have hundreds of pages.
How many plugins are too many for WordPress?
There is no number, but every plugin is both a risk and a task. Patchstack found that 91% of new vulnerabilities in 2025 were in plugins. The sensible test is whether each one earns the maintenance it costs.
When is custom development worth it?
When the site has to work with another system, such as stock control or an appointment schedule, and the ready made options would demand more compromises than the development itself.
Sources
- W3Techs: Usage statistics of content management systems (as of 16 September 2026)
- Shopify: Pricing, transaction fees for third-party payment providers
- Shopify Help Center: Importing and exporting products
- Shopify Help Center: Importing and exporting customer lists
- Squarespace Help Center: Exporting your site
- Wix Help Center: Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere
- WordPress.org: Tools Export screen
- WordPress.org: Updating WordPress
- Patchstack: State of WordPress Security in 2026 (25 February 2026)