Will WordPress Stay Relevant in 2025? Exploring the Future of Website Platforms

Every web developer has heard it. Maybe it was a post on X, or a YouTube hot take: “WordPress is dead.” Sure, those words pop up every year, but here’s the thing — over 40% of websites still run on WordPress as of summer 2025. That’s not a tiny corner of the web. People like making bold predictions, but tech never moves as fast as headline writers want. Is WordPress about to fade away, or is it just evolving behind the scenes? Before putting the world’s most dominant content management system on the endangered list, let’s look under the hood of what’s really happening.

Understanding WordPress: A Giant with Surprising Agility

If you ever tinkered with a website in the last decade, WordPress was probably your first stop. Born in 2003, it started out as a free, open-source blogging platform. Fast-forward to now, and it’s the backbone for everyone from Fortune 500s to bloggers fixing chili recipes at midnight. The plug-and-play ecosystem draws in developers, business owners, and non-techies alike. With over 60,000 plugins in the official directory, customization isn’t just possible — it’s expected. Most folks don’t even touch code. They drag, drop, and unveil a full-fledged site in a few days, often for under $200.

That flexibility wasn’t always the case. In the late 2000s, WordPress looked downright clunky compared to shiny new frameworks. But with each release, the core team kept polishing user experience, security, and themes. Now, it’s not just a blog tool. It powers ecommerce through WooCommerce, learning portals, membership communities, and even complex newsrooms. Stats reflect this agility: According to W3Techs, as of July 2025, WordPress supports about 43.3% of all websites — including giants like The Walt Disney Company and Variety. Its global community, with over 800 active meetups and WordCamp events in more than 65 countries, ensures WordPress never lacks innovation or support.

Why Do People Think WordPress Is Getting Old?

There’s a real shift happening on the web. New players like Webflow, Wix, and Shopify grab attention with glossy ads showing how fast you can make a site without any coding pain. These “no-code” tools are tempting, especially for small businesses who want to skip the developer bill. So, critics say WordPress is heavy, old-fashioned, full of security holes, and slow to adapt. That all sounds scary, but there’s more to the story. First, a lot of complaints stem from bloated themes and plugins, not the WordPress core itself. Sluggish sites often have dozens of half-baked add-ons lurking in the background. Second, WordPress keeps up — the 6.9 update in March 2025 brought automatic AI-assisted image compression and smarter spam controls that match anything the rivals offer.

Another sticking point is security. We’ve all read about WordPress sites getting hacked. But data from Sucuri’s annual Website Security Trends report shows 95% of modern breaches were tied to outdated plugins, not WordPress itself. The core platform patches vulnerabilities fast, sometimes within 48 hours of reports. The trouble? Many site owners don’t update. The downside of being open-source and super popular is you have a massive target on your back, and if your users get lazy with updates, it’s like leaving your front door open. By the way, that same risk plagues platforms like Joomla and Drupal — and even fancy site-builders, once they reach big market share.

Modern Alternatives: Pluses and Pitfalls

Competition for WordPress isn’t just hype. Webflow, Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify truly change how users build sites. They offer sleek visual editors, built-in hosting, simpler workflows, and less stress about maintenance. Webflow, for instance, lets you design and publish animations or interactions without touching code. For old-school developers, it’s like skipping straight to the fun part. Shopify rules the ecommerce world — powering nearly 3.2 million stores in 2025, according to Oberlo’s market analysis. These tools win over folks who want to focus on content, not code or server setups.

But here’s a hitch: You trade freedom for convenience. Platforms like Wix or Shopify lock you into their ecosystem. Want to leave? Migrating your site (and all that content) is often a painful or pricey journey. You lose control over your hosting, your code, and sometimes even your SEO rankings. WordPress, by contrast, lets you pick hosts, move your site anywhere, and tinker under the hood whenever you want. Seasoned agencies and power users still rely on this openness for complex projects, custom integrations, or when they need to press a big red “export everything” button. Plus, there are features in WordPress — like true multisite, custom post types, or granular user roles — that no newcomer has perfectly matched yet.

Trends and Tech That Could Shape WordPress’ Survival

No tech stays on top by accident. Let’s face it — trends can kill off giants fast (just ask MySpace or Internet Explorer). Here’s what’s likely to challenge or extend the life of WordPress:

• AI Tools: Gutenberg (the block editor) is now loaded with AI features like content rewriting and image creation. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, bought multiple AI startups last year, aiming to integrate AI-powered site optimization, writing help, even accessibility fixes.
• Headless CMS: Headless WordPress lets devs use WordPress for managing content but serve it via React, Angular, or Vue front ends. This “decoupling” makes hiding WordPress behind lightning-fast front ends easy. Surveys from Jamstack.org show 23% of modern Jamstack sites now use WordPress as their backend in some form — a huge jump from three years ago.
• Site Performance: Core Web Vitals became a ranking factor in 2024. WordPress responded with updates that auto-optimize images, lazy-load scripts, and nudge lazy plugin authors to shape up. Independent data from GTMetrix labs in May 2025 reveals the average load speed of new WordPress sites (without plugin bloat) is under 800ms — on par with Webflow and faster than Shopify’s average (1.1s).
• Globalization: WordPress translations now cover 210+ languages with community support. This is huge in the developing world, where cheaper hosting and localizations matter more than trendy features.

One thing’s certain — WordPress is better at blending tradition and new ideas than most people expect. It adapts, and its plugin ecosystem rushes in to patch holes the core misses. New plugin developers keep pushing the system’s envelope, so when trends like voice search or blockchain show up, someone always builds a plugin in months, not years.

Tips for Choosing the Right Platform in 2025

So if you’re planning a new project or itching to migrate off WordPress, what should you consider? Here’s the no-BS approach:

• Budget Matters: If you want bespoke functionality on a shoestring, WordPress wins hands-down. You own your code and avoid recurring SaaS bills. For folks with steady revenue who want zero hassle, a no-code platform might be less stressful.
• Skill Level: If you’re a techie or plan to scale, WordPress offers unlimited growth… as long as you manage the technical parts right. For side hustlers or micro-sites, convenience often trumps flexibility.
• Migration Costs: Ask around about moving out of your chosen platform. WordPress exports are easy; proprietary page-builders usually play keep-away with your content. Data freedom might not sound sexy, but you’ll care someday.
• Community & Support: A strong user community is your best insurance against mistakes or roadblocks. WordPress has thousands of support channels, meetups, and pros-for-hire — more than any rival. Want friendly hand-holding? Smaller platforms often have great chat support, but fewer ‘how-to’ guides on Google.
• SEO & Marketing: WordPress sets you up for serious SEO if you use the right plugins (Yoast, Rank Math, etc.). No-code platforms have improved, but deep SEO customizations still favor the big dog.

For most serious businesses, WordPress feels less like an old dinosaur and more like a sturdy Honda Civic: reliable, easy to tune, and ready—for a price—to add rocket fuel under the hood. But it’s not always the funnest car on the lot, and that’s cool. Just know what you need before falling for the shiniest thing on the web.

People will keep arguing about which is best. But take a cue from the numbers: WordPress isn’t just surviving. It’s morphing to fit new needs, staying WordPress future-proof more than the loudest critics think. If your idea, budget, and skill set line up, you’ll have a hard time beating it — and you can always migrate when (or if) something better comes along. The web will never be one-size-fits-all, but as of July 2025, WordPress is still in the race and picking up new tricks every year.