Is WordPress too complicated for simple sites?

A stat that gets repeated often is that WordPress powers more than 40% of the Internet. It is, after all, considered one of the best ways to build a website that’s accessible to newbies and developers alike. 

But when is WordPress too much for a website? This question was brought up during our June 4, 2026, Office Hours livestream. With WordPress market share slipping for six months in a row and AI site builders making it easier than ever to spin up a basic page, that question merits a discussion. 

Nathan Ingram answered this question in the livestream, using his own expertise on the matter, and in this blog post we’ll expand upon it. 

The viewer’s question and what “simple site” means 

At around the 36 minute mark, the viewer brought up this question, but in a rather layered way. Here’s what they said before we unpack it. 

Given the continued decrease in WordPress market share and increased popularity of other platforms and AI site builders, is WordPress becoming overkill in cost and efficiency for simpler sites, say with 1 to 3 editors? I'm thinking specifically of portfolio and brochure sites for artists and small businesses. Are platforms like Webflow and Astro becoming more viable in terms of time and money cost, and scalability? Especially for site owners who want some control of their own sites and the ability to manage more clients with less time? 

Now let’s pull this apart because there are a lot of specifics there that matter to this discussion. 

A “simple site” isn’t about page count according to the viewer. In their eyes, such a site has no more than three editors and is typically a portfolio or brochure site. So, it’s expected that someone will have to log in and occasionally edit it, whether it’s a dedicated editor or the owner themselves. 

In other words, and this is from our experience as a hosting company as well, a "simple site” typically means that it will present information rather than run an evolving business or content operation. That’s our and our viewer’s take on what “simple” means, and it’s what most people imagine. 

It doesn’t, however, mean that it will never change and that’s the biggest factor in Nathan Ingram’s opinion. 

The only question that matters: Will anyone log in and edit the site? 

The answer to “Is WordPress overkill for simple sites?” changes substantially depending on that one vital difference. Are we talking about a one-pager that nobody will ever touch again, or a three-page site (for example) a solo artist updates a few times a month? 

Nathan Ingram, the agency coach here at hosting.com, put it very bluntly during the livestream with this question and elaborated further: 

Are they ever going to log in here and edit this thing? If so, it's WordPress. There's really nothing that's better than WordPress to do that right now. Especially for those of us that are already doing it. It's our bread and butter. 

His point of view is through the lens of an agency owner handling many client sites. WordPress does make it very easy to delegate access based on user roles to specific parts of the website. That way, even if someone does need to log in and edit a page or a post, they can’t change anything else about the site. Not to mention that the editor itself is extremely straightforward. 

So, for agencies that are already fluent in WordPress, it’s a no-brainer. It’s the path of least resistance, since it’s the tool they already know. What if the scenario was flipped, though? The site is just a single landing page that updates twice a year, if that, and the owner has no interest in opening an editor, you can reasonably ask “Is WordPress overkill?” 

Does that mean WordPress agencies need to be able to support different platforms? Nathan’s opinion is they don’t because it all comes down to standardized systems of operation and having more than one platform you must be fluent in throws a wrench in that plan. He discusses this at length during our “Systems=Success” livestream which you can watch on our YouTube channel, or directly below. 

And that’s the whole crux of our viewer’s question and this debate. It’s not about whether WordPress is too complicated. It's about whether you are adding unnecessary complexity for capabilities you’ll never use. 

The actual cost of “overkill” 

Even “simple sites” need maintenance. You might not think it, why would a tiny site require maintenance, but your typical small business site has an overhead that shouldn’t be dismissed. 

That small business site probably has a number of plugins that handle forms, SEO, caching, security, or even page building. All of those require updates and each introduces a way for something to break. Independent maintenance-cost analyses put a small business site’s annual upkeep somewhere around $600-$6,000 once hosting, plugin licenses, security monitoring, and other costs are factored in. 

Those responsibilities come with the territory. Any dynamic CMS with an ecosystem of plugins and integrations requires ongoing maintenance as sites evolve over time. You don’t need all of that for a site that will never be dynamic. 

There’s also the much quieter cost of update anxiety. Leaving WordPress core, themes and plugins unpatched and the site can become a target of malware and hackers. Plugins account for a large majority of known WordPress vulnerabilities, which is exactly why staying up-to-date matters more than almost any other maintenance task. Of course, there’s the other side of the coin: update too aggressively, and you risk breaking your site. 

For a business that just wants a storefront that rarely changes and not a full-blown CMS, these trade-offs are the deciding factor. Nathan’s own approach reflect exactly this cost-benefit caution.  

I do not change my stack, or my tech stack, frequently at all. I am... dragging my heels on that because I don't want to support a lot of platforms. 

His reluctance to add complexity to his own stack in the form of an entirely different platform mirrors why a simple client site shouldn’t need WordPress’s complexity either; it’s unnecessary. 

So, is WordPress “too complicated”? 

Inherently, no. However, it can be when it’s not the right tool for the job. WordPress becomes complex when a site needs an editor, a content workflow, plugins for specific functionality, or room to grow into something more ambitious. 

WordPress becomes overkill when none of that is necessary and a static page would be sufficient without all the ongoing overhead. For agencies, Nathan boils it down to value versus speed and cost: 

The issue is value, not speed and cost... Value is bottom-line dollars to you. And you've got to charge what you're worth. 

That’s a useful distinction for agencies, rather than an actual threat. The sites most likely to leave WordPress for something like Webflow or Astro are precisely the ones we’ve been describing: no-edit, no-maintenance brochure or portfolio sites with the least room for ongoing work or maintenance. 

Agencies don’t need to chase those, or bolt on a second platform to compete for that type of work. What’s left, and what matters more, are the sites that need a CMS; those that will grow, evolve, and sustain a business. That’s where WordPress, and the agencies that know it well, continue to earn their place. 

if you have any questions regarding other platforms versus WordPress, web hosting, agency work, AI, or anything in that nature, join us for Office Hours every Thursday at 2 p.m. EST, where you can get answers live. 

FAQ 

How do I know if my site needs WordPress, or if something simpler would work? 

Ask one question: will anyone need to log in and make changes after launch? If the answer is yes WordPress is almost always the better long-term choice, since it's built specifically for non-technical editing. If the site is essentially a digital business card that won't be touched again, a static page is worth considering instead. 

Can I switch from a static site to WordPress later if my business grows? 

Yes, but it's not always a quick swap. Moving from a static site to WordPress usually means rebuilding the site rather than upgrading it, since the two are built on fundamentally different foundations: one has no database or content management layer, and the other is built around those. It's worth choosing based on where the site is headed in the next year or two, not just where it stands today. 

Does a "simple" WordPress site still need regular maintenance? 

Yes, and this is one of the most overlooked costs of going with WordPress even for a small site. Core software, themes, and every installed plugin need periodic updates, and skipping them is one of the most common ways small business sites get compromised. A simple site has a smaller footprint to maintain, but it isn't maintenance-free. 

If WordPress isn't a good fit, should my agency learn a new platform like Webflow or Astro? 

Not necessarily. Taking on a second platform means duplicating systems, checklists, and team training that may have taken years to refine in WordPress. For most agencies, it's more efficient to either pass simple, never-touched projects to a partner who specializes in that work, or to apply the same systems-thinking they already use in WordPress to a lighter-weight solution, rather than splitting focus across two ecosystems.