Is WordPress Still the King of Small Business Websites in 2025

WordPress powers 43.3% of all websites on the internet. That number looks commanding until you realize it sat at 65.2% in 2022. The platform has shed nearly 7 percentage points in 3 years, and the decline shows no sign of reversing. For small business owners asking which platform deserves their time and money, the answer depends less on market dominance and more on what they actually need.

The Numbers Tell a Different Story Now

W3Techs data from October 2025 confirms WordPress holds a 60.7% share among sites using a content management system. The platform remains the leader by a wide margin. But leadership and growth are separate matters entirely.

Wix grew by 32.6% between January 2024 and January 2025. Squarespace rose by 9.7%. Shopify added 4.6%. These platforms are smaller, yet their trajectory points upward while WordPress trends down. TechReport identifies Wix as the fastest-growing CMS platform with an annual growth rate of 149%.

Wix’s revenue surpassed $1.85 billion in 2024. According to SQ Magazine, small businesses make up 79% of all active Wix sites globally in 2025. That statistic matters because it reveals where small business owners are spending their money when given a choice.

What Small Business Owners Actually Pay For

WordPress itself costs nothing to download. The expenses arrive afterward. A small business owner selecting WordPress must account for domain registration, wordpress hosting, premium themes, security plugins, and often a developer for setup or troubleshooting. Wix and Squarespace bundle these costs into monthly subscriptions ranging from $16 to $49, while Shopify packages hosting and payment processing together for ecommerce users.

This pricing structure explains part of the SaaS growth figures. A business owner comparing a $29 Squarespace plan against a WordPress setup with separate hosting, a $79 theme, and a $99 security plugin sees the math differently than a developer would.

The Security Problem Nobody Wants to Discuss

SolidWP’s vulnerability reports throughout 2025 paint an uncomfortable picture. In a single week, 199 new vulnerabilities emerged in the WordPress ecosystem. Of those, 197 came from plugins and 2 from themes. The reports consistently show between 108 and 139 new vulnerabilities appearing weekly.

Patchstack puts it plainly: WordPress offers flexibility and scalability through its library of plugins and themes, but this openness makes it a frequent target for cyber threats. Attackers scan continuously for outdated software and misconfigurations.

A small business owner running WordPress must track core updates, plugin updates, theme updates, and security patches. Missing one can result in a compromised site. Wix and Squarespace handle all of this on the backend. The business owner never sees it.

Where WordPress Still Beats Everything Else

For businesses focused on content and search engine optimization, WordPress remains the stronger choice. Clutch’s survey data from August 2025 shows 40% of businesses with websites cited search engines as their top source of leads. WordPress provides granular control over metadata, URL structures, and content organization that hosted builders cannot match.

WooCommerce powers about a third of the 13.5 million live stores tracked by Store Leads in March 2025. For ecommerce businesses needing deep customization, payment gateway flexibility, or integration with complex inventory systems, WordPress with WooCommerce offers capabilities that Shopify and Wix cannot replicate without workarounds.

The platform supports over 590 million websites as of December 2025. That installed base means tutorials, forums, developers, and support resources exist at a scale no competitor approaches.

Who Should Pick What

A bakery owner who wants a 5-page site with a contact form and a photo gallery has different needs than a law firm planning to publish 200 articles per year. The bakery owner benefits from Wix or Squarespace. The law firm benefits from WordPress.

Jeanette Godreau from Clutch puts it directly: small businesses no longer require a large budget or in-house developer to build a professional website. No-code platforms have made high-quality web design more accessible than ever. This accessibility serves businesses with straightforward needs.

According to Clutch’s August 2025 report, 83% of small businesses now have a website, up from 64% in 2018. That growth came largely from no-code builders making site creation possible for people with no technical background.

The Long-Term Calculation

A WordPress site can grow in any direction. Adding membership features, selling courses, integrating with custom databases, connecting to external APIs, running multiple storefronts from one installation. The platform imposes few limits on what a site can become.

Wix and Squarespace limit what users can build. Those limits feel acceptable when a business needs a brochure site. They become obstacles when a business expands into areas the platform never anticipated.

Industry experts summarize the choice simply: for something quick and simple, Wix or Squarespace can work. For serious growth and flexibility, WordPress or Shopify are better long-term investments — especially for writers and analysts interested in contributing to established investor communities.

The Verdict for 2025

WordPress remains the market leader. It holds 62.5% of the global CMS market share and powers more sites than any competitor. But market leadership and suitability for small businesses are not the same thing.

The platform serves businesses that need customization, have technical resources or willingness to learn, and plan to scale in unpredictable directions. It poorly serves business owners who want a working site without learning about hosting, security, and plugin compatibility.

Small business owners asking whether WordPress is still the king are asking the wrong question. The better question is which platform fits their specific operation. For many small businesses in 2025, that answer is no longer WordPress by default.