Why I stopped building WordPress sites. And why I build them again.

Updated July 2026. I wrote the original version of this post after I had stopped building WordPress sites. The reasons were real, and I've kept them below. The conclusion I drew from them was wrong. This is the whole story, including the part where I changed my mind.

I built WordPress sites for years. I knew the platform well, I had a stack I trusted, and I could build a solid site quickly. Clients were happy.

Then I stopped. And for a while, if you asked me why, I would have given you four reasons.

The four problems that made me quit

Maintenance

WordPress sites need constant attention. Plugins, themes, PHP versions. Every update is a small risk, and when an update breaks something on a client’s site, someone has to deal with it. I was spending real hours every month on work that was invisible from the outside.

Security

WordPress is the most targeted platform on the internet. Not because it’s badly made, but because it runs most of the web. Whoever builds the majority of the web becomes the majority of the attack surface. For my clients the actual risk was low, but the anxiety was real, and investigating every scare fell to me.

Performance

A WordPress site can be fast. Keeping it fast takes discipline: the right hosting, careful plugin choices, ongoing attention. One poorly coded plugin and the site slows down again.

Ownership drift

This one bothered me most. A WordPress site looks like something a client owns. They have a login. But most owners can’t safely change anything, and the whole ecosystem assumes someone is actively managing the site. When the honest answer is “nobody is,” the site gets neglected or worse.

So I stopped. It felt principled at the time.

What I got wrong

A funny thing happened after I quit. Businesses kept coming to me with WordPress sites that were slow, broken, or scary to touch. I’d fix them, put them on a maintenance plan, and watch them behave beautifully month after month.

Read my four reasons again. Maintenance nobody does. Security nobody watches. Performance nobody protects. Ownership nobody exercises.

None of those is a WordPress problem. Every single one is a nobody problem.

An unmaintained WordPress site fails in exactly those four ways. A maintained one doesn’t. WordPress isn’t a bad platform. The real ‘failure’ is the industry’s default arrangement: build the site, hand over the keys, disappear. I overlooked the real issue and just blamed the tool that happened to be in my hand.

Why I build them again

Today I build WordPress sites again, and I’m glad I do. Here’s what earns it a place:

• Clients can actually edit. A well-built WordPress site gives the owner a simple, familiar editor for their own content, set up so text and images are easy to change and the design can’t be broken by accident. Most of my clients never use it. But the option is real, not an illusion.
• Most small businesses already live there. When someone arrives with an existing WordPress site that needs rescue, the answer usually isn’t “throw it away.” It’s a proper fix or refresh, then someone (me) watching it from there.
• Maintained WordPress is good. Hardened, updated weekly, backed up daily, monitored. Every problem on my old list, handled by arrangement instead of hoped away.

I still build lightweight sites too, where they’re the better fit: no database, minimal moving parts, fast by default. The platform is a per-business decision I make with each client, and I’ll tell you plainly which side your business lands on.

The constant is not the platform. The constant is that someone stays with the site. That’s the part I was right about all along, even when I aimed it at the wrong target.

What this means for you

If you have a WordPress site that’s broken or been neglected, the lesson of this post is good news: you probably don’t need a new website. You need the four nobody problems turned into somebody problems. That usually looks like a Website Fix or Refresh to catch it up, then a care plan so it never drifts again.

And if you’re starting fresh, don’t start by picking a platform. Start by asking who will be looking after the site in month six. Every other decision is easier after that one.

Book a 15-minute call and we’ll figure out what makes sense for your site.

Curious what a Bewebsy build looks like? Read what a one-day website build is for the process from start to finish.