A lot of people in the no-code web development community swear by tools such as Webflow, and claim that WordPress is an outdated legacy CMS - but is that true?

To answer that question, we need to explore what WordPress is, who uses it, and what the alternatives are. As always, nothing is exactly as it seems, but let’s start by reminding ourselves what exactly WordPress is.

WordPress: Humble beginnings

Wordpress started out with Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little creating a free, open-source blogging platform in 2003. Their goal at the time was to create a tool which people could easily use to create their own blog without needing to code.

While at that time, WordPress was a simple platform which was relatively easy to use, it’s evolved significantly since then to become a product which allows anyone from high school students all the way to development teams at Fortune 500 companies to build anything on the web - from those simple blogs which WordPress was originally made for, to highly complex international eCommerce websites seeing tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

What has WordPress become?

WordPress as a product has very little features on it’s own - however, since their founding in 2003, WordPress has grown significantly because of not only the team themselves, but the community they have created.

One thing WordPress is, which modern no-code tools are not, is open-source.

Because of this, people are able to build their own tools and features on top of WordPress, which come in the form of plugins.

Why is this important? Well, because it has allowed WordPress to grow from a small blogging platform, all the way to a massive community-built ecosystem which powers over 50% of the internet as of 2023.

What can you do with WordPress?

Long story short, you can do virtually anything you want with a WordPress powered site because of plugins and extensive community-built documentation.

Do you need eCommerce? There’s a plugin for that.

Do you need a calculator on your site? There’s a plugin for that too.

Because of this, despite having an old UI & many problems, WordPress is certainly still relevant.

WordPress is the only mainstream CMS which allows you to scale without limits. So, why do so many people claim the platform is outdated?

The alternatives

Many new web builders, CMSs, and eCommerce platforms have popped up over the last 20 years which are, by almost anyone’s criteria, better than WordPress in their respective niches - let’s look at a few;

Webflow

Webflow takes web-based code and translates that into a visual canvas. Because of this, anything you can do with HTML & CSS can be done with Webflow, but much, much faster. This amazing builder paired with a loyal community has created an absolute juggernaut in the visual development space.

Shopify

Shopify has built a platform that is an absolute dream for eCommerce managers. The experience of managing your store cannot possibly get any better than it is with Shopify. Their platform is a great fit for both beginners and massive eCommerce stores, which has led to them taking a massive chunk of the eCommerce market.

Framer

What started as a prototyping tool for React components shifted into a full-blown web builder in 2022. Framer has an experience very similar to Figma which means people who typically stop at the design phase can now create beautiful and blazing fast websites with just a few more clicks than designing.

So, why does WordPress still dominate?

The answer of this question is simple - scalability. While all of these tools are absolutely amazing in their own right, none of them have the limitless potential that a site powered by WordPress has.

Webflow is amazing for building visual-focused marketing websites, but beyond that, their dominance quickly fades.

Shopify is perfect for eCommerce sites, but if your business isn’t completely eCommerce focused, there are certainly better options.

Framer is wonderful for designers looking to turn their designs into fast websites, but if your site may eventually need advanced features, you will hit a wall.

WordPress is simply the only mainstream CMS out there which will not limit your potential. If your project is one which may need to scale into new features, sacrificing the excellent features and experiences of the aforementioned platforms may be a wise decision.

What’s next?

While there are some amazing platforms out there, WordPress is still the only limitless mainstream CMS, so it’s unlikely that it will lose it’s dominance anytime soon.

That being said, things are changing. With the no-code industry evolving, people are demanding a tool with the power of WordPress, but the modern, seamless experience of some of the newer CMSs.

That demand is exactly why we built Divhunt. We’ve combined the open-source power of WordPress with speed, simplicity and experience inspired by tools like Webflow, Figma, Shopify, and Framer, just to name a few.

If you’re ready for the future, click here to build your first test site in Divhunt - 100% free until you connect a custom domain.

Is WordPress outdated in 2023?