Farewell to a Legend – and Why It’s Time to Move On

First, some respect where it’s due. WordPress democratised publishing. In its hey-day almost anyone with basic technical chops could launch a site for the price of a domain and a cup of tea. That openness powered more than 40 % of the web and underpinned a generation of digital businesses.

But the very architecture that made WordPress so accessible in 2005 now drags it down in 2025. Core code that still assumes a blog-listing model has been stretched by thousands of plug-ins, themes and page-builders. The result?

• Bulky builds – hundreds of HTTP requests, render-blocking scripts and cumulative layout shift that throttles your Core Web Vitals.

• Security roulette – one outdated plug-in can expose the whole stack.

• Maintenance overhead – constant updates, compatibility checks and backups steal resources from revenue-generating work.

• Inconsistent UX – each plug-in introduces its own UI, and all that patch-work spills over into the customer experience.

When today’s buyers expect friction-free, hyper-fast, mobile-optimised journeys, retro-fitting WordPress becomes an exercise in diminishing returns. Modern web visitors have the power to click away in seconds, and inbound businesses simply can’t afford that drag .

“But Our Agency Swears by WordPress…”

After 15 years of operations management I’ve heard every justification:

1. “It’s what we know.” Translation: we’ve invested in legacy skill-sets and haven’t up-skilled our team. Good for the agency’s margins, bad for your growth.

2. “It’s cheaper.” Only if you ignore hidden costs: lost conversions, security incidents, and the opportunity cost of a sluggish site.

3. “Talent is hard to find elsewhere.” The reality is that modern platforms require fewer specialists, not more. Good information architecture and low-code tooling have replaced armies of PHP devs.

Fear of change is perfectly human, but clinging to outdated tech leaves money on the table – and compromises customer experience. Remember: happy customers add energy to your flywheel; unhappy ones slow it down .

Webflow – A Positive Step, Yet Still “Just a CMS”

I love Webflow’s visual designer. In capable hands it produces gorgeous, performant sites without a single line of code. For design-led brands with in-house creatives it’s a brilliant choice.

The drawback? Webflow stops where the customer relationship begins. Content lives in one silo, leads in another, emails in a third. That gap introduces friction throughout the buyer’s journey – inconsistent messaging, duplicated data, and limited personalisation .

Why “CMS + CRM” Beats “CMS Only”

Growing companies need more than pages and posts; they need a Revenue Operations (RevOps) engine that aligns marketing, sales and service around a single source of truth. When your website, email automation, deal pipeline and support inbox all read the same contact record, you can:

• Personalise every touchpoint by lifecycle stage.

• Attribute revenue accurately back to content and channels.

• Automate follow-ups the moment a prospect’s behaviour signals intent.

• Spot churn risks early through ticket trends and NPS feedback.

That’s the flywheel in action: attract → engage → delight on one tightly-integrated platform .

HubSpot CMS Hub – Built for the Modern Buyer and the Modern Operator

HubSpot CMS Hub delivers the sweet-spot my clients need:

For budget-conscious UK SMEs a starter theme from the HubSpot Marketplace is often free, and if you do need something bespoke, a certified HubSpot developer costs a fraction of a traditional agency retainer. Once the foundation is in place almost anyone can create new content via drag-and-drop modules – reclaiming precious ops capacity.

Price, Skills & “Future-Proofing”

• Licensing – CMS Hub Starter now starts at less than many premium hosting plans. When you factor in plug-in licences, a security service and a half-day per month of patching, HubSpot frequently wins on total cost of ownership.

• Talent pool – HubSpot’s developer ecosystem has exploded; its templating language (HubL) is essentially HTML with handlebars. Most front-end developers can pick it up in days.

• Scalability – Need gated content, memberships, custom objects or advanced ABM later? They’re already in the same portal – no costly migrations.

The Inbound Orbit Perspective

I built Inbound Orbit to remove operational friction for growing businesses. My brain is wired to spot patterns and inefficiencies others overlook, and I’ve chosen HubSpot precisely because it lets me solve root-cause alignment problems, not just surface-level web design issues.

When your CMS is part of your customer platform you can:

1. Meet prospects where they are with context-rich content .

2. Engage on their terms with data-driven conversations instead of guesswork.

3. Delight post-sale through seamless hand-offs and self-service portals – turning customers into promoters who spin the flywheel faster .

That, in essence, is RevOps: unifying marketing, sales and service around shared data, shared processes and shared goals. WordPress can’t offer that unity; HubSpot can.

Ready to Retire the Plug-in Patch-work?

If your website feels more like technical debt than a growth asset, let’s talk. Inbound Orbit’s RevOps Accelerator migrates your content, aligns your pipelines and automates the busy-work – so your team can spend less time updating plug-ins and more time delighting customers.

Your buyers have moved on from 2005. It’s time your CMS did the same.

Book a free consultation today and receive our RevOps eBook instantly