WordPress is often seen as a tool for blogs and small business websites. But some of the busiest sites on the internet run on it, including major news and media brands like TechCrunch, TIME, Rolling Stone and Variety. Today, WordPress powers over 40% of all websites.

More and more large companies are moving away from older, expensive content management systems (CMS) and choosing WordPress instead. As a WordPress developer, here’s why I think that’s happening.

The problem with older enterprise CMS platforms

Many large companies built their websites years ago on enterprise platforms like Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager or Drupal. These are powerful systems, but over time many teams run into the same problems:

• High licence costs. Some enterprise platforms charge large yearly fees just for the software, before any development work.
• Slow changes. A simple update, like adding a new page layout, can need a developer and weeks of work.
• Hard to hire for. Fewer developers specialise in these platforms, so skilled people are expensive and harder to find.
• Forced upgrades. When a major version reaches end of life, as Drupal 7 did in January 2025, companies may face a big and costly rebuild anyway.

Why WordPress is winning

1. No licence fee

WordPress is open source. Companies pay for hosting, development and support, but not for the software itself. That money can go into better content and features instead.

2. Editors can do more on their own

The WordPress editor is familiar to millions of people. Marketing and editorial teams can publish articles, build landing pages and update content without waiting for a developer. For a newsroom that publishes dozens of stories a day, that speed matters.

3. A huge community and talent pool

Because WordPress is so widely used, there are developers, agencies, plugins and guides for almost everything. Companies aren’t locked into one vendor, and they can find help easily.

4. It scales

Managed platforms built for high-traffic WordPress sites, like WordPress VIP, handle the kind of traffic spikes that big media brands see during breaking news. The idea that “WordPress can’t handle big sites” is out of date.

5. Flexible for modern builds

WordPress can also run “headless”. The content is managed in WordPress, but the front end is built with a modern framework like React or Next.js. This gives companies a fast, custom front end while editors keep the WordPress editing experience they know.

6. Many brands, one platform

Large companies often run dozens of websites for different brands or regions. With WordPress Multisite and shared themes, they can manage many sites from one setup, with consistent design and less duplicated work.

What a move to WordPress usually involves

Moving a large website isn’t just copying pages. A typical migration includes:

1. Audit: reviewing the current site, its content, traffic and integrations.
2. Planning: deciding the new structure, design and which features to keep.
3. Content migration: moving thousands of articles, images and authors, often with scripts rather than by hand.
4. Protecting SEO: setting up redirects from old URLs to new ones so search rankings aren’t lost.
5. Testing and launch: checking performance, accessibility and editor workflows before switching over.

Is WordPress right for every company?

Not always. Some businesses have very specific needs that a different platform handles better, and a migration is a real investment of time and budget. But for companies whose main goals are publishing quickly, reducing costs and giving their teams more control, WordPress has become a serious, proven choice.

Key takeaways

• Many large companies are leaving expensive, slow-to-change CMS platforms.
• WordPress offers no licence fees, an easy editor, a huge talent pool and proven scale.
• Headless and multisite setups make it flexible for complex needs.
• A good migration protects content, SEO and editor workflows.

Thinking about moving your website to WordPress? Let’s talk.