GoDaddy Airo wins, and the gap is wider than most people expect. I tracked every real cost of running a WordPress business site, from hosting to security plugins to backup tools, and compared it against a single Airo subscription. The math, the setup time, and the maintenance burden all land on the same side.
At a Glance: GoDaddy Airo vs WordPress
| Category | GoDaddy Airo | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Software cost | Paid subscription | Free (software only) |
| True Year 1 cost (business site) | $120-$252 (Website Builder) | $300-$660+ (hosting + plugins + theme + security) |
| True Year 1 cost (eCommerce) | $252 (Commerce plan) | $1,800-$3,000+ (WooCommerce stack) |
| Setup time | Minutes (prompt to published) | 90+ minutes before design begins |
| Hosting | Included | Purchase separately |
| SSL | Included | Manual setup or hosting-provided |
| AI site building | Native (generates site from prompt) | Via third-party plugins (Jetpack AI, etc.) |
| Template/theme flexibility | AI-generated, no library | 30,000+ themes, switch anytime |
| Plugin ecosystem | No marketplace | 60,000+ plugins |
| eCommerce | GoDaddy Commerce backend | WooCommerce (free core, paid extensions) |
| Maintenance burden | Zero (fully managed) | High (user-managed updates, patches, backups) |
| Code ownership | Downloadable on paid plans | Full ownership, export anywhere |
| Support | 24/7 phone, text, live chat | Community forums only |
*For business owners who want a managed solution. WordPress wins for developers and technical users who need full ownership and unlimited customization.
For a full look at GoDaddy Airoโs individual products, see the GoDaddy Airo reviewย on HostAdvice.
1. Pricing and True Cost
The most repeated claim about WordPress is that it is free. Technically, the software is. Practically, running a business website on WordPress is not, and the gap between the advertised cost and the real cost is one of the largest in the industry.
| Cost Component | GoDaddy Airo | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Software | Website Builder from $9.99/mo | Free |
| Hosting | Included | $300-$4,200/year ($25-$350/mo, per WooCommerceโs own published estimate for most stores) |
| SSL certificate | Included | Free via Letโs Encrypt, but requires manual setup |
| Domain | First year free on paid plans | $10-$15/year (separate registrar) |
| Security plugin | Included (managed by GoDaddy) | $0 (free) to $119/year (Wordfence Premium) |
| Backup | Included | $0 (free) to $70/year (UpdraftPlus Premium) |
| SEO plugin | Basic tools included | $0 (free Yoast/RankMath) to $99/year (Yoast Premium) |
| Premium theme | Not applicable (AI-generated) | $0 (free) to $100 (one-time) |
| eCommerce (basic) | Commerce plan: $20.99/mo ($252/year) | WooCommerce core: free; essential extensions: $200-$600/year |
| eCommerce (production-ready store) | $252/year | $1,800-$3,000+/year |
| Refund | 7 days (W+M) / 30 days (Airo AI Builder, unused credits) | Per-host policy; WordPress software has no refund (it is free) |
WordPress.org Pricing
WordPress.org is free to download and install. What it does not include is the infrastructure required to run a website: a server to host it on, a domain name to point to it, an SSL certificate to make it secure in browsers, a way to back it up, a way to protect it from attacks, and a way to optimize it for search engines.
Every one of those requirements becomes a separate purchasing decision, each with its own renewal fee.
A realistic Year 1 budget for a simple WordPress business site looks like this:
- Hosting:ย WooCommerceโs own pricing page states $25-$350 per month for most stores ($300-$4,200 per year). Entry-level shared hosting starts at $3-$10 per month, but WooCommerce does not recommend this for a real store under any meaningful traffic load
- Domain registration: $10-$15 per year
- Premium theme: $0-$100 (one-time)
- Security plugin: $0-$119 per year
- Backup plugin: $0-$70 per year
- SEO plugin: $0-$99 per year
- Conservative total (minimal shared hosting): $46-$523 per year
- Realistic total (appropriate hosting for a store): $350-$900+ per year
One genuine advantage WooCommerce does hold on pricing is that there is no revenue share and no additional fee for using third-party payment gateways.
GoDaddy Airo Pricing
GoDaddy Airoโs pricing is one predictable number. The Website Builder Basic plan at $9.99 per month ($120 per year) includes hosting, SSL, and basic SEO tools.
The Commerce plan at $20.99 per month ($252 per year) adds eCommerce without requiring any plugin purchases. There are no separate line items for security, backup, or infrastructure. What you pay per month is what you pay.
The comparison flips only for advanced technical users who can configure WordPress on quality shared hosting for under $60 per year, use only free plugins, and manage all maintenance themselves. In that scenario, WordPressโs annual cost is actually lower. For anyone who needs a managed, secure, functional business site without technical expertise, GoDaddy Airoโs all-in pricing is cheaper and more predictable.
2. Setup and Getting Started
The experience of going from nothing to a live, functional website is where these two platforms diverge most dramatically.
| Setup Step | GoDaddy Airo Builder | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Account creation | 2 minutes | N/A (software, not a service) |
| Hosting purchase | Not required | Separate purchase ($3-100+/mo) |
| Domain setup | Not required (free domain on paid plans) | Separate purchase + DNS configuration |
| SSL certificate | Automatic | Manual request (Letโs Encrypt or hosting-provided) |
| Software installation | Not required | Via hosting control panel (cPanel one-click or FTP) |
| Theme selection and installation | Not required (AI-generated) | Browse, download, install |
| Plugin installation (SEO, security, forms) | Not required | Individual installs |
| Time before you can design | Immediate | 90+ minutes |
| Total time to published site | Under 15 minutes (homepage) | 4+ hours minimum |
GoDaddy Airo AI Builder
On GoDaddy Airo AI Builder, setup begins and ends with a text prompt. You describe your business, the AI asks two follow-up questions about visual style and messaging tone, and the system generates a planned site structure before building anything.
You see the page structure, color palette, typography, and sourced images before the first section renders. The homepage build takes approximately 8 minutes. You can publish from the same interface.
At no point during this process do you encounter a hosting control panel, a DNS settings page, an SSL request form, or a plugin installation screen. The infrastructure is invisible because GoDaddy manages it. Your job is to describe your business clearly. Everything else is handled.
WordPress.org
On WordPress.org, the experience before you can build anything is a multi-step infrastructure exercise:
- Purchase a domain from a registrar (~$10-15)
- Purchase a hosting plan and configure it for your needs
- Point your domainโs nameservers to your hosting provider (DNS propagation can take 30 minutes to 48 hours)
- Run the WordPress installer via your hosting control panel
- Request an SSL certificate so your site appears secure in browsers
- Log into the WordPress dashboard, which shows a default โHello Worldโ blog post and no design
- Browse the theme library, install a theme, and activate it
- Install plugins for SEO, contact forms, security, and backup
- Configure each plugin individually
Once all of that is done, you can begin designing. The process took over 90 minutes before the design stage was reached, and over 4 hours total to a published site. That is an accurate reflection of the real setup experience for a non-technical user.
WordPress does offer a significantly faster path for users on managed WordPress hosting plans (from providers like WP Engine or Kinsta) or through WordPress.com (the hosted version), where hosting and installation are pre-configured. But those options add cost and do not eliminate the need to install and configure plugins before the site is functional.
2. AI and Site Building
AI in these two platforms means completely different things, and understanding that difference is important before choosing based on either platformโs AI marketing.
| AI Feature | GoDaddy Airo Builder | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Native AI site builder | Yes, built into the platform | No (requires third-party plugin) |
| AI content generation | Yes, from business description | Via plugins (Jetpack AI, Bertha AI, Divi AI) |
| AI image tools | Replace with Getty Images; AI sparkle for suggestions | Via plugins |
| AI SEO tools | Basic | Via Yoast AI, RankMath AI (additional cost) |
| Inline text rewriting | โEdit with Airoโ button | Via Gutenberg AI features or plugins |
| AI planning transparency | Yes (shows structure, palette, fonts before building) | Not applicable |
| Credit/token system | Yes (builds and edits consume monthly credits) | Plugin-dependent; some charge per generation |
| AI required to use platform | No (editor accessible without AI) | Not applicable |
GoDaddy Airo AI Builder
GoDaddy Airo AI Builderย uses AI as the construction engine. Before a single section renders on screen, the AI has decided the five-page structure, named the color palette, selected typography, and sourced relevant stock images.
The planning phase is visible in real time, meaning you can review the AIโs decisions before they are built. Once the site is generated, individual AI tools remain available for text rewriting and section modifications.
The credit system is the key constraint. Building and editing actions consume monthly credits, and the free tier provides 50 credits per month. Heavier editing, adding pages, and making frequent revisions draw down the credit balance.
Credits do not roll over between billing cycles. This means the AI is most cost-efficient when you invest effort in a specific, detailed initial prompt rather than iterating heavily after the build.
WordPress.org
WordPress.orgย has no native AI. The platform is open-source software, and any AI capability requires installing a third-party plugin.
The most established options include Jetpack AI (from Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com), Bertha AI, and AI features within premium page builders like Divi. These tools generate text content within the editor but do not build pages, structure sites, or select design elements on your behalf.
The practical implication is that WordPress AI tools are editing assistants, not builders. They help you write a product description or a paragraph on an existing page, but they do not generate a five-page site with a color palette, typography, and sourced images from a business description. That capability does not exist in the WordPress ecosystem as a native feature.
WordPress AI plugins also vary significantly in cost and quality. Jetpack AI has a free tier and a paid plan. Other AI plugins charge per generation or per month. Managing AI tool costs on WordPress is another line item in an already fragmented cost stack.
Tip:ย On GoDaddy Airo, treat the initial build as a first draft, not a finished product. The AI generates structure and direction well; the specific copy, images, and layout refinements are where you invest time after the build. On WordPress with AI plugins, use AI tools for individual content tasks (writing a product description, drafting a page section) rather than expecting them to generate a site architecture. They are designed for the former, not the latter.
3. Design and Customization
This category contains the most significant trade-off in the entire comparison, and it cuts directly to the question of how much flexibility matters to your business.
| Design Feature | GoDaddy Airo Builder | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | AI-generated design from prompt | Theme selection from 30,000+ options |
| Theme/template switching | Not available (new project required for redesign) | Yes, switch themes anytime |
| Free themes | Not applicable | 10,000+ free themes on WordPress.org repository |
| Premium themes | Not applicable | $30-$100+ on ThemeForest, Elegant Themes, etc. |
| Code access | Downloadable on paid Airo AI Builder plans | Full access to all files, database, server |
| CSS / HTML customization | Not available in editor | Full control via theme files, child themes, Customizer |
| Page builder plugins | Not applicable | Elementor, Divi, Bricks ($50-$100/year) |
| Design consistency | AI maintains brand palette and typography | User-managed; risk of inconsistency across themes |
| Global styling | Via follow-up prompt | Theme Customizer or page builder settings |
GoDaddy Airo AI Builder
GoDaddy Airo AI Builderย generates your siteโs design from your prompt and style answers. The AI selects a color palette, typography pairing, and section structure before building, and those choices are maintained across the entire site.
You do not browse a template library or choose a theme: the design emerges from the description.
The constraint is that this design is fixed at a level that goes deeper than template switching.
On GoDaddy Airo, there is no design equivalent of starting over with a different visual direction without beginning a new project. Within the generated design, you can modify elements through the Edit mode controls and adjust direction through follow-up prompts. But if you want a fundamentally different look, you are starting a new build.
On paid Airo AI Builder plans, the generated code can be downloaded, which gives you ownership of what was created. You cannot, however, modify it within the Airo editor at a code level.
WordPress
WordPressย starts you in the opposite position. You have 30,000+ themes available, including over 10,000 free options in the official repository.
You browse, preview, install, and can switch themes at any point without losing your content (though menus and widgets may need reconfiguring after a switch). Premium themes from marketplaces like ThemeForest cost $30-$100 as a one-time purchase and typically come with multiple layout variations and demo content.
For users who want to go beyond what any theme offers, WordPress gives full access to every file: PHP templates, CSS, JavaScript, and the database.
A developer can change anything. Page builder plugins like Elementor (freemium) and Divi ($89/year) add a drag-and-drop visual editing layer on top of the block editor, giving designers and business owners a more visual experience without requiring code.
The limitation is that this freedom comes with responsibility. Switching themes can break layouts built with a previous themeโs shortcodes. Premium themes often require importing demo content to look like their preview, and that import fills your site with placeholder data to clean up. Plugin conflicts between a themeโs built-in functionality and an installed plugin are a real risk.
4. eCommerce
The question of which platform handles eCommerce better is answered differently depending on how you define โbetter.โ
| eCommerce Feature | GoDaddy Airo (Commerce $20.99/mo) | WordPress + WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Core plugin cost | Included in Commerce plan | Free (WooCommerce plugin) |
| Hosting required | Included | Separate purchase |
| Setup time | Via follow-up prompt (tested: complete shop in one session) | Manual: install plugin, configure payment, set up shipping |
| Product limit | Unlimited (via GoDaddy Commerce) | Unlimited |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Yes | Free plugin available; premium: $0-$99/year |
| Subscription billing | Via GoDaddy Commerce | WooCommerce Subscriptions: $199/year |
| Multi-currency | Via GoDaddy Commerce | WooCommerce Payments or plugin: varies |
| Payment gateways | GoDaddy Payments + third-party | Stripe, PayPal, 100+ via plugins |
| Advanced shipping rules | Basic | Table Rate Shipping plugin: $99/year |
| Production-ready annual cost | $252/year (Commerce plan) | $1,800-$3,000+/year (full plugin stack) |
| Scalability ceiling | Mid-level | Very high (enterprise deployments exist) |
| Maintenance | Zero | Plugin updates, compatibility testing |
GoDaddy Airoโs eCommerce
GoDaddy Airoโs eCommerceย is built by adding a shop to an existing AI-built site via a follow-up prompt.
In testing, this produced a complete store in a single session: GoDaddy Commerce was connected as the backend, 7 products were bulk-created from the prompt description, and the full UI including shop catalog page, product detail pages, cart drawer, and checkout flow was built in parallel. The shop navigation link and cart icon were added to the header automatically.
What that session also revealed was the backend dependency: Airoโs eCommerce routes through GoDaddy Commerce, not a self-contained store system. Creating a new GoDaddy Commerce store failed twice during testing, requiring an existing store as a workaround. This is a beta-phase limitation worth knowing before you plan your launch around it.
The Commerce plan at $20.99 per month is a fixed, predictable cost. It includes the store infrastructure, hosting, SSL, and GoDaddy Payments integration without additional purchases. For a business with a simple catalog selling in a single market, that cost structure is significantly simpler than assembling a WooCommerce stack.
WooCommerce
WooCommerceย is the most widely deployed eCommerce platform in the world, running on over 4.6 million active stores.
The core plugin is free and transforms any WordPress site into a functional store with product management, cart and checkout, basic shipping, and coupon management. The reason its cost escalates quickly is that the core pluginโs functionality covers basic retail and nothing more.
Most real selling needs require extensions:
- Abandoned cart recovery: free plugin available, premium options $0-$99 per year
- Subscription / recurring billing: WooCommerce Subscriptions at $199 per year
- Advanced shipping rules (table rates, dimensional): $99-$199 per year
- Multi-currency selling: WooCommerce Payments (free in supported countries) or currency converter plugins
- Booking and appointment sales: WooCommerce Bookings at $249 per year
A production-ready WooCommerce store that handles these features costs between $1,800 and $3,000 per year in 2026, according to multiple cost analyses published this year. That figure does not include developer time for setup, ongoing maintenance, or the hours spent managing plugin updates and compatibility testing.
The ceiling for WooCommerce is effectively unlimited. Enterprise deployments running millions of dollars in annual revenue exist on the WooCommerce stack, with custom development filling whatever gap a plugin does not cover. GoDaddy Airoโs Commerce ceiling is visible much sooner.
5. Maintenance and Security
This section does not exist as a category in most website builder comparisons because most website builders handle maintenance for you. WordPress does not, and that difference has real implications for time, cost, and risk.
| Maintenance Task | GoDaddy Airo | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress core updates | Not applicable | Manual or automated, user-responsible |
| Theme updates | Not applicable | Manual or automated, user-responsible |
| Plugin updates | Not applicable | Manual, with compatibility risk |
| Security patches | Handled by GoDaddy | User-responsible |
| SSL renewal | Automatic | Automatic (Letโs Encrypt) or manual (paid certs) |
| Backups | Managed by GoDaddy | Plugin or hosting-provided; user-configured |
| Uptime monitoring | GoDaddy infrastructure | User or hosting-responsible |
| Hack / malware recovery | GoDaddy handles | User-responsible; cleanup services $200-$500 |
| Time cost per month | Zero | 2-4+ hours (for conscientious users) |
| Security risk level | Low (closed, managed platform) | Higher (powers 43% of the web, primary hacker target) |
What Managing WordPress Actually Requires
WordPress powers approximately 43% of all websites on the internet, which makes it the most widely deployed CMS in the world and, consequently, the most frequently targeted by automated attacks.
Plugin vulnerabilities are the most common attack vector. An outdated plugin with a known security flaw can expose an entire site to exploitation within days of the vulnerability being published.
Responsible WordPress management requires:
- Weekly plugin and theme updates, checking compatibility before applying each one. A plugin update that conflicts with another plugin can crash the checkout flow, break page layouts, or take the site offline entirely
- WordPress core updates, which typically release several times per year and occasionally break third-party plugin compatibility
- Regular backups, either through a plugin like UpdraftPlus or a hosting-level backup system, stored separately from the server so they survive a complete site compromise
- Security monitoring, either through a plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri, or via a managed security service
- Recovery planning: if the site is compromised or a bad update breaks it, you need either the technical knowledge to restore from backup or a developer on retainer
The Wix vs WordPress review I drew from documented simulating a plugin vulnerability exploit and requiring a $200 cleanup service as a result. That is a realistic outcome for a site running outdated plugins.
What Managing GoDaddy Airo Requires
GoDaddy Airoย eliminates this category of work entirely. The platform is a closed, managed system. GoDaddyโs infrastructure team handles security patches, SSL renewal, uptime monitoring, and platform updates.
When GoDaddy rolls out a change, it appears in your dashboard. You do not test for compatibility, manage update schedules, or worry about a plugin conflict taking your site offline. The security model is the same one that applies to any managed SaaS product: GoDaddy is responsible for the infrastructure, and your responsibility ends at the content you create.
This does not mean GoDaddy Airo is risk-free. Any managed platform can experience downtime, and GoDaddy has experienced service incidents in the past. But the category of maintenance risk, specifically the plugin vulnerability problem that affects a significant percentage of self-managed WordPress sites, does not apply.
6. SEO and Performance
WordPress has a historic SEO reputation that it earned over years of being the dominant CMS for serious content sites. The actual picture in 2026 is more nuanced.
| SEO Feature | GoDaddy Airo | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Meta title and description | Yes | Yes (requires plugin for intuitive editing: Yoast, RankMath) |
| XML sitemap | Yes | Auto-generated (Yoast, RankMath, or native since WordPress 5.5) |
| Redirect management | Yes | Yes (plugin or hosting-level) |
| Structured data/schema | Via generated code | Via plugins or theme |
| Keyword research tools | Not built in | Not built in (Semrush, Ahrefs via third-party) |
| SEO guidance/checklist | Basic | Strong (Yoast, RankMath provide per-page guidance) |
| Image optimization | Basic | Via plugin (ShortPixel, Imagify, etc.) |
| Caching | GoDaddy-managed | Plugin-required (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache) |
| Core Web Vitals performance | Not independently benchmarked at scale | 46.28% pass rate (vs Wixโs 74.86%) |
| Code bloat risk | Minimal (generated code validated during build) | High (each plugin adds page weight) |
| Blog/content publishing | Yes | Yes, with the deepest archive and categorization system available |
GoDaddy Airo AI Builder
GoDaddy Airo AI Builderย generates validated code with meta tags, canonical URLs, and clean page structure built in. The pages are technically sound from the first publish.
Basic SEO settings are accessible in the platform, covering the fundamentals needed for most small business sites.
What GoDaddy Airo does not provide is the depth of per-page SEO guidance that dedicated SEO plugins offer. There is no on-page scoring, no readability analysis, no keyword density feedback, and no structured data builder. For a business owner who wants to learn SEO as they go, the platformโs tools provide the technical foundation but not the guidance layer.
WordPress
WordPressย has a lower Core Web Vitals pass rate than you might expect given its SEO reputation. 46.28% of WordPress origins pass Googleโs Core Web Vitals thresholds, which sits behind Wix at 74.86%.
This is partly a reflection of the diversity of WordPress deployments. Heavy plugin stacks, unoptimized images, and cheap shared hosting all drag the median down. A well-configured WordPress site on quality managed hosting with a caching plugin and image optimization can significantly outperform that median.
The case for WordPress SEO is not its default performance but its ceiling. Plugins like Yoast SEO and RankMath provide per-page content analysis, real-time readability scores, schema markup builders, internal linking suggestions, and redirect managers.
These are tools that SEO professionals depend on and that no website builder fully replicates. For a content-heavy site, a blog, or a publisher targeting competitive organic search terms, WordPressโs SEO tooling is the most capable available.
WordPress also remains the strongest blogging and content publishing platform in the world. Its post archive structure, category and tag taxonomy, RSS handling, and comment management are unmatched. If your SEO strategy depends on publishing large volumes of content and building a structured content library over time, WordPressโs content infrastructure is built for exactly that.
7. Support and Data Ownership
These two dimensions are connected by a single underlying question: what happens to your business if something goes wrong, or if you want to leave?
| Feature | GoDaddy Airo | WordPress.org |
|---|---|---|
| Phone support | 24/7 (all plans) | None (community forums only) |
| Text support | 24/7 (all plans) | None |
| Live chat | 24/7 (all plans) | None (hosting provider may offer this) |
| Official support | Yes | None |
| Community support | Limited | Massive (WordPress.org forums, Stack Exchange, Reddit) |
| Agency/developer ecosystem | Limited | Enormous (global WordPress developer community) |
| Data export | Code downloadable on paid AI Builder plans | Full: export all files, database, media |
| Migrate to another platform | Difficult (design stays in GoDaddy) | Possible: move files and database to any host |
| Vendor dependency | High (platform is GoDaddy) | Low (software runs on any compatible host) |
GoDaddy Airo
GoDaddy Airoย provides 24/7 phone, text, and live chat support on all plans with no tier restriction. When something goes wrong, you have three channels to reach a person, and one of them does not require you to be at a computer.
For a small business owner who does not have a technical team, that availability is a practical safety net.
The trade-off is data portability. GoDaddy Airoโs website designs are generated and hosted within GoDaddyโs ecosystem.
On paid Airo AI Builder plans, the generated code can be downloaded, giving you a snapshot of what was built. But that download is a starting point for a developer, not a portable site you can move to another host and run as-is. The brand, the content, and the configuration live inside GoDaddyโs platform, and leaving means rebuilding elsewhere.
WordPress
WordPress.orgย offers no official support of any kind. The software is maintained by an open-source community, and when something breaks, your options are the WordPress.org support forums, the Stack Exchange WordPress community, Reddit threads, your hosting providerโs support team (whose scope may not cover WordPress-level issues), and hiring a developer. The community is enormous and generally helpful, but turnaround times are unpredictable, and forum support cannot resolve hosting-level issues.
What WordPress does offer in exchange for that absence of official support is complete data portability.
Everything on a WordPress site, the files, the database, the media, the theme, the plugins, can be moved to a different hosting provider at any time. If your current host increases prices or goes offline, you transfer to a new host and continue. If you want to move your content to a different CMS, you export the database. You own everything, and nothing is locked to a single vendor.
This portability is meaningful for businesses with a long-term horizon or one that anticipates needing to migrate or scale beyond what a managed platform allows. For a business that wants to move from GoDaddy Airo to a different platform in three years, the path is more complicated than moving a WordPress site.
Overall Verdict: GoDaddy Airo vs WordPress
GoDaddy Airo wins for business owners who want a complete, managed website without the burden of self-management.
The predictable pricing, zero maintenance overhead, 24/7 phone and text support, and AI-generated site from a prompt represent a fundamentally different value proposition than WordPress offers: you describe your business and the platform handles the rest. For anyone who is not a developer and does not want to become one, GoDaddy Airo is the lower-risk, lower-effort, and frequently lower-cost choice.
WordPress wins for developers, technical users, serious content publishers, and anyone who needs full code ownership, unlimited plugin flexibility, or the ability to migrate their site to any host in the world. Its SEO tooling ceiling, 60,000-plugin ecosystem, and complete data portability are advantages no managed platform replicates. The cost and maintenance overhead are real, but for users with the skills or resources to manage them, WordPressโs capabilities are not constrained by any platform decision made on your behalf.
