When you start planning a website, the conversation quickly turns to WordPress. It makes sense: 43% of all websites use it. But is WordPress always the right choice? For many businesses, no — and that comes down to what you actually want to do with it.
What a CMS gives you (and what it costs)
A Content Management System like WordPress lets you manage your own content: write blog posts, update texts, upload images. Useful if you do this regularly. But it comes at a price: pages are generated by querying a database on every visit (which takes time), every vulnerable plugin is a potential security risk, and monthly updates require constant attention.
When do you actually need a CMS?
A CMS makes sense if you publish new content every week, multiple employees manage content, or you run an online shop with dynamic inventory. For most business websites, none of these apply. Most business owners update their website a few times a year.
The advantages of a static website
A static website built with Next.js or Astro serves pre-built HTML files directly. No database, no plugins, no security vulnerabilities. The benefits: load times under one second (PageSpeed 95+), no login panel that can be hacked, no monthly updates that might break things, and lower hosting costs.
What if you still want to edit content yourself?
You combine a static site with a headless CMS like Sanity or Contentful. You manage content in a separate system; the website stays blazing fast and secure. The best of both worlds. At CanarySites we build with Next.js as standard. If a client specifically wants WordPress, we build that too — but we always give honest advice on the pros and cons of each option.