Choosing the Right CMS for Flexibility, Reliability, Security & Scale
If you’re reading this, there’s a fair chance you’ve been talking to us at Flywheel about Sitefinity—or at least wondering where it might fit. And while Sitefinity brings serious capabilities to the table, this isn’t about “picking the winner.” WordPress and Sitefinity both have their place—it’s about knowing which one suits your needs.
The Quick Take
WordPress: The world’s most popular CMS—free, flexible, and fast to get started. Great for brochure sites, campaign landing pages, blogs, and situations where downtime or security incidents aren’t catastrophic.
Sitefinity: A commercial-grade CMS built for security, scalability, and integrated governance—ideal when the site is business-critical and needs to perform reliably at scale.
Here’s the snapshot view:
| Consideration | WordPress | Sitefinity |
|---|
| User Role Management | Requires plugins | Built-in, flexible controls |
| Access & Permissions | Plugin-based, inconsistent | Native, granular |
| Authentication / SSO | Plugins required for Azure AD | Seamless Azure AD integration |
| Security | History of plugin vulnerabilities | Commercial-grade security |
| Content Protection | Limited | Authenticated + hidden from indexing |
| Scalability | Plugin conflicts at scale | Built for load + modular growth |
| CMS Usability | Flexible but inconsistent | Structured, multilingual, reusable |
| Maintenance | High plugin/theme upkeep | Streamlined with vendor support |
| Integrations | Heavy customization required | Designed for complex integrations |
| Audit & Logs | Limited without plugins | Built-in tracking and analytics |
Why WordPress Dominates
WordPress powers over 40% of all websites.
According to W3Techs, WordPress powers about 43.4% of all websites as of April 2025—making it by far the most widely used CMS globally. On sites using a known CMS, WordPress commands an even more dominant share, exceeding 60% of the market.
That dominance isn’t because every business needs its features—it’s because:
It’s free and open-source—no licensing cost.
It’s easy to start—anyone can launch a site in hours.
It’s endlessly customizable—thousands of plugins and themes.
It’s community-driven—a massive global network of contributors, from hobbyists and small business owners to agencies and enterprises. In fact, roughly one-third of users are small business owners or solo entrepreneurs (SQ Magazine).
This distributed ecosystem is both WordPress’s greatest strength and its greatest vulnerability:
Strength: Continuous innovation and rapid updates from a global community.
Risk: When a plugin, theme, or feature maintained by an individual or small team is abandoned—or fails to keep pace with security updates—it can expose vulnerabilities. (We’ve seen this first-hand at Flywheel.)
Flywheel’s First-Hand WordPress Lessons
We’ve supported many clients on WordPress, and while it can be the right tool for certain jobs, our direct experience has shown the real-world implications of its strengths and weaknesses:
Community conflict impacts stability
In 2024, a public dispute between WordPress’s leadership and a major hosting provider created uncertainty and confusion in the community (read our take). It’s a reminder that an open-source platform’s direction can shift quickly—and not always in ways that benefit all users.
Security gaps with sensitive content
We worked with a customer running a WordPress extranet whose sensitive files were inadvertently indexed by Google and surfaced in search results. The root cause: the security model didn’t fully extend to those resources, leaving them exposed until manually corrected.
Scaling pain with popular plugins
Another client relied on a widely used plugin that initially met their needs—but as their site and business grew, the plugin’s architecture couldn’t keep up. Later, a functional change to the plugin broke a critical integration, forcing costly customizations and ongoing compromises.
These are not rare exceptions—they’re the kinds of issues that surface when the underlying platform depends on a constantly changing patchwork of community contributions.
Where Sitefinity Earns Its Keep
When the site is central to operations—or compliance, security, and uptime are non-negotiable—Sitefinity starts to shine:
Security-first: Commercial-grade architecture, fewer third-party dependencies.
Governance built-in: Roles, permissions, and audit logs from day one.
Scale-ready: Handles large traffic, complex multilingual structures, and integrations without a plugin scramble.
Integration-friendly: Works seamlessly with ERP, CRM, PXM, and authentication systems.
The Honest Divide
Choose WordPress for marketing-led projects, quick turnaround campaigns, smaller-scale publishing needs, or when cost and speed outweigh long-term governance.
Choose Sitefinity when your website is mission-critical, must integrate deeply with business systems, and demands security and stability without constant patchwork.
For a deeper breakdown of the decision-making process, download our CMS Selection Guide.