Why we choose WordPress

Skype, WordPress and the iTunes Store all launched in 2003. Two of those feel dated. One runs 41.5% of the internet (W3Techs, July 2026).

Still, I get this question almost weekly now: “Shouldn’t we move to Framer? Or Webflow?” Fair question. Those editors are slick: design on a canvas, publish in one click. Next to a WordPress site built in 2019, they feel like a different century.

But that comparison is off. The WordPress most people picture is the one they saw five years ago. Put Framer next to WordPress as we build it in 2026 and the picture changes. Here are the numbers.

Where Framer and Webflow are strong

A freeform design canvas, real-time multiplayer, one-click publishing, a simple concept live

within hours. Designers love these tools for good reason. If you need a narrow campaign site live this week that can be retired next quarter, Framer can be the right tool. We tell clients that ourselves. But before you move your main website there, look closely at the meter, the exit, and what you actually control.

The meter

Framer’s sticker price is €30/month. That’s Pro, which you need for staging and redirects. The rest of the bill grows with everything you do:

•  Custom security headers (CSP, HSTS): +€200/month for the Advanced Hosting add-on
•  Every extra editor: +€10 to €20/month, capped at 10 seats
•  Every language: +€20/month
•  AI: 3,000 credits/month included. Framer’s own example prices a basic landing page at around 300 credits, or “about ten a month” in their words. In practice, a custom-designed page runs 1,000 to 2,000 credits. That’s two pages, and then the meter starts: roughly €10 per extra 1,000 credits, priced in-app.

Don’t take our word for the credits. Luke Carter runs BraveBrand, a studio listed on Framer’s own Experts directory with hundreds of client sites on Framer. He tested Framer 3.0 four days after launch: “I’m almost out of credits and we’ve only really scratched the surface.”

Webflow runs the same playbook: plan tiers, per-seat pricing, add-ons. On a closed platform, everything that grows gets metered.

Connecting your own AI to Framer (say, Claude via MCP) is free “during beta”. Framer has already announced per-usage pricing.

On WordPress the numbers stay flat. Our hosting is €70/month all-in, with WP Engine, staging, security headers and WAF included. Editors are unlimited and free. For AI you pay whatever your own subscription costs, and the platform never meters it. Translation costs money on both sides: Weglot on WordPress, €20 per locale on Framer. Good translation is never free anywhere.

2. The exit

“Framer does not offer HTML export for self-hosting.” Those are Framer’s own words, from their help center.

You build in Framer, you stay in Framer. Your content exports fine as CSV, but the site itself cannot leave: not the layouts, not the components, not the interactions. Every custom component you invest in works nowhere else. Agencies that sell these migrations quote weeks of rebuilding from scratch. Stop paying, and the site goes offline. Webflow is slightly friendlier, with a static code export, but the CMS, forms and hosting stay behind.

WordPress is open source. The database and files move to any host, whole. Nobody can discontinue or reprice the software you run.

Carter again, after his 3.0 test: “I want to control and own the codebase of my entire website. I’m not locked in via usage credits, I’m not locked in via subscription, which frankly Framer cannot do.”

3. Control: your AI, your data, your visibility

Framer’s built-in AI agent is polished. It’s also closed: three fixed models, credits that expire monthly, no bring-your-own key.

WordPress 7.0 ships the AI plumbing in core, with MCP and the REST API part of the platform. Any model, any provider, your own data. You connect Claude, tools and automations for free, and you keep doing that. Framer prices openness as an add-on. In
WordPress it’s simply how the software is built.

Being found works the same way. Search is no longer just Google. A growing share of traffic comes from being quoted by ChatGPT, Claude and AI Overviews. That runs on structured data, content signals and files like llms.txt, not on visuals. On WordPress, Yoast gives you content and keyword suggestions while you write, a full schema graph, and an automatically generated llms.txt. Framer covers the SEO basics and has an AI agent that fixes metadata, but there are no content suggestions, no schema editor and no llms.txt, and redirects cap at 100 on Pro. That’s a part of your business you want to keep in your own hands.

The numbers

We ran Lighthouse on our own recent WordPress sites and on Framer’s flagship customers.

Same machine, same connection, July 2026:

• WordPress, built and hosted by us (atpi.com, confotherapeutics.com, avantium.com,

grantific.com, billygrace.com, lastmilesolutions.com, delta-n.nl): average 86 mobile / 98 desktop

•  Built with Framer (framer.com, mollie.com, bunq.com, swapfiets.nl): average 59 mobile / 81 desktop

Google’s field data adds nuance. Framer’s platform average beats the WordPress average, but that WordPress average includes every neglected DIY site since 2003. WordPress on WP Engine, before any real optimisation, already sits within 3 points of Framer. And these are all sites on our previous theme. The 2026 theme tests 90+ on mobile as standard. Performance is a build choice.

WordPress from 2026

The complaints people have about WordPress are usually real. They’re also usually about sites built years ago. Editing in form fields, saving, then checking the front end. Fixed sections where every variant needs a developer. A new design taking weeks to go live.

That era is over. In WordPress as we build it now, you click the text on the real page, type, and you’re done. The editor shows the actual design. Colors, sizes and layout are locked in a design system, so editors can’t break the site (and can’t unlock it). A design from Claude, Figma or a sketch becomes a reusable, on-brand block in days, built with AI inside our design system. Google Docs-style co-editing is landing in WordPress core, with live cursors already in public testing. And it’s fully managed: WP Engine EU hosting, updates, backups and security handled by us.

There is one real catch. WordPress’s plugin ecosystem is where its vulnerabilities live. That’s why we work with a curated stack, a locked design system and standardized building blocks, so every site stays secure and consistent, and AI can work with it.

When we’d still say Framer

For a design-led campaign site that goes live this week, with few pages, no deep integrations and a short life, we’d point you to Framer. For a website that has to grow, rank, integrate and be managed for years, WordPress. That’s the rule we apply, and we’ll happily say it out loud in either direction.

Could a younger platform do all of this someday? Maybe. Check back in 2045. Until then, WordPress is taking meetings.

Sven Kaptein is partner and Head of Development at Mars. All pricing and platform facts in this article were checked against live vendor pages in July 2026.