If your business website runs on WordPress, you’re in very good company. As of October 2026, WordPress powers about 40 percent of all websites on the internet, and approximately 58.5 percent of websites using a known content management system, according to W3Techs. That’s an extraordinary success story for software that began as a blogging platform more than two decades ago, but its widespread adoption also makes it an attractive target for cyberattacks.
This doesn’t mean WordPress is inherently unsafe, or that every business using it needs to replace its website. WordPress remains a powerful, flexible platform with plenty of good reasons to recommend it. Its enormous popularity, however, combined with an extensive ecosystem of third-party plugins and themes, gives attackers numerous opportunities to identify vulnerable installations. Perhaps most importantly, attackers don’t have to know anything about your particular business to find and exploit your website.
Nobody Has to Target You
When we talk to small businesses about cybersecurity, there’s an understandable question that comes up repeatedly: “Why would anybody bother hacking us?” The answer is that, in many cases, nobody specifically decided to target that business at all.
Modern cyberattacks can be heavily automated, with attackers scanning enormous numbers of websites for recognizable software, exposed login pages, and known vulnerabilities. If a security flaw is discovered in a plugin installed on thousands of WordPress sites, there’s no need to research those businesses individually. Attackers can simply search for websites running the affected software and attempt to exploit the vulnerability wherever they find it.
When roughly two out of every five websites use the same basic platform, developing tools to exploit vulnerabilities within that ecosystem can be a worthwhile investment. It’s important to recognize, however, that WordPress itself isn’t necessarily the vulnerable component. Frequently, the problem lies in the additional software installed to extend its capabilities.
The Plugin Problem
One of WordPress’s greatest strengths is also one of its greatest security weaknesses: its enormous plugin ecosystem. Whether you need a contact form, online scheduling, ecommerce, analytics, search-engine optimization, image galleries, or a sophisticated page builder, there’s probably a plugin available to handle it.
That flexibility benefits everyone from small business owners managing their own websites to professional developers building sophisticated, custom-designed sites on WordPress. Rather than developing every feature from scratch, they can draw on an extensive library of existing tools, saving considerable time and expense.
The tradeoff is that a WordPress website may depend on software maintained by numerous independent developers, each with their own update schedules, security practices, and levels of ongoing support. A well-maintained plugin from a reputable developer may present relatively little risk, while an abandoned plugin that hasn’t received an update in several years can become a significant liability. Even actively maintained plugins occasionally contain serious vulnerabilities, which is why keeping a WordPress installation secure involves more than simply updating WordPress itself.
The scale of the issue is significant. According to Patchstack’s 2026 State of WordPress Security report, 91 percent of newly reported WordPress ecosystem vulnerabilities in 2025 were found in plugins, with another 9 percent in themes. Only six vulnerabilities were reported in WordPress core, all classified as low priority. Those figures illustrate why security maintenance needs to encompass the entire website rather than just the underlying WordPress installation.
Every additional component introduces another potential point of failure. That doesn’t mean plugins should be avoided entirely, but it does mean they should be selected carefully, maintained consistently, and removed when they’re no longer necessary.
Keeping Your WordPress Site Secure
If you’re happy with your WordPress website, there’s no reason to abandon it. A few basic maintenance practices can substantially reduce your exposure to common attacks, and most don’t require advanced technical knowledge. The official WordPress security hardening guide provides additional recommendations for protecting a WordPress installation.
Keep your plugins to a minimum. Every plugin adds code to your website and potentially introduces another vulnerability. If you’re no longer using a plugin, remove it rather than simply deactivating it. Before installing something new, check whether it’s actively maintained, compatible with your version of WordPress, and supported by a developer with a reasonable track record.
Keep WordPress, plugins, and themes updated. Security vulnerabilities are regularly discovered and patched throughout the WordPress ecosystem. WordPress makes updating relatively straightforward through its administration dashboard, and automatic updates are available for many components. Because updates can occasionally introduce compatibility problems, particularly on more complex websites, it’s wise to maintain a working backup before applying significant changes.
Keep your hosting environment current. WordPress runs on PHP, a programming language that requires security updates just like any other software. Your hosting provider should support a currently maintained PHP version, and your website should be configured to use a version compatible with its plugins and themes. Server software and other hosting components also require regular maintenance, so it’s worth understanding which updates your hosting provider handles and which remain your responsibility.
Protect your accounts and maintain backups. Strong, unique passwords and multifactor authentication help protect administrator accounts from unauthorized access. Regular, tested backups provide a recovery option if your website is compromised or an update causes unexpected problems. Ideally, those backups should be stored separately from the website itself so that an attacker who gains access to the server cannot easily destroy your recovery copies.
None of these precautions guarantees that your website will never be compromised, but routine maintenance, sensible access controls, and a reliable backup strategy go a long way toward reducing the risk. For businesses that rely on WordPress’s extensive functionality, that ongoing maintenance may be a reasonable tradeoff.
For other businesses, particularly those whose websites primarily provide information rather than complex interactive services, there’s another approach worth considering.
An Alternative Worth Revisiting: Static Websites
In the early days of the web, most websites consisted of HTML documents stored as individual files. Each page was created in advance and delivered to visitors essentially as written, with changes requiring someone to edit the files and upload the revised versions. These were known as static websites, and building or maintaining one generally required at least some familiarity with HTML and web development.
WordPress and other content management systems transformed website publishing by allowing people to create and update content through an administration interface rather than editing individual files. The software assembles pages dynamically, often drawing information from a database and incorporating functionality supplied by plugins. That flexibility made website publishing much more accessible, but it also introduced additional components that need to be maintained and protected.
Today, modern development tools have made static websites practical again without requiring business owners to learn HTML or maintain every page by hand. A static site can often be faster, simpler to host, and easier to secure because visitors receive prebuilt pages rather than interacting with a live content management system. There’s no publicly accessible WordPress administration interface to attack, no live WordPress database behind the published pages, and fewer server-side components requiring maintenance.
Static websites aren’t invulnerable, of course. Hosting configurations, third-party scripts, forms, and other integrations can still introduce security risks, and a poorly configured static website can certainly be compromised. Nevertheless, eliminating unnecessary complexity can substantially reduce the opportunities available to attackers, consistent with the security principle of reducing a system’s attack surface, particularly when the website doesn’t require extensive dynamic functionality in the first place.
There are several ways to take advantage of this approach, including one that allows you to continue using WordPress as your content management system.
Keep WordPress, But Publish a Static Version
You don’t necessarily have to give up WordPress to gain the benefits of a static website. Tools such as Simply Static can generate static copies of WordPress pages, allowing you to continue working in the familiar editing interface while publishing a separate version of the site for visitors. At Daily Data, we’ve been using Simply Static and have been very happy with it so far.
Once configured, the process is relatively straightforward: make your changes in WordPress, generate the static version, and publish those files to your public website. Visitors interact with the resulting static pages rather than the underlying WordPress installation, which can remain in a protected environment separate from the public-facing site.
The initial configuration can require some technical work, particularly if your website relies on forms, search functions, or other dynamic features. You’ll also need to decide where the WordPress installation itself will live. It might run in a protected environment on a separate server, or locally on a computer that isn’t accessible from the public internet.
At Daily Data, we built a separate server on our local network specifically for this purpose. Admittedly, we’ve got nerds sitting around looking for things to do, but the arrangement works well for us. We retain WordPress’s convenient content management tools without exposing the full WordPress installation to the public internet, and visitors receive a simpler, static version of the website.
Build a Static Website With AI Assistance
Another increasingly accessible option is to use AI-assisted development tools to build a static website directly. You may have heard the term vibe coding, which generally describes building software by telling an AI system what you want and allowing it to generate the code.
For a relatively simple business website, this can be a practical approach. You describe the layout, appearance, and functionality you’re looking for, and an AI tool can generate the HTML, CSS, and other files needed to create the site. You don’t necessarily need to know how to write that code yourself, although some technical knowledge remains valuable when reviewing, testing, and deploying the finished product.
There are, however, important limitations to consider. AI-generated code isn’t automatically secure, accessible, or reliable, and it can contain errors, unnecessary dependencies, or vulnerabilities just like code written by a human developer. Someone still needs to review the results, test the functionality, and make sure the finished website meets appropriate standards for security and accessibility.
Content quality and search-engine visibility deserve equal attention. Google’s published guidance on generative AI content makes clear that using AI isn’t inherently a problem for search rankings; the emphasis is on producing helpful, reliable content rather than material created primarily to manipulate search results. Filling a business website with generic, repetitive, or inaccurate AI-generated content isn’t a particularly effective strategy for attracting either customers or search engines.
For a business website, we recommend supplying your own content and using AI primarily to help build and organize the site. Your expertise, services, and business personality should come from you rather than from whatever an AI system thinks a business like yours ought to say. AI can make website development more accessible, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for thoughtful design, good content, or technical oversight.
What About Managed Website Builders?
Managed website-building platforms offer another option, combining website creation tools, hosting, and much of the technical maintenance into a single service. They can be convenient for businesses that want to establish an online presence quickly without managing their own hosting environment, although that convenience comes with some important tradeoffs.
Monthly subscription costs can accumulate over the life of a website, particularly when additional functionality requires higher-priced plans. Moving to another provider can also be difficult because proprietary templates, content structures, and platform-specific features don’t always transfer cleanly. While you generally retain ownership of the content you create, you may not have access to the underlying website code or the ability to move the complete site to another hosting provider.
For businesses that value flexibility, long-term cost control, and ownership of their web infrastructure, a self-hosted WordPress installation or independently hosted static site may offer greater freedom. The appropriate choice depends on the functionality you need and how much control you want over the finished website.
The Catch: Static Websites Still Need Some Dynamic Features
Static websites are particularly well suited to informational business sites, portfolios, landing pages, and other projects where most of the content doesn’t change from visitor to visitor. However, even relatively simple business websites generally need some interactive functionality, and that requires a little additional planning.
A contact form is a good example. Displaying a form on a static page is straightforward, but actually processing the submission and delivering an email requires something more than HTML files. Simply publishing your email address on the website isn’t an ideal substitute, since automated spam collectors can harvest addresses from public pages.
One solution is to use a third-party form processing service. You build the contact form into your static website, and the service handles receiving submissions and delivering the information to you. This introduces another service to manage, but it avoids the need to maintain an entire content management system simply to process contact forms.
At Daily Data, we approached the problem a little differently. Remember those nerds sitting around looking for things to do? One of them, Rod, built a form processor specifically for contact forms on static websites.
Anyone using our hosting services has access to it, and we’ve also made the code available as open source software. If you host your website elsewhere, we’re happy to provide the code and installation instructions so you can run it on your own server. The software itself is free to use; the only cost would be if you’d like us to handle the installation for you.
It’s a small example of something we believe strongly at Daily Data: businesses should have practical, affordable options for building and maintaining websites without being unnecessarily tied to a particular platform or provider.
Choosing the Right Tool for Your Website
WordPress isn’t going away, nor should it. It’s a capable platform with an enormous community, a mature ecosystem, and features that many businesses genuinely need. If your business relies on frequent content updates, ecommerce, complex integrations, or other dynamic functionality, a properly maintained WordPress installation may still be the right choice.
If, on the other hand, your website primarily exists to explain what your business does, showcase your work, and help customers get in touch, it’s worth considering whether you need a full content management system running behind every page. A static website may provide everything you need with less complexity, fewer maintenance demands, and a smaller attack surface.
The goal isn’t to abandon WordPress because it’s popular with attackers, but to understand what your website actually needs and choose an approach that balances functionality, security, cost, and control. Whatever platform you select, it should serve your business effectively without creating unnecessary work or risk.
