In the weeks before we invested in Etch, we heard lot of conversation about WordPress’ (slightly) declining market share — often attributed to the idea that it’s “old.”
Younger developers, apparently, lean toward newer SaaS tools like Webflow and Framer. They’re sleek, modern, and yes — cool.
Having built websites with WordPress for 14 years, I’ll admit — I found those conversations disconcerting. But it got me thinking:
Who does “cool” actually serve? Is it even relevant when we consider what clients — not developers — actually need?
Let’s consider the question in different contexts.
The Enterprise – What Enterprise Leaders Actually Care About
n November 2024, I attended WordCamp Sydney. One standout session was by Myles Lagolago-Craig, CEO of XWP — an enterprise-focused WordPress agency working with high-traffic, high-impact enterprise clients.
His talk, which you can watch here, explored how WordPress delivers value to internal stakeholders — from CEOs to content teams.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what actually matters to enterprise roles:
- CEOs care about enabling growth, reducing risk, and increasing shareholder value — not which framework you used.
- CFOs want clarity, control, and to avoid surprise costs.
- CMOs need freedom to express, test, and scale messaging.
- CPOs and CTOs need extensibility, predictability, and the ability to experiment without rebuilding the house.
- Content teams just want to work with tools that feel familiar and don’t get in the way.
No mention of “cool” here.
“No one ever got fired for buying WordPress.”
— Miles, CEO of XWP
They want a platform that helps them move fast, adapt, and stay in control — not a stack that wins design awards.
Why Platform Ownership Matters
At WebFoundations, our baseline for service-based businesses is:
- You must own your platform and data
- The platform must be extensible with a range of options
- Sites must be scalable, maintainable, and built to best practice
- Sites must be easily portable
In short: never build your empire on someone else’s land.
Note: we make some exceptions for eCommerce (like Shopify) where it makes sense. It’s case by case.
Owning your tech (and not renting it from a SaaS gatekeeper) means:
- You don’t get locked out unexpectedly.
- You avoid the cycle of ruin that comes with VC-owned platforms changing direction.
- You don’t hit a mysterious threshold that suddenly doubles your costs. Or find a basic feature like canonical URLs hidden behind a paywall.
- Your workflows, data, and logic don’t vanish because a tool sunsets.
None of these have anything to do with being cool.
The SaaS Walled Garden Problem
As an Apple user, I’m no stranger to walled gardens — and in a consumer context, I’m okay with that.
But when we’re talking about websites that need to convert, scale, and integrate? SaaS walled gardens come at a cost.
As a developer — and a connoisseur of shiny objects — I get the appeal of platforms like Framer or Webflow. But that ease comes with trade-offs:
- Arbitrary limits (pages, API calls, traffic tiers)
- Vendor lock-in (want to move your site? Good luck.)
- Integration pain (especially for service-based businesses needing CRM and funnel system integrations)
- Loss of innovation agency (your ability to make decisions and take action without hitting limits)
Too often, clients don’t know what they don’t know. These risks should be communicated clearly.
And here’s another angle we don’t talk about enough:
Who owns these systems? Where do they operate? Who benefits? Are we ideologically aligned with the owners of these tools?
When you own your platform, these questions become less risky and more strategic.
Extensibility as a Strategic Asset
It’s not about bells, whistles, or shiny interfaces. It’s about control and options.
WordPress, with its open standards and plugin/API ecosystem, gives you the freedom to tailor your site around how your business actually works — not the other way around.
Need a client portal? Appointment booking? Lead capture tied to your CRM? All of it is possible — and portable.
Innovation shouldn’t be stifled or constrained by your platform. WordPress lets you move. SaaS often doesn’t.
Yes, WordPress has its flaws: the interface is dated, governance could use a shake-up, and features like ACF Pro arguably belong in core. But none of that undermines this simple truth:
The code you install is yours.
If the whole ecosystem disappeared overnight, your site would still work.
Cool/Not Cool?
No, your tech stack doesn’t have to be cool. It has to be yours. It has to be flexible, extensible, open, and portable. It should be scalable, maintainable, and built on best practices.
Yes, those best practices will evolve. That’s a good thing.
Ironically, our current stack is awesome. Etch, in particular, is shaping up to be something special. Yes — it’s cool. But cool isn’t why we chose it.
We chose it because it aligns with how we think platforms should serve our clients.
Cool is a bonus. Capability is what counts.
