The short version
WordPress suits a business that wants room to grow, specific features, or a site a developer can work on directly, and that will keep it maintained. It suits less well an owner who wants to set a site up once and never think about it, unless they choose WordPress.com, which handles the upkeep.
Good
- You own a portable site. The built-in export produces a standard file of posts, pages, comments, custom fields and users that any WordPress site can import (WordPress.org docs).
- Over 60,000 plugins, per WordPress.com's pricing page, for almost any feature.
- Host anywhere, including Canadian hosts with servers in Canada and CAD pricing (CanSpace, for example).
- The cheapest entry point of the three: WordPress.com Personal is $5 a month billed yearly; self-hosted runs about $72 a year.
- A huge pool of developers, so you're never stuck with one person.
Watch out for
- Self-hosted means you, or someone you pay, applies core, theme and plugin updates and keeps backups.
- Plugin sprawl: each one adds weight, a renewal and a possible security hole.
- Many premium themes and plugins are priced in US dollars.
- A steeper learning curve than Wix or Squarespace for editing layouts.
- Quality varies: a cheap theme can make a site slow and hard to change.
WordPress.com or WordPress.org?
WordPress.com is a hosted service: you pick a plan (from $5 a month billed yearly in CAD), and hosting and updates are handled. WordPress.org is the free software you install on your own hosting, with full control and full responsibility. Most of this review applies to both. The costs of each, in CAD, are on our WordPress pricing page.
Design and editing
Modern WordPress edits with blocks, and a good theme makes it close to a site builder. A poor theme or a heavy page builder plugin makes it slow and fiddly. The theme choice matters more on WordPress than anywhere else, because it's the part that's hard to change later.
Selling and bookings
Selling runs on WooCommerce (WordPress.com's Commerce plan, or the free plugin on self-hosted). Bookings, memberships and almost anything else come from plugins. That flexibility is the point; the cost is choosing well and keeping them updated.
Upkeep: the real cost
On self-hosted WordPress, updates arrive every few weeks. Skipping them is how most small-business sites get hacked; applying them blindly is how forms quietly break. Budget an hour or two a month of your time, or pay someone. That's what our care plans cover. We sell that work, so take this with that in mind.
Who should pick WordPress
- Pick WordPress.com if you want WordPress's flexibility and portability without running a server.
- Pick self-hosted if you need specific plugins, Canadian data residency, a developer working on the code, or a site that will grow for years, and you have a plan for maintenance.
- Skip it if you want something you never have to think about and don't need to move: Squarespace or Wix will be simpler.
Still deciding? Compare it with Wix and Squarespace, or see the Wix review and Squarespace review.
Sources
Each checked October 22, 2026. Platforms change prices often; their own page is the final word.