TAKEAWAY
The WordPress vs. WP Engine situation is influencing agency leaders to shift away from WordPress and WP Engine, but the overall impact on agencies is expected to be middling. It’s essentially creating more work and risk for agencies that offer WordPress sites and it’s seen as an unwelcome disruption.
FINDINGS
Content Management System Impacts
57% of respondents are considering using other CMSs because of the issues between WordPress.org and WP Engine.
The CMSs they’re considering using more are varied, with the most popular being Drupal and Webflow.
Hosting Impacts
50% of respondents are considering using other hosting companies because of the issues between WordPress.org and WP Engine.
AWS, Pantheon, DigitalOcean, and SiteGround are the most popular hosting companies being considered.
Expected WordPress Impact on Digital Agencies
Overall, agency leaders are expecting the situation to have a middling impact (2.7/5) on their agency. Naturally, those who build more WordPress sites each year and those who manage more WordPress sites expected larger impacts.
As far as the current impact is concerned, the predominant feeling among agency leaders is one of uncertainty. Many leaders report that their clients are feeling uncertain and concerned due to the issues at WordPress. This is forcing agency teams to devote additional resources to managing client inquiries which is causing more work for leadership, devs, and account managers.
“At one of the agencies, all of our clients contacted us to understand the impact. And have continued to reach out as new updates have come out from WordPress. It’s causing additional work for both our account managers and developers as well as senior staff members to talk clients off the ledge.”
Leaders also expressed concerns about the future viability and trustworthiness of WordPress.
“Lack of confidence in WordPress could damage the reputation of the work we create, outside of our control. Clients are less likely to sign on for a WP build if the reputation of WP is crumbling.”
Several leaders noted that they aren’t seeing any major impacts but there’s a shared concern about potential future impacts including: difficulties recommending WordPress for new builds, site migration workload fears, and specific concerns about the instability of WordPress’s leadership.
RESEARCH DETAILS
We surveyed 62 agency leaders and freelancers about their thoughts on how the issues between WordPress.org and WP Engine are impacting their work.
87% were Director/VP-level or above.
89% were from digital agencies while 11% were freelancers.
