If you think the introduction to this blog is a made-up scenario in an attempt to be humorous, you'd be wrong. It's a true story. And for the owner of the website, it was far from funny.
If you're a die hard WordPress fan, you might be tempted to argue that, when managed properly, WordPress sites don't get hacked. And you'd be right, but that's kind of the point.
Just one of the ten reasons you should consider moving away from WordPress (especially if you're already a HubSpot Sales and/or Marketing customer), is that your website doesn't have to need constant updates and security maintenance just to avoid being hacked.
And it's clear that many WordPress customers don't have the skills or resources to perform this maintenance properly. All you have to do is search for "WordPress website hacked" and you'll see what I mean. In the 5.7 million results, you'll even find companies specialising in recovering hacked WordPress sites.
In many ways WordPress is the victim of its own success. 43% of websites are built on WordPress, so by the law of averages its going to also be the most hacked. According to Forbes 30,000 websites are hacked daily. That means 13,000 WordPress sites are hacked every day - which is 4.7 million per year.
It's a popular target for hackers because it is so widely used and because it utilises a large number of plugins, which are open source. These plugins may contain some malicious codes and scripts, which provide a hacker with the opportunities to inject malware and perform nefarious activities. Outdated WordPress core plugins and themes are a prime target for hackers, as they often contain unpatched vulnerabilities.
This isn't the case with HubSpot, which is very hot on security. In fact, it's not easy to find evidence of breaches of the HubSpot CMS - the last being in 2022. We'll explore more on this later, but first, let's look into some of the common reasons why more people haven't made the switch already:
- Lack of awareness: Despite HubSpot's domination of the marketing automation market, not everyone is aware that HubSpot boasts a first-rate website platform. This is mainly because it is best-known as a marketing, sales and CRM solution and it's still relatively new on the CMS scene, compared with things like WordPress.
- Outdated perceptions: Linked to the previous point, those who do know of the HubSpot CMS may not have kept pace with its evolution - so they may feel it has limitations in terms of design/user experience and performance functionality. While these limitations may have existed in its early days, CMS Hub has more than caught up and is now a leading website platform in its own right.
- Perceived expense: We've certainly picked-up murmurings that CMS Hub is expensive. It's by no means the cheapest CMS, but when you look at the total cost of ownership (TCO) vs other platforms, it will all even out. We'll touch on this again later.
- The disruptive migration process: Migrating or building a new website is always going to be a significant project, whichever platform you use. But HubSpot has made the like-for-like migration process simple and cost effective - so it's pretty straight-forward to 'lift and shift' your current site. If you use HubSpot for other things, but the time has come to revamp your website, then it will be far easier and more beneficial to go with CMS Hub.
So why does HubSpot hit the spot, then?
There is no shortage of website platforms out there, so what makes CMS Hub such a serious contender? In short, CMS Hub has been built very much with its different users in mind - to make their lives easier.
Developers can build beautiful, engaging and secure websites. Marketers can edit and maintain the site on their own without the need for developer support. And customers will get a more personalised and safe experience. In HubSpot’s own schmaltzy words, ‘With CMS Hub, everyone wins.’
For us, it comes down to the fact that every aspect of managing a website is much easier with CMS Hub, which is critical to squeezing every bit of value from your site. Complicated platforms are no good to anyone because they just slow everything down - inhibiting progress and limiting action. You spend more time pissing around with the technicalities of your website, than doing any actual marketing.
Even CMS Hub's subscription model - which bundles everything you need to set-up and maintain a website - removes a lot of headaches. This is especially so compared to WordPress, where you may have to consistently shell out for ongoing hosting support, and have to worry about managing release upgrades and plugins. One of our clients used to pay £20,000 in WordPress maintenance alone - every single year - before switching to CMS Hub.
Because HubSpot isn't an open-source platform, once you are on CMS Hub, there are no additional hosting costs or the need to maintain plugins, it's all handled for you.
But this is just one of the benefits of HubSpot over WordPress. Dig a little deeper, and the case for migrating for HubSpot becomes even stronger:
- Integrated ecosystem: HubSpot brings marketing, sales and customer service into one platform, with the likes of a blog editor, landing page builder, email marketing and personalised content. This makes it far easier to streamline workflows and improve collaboration across your team.
- Total cost of ownership (TCO): the HubSpot pricing model bundles together hosting, security, and a range of tools within the platform, allowing you to reduce your website TCO over time. It is effectively a SaaS model for your website, meaning there's no longer a website maintenance company having your pants down every month. This also makes those monthly costs more predictable. And it's all helped further by the fact that all those minor changes you needed a developer for can be done by anyone - with no coding experience required.
- SEO capabilities: HubSpot has a variety of top-quality SEO tools built-in, including automatic XML sitemaps, optimised page speed and content analysis for improved rankings. This integration can make your SEO efforts much easier compared to using third party plug-ins, such as Google Analytics in WordPress.
- Security: as a fully-hosted platform that is updated automatically and for free, HubSpot is naturally more secure than open-source tools like WordPress. Combined with daily backups and monitoring, it means security provision is applied 24/7/365, and relieves much of the pressure on your team to keep everything safe and up-to-date manually.
- Personalisation and smart content: because your website will be inherently integrated with your CRM data, various customisation features can help you personalise the user experience and boost conversion rates, at a far more granular and accessible level than WordPress can provide.
- Ease of use: the drag-and-drop editor and visual interface makes it much easier for more people to publish content, even if they aren’t especially technically minded.
- Loading speed: HubSpot generally loads faster than Wordpress, which can make a big difference to user experience and SEO.
- Analytics and reporting: HubSpot has built-in analytics and reporting tools that can provide insights into website performance and user behaviour, simplifying the analysis process.
- Customer forums: HubSpot has built a good reputation for its customer service, providing helpful assistance and rapid response. Conversely, the open-source nature of WordPress means support generally comes down to forums, online communities and third-party providers.
- AI capabilities: HubSpot has an embedded content assistant that eases and speeds up the content creation process, helping you boost headlines and sharpen up sentences.
A leap you can have faith in
If you’re used to using WordPress, then switching to HubSpot represents a major change, so it’s understandable if you feel that it might be a bit too much of a culture shock. But it’s a change that’s definitely worth persevering with, because HubSpot is ultimately a tool that’s been designed for marketers to use, and not just developers. It’s no coincidence that HubSpot's CMS Hub was named G2’s Best Usability, Best Relationship and Most Implementable for Mid-Market customers in 2023.
This probably makes us sound like we’re fully paid-up HubSpot Superfans - maybe we are. But it's more about our desire to help businesses who've unnecessarily endured WordPress for far too long, especially those who've been hacked by nefarious dildo merchants.
The irony of that story is that the company in question previously used the HubSpot CMS, but switched to WordPress three months before the unfortunate incident. 🙈🙈🙈
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