Is WordPress Good for a Contractor Website?

What does a WordPress website cost?

It depends which WordPress you mean. There are two products with the same name, and they are priced completely differently.

• Self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org): the software is free to download under the GPLv2 (or later) licence^[1]. WordPress.org describes it as the option "for anyone comfortable getting their own hosting and domain"^[9].
• WordPress.com: Automattic’s hosted service, with plans from free to $70 a month^[4].

For self-hosted WordPress, WordPress.org publishes no hosting price. It lists recommended hosts, including Pressable, Bluehost and Hostinger, some of which donate part of your fee back to WordPress.org^[3]. We did not research individual hosts’ first-year or renewal prices, theme prices or a typical all-in cost, so this page quotes none. The domain and business email also come from your registrar or host, not WordPress.

Premium plugins are the other recurring cost. One example: Yoast SEO Premium, which includes its Local SEO features, is $118.80 a year before VAT^[10].

WordPress.com also sells 2-year and 3-year terms at up to 63% and 69% off; those renew at lower rates than the yearly plan, for example $27 or $23 a month for Business^[4]. The transaction fee applies to standard payments taken through the site, on top of the payment processor’s own fee^[4]. Every paid plan includes a custom domain free for the first year, and Business adds a business email account free for one year; the pricing page does not show what either costs after that^[4]. The intro prices were the same in an archived copy of the page from December 31, 2025^[11].

On WordPress.com, the first-year price is not the real price. Business is $300 for year one on annual billing and $420 a year after that; Personal doubles from $4 to $8 a month^[4]. Budget for the renewal rate.

WordPress.com’s built-in SEO tools, including custom title structure and a front-page meta description, need the Premium plan or higher^[12].

Do you own your WordPress site if you leave?

On self-hosted WordPress, yes, more completely than on any builder. The files and database sit on hosting you pay for, so the whole site can move to another host. The software carries no vendor lock-in: WordPress.org treats themes and plugins as derivative work that inherits the GPL licence^[1]. Your domain is registered wherever you bought it, independent of WordPress.

The built-in Tools > Export screen creates an XML file of your posts, pages, custom post types, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, taxonomies and users^[13]. That file is content only. Moving the full site, with theme, plugins and media files, is done with your host’s tools or a migration plugin.

WordPress.com works the same way at the content level. Its export gives posts, pages and comments, but "will not include your theme design, customizations, or plugins"; moving the whole site takes a migration plugin^[14].

Can AI search engines read a WordPress site?

On self-hosted WordPress, AI crawlers are allowed by default. The virtual robots.txt WordPress generates only disallows /wp-admin/^[15]. There is no AI-bot setting in core. You can change robots.txt through a developer filter, an SEO plugin such as Yoast, or by uploading your own file, so rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot are fully in your hands^[2][15].

An llms.txt file is one click away: Yoast SEO’s free version generates and refreshes one automatically^[16]. You can also upload your own.

If AI bots cannot reach your WordPress site, check your CDN, not just WordPress. Cloudflare, which many hosts sit behind, announced on July 1, 2025 that it was changing its default to block AI crawlers unless they pay^[17]. We did not verify whether that default covers existing sites or only new sign-ups.

WordPress.com is different, and the defaults matter. A setting called "Prevent third-party sharing" (Settings > Reading) opts your site out of Automattic’s third-party content licensing and adds known AI bots to your robots.txt disallow list^[18]. It is off unless you tick it. Automattic says it works "with various third-party partners who license content, including companies and researchers looking to understand content across the web"^[18]. Even when ticked, it is up to the AI platforms to honour the robots.txt request^[18].

Decide on purpose. Blocking AI bots on WordPress.com also stops them reading your site for AI search answers; leaving the box unticked lets your content go to licensing partners. Check Settings > Reading on any WordPress.com site you run.

WordPress.com also lets outside AI agents such as ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor read and edit your site through MCP tool access, which you manage in the privacy settings^[19].

How fast are WordPress websites?

Slower than the builders, on average. In August 2026, 48.7% of WordPress sites passed all three Core Web Vitals on mobile and 53.3% on desktop^[6]. Across the whole web the figures were 53.0% and 60.2%^[7]. WordPress was the only one of the six platforms in this series below the web-wide average.

The average hides a wide spread. The HTTP Archive’s Web Almanac notes that self-hosted systems vary much more than builders, because speed depends on the theme, plugins and third-party scripts each site owner adds^[25]. A lean WordPress site on good hosting can pass easily; a heavy theme with a dozen plugins often will not. Mobile largest contentful paint, the loading measure, is the weak spot: 55.8% of WordPress sites pass it on mobile, against 90.8% for interaction speed^[6].

How many AI-recommended contractors use WordPress?

Nearly half. In our study of 511 local contractor websites named by ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews, 49.3% ran on WordPress (95% confidence interval 45.0–53.6%)^[5]. The next platforms were Duda at 6.8% and Wix at 6.5%^[5].

For context, W3Techs counts WordPress on 40.2% of all websites, a 58.8% share of sites whose content management system it can identify^[26].

Both facts are true at once: WordPress has the lowest Core Web Vitals pass rate of the six platforms we compared, and it runs the largest share of AI-recommended contractor sites by a wide margin. This is correlation only. WordPress is also the most common platform on the web, and our study cannot show that any platform helps or hurts a contractor’s chance of being recommended.

What SEO controls does WordPress give you?

Most of them come from plugins, not core. On self-hosted WordPress:

• Titles and meta descriptions: edited through an SEO plugin. Yoast SEO, free, has over 10 million active installs and lets you "view and edit titles, descriptions, and schema live"^[27].
• Canonical tags: core outputs rel=canonical on single posts and pages^[28].
• 301 redirects: no redirect manager in core. The free Redirection plugin manages 301s and logs 404 errors^[29].
• Schema (JSON-LD): added by plugins or themes; Yoast SEO outputs Schema.org structured data^[27].
• XML sitemap: built in since WordPress 5.5, at /wp-sitemap.xml^[30].
• Custom code: full access to themes, plugins and PHP. WordPress 7.0 added custom CSS per block inside the editor^[31].

What local business features does WordPress have?

• Booking: none in core; added by plugins such as Simply Schedule Appointments^[32].
• Forms: none in core; WPForms Lite is one widely used free plugin^[33].
• Click-to-call: a standard tel: link works in the block editor; there is no dedicated call button in core.
• LocalBusiness schema: Yoast Local SEO, part of Yoast SEO Premium at $118.80 a year, turns your business details into schema automatically^[10].
• Multiple locations: Yoast Local SEO gives each location its own page with address, hours and map^[10].
• Blog: native. Posts, categories and tags are core features and export cleanly^[13].

Every plugin you add is software someone must keep updated. Pick one well-maintained plugin per job rather than stacking several.

What changed in WordPress in 2025–2026?

• WordPress 6.8 shipped April 15, 2025 and 6.9 on December 2, 2025^[34].
• WordPress 7.0 shipped May 20, 2026 with an AI Client in core that lets WordPress talk to generative AI models, managed from one hub in the dashboard^[31][34].
• WordPress 7.0.2, July 17, 2026, fixed a critical security flaw; because of its severity, WordPress.org forced the update onto affected sites^[35].
• WordPress 7.1 shipped August 19, 2026 with responsive styling controls, followed by the 7.1.1 security release on September 17^[36][34].
• Four 7.0.x security and maintenance releases landed between July and September 2026^[34].
• Patchstack counted 11,334 new vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, up 42% on 2024. 91% were in plugins, 9% in themes, and only six in WordPress core^[8].
• The WP Engine v. Automattic lawsuit continues; WP Engine filed a third amended complaint in February 2026, alleging Automattic demanded 8% of its monthly gross revenue as a royalty for the WordPress brand^[37].

Should a contractor use WordPress?

• Likely a fit: you want to own your site outright, plan to grow past a handful of pages (service and city pages, a blog), and have a developer, agency or host that handles updates, backups and security.
• Likely not: nobody will log in to update plugins. Unpatched plugins are where WordPress sites get hacked, and speed tends to suffer as plugins pile up.
• WordPress.com instead of self-hosted: only if you want WordPress without managing hosting. Budget at the renewal price, choose Business or higher to avoid the larger transaction fees, and set the third-party sharing box on purpose.
• Either way: test your site in Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile. With under half of WordPress sites passing Core Web Vitals, check yours rather than assume.

Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress free for a contractor website?

The self-hosted WordPress software from WordPress.org is free under the GPL licence, but you pay separately for hosting, a domain and any premium themes or plugins. Those prices are set by each provider. WordPress.com, the hosted version, has a free plan with ads and a 10% transaction fee, and paid plans from $4 a month for the first year on annual billing.

What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

WordPress.org is the free, open-source software you install on hosting you choose, with full control over code, robots.txt and plugins. WordPress.com is Automattic’s hosted service with its own plans, priced from free to $70 a month billed monthly, with first-year discounts that rise at renewal.

Does WordPress block AI crawlers like ChatGPT?

Self-hosted WordPress does not; its default robots.txt only blocks the admin area, and you can edit it freely. WordPress.com has a "Prevent third-party sharing" setting that adds known AI bots to robots.txt and opts out of content licensing, but it is off unless you turn it on. A CDN such as Cloudflare can also block AI bots independently of WordPress.

Are WordPress websites slow?

On average they are slower than website builders. In August 2026, 48.7% of WordPress sites passed all Core Web Vitals on mobile, against 53.0% across the web and 71–86% for the builders we compared. Speed varies widely by theme, plugins and hosting, so an individual WordPress site can be fast.

Do AI engines recommend contractors with WordPress websites?

Yes. In a BaaDigi study of 511 contractor websites recommended by AI engines, 49.3% ran on WordPress, the largest share of any platform. That is correlation only: WordPress is also the most common platform on the web, and the study cannot show the platform causes recommendations.

Related reading

• Best website platform for contractors
• What platform do AI-recommended contractors use?
• Is Wix good for a contractor website?
• Why Next.js beats WordPress for contractor sites
• AI crawlers and your contractor website’s robots.txt
• What is an llms.txt file?