--- title: WordPress Alternatives in 2026: Which Ones Are Really... description: WordPress remains the most flexible choice for most websites, but several alternatives have gotten stronger through 2026. Shopify still leads for ecommerce,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-alternatives-in-2026-which-ones-are-really-worth-it--xhaaom7xa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: WordPress Alternatives in 2026: Which Ones Are Really Worth It? | daily.dev og:description: WordPress remains the most flexible choice for most websites, but several alternatives have gotten stronger through 2026. Shopify still leads for ecommerce,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-alternatives-in-2026-which-ones-are-really-worth-it--xhaaom7xa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/xhaaom7xa.png og:image:alt: WordPress Alternatives in 2026: Which Ones Are Really Worth It? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # WordPress Alternatives in 2026: Which Ones Are Really Worth It? **[WP Mayor](https://daily.dev/sources/wpmayor)** · 12 min read · 12 upvotes · 4 comments ## Summary WordPress remains the most flexible choice for most websites, but several alternatives have gotten stronger through 2026. Shopify still leads for ecommerce, Webflow restructured in May and is moving upmarket toward marketing teams, and Cloudflare bought the Astro team then shipped its own CMS, EmDash, reaching stable 1.0 on September 28. WordPress itself released version 7.0 'Armstrong' with an AI Client built in, and now powers 39.6% of all websites per W3Techs. Automattic also went through a leadership crisis in September when Matt Mullenweg was briefly placed on paid leave before returning as CEO two days later. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is Cloudflare's EmDash CMS and is it ready to replace WordPress? EmDash is an open-source CMS written in TypeScript, built on Astro, released under the MIT license by Cloudflare. It reached stable 1.0 on September 28, 2026, after an early developer preview on April 1, 2026. Its plugin model runs sandboxed plugins with no default access beyond their own storage. However its plugin ecosystem is tiny compared to WordPress's 72,000+ plugins, and much of its 1.0 feature set relies on Cloudflare-specific infrastructure, so it's best tested on a small project first. _Evaluating a WordPress alternative like EmDash gets easier when you track CMS updates on daily.dev._ ### What happened in the Automattic and Matt Mullenweg leadership crisis in September 2026? On September 9, 2026, Automattic's board placed Matt Mullenweg on paid leave and named CFO Mark Davies interim CEO. Two days later Mullenweg announced he was back in control, and Automattic confirmed his return as CEO. Existing WordPress installs kept running and updating normally throughout, but the episode highlights that WordPress's direction depends on a small number of people. _Developers weighing long-term platform risk follow governance news like this on daily.dev._ ### How much do Squarespace prices increase in 2026 and is it still worth it? Squarespace raised its US prices in July 2026: Basic went from $16 to $19 a month, Core to $29, Plus to $49, billed yearly, while Advanced stayed at $99. It still suits photographers, creatives and small businesses wanting a polished site with no hosting to manage, but anything custom like memberships or unusual integrations hits a wall since there's no plugin ecosystem to fall back on. _Comparing builder pricing against WordPress gets simpler by following platform cost changes on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@johnmac** · 1 upvotes > EmDash looks interesting. Would be cool to hear from anybody who have used it. **@diyweb** · 0 upvotes > The EmDash question is worth testing on something small. Move one site with a few page types and check the editing experience for a non-developer, whether old URLs and redirects survive, and what the export looks like if you leave. Stable 1.0 only arrived on September 28, so check that the plugins and hosting you need exist. **@joshiyogesh0333** · 0 upvotes > Astro : [https://astro.build/](https://astro.build/) **@rerah** · 0 upvotes > I have to try some of these out ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My 7-Year-Old Wanted to Build a Website. 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Long live the CMS.](https://daily.dev/posts/the-cms-is-dead-long-live-the-cms--ukrvask6f) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#wordpress](https://daily.dev/tags/wordpress), [#nocode](https://daily.dev/tags/nocode), [#cms](https://daily.dev/tags/cms), [#shopify](https://daily.dev/tags/shopify) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-alternatives-in-2026-which-ones-are-really-worth-it--xhaaom7xa) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"WordPress Alternatives in 2026: Which Ones Are Really Worth It?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-alternatives-in-2026-which-ones-are-really-worth-it--xhaaom7xa","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-alternatives-in-2026-which-ones-are-really-worth-it--xhaaom7xa"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T11:57:16.533Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T12:08:31.888Z","description":"WordPress remains the most flexible choice for most websites, but several alternatives have gotten stronger through 2026. 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Would be cool to hear from anybody who have used it.","datePublished":"2026-10-28T09:48:49.957Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/xhaaom7xa#c-neD6SW0Us","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"John Mac","url":"https://daily.dev/johnmac","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---Po9APrg--/f_auto/v1752045662/avatars/avatar_hneqBY3mjPwR1mvspseec?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The EmDash question is worth testing on something small. Move one site with a few page types and check the editing experience for a non-developer, whether old URLs and redirects survive, and what the export looks like if you leave. Stable 1.0 only arrived on September 28, so check that the plugins and hosting you need exist.","datePublished":"2026-10-28T12:27:36.006Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/xhaaom7xa#c-Ax7Aivsvv","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"DiyWeb","url":"https://daily.dev/diyweb","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--dgS6jDeN--/f_auto/v1790879420/avatars/avatar_774zDwMaRTNS1fv5OKStX?_a=BAMAMicg0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Astro : https://astro.build/","datePublished":"2026-10-28T09:56:42.471Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/xhaaom7xa#c-UJ0SSnI9Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yogesh Joshi","url":"https://daily.dev/joshiyogesh0333","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocIPvjRCysIT3rWlU6btvHwbtOv2UxiA72Q4Obo9cVtAaD_vSMQ=s96-c"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I have to try some of these out","datePublished":"2026-10-28T21:43:44.303Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/xhaaom7xa#c-fdW7YlB9k","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rerah","url":"https://daily.dev/rerah","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/208516865?v=4"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-alternatives-in-2026-which-ones-are-really-worth-it--xhaaom7xa#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is Cloudflare's EmDash CMS and is it ready to replace WordPress?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"EmDash is an open-source CMS written in TypeScript, built on Astro, released under the MIT license by Cloudflare. 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