We host a lot of WordPress sites, which could make this a biased take. Here’s the honest version anyway: WordPress is very good for a lot of use cases, and not automatically the best fit for every one.
Where WordPress genuinely wins
Content-heavy sites, blogs, most small business marketing sites, and stores of moderate complexity. The plugin ecosystem is enormous, it’s well understood by a huge pool of developers, and you’re never locked into one company’s platform.
Where a website builder (Squarespace, Wix) can make sense
If you want the absolute simplest setup, have very basic needs, and don’t mind being locked into one company’s ecosystem and pricing long-term, an all-in-one builder can genuinely be less hassle for a very simple site.
Where a custom-built platform makes sense
Highly specific applications — not really “websites” so much as web software — sometimes genuinely need custom development rather than a general-purpose CMS. This is the exception, not the rule, for most small businesses.
Our honest recommendation
For most small businesses that want to own their site, control their costs long-term, and not be locked into one vendor, WordPress is the right default. It’s just worth choosing it because it fits, not just because it’s the most common answer.