WordPress reliability — what real-world data shows
A WordPress site launched 10 years ago is probably still running. That tells you more than any benchmark.
The most honest reliability metric for a CMS is the share of sites that survive 5-10 years post-launch. By that metric, WordPress is unmatched.
Why WordPress lasts
- Backwards compatibility. A theme written for WordPress 4.0 in 2015 mostly still works on WordPress 6.x in 2026. Few platforms hold that line.
- Talent market. A WordPress dev is a day away. A custom PHP project from 2018 — months to find someone willing to touch it.
- Massive ecosystem. Plugin breaks? Ten alternatives. Custom code — none.
- Transparent updates. Each major release is documented, tested by huge community.
What makes WordPress unreliable (and how to avoid)
- Plugin overload. 30+ plugins = headaches. Stay under 15-20 essentials.
- Bargain shared hosting. WordPress isn't at fault — you picked $3/month. Decent hosting ($25-50/month) changes everything.
- Custom theme without updates. Themes need maintenance too.
- Old PHP version. 8.2+ is required.
In our experience WordPress sites running 5+ years are still going strong without major intervention. Equivalent custom sites built on "modern stacks" in 2018 — half are dead or in full rewrite mode.