Why Migrate from WordPress to Sitecore

As an agency specializing in digital transformation and enabling content management system (CMS)-driven experiences, we increasingly encounter requests to re-platform sites from WordPress to platforms like Sitecore. But what's behind this trend? WordPress is the most widely used web content management on the market — a capable and a battle-tested staple in the industry. There are many factors that drive an organization to migrate from WordPress to Sitecore, so it's important to understand the variables that impact that decision.

It All Comes Down to Digital Maturity

The modern digital marketing team needs to manage much more than static website content — they're now digital marketers that seek to create consistent customer experiences across a wide range of channels and touchpoints. A CMS alone will not keep pace with rapidly changing marketing technology.

Most organizations are turning towards digital experience platforms (DXPs) that can span a wide range of capabilities — connecting content management with marketing operations, data-driven personalization, commerce, search, and more into a fully connected and integrated solution. A DXP and its composable tools will provide a better return on investment (ROI) over time than a pure content management system. Positioning your organization’s tech stack to scale to meet the quickly evolving industry trends requires a choosing a system that…

1. has the flexibility to quickly create custom data models, taxonomies, and features or provide highly structured content, when warranted.
2. easily handles content translation, custom variants, and complex workflows that are bespoke to every organization.
3. enables publishing to serve omnichannel content needs — not just web properties
4. offers built-in site-level behavioral analytics and A/B testing for rapid iteration and learning what resonates best for target audiences.
5. is future-facing in that may easily be integrated with tools to cover advanced search, digital asset management, personalization, customer data activation, digital marketing automation, generative AI, CRM, and more.

This is not to say that it is isn’t possible pair WordPress with integrations that round out some of these business needs. After all, one of its strengths is its vast set of plugins that help to broaden its functionality. The catch is that their open-source plugin ecosystem can be less secure and lead to system bloat overtime as you add new functions, impacting site performance and maintenance long term. Contrast this with Sitecore which has embraced composability and MACH architecture with its acquisition and integration of a handful of capable API-first solutions.

While there is a still a supported monolithic platform DXP, the R&D budget is clearly aimed at their newer software as a service (SaaS)-based offerings that let you choose the best-in-breed tools you need, when you need them, on your journey to digital maturity. And because the products are SaaS, upgrades become far less costly and time consuming. Like WordPress, content management remains at the core of their offering but it’s now just one of many parts of the digital experience constellation.

The Bottom Line

For organizations that don’t require a lot of marketing support built in and have very structured but content publishing needs (think blog, news, or reports at volume), WordPress can be a logical choice. However, for larger enterprises, specifically those with more robust marketing and development budgets, Sitecore may be a better fit for its flexibility, scalability, flexibility, and customization options.

Unsure whether your company is leveraging the right set of tools or getting the most out of their CMS platform? Contact us for a consultation.