HubSpot

Big Orange Lab, founded in 2015, is a  website development agency based in Chicago with their roots based in Security.  Big Orange Lab supports both HubSpot and WordPress based clients and is also a HubSpot and Wp Engine agency Partner.  We are committed to both platforms.

However, over the past several years, we have seen that our customers who have chosen to build their websites using HubSpot have been much happier than our WordPress clients as HubSpot Content Hub based websites are:

• Easier to update content
• More secure
• Incurring much lower monthly maintenance costs

In order to maintain a healthy WordPress website, constant maintenance is required as the Core software and all of the plugins require constant monitoring and updating.  

• We typically spend 5 hours per month on the average WordPress website to keep all of the software up to date.  HubSpot requires no software maintenance hours.
• Key plugins like Advanced Custom Fields and Elementor require annual fees to continue receiving security updates.  All HubSpot features are included at a flat rate price.
• WordPress provides no support, HubSpot offers support 24/7

Additionally, new security vulnerabilities are discovered with WordPress plugins constantly,  leaving websites vulnerable to security issues if not updated immediately.  With HubSpot, this is never a concern as all of the core software is automatically maintained by HubSpot and there are no additional software or plugins to maintain.  

For companies concerned with security and ongoing maintenance costs, HubSpot is by far the better choice.  When you add in features that HubSpot includes with Pro like AB Testing, Membership and HubDB, HubSpot is a much better value.

Recent WordPress Turmoil 

Since September 2024, our confidence in WordPress being a predictable and stable platform has been shaken.  Their CEO has started a feud with Wp Engine that resulted in WordPress taking actions that have put their websites at risk for security vulnerabilities and have shown that their CEO and as a result the platform is unpredictable.

At this time, the entire WordPress ecosystem is what we would describe as a crisis.  

• An unpredictable CEO who has recently made decisions that negatively impacted over 1.5 million websites and made these websites more vulnerable to attack. Read more below.
• An uncertain future as their number of core developers are shrinking
• Uncertainty in their roadmap goal to upgrade the platform to the modern code base they have planned.

Many of you may not be aware, but since September 2024, there has been an ongoing feud and drama between WordPress and their top hosting platform Wp Engine.  This has been playing out in public and in court.  For us and our customers, our daily jobs are filled with uncertainty and constant change, we do not believe that these same challenges should be happening within the website platform we choose.  Below is a short recap of what has been taking place.

In October of 2024, the CEO of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg began to take actions that we believe were irresponsible and unnecessary and made thousands of WordPress websites less secure. Additionally, we believe his actions have brought uncertainty and worse, unpredictability to the entire WordPress ecosystem.

Actions taken by WordPress overview:

Sep 25, 2024 - Websites hosted on Wp Engine were banned from accessing the Plugin Updating system controlled by WordPress.  This meant that 1.5 million websites were unable to run automatic updates on Plugins including those that needed to be patched for security purposes. Wp Engine implemented a workaround for all their customers 5 days later, but this action caused a lot of stress for many companies and agencies. Wp Engine responded quickly and nobly to this issue and created a solution, however, uncertainty still prevails.

Oct 12, 2024 - WordPress hijacked one of the most popular plugins for enterprises, Advanced Custom Fields.  They have also continued to take action against other Plugins

April 2, 2025 - WordPress lays off 16% of their staff.  Read here

April 8, 2025 - WordPress announces that the next major release - 6.8 will be the last major update of the year .  Read here

April 15, 2025 - WordPress releases the major release version 6.8.  Sense then, our agency alone has spent over 150 hours of unplanned work fixing a variety of issues across many of our clients created by plugins where it appears the creators were unprepared for the update or had abandoned their plugins.

Ongoing - WordPress has cut off Core and Plugin developers from their Slack channel for any hint of disagreement with their actions.  A former Big Orange Lab employee who contributed to several WordPress code initiatives was kicked off of the platform for simply disagreeing with a post the CEO of WordPress made.  This sort of petty action has no place in website platforms that enterprises rely on.

This is a must read, it is a a full timeline outlining all of the drama that has taken place with WordPress since September 2024.

Big Orange Lab will continue to support our WordPress clients and keep them as secure as possible, but we are now recommending HubSpot as the most secure and flexible CMS solution available to businesses.

What Reps Should Say

• WordPress leadership instability is creating unnecessary security risks.

• Frequent layoffs and developer attrition threaten platform innovation.

• HubSpot CMS offers a secure, reliable, enterprise-grade alternative with a fraction of the maintenance time required.

• Unlike WordPress, HubSpot CMS offers an all-in-one, fully managed environment that removes security and plugin management headaches while providing enterprise-grade performance and uptime.