In the past, while supporting clients on their website projects, our recommended platform of choice was generally Wordpress. Not surprising really when you consider that Wordpress powers over 43.5% of websites across the world.
However, over the last few years, the HubSpot content management system (CMS) has become more and more used in our portfolio.
Over the last few years, I’m pleased to say that we’ve witnessed some massive investment in the HubSpot platform and the CMS has become a big priority for them. They were fully aware of the limitations of the platform, and they have gone all out to not only equal the capabilities of other mainstream platforms but surpass them.
This doesn’t mean that we now only work on HubSpot though.
No platform can boast being suitable for every use case. So when we’re working on a website project, we have to make a decision as to which platform to recommend on a case-by-case basis.
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
Let’s start by defining what a content management system (CMS) is — and why your choice matters.
A Content Management System (CMS) is a software platform that enables you to create, manage, and update digital content on your website without needing to write code. Popular examples include WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. These systems empower marketers to take control of their websites — from publishing blog posts and uploading videos to updating images and managing site structure.
While traditional CMS platforms focus primarily on content creation and website design, HubSpot’s CMS Hub stands apart. It combines website management with built-in tools for CRM, marketing automation, analytics, and personalisation, making it a powerful option for businesses looking to grow and scale.
Choosing the right CMS matters because it impacts several critical factors - including flexibility, cost, security, ease of management, maintenance, and customisation.
Each platform comes with its own strengths and trade-offs, so it's important to consider your specific goals and resources. Ultimately, your decision should be guided by a cost-benefit analysis to determine which solution aligns best with your needs.
📽️ In the video below, our Lead Developer, Danielle Jacobs, provides expert insight into the characteristics of HubSpot vs. Traditional CMS platforms, as well as what's involved in the website/CMS migration process.
Let's dive into the pros, cons and considerations of each platform, which is described here in detail:
The Advantages of using HubSpot CMS
- 100% flexibility in look and feel
- All-in-one platform
- Ease of use
- Developer Efficiency
- Security & Maintenance
- Speed
- Costs
- Support
100% flexibility in look and feel
It certainly used to be correct that what you could make your site look like in HubSpot was extremely limited and there was an antiquated template system. However, now, if your designer can design it, it can be developed in HubSpot. Take a look at this site https://designers.hubspot.com/inspire which is a showcase of sites created on the platform.
Danielle Jacobs, Lead Developer, at SpotDev, says: "HubSpot has come a long way in terms of flexibility, making it much easier to accommodate custom web development and features. This is largely thanks to the platform's powerful UI custom development capabilities."
SpotDev has extensive experience designing, building and migrating websites to HubSpot CMS. One standout project is our work with Unily, an employee experience platform, where we delivered a scalable, user-centric website tailored to their needs. Check out the case study here >> Building a scalable and user-centric website with HubSpot CMS for Unily
All-in-one platform
Everything is housed within HubSpot, so no need for lots of third-party plugins in order to build the functionality that you want. Your SEO, backups, security, spam filters and so on won’t require plugins either. Couple this with the seamless integration into the powerful HubSpot CRM and other marketing tools, you’ll save a lot of time, effort and money.
Ease-of-use
The HubSpot CMS is designed with the end-user in mind. The platform's new drag-and-drop editor, once all the theming of the site is done, it is really easy for a marketer to jump in and build a new page and format exactly how they want rather than needing to have a developer build out every element.
SpotDev partnered with MentionMe, an AI-driven referral platform, to design and develop a fully custom website on the HubSpot platform. Leveraging its expertise in specialised web development, SpotDev created bespoke HubSpot themes and modules tailored to MentionMe's brand. The project followed a structured, phased approach—beginning with the development of a custom HubSpot theme, followed by the creation of flexible drag-and-drop modules, web page builds, content production, and a comprehensive QA process before launch. Unlike agencies that rely on off-the-shelf templates, SpotDev crafts entirely custom templates to match each client’s unique design requirements.
Mention Me's website development includes a 13% reduction in bounce rate; 18% increase in pages per session and 40% increase in average session length. See case study.
Developer efficiency
The developer environment has been significantly improved to keep workflows as efficient as possible. This is backed up with plenty of documentation and support as well as an active developer community.
Speed, security & maintenance
All the performance issues are taken care of by HubSpot’s infrastructure. HubSpot has enterprise-level security, so you don’t need to worry about the site being hacked and speed is vastly improved through their content distribution network as well as a light codebase that will ensure pages are served to the user quickly.
Cost
Customers always ask, “Wordpress is free, HubSpot’s CMS is paid, why is cost an advantage?”
Well, to run a Wordpress site in a professional environment isn’t free at all. Whilst the Wordpress platform may be free, once you’ve taken into account other costs such as hosting, plugins, maintenance as well as the time sink of setting up integrations, performing backups, resolving security issues and completing all the required plugin, database and platform updates, then the costs of the HubSpot CMS represents extremely good value.
Support
If you’ve had a site built on Wordpress by an agency or freelancers, then it’s likely that you’ll rely upon them for any support that is needed. Alternatively, if you’ve built it yourself or don’t have a support package in place, you’ll be reliant upon community forums for help. There is no-one at Wordpress that will be able to help you. With HubSpot, there’s an extremely knowledgeable and accessible team that you can jump on the phone, have a live chat session or get email support to get any issue resolved. Many traditional CMS platforms make even simple changes difficult — a common frustration for marketing teams that HubSpot eliminates with its user-friendly editing experience.
The Disadvantages of HubSpot CMS
- Availability of developers
- Portability
Availability of developers
If you want changes made to the code, then you’ll need to go to a developer that has experience in the HubSpot CMS. Generally, you’ll need a HubSpot partner. There are more Wordpress developers than there are HubSpot developers. However, I don’t think this is a major issue as more and more agencies and developers are tuning into HubSpot as a platform. Several agencies, such as SpotDev, possess deep expertise in HubSpot website design, development, and migration services.
Portability
Moving away from HubSpot is an issue, if you did decide that you want to move your website, it’s not a simple migration. Effectively, you’ll need to recreate the site on the new platform from scratch. So HubSpot should not be seen as an experimental or short-term solution.
What is involved in a website migration?
Summary of CMS Migration to HubSpot:
Migrating from platforms like WordPress or Drupal to HubSpot is primarily focused on replicating the visual appearance, functionality, and content of the original site, rather than how the old CMS was built. A key concern for most clients is the potential SEO impact, such as losing traffic or rankings. SpotDev addresses this through a thorough analysis and planning process to preserve SEO value.
HubSpot allows for a high degree of flexibility, and most systems can be rebuilt or replicated using its native functionality. However, there are some differences in terminology and capabilities (e.g. WordPress categories vs. HubSpot tags), which are fully explained to clients during the process.
The migration is not overly complex but varies in timeline and cost depending on the original CMS. SpotDev manages the entire process, creating custom themes and templates in HubSpot—never using pre-built ones. Figma is used to guide any design updates or adjustments during the rebuild. While not a simple copy-paste, the process is efficient, with opportunities for natural UX improvements along the way.
The Advantages of using Wordpress
- 100% flexibility in look and feel
- Backend customisation
- Plugins & integrations
- Community
100% flexibility in look and feel
As with HubSpot, if your designer can design it, you can code it. Wordpress allows for extremely flexible designs.
Backend customisation
Wordpress allows a deep level of customisation to allow your site to have some very powerful functionality.
Plugins and integrations
There’s a whole host of third-party plugins and integrations that are easily accessible, a lot of them for free to save you having to develop functionality yourself. However, do be careful. Anyone can write and release a plugin, and the quality can vary as can the compatibility. We’ve seen an incompatibility of a plugin bring a whole site down.
Furthermore, excessive reliance on plug-ins can bloat your website - slowing down performance, increasing security risks, and complicating maintenance.
Community
As Wordpress powers a third of the internet, not surprisingly there is a huge community of Wordpress users and developers and there’s plenty of forums to pose questions, and gain support.
The disadvantages of Wordpress
- Security and maintenance
- Costs
- Setup and ease of use
- Support
Security and maintenance
WordPress has faced its share of security challenges, with numerous cases of sites being hacked or hijacked over the years.
While security patches are typically released quickly, it’s up to you to ensure that everything — including the WordPress core, PHP version, and all plugins — is kept up to date.
However, updates can sometimes introduce compatibility issues or cause features to break. Additionally, you're responsible for managing server performance and maintenance, which can be complex without dedicated technical support.
This can pose a significant challenge for marketers without technical expertise, who may struggle to manage ongoing maintenance, security, and the proper functioning and updates of plug-ins.
Costs
As previously mentioned, there’s a cost inherent with the maintenance and upkeep of your site. Time = Money. So if you or your developers are spending time updating, performing backups or general maintenance, working out integrations etc., this carries a cost.
Setup and ease-of-use
There’s a larger learning curve to use Wordpress, especially if using core functionality provided by different plugins that have different user interfaces.
Support
There is no Wordpress helpdesk that you can phone or email. As mentioned above, you’ll be largely reliant on your developers or user/developer forums in order to solve any issues that you have.
Now, both platforms are extremely powerful, and it’s not a binary decision as to which one is best. It’s a case of looking at each individual website requirement and taking it into account.
SpotDev’s Lead Developer describes the company’s approach to website design and development as deeply collaborative. Rather than delivering generic solutions, SpotDev builds strong relationships with clients—taking the time to understand who they are as a business, what they aim to achieve, and how they want their brand to be experienced. This partnership-driven process enables SpotDev to create websites that are not only functional, but truly remarkable.
If your company needs a new website, or would like to migrate your website from one CMS to another, we can help you.
