If you’re close to choosing your website platform, you’re likely debating HubSpot CMS and WordPress. You’re also probably asking which CMS is cheaper, but what you should be questioning is which CMS gives you the lowest total cost of ownership over the next three years, including risk, internal time, and cost of delay.
WordPress can look cheaper on paper, as the software is open-source. However, most teams today aren’t paying for software; they’re paying for ownership, security, hosting, plugins, maintenance, and the developer time needed to keep things running and evolving.
This blog compares HubSpot CMS (now known as HubSpot Content Hub) and WordPress on a three-year, like-for-like basis to help you make a decision based on total cost, not just the sticker price.
HubSpot Content Hub vs WordPress. What’s the verdict?
If you’re a scale-up or enterprise with multiple stakeholders involved, you make regular website changes, and HubSpot is a big part of your revenue engine, then HubSpot CMS/Content Hub is the right choice for you.
It’s usually the lower-risk, more predictable option over three years, as it consolidates hosting and security responsibilities, reduces maintenance overhead, and eliminates day-to-day developer dependencies.
But if you’re running a small, stable website and your priority is the lowest upfront website build cost, then WordPress can make sense. This is especially the case if you have an internal team that already owns security, maintenance, and ongoing developer capacity.
If you’re still struggling, this is the right maturity test to follow:
- If your website is a key revenue channel that changes often, then the total cost of ownership matters more than the sticker price
- If your website is static with minimal activity or changes, and isn’t a revenue driver, then the upfront cost could be the deciding factor
What’s included? And what’s bolted on?
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HubSpot |
WordPress |
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Content Hub is a cloud-based CMS. Marketers and developers have the tools they need to create amazing websites focused on the customer experience. Users can easily create content, optimise their website for conversions, and gain insight into performance, all in one place.
HubSpot CMS/Content Hub is a SaaS product with a monthly recurring cost. With this, you gain access to all HubSpot Content Hub tools based on your licence, such as Content Remix, Memberships, Case Study Generator, or SEO recommendations. You’ll also get easy-to-follow guides and developer documentation, along with the open API.
HubSpot has over 650 apps and integrations that you can integrate with CMS/Content Hub to extend the functionality if required. Best of all? 80% of these plugins are available in the Content Hub out of the box.
HubSpot is constantly updating its Hubs, including the Content Hub, and managing the backend. You’ll also get access to a world-class support team that’s available 24/7.
As expected, HubSpot CMS/Content Hub has built-in content creation, SEO tools, blog analytics, reporting, and AI tools all in one platform. |
WordPress is an open-source software package that must be installed or configured on your servers by a third-party hosting provider. It includes core tools such as content creation, but requires plugins for additional functionality, including sitemaps, SEO, analytics, and more.
As WordPress is open-source, it means the sticker price is lower or free, but you’ll incur hidden costs that add up quickly with features like hosting, security, maintenance, and plugins.
Since WordPress is open-source, it’s your responsibility to ensure your website is secure and well-maintained. Monthly security fees range from £15 to £35. Unless you have an internal team dedicated to maintaining your website, you’ll need to ensure someone regularly runs maintenance checks. This is an additional cost, ranging from £90 to £4,200 per month. |
With WordPress, open-source software isn’t the same thing as open-source ownership. With all the add-ons needed, organisations end up unintentionally creating a Frankenstein’s monster that’s difficult to manage and expensive to maintain.
A three-year total cost comparison
The table below shows five key ways HubSpot CMS/Content Hub helps you save money over the typical three-year lifespan of your website. Remember, you aren’t paying for security costs, there’s reduced need for extra development, you don’t need to pay for plugin subscriptions, you get free hosting, and there are no maintenance requirements.
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HubSpot |
WordPress |
Annual saving |
3-year saving |
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Security cost As WordPress is open-source, the website owner needs to manage the security, which can cost between £200-£800 per year. HubSpot CMS/Content Hub manages this for free. |
£0 (included) |
£200-£800 |
£200-£800 |
£600-£2,400 |
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Ongoing dev costs HubSpot is built for marketers with a no-code solution, meaning development needs are limited to new module requirements. Depending on requirements, ongoing development with a WordPress website can cost thousands per year. |
£0-£2,000 |
£0-£10,000 |
£0-£800 |
£0-£24,000 |
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Plugins HubSpot is an all-in-one solution that requires no plugins. WordPress websites usually require plugins, many of which have monthly or annual fees. |
£0 (included) |
£0-£800 |
£0-£800 |
£0-£2,400 |
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Hosting Hosting is included out of the box with HubSpot CMS/Content Hub vs other CMS options. |
£0 (included) |
£50-£300 |
£50-£300 |
£0-£900 |
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Maintenance WordPress requires regular maintenance, including backing up, updating plugins, and installing new WordPress versions. None of this is required with HubSpot CMS/Content Hub. |
£0 (not required) |
£600-£6,000 |
£600-£6,000 |
£1,800-£18,000 |
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Totals |
£850-£15,900 |
£2,550-£47,700 |
These are typical cost ranges you’re likely to see in the market. Not promises and not universal, plus things can change regularly. These can vary depending on your needs.
Yes, WordPress can be cheap to buy, but also expensive to operate, because:
- Unplanned work can happen when you least expect it. Incident response, broken updates, and urgent developer tickets are all common scenarios
- Costs are spread across vendors and budgets
- Security, updates, fixes, plugin conflicts — every responsibility sits with your team
While the sticker price may seem higher upfront, HubSpot is typically more predictable because more of the operational burden is built into the platform.
When is WordPress the right choice?
WordPress isn’t a bad choice. It’s just a different operating model than HubSpot CMS/Content Hub. WordPress can be the right choice when:
- You run editorial-heavy publishing with super-complex publishing workflows
- You have no CRM dependency
- You aren’t using HubSpot as a connected platform
- You’re only making a cost-only decision
- You have a team prepared to own security and maintenance
Operational cost and time savings
Time is money, and outside of ongoing costs, HubSpot’s no-code solution can be a big time saver. For instance, once the drag and drop functionality is custom-designed and developed, your teams can seamlessly:
- Create new website pages
- Create landing pages
- Edit existing paes
- Carry out A/B tests natively
With AI tools like Breeze to help craft content, all of this can be done without any coding or design knowledge. That means HubSpot CMS/Content Hub users benefit from:
- Time savings
- Cost savings as there are no heavy development fees
- Faster to launch new products and services
- There’s reduced friction in marketing
- Revenue is improved
Every day work where the costs show up
Making page changes
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WordPress: Marketing usually waits on developers or risks breaking something
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HubSpot: Once the website is built with the right components, teams can safely edit and publish with less developer dependency
Campaign launches
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WordPress: Additional QA, plugin interactions, and deployment cycles can massively slow down launches
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HubSpot: Faster page creation and iteration reduces the cost of delays
Running A/B tests
- WordPress: Typically bolted on through plugins or external tools
- HubSpot: Testing is native and marketer-friendly with less setup and less friction
Fixing issues
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WordPress: Responsibility, diagnoses, and fixes lie with your team or agency
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HubSpot: There are fewer moving parts, so fewer things need fixing. If something does break, HubSpot is on it
Opportunity cost and the costs you don’t see
When crunch time approaches and you need to select a platform, the choice is usually driven by risk and opportunity, not features. Here are the opportunity costs we see repeatedly.
Slower experimentation
If it takes you weeks to make changes on your website, you’ll naturally run fewer tests. That means slower conversions, slower learning, and slower revenue impact.
Disconnected CRM and CMS
When your website and CRM don’t link effectively, the cost shows up as:
- Tracking inconsistencies
- Less reliable personalisation
- Reporting gaps
- Awkward handoffs between the two systems
Missed personalisation and conversion gains
If your CMS makes it challenging to use CRM data in the website experience, you end up with:
- Generic experiences
- Lower impact from lifecycle marketing
- Slow iteration on conversion paths
Can you bolt HubSpot onto WordPress?
Short answer: yes.
However, bolt-on models typically fail over time for several reasons.
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Data consistency: You can end up with multiple sources of truth, patchy attribution, and inconsistent implementation of tracking across plugins and templates
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Long-term complexity: More vendors. More dependencies. More maintenance paths. All of this can create more failure points, more time wasted on coordinating fixes, and more hidden work that doesn’t necessarily show up as project spend, but still costs you
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Several breaking points: Plugin conflicts after updates, security patching responsibility, performance getting worse over time, and inconsistent reporting across systems. One of these tends to break first, and the rest follow
If HubSpot is central to your RevOps management, the native approach is simpler to operate and easier to govern.
If you’re still undecided between HubSpot CMS/Content Hub and WordPress, the fairest comparison is one that includes everything. Platform, maintenance, security, ongoing development, and the internal cost of waiting to make key changes. That’s what the total cost of ownership looks like in reality.
Frequently asked HubSpot CMS/Content Hub questions
Isn’t WordPress cheaper because it’s open source?
WordPress software is open source, but ownership isn’t free. Over three years, you still pay for hosting, maintenance, security, and ongoing development, plus internal coordination and risk management. These costs add up.
Why would we pay more for HubSpot CMS?
The operating model is often more predictable. The platform consolidates responsibilities that are usually distributed in WordPress stacks, which can reduce maintenance burden, security ownership, and everyday developer dependency.
Can’t we just bolt HubSpot onto WordPress?
You can connect HubSpot tools to WordPress, but bolt-on models often increase complexity over time. More integrations and moving parts can create data inconsistencies, reporting gaps, and higher long-term maintenance overhead.
What costs do teams underestimate most?
In our experience, it’s due to waiting on developers, maintenance overhead, security ownership, and the internal costs of operating a fragmented tech stack.
When should I not choose HubSpot CMS?
If you need a tiny website with minimal changes, you’re optimising just for the cheapest option, or you won’t use HubSpot beyond the website, then HubSpot Content Hub isn’t for you.
