WordPress powers roughly 40% of all websites and remains our default recommendation for most nonprofit sites. It’s flexible, well-supported, and your team can update content without calling a developer. The ecosystem of plugins and themes is enormous. The main risk is complexity creep — too many plugins, not enough maintenance. Keep it lean, keep it updated, and it’ll serve you well.
Squarespace is viable for very small organisations that need something simple and don’t have developer support. The templates are polished, the learning curve is gentle, and hosting is included. The tradeoff: less flexibility, less control, and you’re locked into their platform.
Custom or headless solutions (Craft CMS, headless WordPress, static site generators) are worth considering if you have specific technical needs or a development team. They offer better performance and more control, but they cost more to build and maintain. For most nonprofits, this is overkill.
Hosting matters more than people think. A cheap shared hosting plan will make your site slow, which hurts your search rankings and frustrates visitors. Invest in decent hosting — for a WordPress site, managed WordPress hosting from providers like WP Engine or Kinsta is worth the modest premium. Your site speed is a direct reflection of your hosting quality.
Security is non-negotiable. SSL certificates (the padlock in the browser), regular software updates, strong passwords, and automated backups. If your site collects donations or personal information — and it probably does — security is a duty of care, not a technical nice-to-have. Most modern hosting providers handle SSL and backups automatically, but check.
