Should a Nonprofit Use WordPress for Its Website?

Nonprofits choose WordPress because it is free. That is a reasonable starting point. The full cost is not zero, though. Someone still has to maintain it. For most nonprofits, that is a volunteer with other responsibilities and, often, nobody at all. An unmaintained site collecting donations is a real security liability.

What makes WordPress attractive for nonprofits

WordPress is the most widely used website platform in the world. It is free. It has extensive documentation. There are donation plugins, volunteer sign-up tools, event calendars, and membership systems all available for it.

Many nonprofits start on WordPress because a volunteer who knows it builds the initial site. That works. The site goes up, it looks good, and the organization gets online quickly.

What WordPress actually costs a nonprofit

Free software does not mean free operation.

Hosting runs $15 to $50 per month for a basic WordPress site. A managed hosting plan with security features runs higher.

Plugins cost money. The free versions of most serious plugins have paid tiers for the features organizations actually need. Donation plugins, event plugins, membership plugins, and form plugins all have costs.

Developer time costs money. When something breaks, when an update causes a conflict, when the site needs a new page, someone has to do that work. If you have a volunteer developer, they are doing it on borrowed time.

In 2025, researchers found 11,334 new WordPress vulnerabilities. About 91% came from plugins. A nonprofit site with a donation plugin, an event calendar, and a contact form has multiple active vulnerabilities to track and patch.

About 13,000 WordPress sites are attacked every day. Nonprofits with grant-funded origins and infrequent maintenance are well represented in those numbers.

The average small business pays about $14,500 recovering from a hack. For a nonprofit with a compromised donation page, the cost includes donor notification, potential legal obligations, and the long-term fundraising cost of damaged trust.

The volunteer maintenance problem

Most nonprofit WordPress sites are maintained by a volunteer. That volunteer has good intentions. They also have a job, a family, and a life.

Updates happen when the volunteer has time. That is often not often enough.

A site that was set up three years ago and has not been seriously updated since is accumulating vulnerability debt every week. Not because anyone is negligent. Because nobody’s job is to watch it.

Is there a better fit for most nonprofits?

Possibly. The right answer depends on your organization’s technical capacity and budget.

If you have a skilled technical volunteer who is genuinely committed to monthly maintenance, WordPress can work well. If you do not, the security risk from a lightly maintained donation-collecting site is not a small one.

Simpler options exist that require no technical maintenance from your team. The tradeoff is less customization. For many nonprofits, that is a worthwhile trade.

Basalt moves small business websites off WordPress to a platform with nothing to hack and nothing to update. The move is free.

To understand what your current site is actually costing you in risk and staff time, read about WordPress maintenance costs. If your site has already had problems, start here.

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