PLATFORM COMPARISON
Platform categories across five evaluation criteria
WordPress VIP
Enterprise DXPs
Managed WP hosts
Self-managed cloud
Headless / composable CMS
Operational responsibility
Managed by platform
Shared; vendor roadmap, internal specialists
Infrastructure managed; governance and security customer-owned
Fully customer-owned
Customer-owned; front end and integrations fully internal
Governance and compliance
Embedded; FedRAMP Moderate authorized, security review, workflow controls
Vendor-defined; varies by platform and contract
Customer-defined; plugin governance and compliance internal
Customer-defined; full architectural responsibility
Customer-defined; compliance layered on separately
Economic model
Predictable platform fee; reduces infrastructure and talent overhead
High licensing investment; specialized talent dependency
Lower infrastructure cost; internal headcount for governance
Infrastructure cost; significant internal DevOps investment
Platform fee plus significant front-end development investment
Flexibility and integration
Open-source WordPress; integrates across stack
Proprietary; integration constrained by platform architecture
Open WordPress; plugin ecosystem, customer-managed
Full architectural control; build any integration
API-first; maximum delivery flexibility, high development dependency
Long-term adaptability
Traditional, headless, and hybrid supported natively
Roadmap-dependent; replatforming risk if vendor priorities shift
Supports headless, but without managed architecture guidance
Maximum flexibility; full ownership of architectural evolution
High architectural flexibility; editorial experience varies by platform