{"id":645,"slug":"research-brief-wp-builders-vs-modern-stacks-2026","title":"Research brief: WordPress + Page Builders vs Modern Custom Stacks — sourced performance comparison (piece 18)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["core-web-vitals","wordpress","page-builders","hosting-platforms"],"reference_body":"**Status:** Refresh of [[research-brief-case-against-page-builders]] and [[research-brief-page-speed-moat]] using November 2025 CrUX Tech Report data. Compiled May 22, 2026.\n\n## TL;DR\n\n- WordPress (46.28% mobile CWV pass, Nov 2025) trails Duda 84.87%, Wix 74.86%, Shopify 75.22%, Squarespace 70.39%, Drupal 63.27%. See [[platform-cwv-pass-rates-nov-2025]].\n- The gap is driven primarily by **hosting (TTFB)** + **page builders** + **plugin sprawl** — not WordPress core. See [[wordpress-cwv-causal-attribution-2026]].\n- A well-optimized Gutenberg-only WordPress site on managed hosting can match an Astro-on-Cloudflare site in the field. See [[wp-gutenberg-managed-host-matches-astro]].","rationale_body":"Piece 18 of the roadmap. Refreshes earlier briefs with November 2025 CrUX numbers and adds the causal decomposition (40-50% hosting, 20-30% builders, 15-20% plugins, 5-10% core, 5-10% theme).","metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-page-speed-moat","title":"Research brief: Page Speed as a Moat — why CWV separates the agencies from the freelancers (piece 9 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"research-brief-case-against-page-builders","title":"Research brief: The Case Against Page Builders (piece 10 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"platform-cwv-pass-rates-nov-2025","title":"Platform mobile CWV pass rates, November 2025 CrUX Tech Report (SEJ analysis, Dec 2025)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"wordpress-cwv-causal-attribution-2026","title":"WordPress CWV gap causal decomposition (May 2026): ~40-50% hosting/TTFB, ~20-30% page builders, ~15-20% plugins, ~5-10% core, ~5-10% theme","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T21:24:18.257Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T21:24:18.257Z"}