Counter-argument: a $200/mo managed platform buys you a larger security team than most agencies have

Claim (honest steel-man): WP Engine, Shopify, and Squarespace each employ security teams larger than most agencies. A self-hosted VM with no patching discipline is more vulnerable than a managed platform, not less. A small business paying $200/month to WP Engine is buying a security team, not just hosting.

Source: Honest gap H1 in brief 4 (Research brief: Owning your stack — why agency-managed platforms cost more than they save (piece 4 of 15)).

Confidence: Industry-consensus.

Implication for Candid positioning: The argument for "owned stack" depends on operational competence that the article cannot assume. Don't pretend self-hosting is free — it isn't. The right comparison is total cost of ownership (license + dev time + security + on-call + backup ops), not just license fees. This is where the maintenance-retainer line item in Candid pricing earns its keep.