When we started building AIKit, we evaluated multiple platforms for our marketing site. We needed something fast, developer-friendly, and capable of running the plugins we wanted to sell. WordPress was the obvious incumbent. EmDash was the dark horse. We chose EmDash. Here's why.
The Comparison
Performance: EmDash sites on Cloudflare Workers load in under 100ms TTBF globally. WordPress, even with good hosting and caching, typically loads in 200-500ms for dynamic pages. For a SaaS marketing site, every millisecond of latency affects conversion rates.
Cost: Our EmDash site runs for ~$5/month (Cloudflare Workers, D1 database, R2 storage, KV cache). A comparable WordPress setup with managed hosting, caching plugin, security plugin, and backup service runs $30-80/month.
Security: EmDash's sandboxed plugin model means a plugin can't access anything beyond its declared capabilities. WordPress plugins have full access to your database, filesystem, and admin panel — a single vulnerable plugin can take down your entire site.
Developer Experience: EmDash uses Astro, which means you write in .astro files with your preferred UI framework (React, Svelte, Preact, etc.). Deployment is git push → Cloudflare Workers. No FTP, no cPanel, no SSH.
Plugin Ecosystem: WordPress has 60,000+ plugins. EmDash has a growing ecosystem anchored by our Auto Blog/SEO plugin. But here's the trade-off: WordPress plugins are often bloated, conflicting, and poorly maintained. EmDash's sandboxed plugins are lightweight, isolated, and built to a higher standard.
The Bottom Line
WordPress is still the right choice for content-heavy sites that need thousands of plugins and themes. But for SaaS marketing sites, developer documentation, and plugin marketplaces, EmDash offers superior performance, security, and developer experience at a fraction of the cost.
Our traffic grew 340% in the first 60 days after switching. Was it all because of EmDash? No — our content strategy and SEO improvements played a bigger role. But EmDash gave us the foundation to execute that strategy without fighting the platform.