Executive Summary
We scanned 82 landscaping companies websites to understand the true state of WordPress in the industry. Of the sites analyzed, 15 were confirmed WordPress sites—and the data tells a concerning story.
The average landscaping companie website has 6.5 plugins installed, creating a fragile stack that requires constant maintenance. Worse, 80% of sites received a failing grade (D or F) for mobile performance—a critical metric when homeowners are increasingly searching on their phones.
With an estimated $173/month in hidden maintenance costs per site, landscaping companies are collectively spending over $31,068 annually just to keep their WordPress sites running. Our analysis suggests they could save $25,848/year by migrating to a modern platform.
Mobile Performance: The Ugly Truth
Google's PageSpeed Insights measures real-world performance. Here's how landscaping companies scored on mobile:
Why this matters: First impressions matter in an industry that's all about curb appeal. Your website should look as good as your work.
Plugin Fragility: A House of Cards
Every plugin is a potential point of failure—an update that breaks your site, a security vulnerability, or an abandoned project. Here's how landscaping companies stack up:
The sites with 20+ plugins face the highest maintenance burden—each update cycle risks breaking functionality, and the more plugins you have, the more likely conflicts become.
Page Builder Lock-in
Page builders promise easy editing but create vendor lock-in and performance overhead. Here's what landscaping companies are using:
67% of WordPress landscaping companies use a page builder. While these tools make editing easier, they add significant performance overhead and make future migrations more complex.
Security Concerns
Outdated WordPress installations and vulnerable plugins are the #1 attack vector for hackers. With landscaping companies handling sensitive homeowners data, these security gaps pose significant business risk.
The Real Cost of WordPress
We calculated the true cost of ownership including hosting, security, plugin licenses, maintenance time, and developer support:
By migrating to a modern platform like Webflow, landscaping companies could eliminate plugin costs, reduce security overhead, and drastically improve performance—all while cutting their total cost of ownership.
Methodology
We compiled a list of 82 landscaping companies websites from industry directories and public sources. Each site was scanned using our automated analysis tool, which checks:
- WordPress detection and version identification
- Plugin enumeration and vulnerability scanning
- Google PageSpeed Insights API for performance metrics
- Page builder and theme detection
- Security header analysis
Of the 82 sites scanned, 15 were confirmed WordPress installations. The remaining 67 used other platforms (Webflow, custom builds, etc.) and were excluded from WordPress-specific analysis.
Scan conducted December. Individual site data kept anonymous.