CloudLinux and WebPros say small WordPress teams are carrying big-site workloads

A global survey of 210 WordPress agencies and freelancers finds most teams are small, but many manage large portfolios and control hosting decisions. The report points to security patching, performance work and AI automation as the biggest pressure points for an industry expected to lean more on tooling.

Why it matters: - WordPress agencies are managing portfolio-scale client responsibilities on solo or small-team resources. - The gap between workload and staff size is pushing more interest in automation, AI and hosting tools that reduce manual maintenance. - The report suggests security patching and performance work are becoming the main operational bottlenecks for agencies.

What happened: - CloudLinux and WebPros released the State of WordPress Agencies in 2026. - The report is based on a global survey of 210 WordPress agencies and freelancers conducted from April 14 to May 15, 2026. - The survey found 78% of agencies are solo operators or small teams of up to 10 people. - 18% of agencies manage more than 100 client WordPress sites. - 83% of agencies own or significantly influence the hosting decision for client sites.

The details: - Keeping plugins and themes updated across multiple sites is the top security challenge, cited by 65% of agencies. - That share rises to 75% among agencies managing 100+ sites. - 28% of agencies describe their overall security workload as significant, heavy or overwhelming. - 37% of agencies describe performance work that way, above the security share. - Plugin and theme bloat is the top performance issue, cited by 59%. - Manual, one-site-at-a-time updating is still the most common update approach at 29% overall. - That manual approach rises to 45% among agencies managing 100+ sites.

Between the lines: - The survey points to a mismatch between client responsibility and operational capacity. - Agencies are already using AI broadly for content creation, code development and SEO research, but not yet for the maintenance work that creates the most strain. - 92% of agencies use AI tools, but only 16% apply AI to site monitoring or maintenance automation. - 39% are already using AI coding agents such as Cursor, Claude Code and Windsurf for complex development tasks. - 63% say AI and automation will be the biggest force reshaping the segment over the next two to three years. - CloudLinux CEO Igor Seletskiy said the biggest gap is that agencies responsible for 100 or more live sites still lack automation where security and patching matter most. - WebPros Chief Commercial Officer Craig Millman said hosting infrastructure needs to take on more of the heavy lifting so agencies can focus on core work.

What's next: - Agencies are likely to keep looking for tools that automate updates, improve pre-update testing and reduce security overhead. - The report says the top AI capabilities agencies want are automated WordPress updates with intelligent pre-update testing at 38% and automated security across client sites at 35%. - The full report is available for download here. - The survey covered agencies across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, Latin America and globally distributed client bases.

The bottom line: - WordPress agencies are running larger client portfolios than their headcounts suggest, and the next wave of growth appears tied to automation that can handle routine maintenance at scale.