Arc XP vs WordPress VIP: Which is Best for Media Brands in 2025?

Arc XP is an integrated platform reflecting The Washington Post’s approach to content management, while WordPress VIP is a flexible platform for building custom publishing solutions that are in sync with your workflow.

Arc XP is a unified Digital Experience Platform (DXP) that integrates content management, digital asset management, content monetization, and workflow tools under a single vendor. It is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and leverages its ecosystem to meet users’ needs for scalability, performance, and security. 

Born out of The Washington Post’s desire for a unified workflow management and content governance platform, Arc XP houses all the out-of-the-box features large dailies might need to manage their newsrooms without relying on third-party tools. Its comprehensive suite includes Composer for interactive designs, WebSked for content planning, PageBuilder for website layouts, Subscriber Management for content monetization, and more.

Arc XP’s approach is to provide a product for every need so you never have to leave its ecosystem. However, this comes with some drawbacks—limited customization flexibility, risk of vendor lock-in, substantial custom development cost, and so on. 

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, is an enterprise-grade CMS renowned for its flexibility, scalability, and ability to integrate with a wide array of third-party tools. Unlike Arc XP, WordPress VIP provides a privately owned infrastructure optimized to cater to the scalability, performance, and security needs of large newsrooms. And on top of that, it’s also FedRAMP-authorized to serve the highest security requirements, including the U.S. government.

Designed to leverage WordPress’s open-source flexibility, WordPress VIP provides a highly customizable platform with all the custom themes, plugins, and integrations media brands need to assemble a best-of-breed tech stack in sync with their workflows. It offers extensive developer tools for website management, a unified content creation experience through the Gutenberg Editor, Parse.ly analytics to make working with data easy, high-touch 24/7 support, and more. 

WordPress VIP also boasts many agency partners and a vibrant community of developers, more so than Arc XP, ensuring large press corps have everything to develop completely custom solutions for even the most edge-case needs.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
Content Creation Experience
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers a dual-tool experience with PageBuilder for layout design and Composer for content creation. Integrates with Semji for SEO and provides a built-in AI editor for content generation.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Features a unified content creation experience via the Gutenberg editor, which supports block-based design and full-site editing. Integrates with Yoast for SEO and offers a Content Helper for smart assistance.
Editorial Workflows
🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers editorial workflow management tools within its Composer module. Also houses content planning and scheduling features within its WebSked module.	⭐⭐⭐⭐ Relies on the Multicollab plugin for collaborative editing within the Gutenberg editor, alongside Nelio Content for planning and scheduling tasks.
Digital Asset Management
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers an integrated DAM solution within its CMS, allowing easy asset management, categorization, and distribution.	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Partners with multiple DAM providers, including Aprimo, Cloudinary, and Scaleflex, enabling flexible and customized asset management solutions.
Content ROI
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Provides a dedicated subscriber management platform for creating and managing metered paywalls and a Content Stat dashboard to track key performance metrics like page views and bounce rates across platforms.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers Parse.ly for insight into content trends and conversions so you can prove the value of each piece of content and drive higher ROI. It also provides multiple plugins and partners with certified agencies to help enterprises build custom monetization solutions.
CMS Architecture
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Primarily a headless CMS, offering flexibility to use traditional or hybrid setups via its modular licensing system.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Supports traditional, headless, and hybrid architectures, allowing seamless switching between models, and more flexibility and ease in deployment.
Developer Tools
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Provides essential developer tools, including React.js, Node.js, Docker, GitHub integration, and a white-label mobile app solution for building dynamic front-end applications.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers extensive enterprise-level developer tools, including CI/CD, GitHub Codespaces, VIP-CLI, and enhanced database access, enabling efficient management of complex sites and codebases.
Multisite Management
⭐⭐⭐ Offers a multisite management tool via the WebSked Collection feature. It houses a common library with assets you can distribute to different sites to support shared design principles and set permission levels.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Provides a centralized multisite hub in the VIP Dashboard for complex multisite setups. It focuses on helping admins have centralized control over the structural and technical aspects of their sites, such as code, accesses, plugins, and themes.
Website Performance
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Integrates Catchpoint for proactive performance testing and monitoring front-end metrics to detect issues that may arise after code changes.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers an Insights & Metrics hub for tracking core performance metrics, infrastructure-level resources, and anomalies to ensure website stability.
Extensibility
⭐⭐⭐ Supports a proprietary platform that offers an integration framework for extended functionality. However, customization requires vendor involvement.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Benefits from WordPress’s open-source flexibility, supporting a wide range of plugins, themes, and third-party integrations for limitless customization.
Infrastructure & Scalability
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers a cloud-native platform hosted on AWS, using microservices and AWS products to provide a secure and performant infrastructure that can auto-scale during traffic spikes.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers a private infrastructure with 28 global data centers, auto-scaling, and a built-in CDN, providing high performance and scalability even during peak traffic.
Security
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Uses AWS security tools like IAM, CloudWatch, and AWS WAF, along with Akamai for DDoS protection and Datadog for application security monitoring.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers multi-layered security controls, including DDoS mitigation, database protection, and vulnerability management. It’s also FedRAMP-authorized to serve the US government security requirements.
Support
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Offers support through a Customer Enablement team, which provides training, onboarding, migration assistance, and 24/7 launch support, but the number of certified agency partners is limited.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Provides expert engineering support, 24/7 live chat, extensive resources, migration services, and a vast network of certified agency partners for easy onboarding.
Pricing
⭐⭐⭐ Consists of a set of modules you can license à la carte. Pricing plans are not publicly available, but estimates suggest that annual fees span from $50K to more than $3M, based on newsroom size and traffic volumes.	🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Consists of a Signature, Enhanced, and Standard package built for enterprises at all levels. Pricing starts at $25,000/year and scales based on monthly visitors.
Best For
Media brands and publishers seeking a turnkey platform with all the out-of-the-box features to handle sophisticated news operations.	Large newsrooms and publishers requiring a customizable platform to put together a best-of-breed tech stack tailored to their workflows.
Request a Demo	Request a Demo

What is Arc XP?

“Unified CMS for media-centric operations.”

Arc XP is a proprietary CMS platform born out of The Washington Post’s newsroom. It was founded in 2011 as an in-house solution for disaggregating content management from content publishing. In 2013, it took off, growing into a commercial product after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos acquired The Washington Post and accelerated funding for the platform. 

Arc XP, formerly Arc Publishing, is a single, integrated platform that combines content management, digital asset management, and website development capabilities. It leverages more than 100 Amazon Web Services products and integrates with Akamai, Catchpoint, and Mulesoft technologies to power its infrastructure.

It also features multiple modules you can license a la carte. There’s the WebSked module for content planning, Composer for interactive designs, PageBuilder for layout management, Subscription module for content monetization, and more. 

Overall, Arc XP is a digital platform that solves content development and digital experience challenges for organizations with CMS needs that reflect the Post’s editorial approach and workflow. 

What is WordPress VIP?

“Flexible, high-performance CMS for media giants.”

WordPress VIP was founded in 2006 by Matt Mullenweg as part of Automattic. It’s an enterprise-grade CMS that combines the ease and flexibility of WordPress—the CMS that runs 43% of the web—with the scalability, security, and support large media brands need to operate their sites and publishing workflows smoothly.

The platform supports a best-of-breed ecosystem to ensure publishers can choose and work with tools that offer the best value for their needs. With 28 data centers worldwide, WordPress VIP offers a private infrastructure purpose-built to keep enterprise websites online and performant, even amidst unexpected traffic spikes. 

At WordPress VIP’s core is a flexible architecture that can handle a single stack, headless, and hybrid CMSs, the Gutenberg Editor for content teams to enjoy a write-to-publish workflow, a suite of in-built developer tools, Parse.ly analytics to simplify working with content performance data, 24/7 support, built-in security controls, digital commerce, and much more. 

Overall, WordPress VIP is am enterprise-focused platform offering the infrastructure, flexibility, and agency partners media brands and publishers need to build a CMS in sync with their workflow. 

Arc XP vs. WordPress VIP: content management capabilities

Arc XP and WordPress VIP offer multiple authoring tools for creating and maintaining content-oriented websites without dealing with the technologies that power them. We’ll examine these tools in the following categories: 

• Content creation experience
• Editorial capabilities
• Digital asset management 
• Content monetization tools 
• Content analytics 

Content creation experience

Arc XP offers a PageBuilder editor for layout design and a Composer module for interactive designs. WordPress VIP provides a unified content creation experience within the Gutenberg Editor. 

Arc XP offers two distinct tools for web page management and content creation: 

• PageBuilder
• Composer 

PageBuilder editor is Arc XP’s WYSIWYG page assembly tool. 

It houses multiple themes for designing and managing web pages, supports a drag-and-drop layout for arranging content blocks, and implements contextual editing. 

It also gives platform admins the tools to set role-based permissions as to who can create, copy, export, or edit specific page versions.

👉 Note that the PageBuilder editor is a part of Arc XP’s experience platform (its website management environment) and requires a different license from the content platform for full access. 

The Composer, on the other hand, is part of Arc XP’s content platform. It offers a reporter- and editor-friendly interface with content-authoring tools to create interactive designs. 

You’ll find the features to compose articles, add photos, embed custom elements, and accelerate routine content creation procedures. 

Composer also supports an AI Editor that can help run ChatGPT-like prompts, summarize stories, generate headlines, recommend tags, create audio articles, and manage translations. 

While the AI Editor provides a starting point for SEO, it lacks the tools for advanced SEO activities like XML sitemap generation and canonical URL management. For such advanced SEO activities, Arc XP partners with Semji. 

Unlike Arc XP, WordPress VIP offers a dedicated Gutenberg Editor that unifies the web page management and content editing experience. 

Built for users of all skill levels, the Gutenberg Editor supports a block-based approach that enables users to build complex layouts and incorporate interactive elements into their content. 

Its core features include: 

• Blocks: pieces of rich content for creating custom posts and pages. 
• Custom blocks: for building feature-rich websites like a gallery or interactive news page.
• Full-site editing: for modifying page layouts like headers, footers, menus, widgets, and other parts controlled by themes and templates. 

👉 Note that WordPress VIP also offers a Block Governance plugin that controls who can create, modify, lock, and change blocks. This allows you to set the right guardrails and ensure that every piece of content conforms to a common set of brand standards.

Like Arc XP’s AI Editor, WordPress VIP also offers a dedicated Content Helper that supports ChatGPT-like prompting and can help analyze and improve the tone of your content. 

But unlike Arc XP’s AI Editor, the Content Helper aids organizations that would also like to use their historical content performance data to auto-optimize future content and get help with things like:  

• Generating titles and excerpts that are more likely to drive more traffic.
• Automatically inserting links into the most relevant, top-performing content.
• Getting insights into high-performing marketing channels and post-performance data directly in the editing interface.

And more.

👉 Keep in mind that WordPress VIP’s Content Helper is not the only smart assistant you can use with the Gutenberg Editor. You can also integrate: 

• Jetpack AI assistant: to create, revise, and translate content.
• ClassifAI: to relieve the editorial burden of remembering to add data like tags and categories when publishing posts or uploading media.

Finally, regarding SEO, WordPress VIP provides multiple SEO plugins you can integrate with the Gutenberg Editor to optimize every page for search engines. 

Editorial workflows

Arc XP houses its workflow management features within Composer and offers a dedicated module, WebSked, for content planning, while WordPress VIP relies on the Multicollab and Nelio Content plugins for workflow management and content planning.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP WebSked is a robust content planning tool that simplifies content production and publication. It provides a centralized dashboard with the tools to:

• Create a calendar of content schedules.
• Organize and assign tasks.
• Manage the status of each post.
• Pitch content for review to specific platforms or publications. 
• Automate task creation and assignment based on workflow status changes. 

WebSked is also one of the few products within Arc XP that perfectly embodies the platform’s philosophy of offering a tried-and-true “Write once, publish everywhere” experience. 

It offers tagging, collection, and automation tools designed for newsrooms and media houses managing multiple properties across siloed channels, enabling efficient back-end content organization and seamless multi-channel distribution.

However, if you want to use Arc XP to manage content workflows already in the editorial phase, you’ll find more leeway with Composer. Aside from the content creation tools it houses, it provides a centralized platform with the features to:

• Post in-line comments or internal memos within existing content
• Automate status notifications to Slack and Microsoft Teams.
• Access color-coded revision histories of past edits. 
• Set custom permissions and more. 

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, uses the Multicollab plugin from VIP Gold Agency Partner Multidots to bring Google Doc-style editorial comments to WordPress, simplifying the collaboration experience.

Multicollab integrates with the Gutenberg Editor, allowing you to review content in the production pipeline and confidently create better edits while your team resolves them in real-time. Its core features include: 

• A centralized dashboard to check edits, comments, and feedback.
• @mentions for quick team alerts.
• Suggestion mode for a bird’s eye view of which posts are ready to be published.
• Custom permissions and guest collaborations. 
• Inline commenting on content for quick clarifications and more.

For content planning operations—organizing and scheduling content workflows—WordPress VIP partners with Nelio Content to integrate a drag-and-drop editorial calendar into the Gutenberg Editor. You can use Nelio Content to: 

• Schedule tasks.
• Auto-publish posts. 
• Edit and filter posts by categories.
• Create, assign, complete, and delete editorial tasks.
• Create, modify, and preview social messages while editing a post, and more.

Digital asset management

Arc XP offers a built-in DAM solution to manage, organize, and distribute videos and pictures, while WordPress VIP partners with multiple DAM solution providers for digital asset management.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP provides a dedicated digital asset management (DAM) solution within its CMS platform. 

The CMS offers photo and video management modules that enable content creators to:

• Manage, reuse, and integrate media into their stories and content pieces.
• Tag, categorize, and search for assets using metadata and advanced filtering options.
• Capture, manage, monetize, and distribute videos.
• Include transcodes, live streams, channels, and advertisement integration to monetize assets independently of platforms like YouTube. 

The Arc XP DAM solution also supports version control for assets, enabling teams to track changes and revert to previous versions.

Unlike Arc XP, WordPress VIP doesn’t support an integrated solution.

Instead, it partners with multiple DAM-focused solution providers with the expertise and support to integrate a system tailored to your business needs. Core WordPress VIP DAM partners include: 

• Aprimo: to streamline and democratize content collaboration across teams and more.
• Cloudinary: to get campaigns and content to market faster.
• Scaleflex: to create a single source of truth for digital media assets. 

Content ROI

Arc XP provides a dedicated tool for creating metered paywalls and a dashboard for monitoring key performance metrics. WordPress VIP offers multiple content monetization plugins and a dedicated analytics product that makes driving results easy. 

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP offers a dedicated subscription and identity product you can license a la carte and integrate into the content platform. It provides the features to:

• Create metered paywalls and manage subscribers. 
• Define how subscriptions are structured (e.g., paywalls, freemium, tiered access). 
• Segment audiences based on subscription history, engagement, and content preferences. 
• And integrate with Subscribe with Google. 

The Subscriber and Identity product also houses the analytic tools and machine learning features admins need to maximize revenue and subscription growth within the content platform. 

Speaking of analytics, Arc XP’s Content platform comes with a Content stats dashboard. The dashboard provides an overview of overall content performance and the analytic tools to:

• Gain insights into audience behavior and engagement patterns. 
• Tracks user interactions like pageviews, time spent on content, and bounce rates.
• Tracks content effectiveness across multiple platforms, including websites, social media, mobile apps, and more.

👉 Arc XP also partners with Sophi.io to help publishers understand the value of their content as they work. 

Unlike Arc XP, WordPress VIP doesn’t offer a dedicated tool to help paid media companies manage digital subscriptions. 

It does support a myriad of content monetization plugins—including Sophi.io—plus partnerships with multiple certified agencies known for their ability to provide expert guidance and developer help to custom-build metered paywalls for your newsroom or media house. 

👉 However, if you manage small or mid-sized media brands and need an out-of-the-box package with all the tools to manage media subscriptions, check out Newspack—Automattic’s “right-sized” WordPress offering for smaller publishers. 

Unlike Arc XP’s Content stats dashboard, which simply helps you track key performance metrics, Parse.ly does that and also provides exclusive features to maximize revenue and drive ROI. These include: 

• Content Conversion feature for quick updates on data associated with high-value actions so you can quickly respond to trends.
• Content API you can plug into your sites to serve recommended content personalized to your audience.
• Data Pipeline to send raw, event-level data from your website and apps to your data warehouse.
• Historical data reports to see content trends over days, weeks, and months, helping you distinguish between timely and evergreen content and more. 

Arc XP vs. WordPress VIP: Web Development Stack

Arc XP’s development stack was built considering The Washington Post’s needs. In contrast, WordPress VIP’s web development stack is more customer-focused and built to cater to every media brand’s needs.  

With the content authoring aspects of Arc XP and WordPress VIP out of the way, it’s time to examine the technologies that power them. In this section, we will look at both tools’:

• CMS architecture 
• Developer tooling
• Multisite management 
• Website performance 
• Extensibility 

CMS architecture

Arc XP offers a headless CMS but can accommodate traditional and hybrid setups, while WordPress VIP supports traditional, headless, and hybrid architectures and allows you to switch between models as your needs change.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP is primarily a headless CMS, which decouples the content management system from the frontend presentation layer. 

This allows developers to deliver content across multiple platforms and channels without being tied to a particular display system or format. Content is managed and stored in a central repository and then delivered via APIs to different endpoints.

However, Arc XP also offers the flexibility to build and manage traditional and hybrid models. It supports this through its a la carte licensing style, allowing users to choose modules from different platforms (e.g., content platform, experience platform, or subscriber platform) to create a customized solution. 

This flexibility benefits marketers who need the agility of a headless CMS but still require some of the content management features of traditional CMS systems. 

Moving to WordPress VIP, its headless architecture, like Arc XP’s, supports multi-platform content delivery with an API-first approach. It allows you to build your own frontend from scratch while leveraging WordPress as your content hub.

However, unlike Arc XP, the VIP infrastructure simplifies headless deployment by bundling key components like CMS plug-ins, API packages, and databases into a simple package managed from a single administrative console, so getting started takes a fraction of the time.  

WordPress VIP also allows organizations to opt for a hybrid architecture within the same content hub. This hybrid approach provides the flexibility to combine the strengths of traditional and headless setups while adapting to various digital ecosystems.

You can also run a traditional CMS setup on WordPress VIP. This setup supports a straightforward web content management approach through a visual interface and gives you access to an extensive library of off-the-shelf themes to build custom experiences. 

Developer tools

Arc XP provides the tools developers need to build modern, dynamic frontend applications, while WordPress VIP offers all the developer tooling enterprises need to manage the most complicated sites and codebases.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP developer framework features the necessary tools to build custom feature blocks or extend pre-built feature blocks when managing their websites or applications:

• IProvides a local development environment setup via tools like React.js and Node.js.
• Has a CLI tool that allows developers to set up local development environments, manage deployments, and interact with APIs. 
• Supports containerization through Docker, allowing developers to run local instances of the platform.
• Offers a white-label native app that gives publishers a low-lift, turnkey solution for launching a mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
• Integrates with GitHub for version control and collaboration on codebases. 

On the other hand, the VIP Dashboard is custom-built to house all the tools enterprise developers need to develop a site and manage applications while working with speed, confidence, and efficiency. 

With the exception of Arc XP’s white-label native app, WordPress VIP offers all the same functionality with their developer tools and additionally offers: 

• Deployments panel: for a log of deployments made to a WordPress or Node.js environment. 
• Slow Query Logs: to see the most recent slow queries that have occurred in an environment.

• GitHub Codespaces: to spin up cloud-based development environments where you can write, test, and debug code.
• CI/CD tools: to optimize code management, testing, and validation. 
• VIP-CLI: to manage applications, environments, and developer operations at scale on WordPress VIP. 

• Enhanced Database Access with phpMyAdmin: a frontend tool to provide convenient read-only access to your database. 
• And much more. 

Multisite management

Arc XP provides a collection feature within its WebSked module for content management and distribution. WordPress VIP offers a centralized multisite hub within the VIP Dashboard to manage the structural and technical setups of 1,000+ sites. 

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP’s WebSked workflow management tool offers a Collection feature, which provides a common library you can use to group stories, galleries, and video assets and circulate across your websites. 

The Collection feature provides multisite content management tools to customize the digital properties within your CMS, ensuring all sites share similar design principles, page templates, global styling, and more.

It also allows you to set end users’ permission levels and access options based on their roles and responsibilities. 

On the other hand, WordPress VIP doesn’t offer just a common asset library. Its multisite feature allows you to create and run multiple sites from a single installation of WordPress Core files. Once set up, this is where you can manage:

• User account creation and access per site or at the network level.
• A shared resource of plugins and themes that can be accessed per site or at the network level.
• Support for multiple language translations for a site on a single WordPress install.

The multisite feature is located on the centralized dashboard that comes with WordPress VIP.  

Enterprise admins with access to the VIP Dashboard can customize the digital properties in their environment through the Network Sites panel. This houses the tools to manage 1,000+ network sites, set user access and permission levels, and update each site’s Address URL. 

Website performance analytics

Arc XP partners with Catchpoint for web performance and Google Lighthouse data. WordPress VIP provides a dedicated Insight and Metrics hub that shows your website’s overall health and how it responds to requests.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP integrates Catchpoint’s proactive testing and monitoring capabilities into its toolset.  

It provides development teams with the frontend metrics to monitor performance, filmstrip, and Google Lighthouse data charted against site updates and code changes.

At its core, Catchpoint gives you insights across your internet stack so you can detect and fix issues quickly, guaranteeing a smooth user experience across websites.

Unlike Arc XP, WordPress VIP offers a dedicated hub for monitoring website performance.

WordPress VIP’s Insights & Metrics hub houses all the tools to track frontend metrics and accurately assess your sites’ performance and stability.

Core performance metrics you’ll find on the Insights & Metrics hub include:

• The performance of responses to HTTP requests.
• The performance of an environment’s infrastructure-level resources.
• The size and health of an environment’s database.
• Metrics for cache utilization by an environment.
• And more. 

The Insights & Metrics Hub also offers an Anomaly Detection feature to safeguard the performance and stability of the mission-critical applications you host at WordPress VIP by flagging abnormalities in your applications.

Extensibility

Arc XP is a proprietary platform offering an integration framework for extensibility, while WordPress VIP leverages the flexibility of WordPress’s open source nature to support a vast range of plugins, themes, and integrations. 

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP is a closed-source platform structured to provide large newsrooms with all the out-of-the-box features they need to manage print and digital editions in one place. 

While it offers an integration framework (IFX) to extend the platform’s capability to meet new standards or projects beyond its out-of-the-box features, integrations seem primarily intended to enhance or augment Arc XP products rather than equally facilitating connections to third-party systems.

So, while the flexibility to connect with third-party tools is available, it’s mainly focused on enhancing Arc XP workflows,  and customization typically requires direct involvement with the platform’s custom development team. 

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, leverages WordPress’s open source flexibility, allowing a wide range of plugins, themes, and integrations. 

It allows for much more flexibility regarding third-party integrations and custom development and benefits from a large, active community of developers contributing to its development. 

👉 Also, remember that while Arc XP and WordPress VIP were built to be easy to develop for, requiring less specialized skills, WordPress VIP has more specialized agency partners equipped to handle the development needs of large media organizations.  

Arc XP is a closed-source platform structured to provide large newsrooms with all the out-of-the-box features they need to manage print and digital editions in one place. 

While it offers an integration framework (IFX) to extend the platform’s capability to meet new standards or projects beyond its out-of-the-box features, integrations seem primarily intended to enhance or augment Arc XP products rather than equally facilitating connections to third-party systems.

So, while the flexibility to connect with third-party tools is available, it’s mainly focused on enhancing Arc XP workflows,  and customization typically requires direct involvement with the platform’s custom development team. 

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, leverages WordPress’s open source flexibility, allowing a wide range of plugins, themes, and integrations. 

It allows for much more flexibility regarding third-party integrations and custom development and benefits from a large, active community of developers contributing to its development. 

👉 Also, remember that while Arc XP and WordPress VIP were built to be easy to develop for, requiring less specialized skills, WordPress VIP has more specialized agency partners equipped to handle the development needs of large media organizations.  

Arc XP vs. WordPress VIP: Enterprise Performance

Arc XP is built on AWS, leveraging its ecosystem to power its infrastructure, while WordPress VIP uses its own private infrastructure, offering the security and support to ensure it remains online and performant. 

Many CMSes have the content management and developer tools to help newsrooms and media houses scale. However, very few can boast of an infrastructure that can withstand the enterprise needs of this audience. Let’s see how Arc XP’s and WordPress VIP fare in terms of:

• Infrastructure and scalability
• Security features
• Enterprise support 

Infrastructure and scalability

Arc XP relies on AWS for its hosting, performance, and scalability needs, while WordPress VIP provides a private infrastructure with the performance and scalability tools to handle peak traffic. 

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP is a cloud-native platform fully hosted on AWS. 

It’s built on a microservices architecture using multiple AWS products to provide large media brands with the security, scalability, and reliability features to achieve their goals.

It leverages several AWS services, including but not limited to:

• AWS Elemental Media service to power the live video platform.
• AWS Lambda, which provides computing service for the PageBuilder.
• Amazon Kinesis to enable client integrations. 
• Amazon DynamoDB for Arc’s extensible content stores. 
• Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for web traffic offloading and application caching.

Arc XP’s reliance on AWS as the technology backbone for its enterprise users worldwide makes it a highly scalable platform for managing heavy traffic and large volumes of content. It uses AWS Cloudwatch metric explorer to determine and enable automatic scaling during peak traffic and relies on its Akamai partnership to guarantee a fast and secure CDN. 

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, is also a fully managed hosted solution. But unlike Arc XP, which relies on AWS, WordPress VIP runs on its own infrastructure.

The VIP infrastructure is purpose-built—down to the actual hardware components—to keep enterprise websites online and performant, even amidst record-breaking traffic of more than one billion visitors. For instance, when site traffic is high, WordPress VIP has a horizontal auto-scaling mechanism that adjusts its server resources to add more capacity and match your site’s demands.

It has 28 data centers worldwide housing its servers, a global CDN automatically built into the platform, and a comprehensive caching infrastructure. And for those who need extra configuration at the edge, WordPress VIP partners with Cloudflare for additional options.
👉 Note that unlike Arc XP, which powers about 2,500 sites altogether, WordPress powers 43% of the web, including some of the most visited sites. WordPress is a tried-and-true solution for large media sites. For example, WordPress VIP is the secret sauce behind the reliability of publishers like The New York Post, USA Today, and Al Jazeera—even on the biggest breaking news days like the U.S. Presidential Election, capable of serving more than 22 billion requests, mitigating DDoS attacks, and delivering 100% uptime.

Security

Arc XP partners with Akamai for DDoS protection and Datadog for application security monitoring and integrates with several AWS products. WordPress VIP is built with multiple levels of enterprise-grade security controls and is FedRAMP-authorized to serve the U.S. government’s security requirements. 

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP, as a digital experience platform built on AWS, integrates several AWS security tools and services to provide a secure environment for content management and delivery. These tools include: 

• IAM: to define and control the access permissions for Arc XP’s users and services. 
• CloudWatch: for monitoring and logging security events and system metrics for Arc XP.
• AWS WAF: to protect Arc XP’s web applications from common threats such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). 

Outside the AWS ecosystem, Arc XP partners with Akamai for DDoS protection as part of their broader content delivery and security services. It also partners with Datadog for application security monitoring. 

Finally, regarding security certifications and compliance, Arc XP has an ISO/IEC 27001 Certification and complies with the EU-U.S., U.K.-U.S., AND SWISS-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. 

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, offers the highest level of WordPress security on the market. 

Built with multiple levels of security controls and protection—including edge protection, secure networking, robust access controls, continuous security monitoring, and code scanning—WordPress VIP meets the most exacting security requirements.

Some of its enterprise-grade security and protection features include:

• A suite of vulnerability management tools integrated with WPScan.

• Network-wide DDoS mitigation for optimal performance and security, even in the face of evolving threats.
• Database protection to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access between applications.
• And lots more. 

The VIP infrastructure also lets users install a Let’s Encrypt TLS certificate on each domain to add a layer of secure encryption to their websites.

In terms of security certifications and compliance, WordPress VIP is FedRAMP-authorized to address the highest levels of the U.S. government security requirements. 

It’s also compliant with multiple industry standards and regulations, including, but not limited to, the Swiss–U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, GDPR compliance, and more.

Support

Arc XP provides ongoing support for its production environment, onboarding services, and migration needs, while WordPress VIP offers in-depth support for its infrastructure’s performance and production environment and has multiple certified agency partners for easy onboarding. 

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arc XP’s support revolves around its customer enablement team and solution experts, who provide paying Arc XP users with hands-on training and assistance to keep their production environment safe and performant.

For self-service, Arc Xp also provides a University where you can learn about the platform through guides, visuals, documentation, video walkthroughs, and other materials. However, access is limited to paying users. 

Some other support services Arc XP offers include: 

• Ongoing support as paid add-ons for issues related to SEO and performance audits, solution architecture reviews, editorial workflow mapping, and content publishing tests.
• Launch support service with 24/7 customer assistance for guided onboarding and a speedy launch process.
• Content migration guide you can download from the Arc XP website to ease the migration process.
• And dedicated Agency partners to help you customize your tech stack. (Note that certified Arc XP’s agency partners are limited and scarce compared to WordPress VIP.)

WordPress VIP, on the other hand, offers a high-touch, hands-on partnership support system where expert WordPress engineers work with your in-house team to resolve key issues within WordPress Core and your overall infrastructure. 

Its live chat and ticketing system are available 24/7, and depending on your VIP package, the VIP support team can help resolve key issues such as deep troubleshooting, application downtime monitoring, performance debugging, and more. 

👉 Unlike Arc XP, whose University is limited to paying users, WordPress VIP provides a free and readily accessible learning portal with multiple courses to help level up your WordPress development skills. It also offers an extensive resource library with self-help documentation, blogs, events and webinars, FAQs, and more.

In terms of professional support services, WordPress VIP additionally offers: 

• Enterprise-grade Migration Services to remove the risk of importing and migrating your sites. 
• Launch Day Services, which you can buy separately or access freely from its Enhanced and Signature packages. 
• Performance Services to find the root cause of your current performance challenges and improve SEO.
• High-Traffic Event Planning to prepare your environment to stand up to the heightened demands of sudden traffic influx. 
• And a long list of Agency Partners to help with development, integrations, and design work, plus Technology Partners to handle business-critical needs such as DAM, CRM, and personalization.   

Arc XP vs. WordPress VIP: pros and cons

Arc XP pros	Arc XP cons
✅ Out-of-the-box setup	❌ Potential for vendor lock-in
✅ Composer for interactive designs	❌ Limited agency partners
✅ WebSked for content planning	❌ Bare-bones content analytics
✅ Built-in DAM	❌ Relies on third-party for infrastructure
✅ Built-in content monetization tools
✅ Supports modular licensing

WordPress VIP pros	WordPress VIP cons
✅ Best-of-breed setup	❌ Less out-of-the-box features
✅ Gutenberg Editor	❌ No built-in content monetization tools
✅ Parse.ly analytics
✅ Extensive developer tools
✅ Wholly owned infrastructure
✅ FedRAMP-authorized

Final Verdict: Arc XP vs. WordPress VIP 

Arc XP is an integrated platform reflecting The Post’s approach to content management, while WordPress VIP is a flexible platform for building custom solutions that are in sync with your workflow.

Arc XP	WordPress VIP
Best for: Media brands and publishers seeking a turnkey platform with all the out-of-the-box features to handle sophisticated news operations.	Best for: Large newsrooms and publishers requiring a customizable platform to assemble a best-of-breed tech stack that meets their specific needs.

Arc XP and WordPress VIP are cloud-based digital experience platforms offering enterprise-grade content management solutions to large publications. However, they differ significantly in flexibility, setup, total cost, and the customers they serve. 

Arc XP is best for media companies or publishers seeking an integrated CMS solution with features similar to The Washington Post’s setup, so it might not work for all media organizations equally. WordPress VIP, on the other hand, isn’t as rigid and is designed for large enterprises that require a more flexible CMS platform they can customize to meet their every need. 

Use Arc XP if:

• You prefer an infrastructure hosted on AWS.
• You want to avoid the complexity of building a custom tech stack.
• You need a unified, out-of-the-box solution with built-in content management, digital asset management, content monetization, and editorial tools.

Use WordPress VIP if:

• You need advanced developer tools for managing complex sites. 
• You need a highly flexible platform that allows you to integrate custom themes, plugins, and a variety of third-party tools.
• You manage an enterprise-grade media company with high traffic and demanding performance and scalability requirements.