Custom or WordPress? How to choose between the two

This is the question we get most often, and the honest answer is that it depends on your situation. We build custom software, so you should expect us to recommend custom software. Even so, we regularly advise clients to use WordPress, simply because it is the wiser choice for them. Here is how we make that call.

What WordPress gives you

WordPress runs a substantial share of the web, and for good reason. You have something live quickly, there is an enormous supply of themes and plugins, and almost every web builder can work with it. If you need a website tomorrow with a handful of pages, a contact form and the occasional news post, WordPress is hard to beat on price and speed of delivery.

That strength is also the weakness. WordPress is a generic system trying to be everything to everyone, and you will notice it the moment your requirements deviate from the average.

Where WordPress hits its limits

In practice we see four points where it starts to hurt.

• Plugin stacking. Every feature that is not standard comes from a plugin. Twenty plugins means twenty parties who can break your website on update, and twenty potential security holes. Most WordPress sites we take over were not compromised through WordPress itself, but through an outdated plugin.
• Speed. A heavily stacked WordPress install often loads megabytes of CSS and JavaScript you do not use. Caching can mask that, but it cannot solve it.
• Your own processes. As soon as your business process deviates from what a plugin expects, you end up adapting the process to the software instead of the other way around. That is the moment custom development becomes cheaper.
• Integrations. A link to your ERP, planning system or stock management is often a plugin with limitations in WordPress. In custom code it is simply code that does exactly what you need.

When custom development pays off

Custom generally costs more up front. Budget €750 to €5,000 for a website, depending on scope and functionality. You earn that difference back if at least one of these applies:

• Your website is part of your service, not just a business card. Think customer portals, booking systems or dashboards.
• You need integrations with systems you already use.
• Speed or accessibility is business-critical, for instance because you have heavy mobile traffic or must meet accessibility requirements.
• You want to keep building on it in three years without starting over.

We build in Laravel, a PHP framework with a long track record and a large community. That is a deliberate choice: it means another Laravel developer can take over your codebase if you ever leave us. Custom work does not have to be a gilded cage, provided it is built in a mainstream framework rather than something the agency invented itself.

When we recommend WordPress

If your website is mainly informational, you need no unusual integrations and the budget is limited, custom development is overkill. In that case we say so. A well-set-up WordPress site with a small number of quality plugins, decent hosting and a maintenance contract will serve you fine for years.

What we do warn against: a cheap marketplace theme with thirty plugins bolted on is not a saving. That is deferred maintenance, and the bill arrives later.

The cost over five years

Do not compare build costs, compare total costs. With WordPress you add premium plugin licences, maintenance on plugin updates that break things, and often a rebuild after three or four years because the theme is no longer supported. With custom, build costs are higher but maintenance is more predictable: from €45 per month for hosting and updates, and no licences.

In our experience the two routes end up closer together over five years than people expect. The real difference is who carries the risk.

How to choose

Work through these questions. If you answer yes to two or more, custom is probably the better investment.

• Does my website need to do something I cannot find off the shelf?
• Does data need to move between my website and another system?
• Does my business earn money directly through the website?
• Would an hour of downtime genuinely hurt?
• Do I expect to add functionality over the coming years?

Still unsure? Put your situation to us. We will say honestly if custom is not necessary for you; that costs us a quote but gives you advice worth having.