What each one is
WordPress is a content management system: ready-made software you add a theme and plugins (add-ons built by other people) to. A custom website is built for your business and only includes what it uses.
Both are legitimate options. The difference isn't how they look on day one, but what happens over the following years: who updates it, how long it takes to load and how much you pay to keep it running.
When WordPress is the right call
WordPress makes sense when content comes first. For example:
- A large blog or magazine, with dozens of articles a month and several people publishing, each with their own login and permissions.
- No budget, but someone to maintain it. If you have someone you trust who keeps it updated, backed up and monitored, WordPress can run for years without trouble.
- A team that already knows it. If your people use it and are comfortable with it, switching for the sake of it isn't worth it.
- Something you want to put together yourself this weekend to test an idea, with no plans for it to last.
In these cases, WordPress is a sensible tool. The trouble starts when it's used for something it isn't made for.
When a custom website works out better
For most local businesses, the website does three things: explains what you do, gets you found on Google and gets people to message you or book. You don't need a content management system with forty plugins for that.
A custom website usually works out better when:
- You change the content a few times a year. Opening hours, a new photo, a price. That takes five minutes without a dashboard full of buttons.
- You care about speed. A site that only includes what it uses is lighter. On a phone with poor signal, you notice.
- You don't want security scares. Many WordPress problems come from plugins that haven't been updated. No plugins, no plugins to update.
- You need something specific, like bookings with your own rules, deposit payments or several languages, and don't want to chain three paid plugins together to get it.
The comparison table
| WordPress | Custom website | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Low if you build it yourself; similar if you hire someone | From €450 (ours) |
| Who updates it | You, from the dashboard | You with a simple editor, or you ask us |
| Speed | Depends on the theme and plugins | Fast out of the box: it only includes what it uses |
| Security | Core, theme and plugins all need updating | Fewer third-party parts, less to attack |
| Yearly cost | Hosting + plugin licences + someone to update it | One maintenance fee with everything included |
| Special features | A plugin for each thing, sometimes paid | We build what you need |
| If you leave | You take the site, but you still depend on the plugins | You take the code, the domain and your email |
What hardly anyone mentions: the cost of maintaining it
Setting up WordPress is cheap. Maintaining it properly isn't. The core, the theme and every plugin need updating, someone has to check nothing broke after each update, paid plugin licences need renewing and backups need doing.
Take a typical WordPress business site with the paid plugins we see most often:
| Plugin | What it's for | Licence per year (1 site, excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Elementor Pro | Page layouts | about $60 |
| WP Rocket | Keeping it fast | about $59 |
| Yoast SEO Premium | SEO | $118.80 |
| WPML (if the site is in two languages) | Translations | €99 |
That's about €220 a year in licences alone, and about €320 if the site is in two languages. And that's before hosting and paying someone to keep it updated. Prices change often, but the order of magnitude holds: you can spend more on plugins alone than on the entire maintenance of a custom website.
If nobody maintains it, the cost arrives all at once: a site that gets hacked one summer, that keeps getting slower, or that stops working after an update. We go into detail in what website maintenance includes.
For reference: our maintenance costs €15/month for a site you don't edit yourself and €25/month if you do, including hosting, backups, updates, checks every 5 minutes and a monthly report. No minimum contract.
I already have WordPress. Should I switch?
Not necessarily. If it works, loads well and someone maintains it, leave it alone. Switching for the sake of it is money wasted.
Think about it if any of these sound familiar:
- It takes more than three or four seconds to open on a phone.
- It's been hacked before, or you keep getting security warnings.
- You pay for plugin licences and have no idea what they do.
- Nobody knows how to update it and you're scared to touch anything.
If two or more apply, it's worth getting it checked. If we do end up moving your content to a new site, our maintenance page explains how we go about it.