Custom development or WordPress: how to choose a platform for a business website

The question "what to build a site on" usually arises even before there is an understanding of what the site should do. This is normal. But the answer almost always depends on three things: who will edit the site, how much it will be non-standard, and how much you are willing to pay for maintenance.

Briefly

Custom development (in our case - on Astro, React or Next.js) is suitable when you need a marketing site with a non-standard design that starts quickly, loads instantly and does not require constant maintenance.

WordPress justified when complex logic, specific integrations or a large editorial with dozens of authors and roles are required.

Download speed

A site on Astro or Next.js is generated in static markup and distributed via CDN. There are no plugins that pull ten scripts, there is no database that collects a page for each request.

WordPress can be very fast - but it requires separate work: caching, optimizing images, cleaning plugins. That is, it is not a property of the platform, but the result of constant maintenance.

Cost of ownership

In our stack, hosting for a typical business website is usually free (Vercel or a similar platform), CDN, SSL and deployment backups are included in the price. In WordPress, hosting, domain and SSL are separate, plus some subscription plugins, plus developer time for updates.

At a distance of a year, the difference is usually not in favor of "free" WordPress.

Security

The majority of WordPress site hacks occur due to outdated plugins and themes. In custom development, there are no plugins, no direct access to the database or server - and no such class of problems at all.

Content editing

There is a different logic here. In WordPress, you edit a page in the block editor simply in the admin. In our stack, we export texts and images to a separate CMS or structured files - you edit without a developer, but without directly clicking on a live page, as in constructors.

When custom development won't do

• you need a complex personal account with its own business logic "out of the box";
• the site has thousands of products with complex filters and warehouse accounting - a ready-made e-commerce platform is better here;
• the team already has developers who live in the PHP ecosystem and will support WordPress themselves.

What to do next

If you are making a service site, portfolio, landing page or corporate site up to a few dozen pages - custom development will almost always be a faster and cheaper solution to own.

If in doubt - write to us, we will analyze your case and tell you honestly, even if the answer is "you prefer WordPress".