On this page
- 01WordPress: a package of theme and plugins
- 02A custom website: written for you
- 03Custom website and WordPress side by side
- 04Worked example: the cost over five years
- 05When WordPress is the right choice
- 06When a custom website is the better choice
- 07The middle road: headless
- 08Choose WordPress when, choose custom when
- 09Where the choice goes wrong
- 10How to make the choice
Custom website or WordPress? Choose WordPress if you publish news and blogs yourself every day, an existing theme suits you and someone keeps up with updates. Choose a custom website if your site plays a fixed role in your sales: many pages on search terms, several languages or markets, features such as calculators or a portal, and as little upkeep as possible. Building a custom site often costs the same or a little more; over five years it is usually cheaper, because monthly maintenance falls away.
WordPress runs 39.6 percent of all websites. That makes it familiar, and a target: in 2024 the WordPress ecosystem logged 7,966 new vulnerabilities, 96 percent in plugins. What a site costs to build in general is in how much does a website cost.
WordPress: a package of theme and plugins
WordPress is open-source software for managing a site. You install it at a host, choose a theme for the look and add plugins for extra features: forms, SEO, languages, a store. You edit text in an editor, without code.
Those building blocks make WordPress flexible. They also make it vulnerable: WordPress, the theme and every plugin get updates, and a plugin nobody maintains is an open door. One in three vulnerabilities was still unfixed when it was made public. What that means in practice: is WordPress safe.
A custom website: written for you
With a custom website the developer writes the site, with modern tools such as React and Next.js. No theme decides how a page looks, and no plugin needs updating. Such a site is often built as a static site: pages are ready-made and served straight from a CDN, without a database that has to compute on every visit. That makes it fast and hard to attack, because the public site has no admin login and no database.
So "WordPress or hand-coded HTML" is only half the question. A custom site today is not the hand-written HTML of 2005, and React is not an alternative CMS: it is a building block to program a site with. The real choice is: a package you fill in, or a site written for you. If you want a team that specialises in this, see hire Next.js developers.
What runs when someone opens a page
WordPress
- Visitor
- Server
- WordPresswith admin loginNeeds upkeep
- DatabaseNeeds upkeep
- Theme
- PluginsNeeds upkeep
- Page
The page is built on every visit. WordPress, theme and plugins must stay up to date.
Static custom site
- Visitor
- CDNclose to the visitor
- Page
The page is ready. No admin login or database on the public site.
Custom website and WordPress side by side
| Criterion | WordPress | Custom website |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | Fast with an existing theme; a custom theme takes longer | Design and build from scratch, two to six weeks |
| Maintenance | WordPress, theme and plugins updated every month | No plugins; changes when you ask for them |
| Speed | Depends on hosting, theme and number of plugins | Static on a CDN, fast on phones too |
| Security | Safe as long as everything is updated | No admin login or database on the public site |
| Editing content | Yourself in the editor, instantly | In a CMS if one is built in, or via your developer |
| Multiple languages | With a plugin | Own pages, search terms and hreflang per language |
| Custom features | A plugin if one exists, otherwise custom code in WordPress | Built for you: calculator, portal, integrations |
| Hosting | Shared or managed WordPress hosting | Usage-based, often a few euros a month |
| Moving away | To any host | To any host |
Worked example: the cost over five years
A company with a 25-page site in two languages and a contact form. Before VAT. Build prices are examples inside the Belgian market range, where a professional business site costs 2,000 to 6,000 euros; put in the rates of your own market and the sum works the same way.
| Item over five years | WordPress with a custom theme | Static custom website |
|---|---|---|
| Build | 4,500 euros | 5,000 euros |
| Hosting | 71.88 plus 4 x 233.88 = 1,007.40 euros (shared business hosting) | 5 x 60 = 300 euros (example, usage-based) |
| Domain .com | 7.99 plus 4 x 14.29 = 65.15 euros at OVHcloud | 65.15 euros |
| Plugins (SEO, translation, forms) | 5 x 250 = 1,250 euros (example) | 0 euros |
| Maintenance: updates, backups | 5 x 600 = 3,000 euros (example) | 0 euros |
| Total after five years | 9,822.55 euros | 5,365.15 euros |
Changes and new pages are in neither column: you pay for those on both when you order them. The difference sits in plugins and maintenance. If you do the WordPress upkeep yourself, the left column drops to about 6,800 euros, paid for with your own hours. Each yearly item: website maintenance cost per year.
When WordPress is the right choice
- You publish news or blogs yourself every week and do not want to call anyone for it.
- An existing theme fits your brand, or you have one made.
- You need a plugin that does exactly what you want, and it is well maintained.
- Someone, you or a contractor, keeps up with updates and backups.
We build on WordPress ourselves when that is the sensible choice. For the holiday house No.4 Lange Ast we made an availability calendar from the Airbnb and Booking calendars, with a request form, as a plugin on the existing WordPress hosting, because the site already lived there.
When a custom website is the better choice
- You want to be found for dozens of search terms, with a page per service, sector or market.
- The site must work in several languages, with the right links between them; see multilingual website.
- You need features no plugin does well: a calculator, a quote module, a client portal, an integration with your own software.
- You want a fast site that does not need patching every month.
That is how we built the site of Business Centrum: four languages, more than 1,680 pages, four calculators and guides. In five weeks it went from 220 to 10,200 impressions a day in Google. And for SN Group a site with a step-by-step cost calculator and an EPC calculator.
The middle road: headless
If you want a custom front end and still manage text in an editor yourself, a headless CMS is the answer: content lives in a CMS, the site is built separately from it. WordPress itself can serve as that CMS. It gives the best of both, with one more component to manage. For larger content teams it is often the right call; see our page on a headless website.
Choose WordPress when, choose custom when
| Your situation | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You publish daily and want to do it all yourself | WordPress | The editor is made for that |
| Your site is a five-page business card | WordPress or a website builder | Custom rarely pays off here |
| You want to be found for many services and markets | Custom | Every page fast, light and on its own search term |
| You work in three or four languages | Custom | Language structure and hreflang without a plugin |
| You need a calculator, portal or integration | Custom | Built around your process |
| You already have a WordPress site that works well | Stay and build on it | Rebuilding costs more than it brings |
Where the choice goes wrong
- Choosing WordPress because it is freeThe software is; hosting, plugins and upkeep are not.
- Custom without an agreement on changesAgree who edits copy and what a new page costs.
- A rebuild without redirectsYou lose your rankings. See moving a website to a new host.
- A custom site only the developer can openAsk for the code, domain and hosting to be in your name; see country domain vs .com.
How to make the choice
- List what the site must do in two years: pages, languages, features.
- Decide who edits the copy, and how often.
- Work out both options over five years with the table above.
- On WordPress already? Test speed with the website speed test and read why is WordPress so slow before you decide.
What the Business Centrum site reached
- non-brand search terms on page one, up from 13
- 1,593
- search terms in Google's top 3, up from 2
- 518
- clicks a day from Google after five weeks, up from 3
- 228
Questions about custom sites and WordPress
Is a custom website more expensive than WordPress?
The build often costs the same or a little more. Over five years a static custom site is usually cheaper, because plugins and monthly maintenance fall away. In our example WordPress with outsourced upkeep costs about 9,800 euros over five years, the custom site about 5,400.
Can I edit a custom website myself?
Yes, if a CMS is built in, or with a headless CMS. For sites that rarely change, many companies have their developer make the edits. Agree up front what a change or a new page costs.
Is a custom website more secure than WordPress?
A static site has no admin login and no database on the public site, so there is far less to attack. WordPress is safe as long as everything is updated; most problems sit in outdated plugins.
Which is better for SEO, WordPress or custom?
Both can rank well. Custom is faster and gives full control over the technical base, without plugins. WordPress can get there with the right plugins and hosting. Content weighs most: a page per search term with good copy.
Am I locked in to the developer of my custom site?
Not if the code, domain and hosting are in your name. A static site in a common framework such as Next.js can be taken over by any developer. Ask for that in writing in the quote.
Can I move from WordPress to a custom site?
Yes. You take copy and images along, rebuild the site and redirect every old address with a 301 to the new page. That keeps your Google rankings. Count on a few weeks before most pages have moved.