Choosing how to build a website is a decision you will live with for years. WordPress and custom development both produce excellent websites; they simply suit different situations. Here is how we help clients decide.

When WordPress is a strong choice

WordPress is well suited to content-led websites where marketing staff need to publish pages, articles and updates without developer involvement. Its editor is familiar to many people, its ecosystem is large, and hosting is widely available. For corporate sites, blogs and many small online stores, it offers a practical balance of capability and cost.

The trade-off is maintenance. WordPress core, themes and plugins need regular updates, and poorly chosen plugins are a frequent source of security and performance problems. A disciplined approach, with few, well-maintained plugins, managed hosting and backups, keeps those risks under control.

When custom development makes sense

Custom development fits projects with specialized functionality, unusual integrations, strict performance or security requirements, or interfaces that do not map neatly onto a content management system. Examples include customer portals, booking engines, configurators and applications that are more software than website.

Custom builds can be leaner and more precisely tailored, but changes usually require a developer, and the initial investment is typically higher. A headless CMS can provide a middle path, giving editors a friendly interface while developers retain control over the front end.

Questions to ask before deciding

  • Who will update the content, and how often?
  • Which systems must the website integrate with?
  • How important are speed, accessibility and security compared with launch cost?
  • Who will maintain the website after launch?
  • How might requirements change over the next three to five years?

The answer is in your requirements

The best platform is the one that fits your content, functionality and maintenance capacity. If you would like a recommendation for your project, our web development team is happy to talk it through.