WordPress or custom
You do not notice the difference in month one, but in year two.
WordPress runs a large part of the internet, and not without reason. It is quick to set up, there is a plugin for everything and any builder can work with it. You pay the price later: in maintenance, in load time and in the risk of a plugin taking your site down. Both sides below, and we build both.
WordPress
Quick to set up, very capable, and the maintenance never ends.
What it gets you
- There is a plugin for almost anything, so a wish is usually quickly solved.
- Any web builder can work with it, so you are never tied to one supplier.
- Cheap to build if you use an existing theme.
- A familiar admin many people already know.
What it costs you
- Every plugin is someone else's code inside your site. Ten plugins is ten parties who can slow it down or break it.
- Updates are monthly work. If nobody does them, an outdated plugin eventually becomes the hole someone gets in through.
- Load time gets worse as more is added, and Google weighs that time.
- The parts that produce enquiries, follow-up, assistant, review funnel, have to be tied together with yet more plugins.
Custom
Only what you need, built to stay fast.
What it gets you
- No third party plugins, so nothing that can slow or break your site out of sight.
- Fast at launch and fast in two years, because no ballast accumulates.
- There is no update button for anyone to press.
- Follow-up, assistant and dashboard are part of the same build and talk to each other.
What it costs you
- A wish outside the setup costs build time; there is no plugin to solve it quickly.
- You sit closer to your builder, because not every web builder can just step in.
- More expensive to build if bought outright, although with us there is no upfront build fee.
The question that decides it
How much changes on your site after it is up? If you sell products with changing stock, publish weekly, or have a team working in it, the flexibility of WordPress is worth the maintenance. If your site is a place where people look at your services and send an enquiry, WordPress has you paying for capability you never use and maintenance you would rather not have.
When WordPress is the better choice
If you have worked in WordPress for years and your team knows their way around, switching is rarely worth it. The same goes if you run a shop with hundreds of products or depend on a specific plugin that runs your business process. In that case we simply build in WordPress with you; that is one of our services, not a consolation prize.
Questions
Questions about this choice
Still not sure which way to go?
Put your situation to us in a twenty minute demo. We will do the maths with you, and say so when the answer is that you do not need us.
Book a free demo