WordPress or a custom-built website: how to choose?

When creating or rebuilding a website, the same question keeps coming up: should you go with WordPress or with custom development? Both approaches have their strengths. The right choice mostly depends on what the site needs to do, and on who will keep it running day to day.

What WordPress brings

WordPress is a widely used open-source content management system. Its main advantage: you edit your own text, images and pages from an admin interface, without touching any code. A large choice of plugins covers the usual needs: forms, an online store with WooCommerce, search engine optimisation, multilingual sites.

• independence over your content;
• many plugins for common needs;
• a tool known to many providers, which makes it easier to hand over.

The flip side: every plugin you add has to be kept up to date, and a site that piles up plugins becomes heavier and harder to evolve. Choosing the plugins matters as much as choosing WordPress itself.

What a custom-built site brings

A site developed from scratch, for example in PHP, contains only what you need. It can be very light and fit a specific way of working precisely: a calculator, a dedicated client area, a connection to business software.

• light pages, with no unnecessary code;
• behaviour tailored to a precise need;
• no dependency on third-party plugins.

The trade-off: changing content or adding a feature generally goes through a developer, unless an admin interface is planned from the start.

Questions to ask yourself

1. Who will update the content, and how often?
2. Does the site need to sell online, manage customer accounts or connect to other software?
3. Which features might be useful in a year or two?
4. What budget should you plan for the build, then for later changes?

In short

WordPress is often the right choice for a showcase site or a store you want to manage yourself. Custom development makes sense for a very specific need or a deliberately minimal site. In both cases, the quality of the build (page structure, performance, accessibility) matters as much as the tool you pick.