WordPress or custom-built? Three questions decide

The short answer: WordPress is worth it if you maintain content yourself often; a custom-built site is better when speed, security and a long, quiet life for the site matter. Both are tools, not religions. This question comes up in almost every first conversation, and I decide it based on the project, not on my favorite tool.

When WordPress fits

WordPress makes sense if you:

• want to maintain content yourself, regularly and without calling me.
• value a familiar, proven editing interface.
• want to cover lots of standard features through plugins (shop, booking, forms).

The price for that: WordPress needs ongoing updates and upkeep, otherwise it becomes a security risk. Many templates are also technically bloated and slow the site down. What that upkeep costs, and what happens when it stops, is in What does website maintenance cost in Switzerland?.

When a custom-built solution is better

A custom-built, static site (like this one here) is the better choice if:

• speed and top marks at Google matter.
• the site should run stably over the long term, with minimal maintenance effort.
• security counts: there is no database and no login backend that can be attacked.

The price for that: you can’t just change the content yourself on a whim. Either I take care of it, or we build in a lean, modern editing system.

What the difference costs

To build, WordPress is usually a little cheaper; to run, it is the more demanding one. Over three years the two paths sit closer together than the entry price suggests. The full calculation with both columns is in What does a website cost in Switzerland?. The monthly price is unaffected by the choice: maintenance starts at CHF 79 a month either way, hosting included.

How I decide

I ask you three things: how often does the content change? How important are speed and security? And how much upkeep do you want to handle yourself? The answer then usually follows from your needs, not from my preference.

How the project runs after that, from the first conversation to the handover, is on the page about having a website built.

Conclusion

There is no system that is better across the board, only one that fits your case better. Of the three questions, the first one carries most of the weight, and it is the one people answer wrong. Almost everybody says they want to edit the site themselves. On the sites I later take over, the text has usually been touched once, at launch, and never again. So ask the question in the past tense instead: how often did you actually change something on your current site? That number decides the system. The plans you have for the new one do not.