Wordpress or From-Scratch Websites?

[ThatDevAaron]

So, I'm interested in understanding what makes businesses decide to go with a wordpress website, over a bespoke website made from scratch.

Generally, the consensus is, wordpress websites are drastically cheaper (most of the time), and usually, more techy/web-focused brands, or generally larger businesses would spend the time & money it would take with getting a bespoke website built.

Our company deals with primarily, de-wordpressing businesses, and most of them see massive savings. Hosting providers take absolute advantage of wordpress sites, by charging you ridiculous prices, and, most wordpress development agencies, don't follow proper development practices, which is why the more graphic-intense websites render so poorly on client devices. (you can also self-host wordpress, which is WAY better than buying wordpress hosting, this option would require you to hire a system administrator)

Fun Facts:
Do you use a wordpress host because most of them provide you with buzzwords like 'Free CDN'? https://cloudflare.com is your best-friend for the best kind of CDN, and DDoS Protection. (this isn't an ad, cloudflare is genuinely the best CDN, that is free of charge, and lets you handle a lot of very fun stuff)

Do you use a wordpress host because they give you access to a mail server, and you don't want to go through the process of setting up postfix etc? Well, Cloudflare provides FREE email forwarding: [email protected] -> [email protected] -> [email protected]
Alternatively, you can use this lovely script to setup postfix, and Roundcube mailing on your own Linux server: https://www.iredmail.org/

Wordpress providers charge you once price for the first year, afterward, its a lot more. Hosting your own bespoke website, can cost you a one-time fee of up to maybe 2-5k GBP (assuming its a frontend-only site with <10-20 pages, and simple contact us functions etc) --
(Yes! Unless you use an agency which are designed to take more money from you, and I would never recommend agencies from India, they've been known to leave files such as `.env` etc publicly accessible via directory indexing, and other outrageous security risks)
--- Hosting this website, would cost you less than 20 gbp/mo. - probably less if you have a less backend-intensive site, utilizing CLOUDFLARE means, you can host in cheaper countries such as America, and have the same performance as if your website was hosted in the UK, as cloudflare stores all pages of your site on their world-wide CDN, so you don't need to worry about latency for your customers.

 

[fisicx]

It’s not an either/or questions. Each business will choose the platform most suitable for their needs.

A dog walker probably doesn’t even need a website.

A photographer may well just need a self built portfolio Wordpress site.

A seller of homemade bobble hats may well use shopify.

Your estimate of costs for Wordpress site is wildly inaccurate. Some may charge as much but most don’t. And self hosting does not need an administrator.

 

[Ozzy]

This; not one size fits all.
I used Wordpress for some sites, and I use bespoke code for some others. It depends on the objective and who needs to update the site.

 

[Mark T Jones]

As a non-technical person (to put it mildly), I choose WordPress for much the same people that people used to choose Ford cars (before it all became modules and electronics).

My limited skills can achieve some of it, and the skills to do the rest are readily available, often for the price of a pint.

***IMPORTANT NOTE - NEVER HIT A WEBSITE WITH A HAMMER***

Obviously if the website is the heart of your business, there are deeper considerations, but for many small businesses WordPress simply does the job.

 

[fisicx]

Another consideration is support. There are zillions of Wordpress support sites, videos, blogs, freelancers and other resources to help fix, update, customise and enhance a Wordpress site.

If you create something bespoke you are tied forever to the developer that wrote the code or incur major expenses should the original developer cease trading.

 

[YasmeenLondon]

I am not sure why people think there has to be one solution and that solution has to be applied on everything, it's like asking what type of clothing is best for people.

My agency prefers wordpress because we deal mostly with SME's, wordpress is a good solution to SME's because of:

1) The speed in getting a website up and running,
2) The open source/community driven nature of the framework,
3) The immense popularity of Wordpress and plethora of Wordpress professionals means businesses are not locked in to an agency.
4) The amount of educational resources and support sites/channels enable the end user/client to carry out some of the management and maintenance duties, which a lot of clients DEMAND, not just request.

Every client has different needs, circumstances and goals, some solutions favour some type of clients, others another type, some businesses require more or less than others.

Finally, your assumptions are not accurate which will affect your understanding.

 

[DontAsk]

I use neither Wordpress nor bespoke.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

This is one of those vague questions that needs more context.

@ThatDevAaron I do hope that this isn't to make any business decisions.

 

[martin_shl]

There is no option in the poll for other CMS's. There are many other CMSs including Drupal, Backdrop CMS (I mainly use this), Umbraco, Joomla, Craft CMS.

For me, a CMS provides a good base to build bespoke on. Backdrop CMS and Drupal (I don't know enough about the others) have powerful APIs that allow you to build out modules.

I've also done websites where a CMS would have been overkill and an unnecessary overhead, but I used the Bootstrap framework to quick style a one-page responsive site. There's also quite a few frameworks that can run on a GitHub Action to provide a website hosted on GitHub and edited using markdown files and the GitHub Visual Studio Code interface.

 

[Paul Carmen]

This question just doesn't have any basis in reality. Most small companies that want a website don't care what it's created in, most certainly aren't going to self host, or hire a system administrator, as they dont have the time or skills to get involved in that.

Those who have a site for a genuine business reasons and need to scale or make regular changes; e.g. ecommerce to sell products, or generate leads/sales at scale, will want some sort of CMS to manage the site inventory and page setup.

I've worked with large companies and small, and we build sited for SMEs lead gen, I've come across very few who build bespoke sites, most are WordPress, Magento, Joomla, ExpressionEngine or behemoths like IBM Websphere Commerce...

The only people who tend to have bespoke hand coded sites, are now those who built simple sites with a few pages, who don't want or need to make changes often.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

It’s not an either/or questions. Each business will choose the platform most suitable for their needs.

A dog walker probably doesn’t even need a website.

A photographer may well just need a self built portfolio Wordpress site.

A seller of homemade bobble hats may well use shopify.

Your estimate of costs for Wordpress site is wildly inaccurate. Some may charge as much but most don’t. And self hosting does not need an administrator.

Self hosting most certainly does, otherwise you find people with near to no understanding of how to secure systems, setting up low security wordpress instances, and being one of the many wordpress sites that contribute to DDoS attacks, Phishing, and malicious SMTP/Emails being sent from them.

My focus is businesses/SMEs, less hobbyists.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

I am not sure why people think there has to be one solution and that solution has to be applied on everything, it's like asking what type of clothing is best for people.

My agency prefers wordpress because we deal mostly with SME's, wordpress is a good solution to SME's because of:

1) The speed in getting a website up and running,
2) The open source/community driven nature of the framework,
3) The immense popularity of Wordpress and plethora of Wordpress professionals means businesses are not locked in to an agency.
4) The amount of educational resources and support sites/channels enable the end user/client to carry out some of the management and maintenance duties, which a lot of clients DEMAND, not just request.

Every client has different needs, circumstances and goals, some solutions favour some type of clients, others another type, some businesses require more or less than others.

Finally, your assumptions are not accurate which will affect your understanding.

My thread was simply to insight discussion, please don't take it to heart.

And the assumptions I made are valid, perhaps a little bit exaggerated, however, all based upon facts.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

This question just doesn't have any basis in reality. Most small companies that want a website don't care what it's created in, most certainly aren't going to self host, or hire a system administrator, as they dont have the time or skills to get involved in that.

Those who have a site for a genuine business reasons and need to scale or make regular changes; e.g. ecommerce to sell products, or generate leads/sales at scale, will want some sort of CMS to manage the site inventory and page setup.

I've worked with large companies and small, and we build sited for SMEs lead gen, I've come across very few who build bespoke sites, most are WordPress, Magento, Joomla, ExpressionEngine or behemoths like IBM Websphere Commerce...

The only people who tend to have bespoke hand coded sites, are now those who built simple sites with a few pages, who don't want or need to make changes often.

You are quite wrong, bespoke sites are much more common than you all think. In-fact, it's normally those with a small-scale website (few pages) that use wordpress, not the other way around.

 

[martin_shl]

I think what @fisicx was suggesting about self hosting refers to the many shared hosting packages you can cheaply and easily sign up to that make WordPress and many other CMSs and static sites very cheap to run. If the site traffic or performance requirements increase, then there can be a need to upgrade, but that can often be done at the host while still managing the site within cPanel.

 

[fisicx]

Self hosting most certainly does, otherwise you find people with near to no understanding of how to secure systems, setting up low security wordpress instances, and being one of the many wordpress sites that contribute to DDoS attacks, Phishing, and malicious SMTP/Emails being sent from them.

My focus is businesses/SMEs, less hobbyists.

Self hosting to me means signing up with an ISP and installing Wordpress. It’s what millions of business do without any issues.

 

[fisicx]

You are quite wrong, bespoke sites are much more common than you all think. In-fact, it's normally those with a small-scale website (few pages) that use wordpress, not the other way around.

The number is tiny compared to those who use one of the many many off the shelf platforms.

I really can’t see the local butcher paying for a bespoke site when there are so many cheaper and easier to manage solutions.

 

[DontAsk]

Self hosting to me means installing in your own server on your premises with a static IP address. That would require a system admin.

 

[fisicx]

Self hosting to me means installing in your own server on your premises with a static IP address. That would require a system admin.

Why? The famous 5 minute install doesn’t need a system admin. It’s a very simple thing to do with many tutorials on the process.

 

[DontAsk]

Why? The famous 5 minute install doesn’t need a system admin. It’s a very simple thing to do with many tutorials on the process.

And setting up and maintaining the server? It's more than just installing some software.

 

[fisicx]

And setting up and maintaining the server? It's more than just installing some software.

If you have an on-prem server one assumes you already have the necessary IT support. If you don’t then running your own Wordpress install is the least of your problems.

In most cases self-hosted for just means installing Wordpress on a bit of hosting you pay for rather than using Wordpress.com.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

And setting up and maintaining the server? It's more than just installing some software.

Correct. @fisicx, you seem to not understand that installing wordpress via an installation script on your own server (doesnt matter if the server is in your basement, or in a datacenter) and then pushing everything to production results in the chance of major security vulnerabilities being left open. And that is assuming your setup has not one single plugin installed, because wordpress plugins are a whole different issue, and something most wordpress developers, and agencies overuse, as it gives them less work, and provides the same functions as if they were to hand-craft the plugin themselves, although, at times, these plugins can be the root cause for security risks.

There is a damn lot to consider with wordpress, google a bit about wordpress and how its caused massive data leaks.

 

[fisicx]

Almost all Wordpress installations are done on maintained servers managed by a hosting company. They run without issue for millions of businesses.

Those with concerns about vulnerabilities can harden their install through a variety of means negating most of your arguements.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Self hosting most certainly does, otherwise you find people with near to no understanding of how to secure systems, setting up low security wordpress instances, and being one of the many wordpress sites that contribute to DDoS attacks, Phishing, and malicious SMTP/Emails being sent from them.

My focus is businesses/SMEs, less hobbyists.

It does need a modicum of knowledge; e.g. following best practice, installing wordfence etc. Of course some/many won't do this. Also having decent managed hosting with proper setup and security, plus support, is a big benefit.

You are quite wrong, bespoke sites are much more common than you all think. In-fact, it's normally those with a small-scale website (few pages) that use wordpress, not the other way around.

That's really no longer the case, maybe 5 years ago and certainly 10 you'd be right, but the stats just don't back that up in 2025. If you search for data on CMS versus bespoke, the number of bespoke sites dwindles every year, with well over 70% of websites being CMS based a couple of years ago. Some big budget players who need custom functionality may do this, but most who need a fairly standard website will not.

 

[Mark T Jones]

This tread is like a masterclass in the importance of target marketing.

I don't think anyone doubts that there are some businesses who want or would benefit from a bespoke website solution. They are a niched minority.

In attempting to pitch it as some kind of best/worst scenario, it has evolved into a technical debate between industry people which will be of no interest to the target customer & will put many off.

@ThatDevAaron a previous thread concluded that your skills lie in the technical & that you need some proper marketing support. This thread fully validates that notion.

SME isn't a target market - it's a conveniently vague and broad term, that suits politicians and media precisely because it doesn't narrow things down.

98% of all businesses are SMEs
The vast majority of those are micro businesses, often run from home
Many, many businesses don't need a website at all, but will go Wix or Wordpress 'Just because'.

All the time you have them in your range, you are missing your target.

GET SOME MARKETING SUPPORT!

 

[ThatDevAaron]

This tread is like a masterclass in the importance of target marketing.

I don't think anyone doubts that there are some businesses who want or would benefit from a bespoke website solution. They are a niched minority.

In attempting to pitch it as some kind of best/worst scenario, it has evolved into a technical debate between industry people which will be of no interest to the target customer & will put many off.

@ThatDevAaron a previous thread concluded that your skills lie in the technical & that you need some proper marketing support. This thread fully validates that notion.

SME isn't a target market - it's a conveniently vague and broad term, that suits politicians and media precisely because it doesn't narrow things down.

98% of all businesses are SMEs
The vast majority of those are micro businesses, often run from home
Many, many businesses don't need a website at all, but will go Wix or Wordpress 'Just because'.

All the time you have them in your range, you are missing your target.

GET SOME MARKETING SUPPORT!

This thread, was to spark conversation, nothing more, and when I said my target audience was SMEs, it was in relation to the discussion of this thread.
I AM NOT TRYING TO PROMOTE ANY SERVICES THROUGH THIS THREAD.
Your reply was that of someone who took my points to heart. Like I said earlier, this is a thread for conversing, not for you to get your stuff in a bunch.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

It does need a modicum of knowledge; e.g. following best practice, installing wordfence etc. Of course some/many won't do this. Also having decent managed hosting with proper setup and security, plus support, is a big benefit.

That's really no longer the case, maybe 5 years ago and certainly 10 you'd be right, but the stats just don't back that up in 2025. If you search for data on CMS versus bespoke, the number of bespoke sites dwindles every year, with well over 70% of websites being CMS based a couple of years ago. Some big budget players who need custom functionality may do this, but most who need a fairly standard website will not.

Truthfully, anyone (SMEs, for the people that keep assuming I'm talking about ordinary folk, I'm not) maintaining a website should always try to lean away from managed hosting, especially shared hosting.

Even if your website relies on a newsletter, using a shared hosting provider will result in your email reputation (likelyhood of ending in spam) being reliant on the other people who're also being hosted on the same shared network as yourself.

Honestly, it sounds like a lot of the repliers here (not speaking about anyone in particular) are from Wordpress users, and, a lot of the points they've mentioned have little to no ground to stand on.

Almost all Wordpress installations are done on maintained servers managed by a hosting company. They run without issue for millions of businesses. ( @fisicx )

The managed installations, sure, but then you hire a developer/agency to create you a website, they create an unperformant, monolithic MP4 playing on the landing page type of website. Comparing some of the atrocities that agencies/developers make on wordpress, to bespoke sites, is laughable, especially when you factor in the operational costs etc; A wordpress site that requires limited-to-no functionality, can require numerous plugins that eat up your resources and can potential provide security risks.

 

[DontAsk]

If you have an on-prem server one assumes you already have the necessary IT support.

You are arguing for the sake of it now! The OP clearly doesn't. That's why "self hosting", in my understanding of the words, would require more than just installing Wordpress.

 

[DontAsk]

In most cases self-hosted for just means installing Wordpress on a bit of hosting you pay for rather than using Wordpress.com.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-hosting_(web_services)

 

[fisicx]

what terminology would you use to describe someone who installs Wordpress on a server hosted by and managed by someone else? Because that’s what almost everyone not using Wordpress.com does?

If it’s not called self-hosting what is it called?

 

[fisicx]

The managed installations, sure, but then you hire a developer/agency to create you a website, they create an unperformant, monolithic MP4 playing on the landing page type of website. Comparing some of the atrocities that agencies/developers make on wordpress, to bespoke sites, is laughable, especially when you factor in the operational costs etc; A wordpress site that requires limited-to-no functionality, can require numerous plugins that eat up your resources and can potential provide security risks.

That's about as wrong as it gets. I'm sure there are developers and agencies making a right hash of things but that would be the case for all platforms and bespoke websites. Most wordpress installs aren't resources hogs, are reasonably secure and meet the needs of the owner.

What are these operational costs? Why would a website build using any platform be any more expensive than one hand-coded by you?

The problem with this thread is you asked a question that cannot ever be answered. There will be times when a bespoke hand crafted site is needed. There will be times when a wix site is sufficient. Same for Wordpress and any other platform you choose as the best solution to a need.

Whilst you can argue about all the numerous flaws with WordPress there is no guarantee that hand-coded site would be any different. You could just as unwittingly introduce a XSS injection opportunity or have your server subject to a DDOS attack or just use very poor code.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

maintaining a website should always try to lean away from managed hosting, especially shared hosting.

You are right, but a vast majority of small businesses and startups what the most direct, easiest and cheapest (best value) route to delivery.

That is why using shared hosting is the most popular way of getting a site online (and I would include Wix, Shopify etc in that statement).

 

[fisicx]

Even if your website relies on a newsletter, using a shared hosting provider will result in your email reputation (likelyhood of ending in spam) being reliant on the other people who're also being hosted on the same shared network as yourself.

What's the alternative? Should the local florist pay for a VPN or dedicated server?

Millions and millions of websites run just fine on shared hosting. Using shared hosting might result in some email spoofing but the majority won't.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

what terminology would you use to describe someone who installs Wordpress on a server hosted by and managed by someone else? Because that’s what almost everyone not using Wordpress.com does?

If it’s not called self-hosting what is it called?

A managed server, would mean the provider would do the install for you.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

What's the alternative? Should the local florist pay for a VPN or dedicated server?

Millions and millions of websites run just fine on shared hosting. Using shared hosting might result in some email spoofing but the majority won't.

Simply arguing for the sake of it. I appreciate the can-do attitude.

 

[DontAsk]

what terminology would you use to describe someone who installs Wordpress on a server hosted by and managed by someone else?

Call it what you like. It could be shared hosting. It's certainly not self-hosting. Google might help you understand the definitions.

 

[fisicx]

A managed server, would mean the provider would do the install for you.

Most don’t. You usually have the option to install Wordpress or some other application. When you pay for hosting it’s just a chunk of space on the server.

 

[fisicx]

Simply arguing for the sake of it. I appreciate the can-do attitude.

No. I’m just trying to understand what you average small business would do if they shouldn’t use shared hosting.

For example, suppose you build a one page site for a business. Do they really need anything other than a hosting package with an ISP?

 

[fisicx]

Call it what you like. It could be shared hosting. It's certainly not self-hosting. Google might help you understand the definitions.

I apologise for my misuse of terminology. It comes from how Wordpress blogs and tutorials describe things. For example:

What Is Self-Hosted WordPress? (Expert Explains)

Wondering what a self-hosted WordPress site is? Learn the basics about self-hosted WordPress and how to set your site up in 5 easy steps!

themeisle.com

 

[ThatDevAaron]

I apologise for my misuse of terminology. It comes from how Wordpress blogs and tutorials describe things. For example:

What Is Self-Hosted WordPress? (Expert Explains)

Wondering what a self-hosted WordPress site is? Learn the basics about self-hosted WordPress and how to set your site up in 5 easy steps!

themeisle.com

Most wordpress sources can't be attributed for anything related toward technical terminologies. Which is why the vast majority will indeed need to hire system administrators, as the setup procedure is never as easy as these wordpress sources state.

 

[fisicx]

Most wordpress sources can't be attributed for anything related toward technical terminologies. Which is why the vast majority will indeed need to hire system administrators, as the setup procedure is never as easy as these wordpress sources state.

Please elaborate.

If I pay for hosting and use the built in Wordpress installer why do I need a system admin?

If I then install wordfence and set up 2FA why do I need a system admin?