Wordpress or From-Scratch Websites?

[martin_shl]

WordPress has the best developers in the world supporting it

Automattic have just reduced the hours they are putting into the project from ~4000 per week to 45 per week.
Source: The Verge 10/01/2025 - Automattic cuts WordPress contribution hours, blames WP Engine - I'm not allowed to link but if you want to check it out I think those details will enable you to find it

That doesn't mean that other developers won't be stepping up to increase their contributions, but there is a bit of drama happening in the WordPress world at the moment.

 

[zomex]

@zomex


You my good sir, are clueless.
This is why I recommend those with little to no understanding of low-level networking, comment on such things under a business account, looks so bad I swear.

Calling me clueless doesn't make me clueless. You're a hosting reseller the same as everyone else. You sell VPS from a server which you rent in a datacentre that you don't own. For £1 your payment processor is already taking $0.50 ish of that. Absolutely not sustainable unless you like loosing money. Like I said I was selling $1 cPanel hosting back in 2009, it attracted the worst of the worst clients. I do however still have 1 of those clients who continues to pay $1/month for his account (i loose money on this client).

Congrats. You're a contributor, basically at the same level as a wordpress plugin developer......

If you must know, our cheaper options are there to build clientele, and provide a gateway-purchase, and they have more then enough use-cases. But I'm in no position to need to explain our pricing etc, especially considering we've got some great pricing.

I want to reiterate, WHMCS plugin development, isn't hosting experience, helping hosting companies integrate their WHMCS instance, with your plugin, isn't hosting experience. You're great with WHMCS, that is what I've learned so far.

WHMCS development is the biggest part of my business but I have also been reselling web hosting since 2009. You've been in the hosting industry for 2 years. I've been in it for over 15 years.

I actually help hosting companies setup their whole business that includes integration with all of the hosting control panels, providing VPS and dedicated servers using WHMCS. I help them with automation and security. Every aspect of a web hosting business, it's not just "installing my plugin". But one thing I am not is a server admin, I've made it clear my reasons why.

 

[zomex]

Automattic have just reduced the hours they are putting into the project from ~4000 per week to 45 per week.
Source: The Verge 10/01/2025 - Automattic cuts WordPress contribution hours, blames WP Engine - I'm not allowed to link but if you want to check it out I think those details will enable you to find it

That doesn't mean that other developers won't be stepping up to increase their contributions, but there is a bit of drama happening in the WordPress world at the moment.

Interesting, I will take a look now.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

Calling me clueless doesn't make me clueless. You're a hosting reseller the same as everyone else. You sell VPS from a server which you rent in a datacentre that you don't own. For £1 your payment processor is already taking $0.50 ish of that. Absolutely not sustainable unless you like loosing money. Like I said I was selling $1 cPanel hosting back in 2009, it attracted the worst of the worst clients. I do however still have 1 of those clients who continues to pay $1/month for his account (i loose money on this client).

Bro got the first thing wrong, as usual...

https://i.imgur.com/ZDPV8W3.jpeg

 

[ThatDevAaron]

Calling me clueless doesn't make me clueless. You're a hosting reseller the same as everyone else. You sell VPS from a server which you rent in a datacentre that you don't own. For £1 your payment processor is already taking $0.50 ish of that. Absolutely not sustainable unless you like loosing money. Like I said I was selling $1 cPanel hosting back in 2009, it attracted the worst of the worst clients. I do however still have 1 of those clients who continues to pay $1/month for his account (i loose money on this client).



WHMCS development is the biggest part of my business but I have also been reselling web hosting since 2009. You've been in the hosting industry for 2 years. I've been in it for over 15 years.

I actually help hosting companies setup their whole business that includes integration with all of the hosting control panels, providing VPS and dedicated servers using WHMCS. I help them with automation and security. Every aspect of a web hosting business, it's not just "installing my plugin". But one thing I am not is a server admin, I've made it clear my reasons why.

Our company has been in the hosting industry for 3 months, HammerVM is a 3-4 month old subsidiary company. I myself have good experience, not developing plugins, but working directly with hypervisors with providers, providing security consulting and more, all privately, these companies are a recent endeavour.

You sell web hosting, you're a glorified host, you literally work with the simplest form of hosting, and most importantly, don't understand how the cost of selling virtualized hardware.

 

[ThatDevAaron]

Interesting, I will take a look now.

You'd think a company who's entire business evolves around Wordpress, would be a little more up to date on wordpress......

 

[ThatDevAaron]

Why is it a technical topic? It’s a very polarised poll about the use of Wordpress versus a built from scratch website. It has become technical but this is forum for business owners not IT experts.

The question, bespoke or wordpress, is technical. We know this because you're someone who isn't very technical, and you've been corrected by people with a greater technical understanding; therefor, we can assume, most of the stuff discussed on this thread; performance, efficiency, security etc, will be technical, and those without a technical understanding most of the time won't be contributing outside of stating their opinion on what they use and prefer and why.

 

[fisicx]

You consider it technical but for the members of this forum it’s a business decision.

I also disagree that I’ve been corrected. I’ve just been given an alternate opinion in the same way some of your posts have been refuted.

 

[fisicx]

The reason wordpress is targeted, is because they use the same URL Patterns. If you really did want to secure yourself, simply change /wp-admin/ to /123-admin or something different, these AUTOMATED systems iterate over all domains and ipv4 addresses in the world, and look for COMMON ADMIN PATHS, such as your common as heck WP-ADMIN path, lol.

I've now done a lot of research on this and the benefits are negligible.

Bots target wp-login.php as this is the easy route to access. Not using admin as a user name helps as does a long password and 2FA.

Brute force attempts are easily thwarted using a plugin like WordFence. If you pay for the premium version IP blocking comes built in.

You can also do a lot at server level to protect yourself, multiple login attempts are killed at source. My server will block you after three failed logins.

It's also worth pointing out that remaning wp-admin is going to cause issues when updating WP - especially if you use the autoupdater.

 

[fisicx]

You'd think a company who's entire business evolves around Wordpress, would be a little more up to date on wordpress......

Well duh! did you even read his posts. He is a hosting company. Any WP work is additional. Not knowing that Automattic has sacked a bunch of people isn't relevant in the same way knowing staffing issues at the datacentre you use is irrelevant.

 

[Deleted member 365208]

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.

Hi ThatDevAaron,

This is a fascinating discussion, and it really highlights how the decision between WordPress and bespoke comes down to the unique needs of a business. For my firm, ABPraxis, we’ve opted for a bespoke approach – but that decision was driven by our specific goals and how we plan to grow over time.

We’re currently building a new website from scratch, and it’s not just about having something “different.” For us, going bespoke allows for deeper integration with the tools we use daily, like our proprietary client management system and client portal. For example, one feature we’re excited to launch is an AI-powered search bar where visitors can type in their business challenges. The system will then recommend relevant services we offer, with responses written in the same tone and style as our advisers. Something like this wouldn’t have been as seamless to build on a pre-existing platform.

Another reason we’ve gone bespoke is the control over the CMS. A lot of off-the-shelf CMS solutions are great for general use but don’t always align perfectly with more niche needs. In our case, the custom CMS we’re developing allows us to tailor workflows directly to our requirements. It’s a time-saver for our team, ensures consistency, and integrates beautifully with our internal systems.

That said, bespoke isn’t for everyone. For businesses with simpler needs, WordPress (or other platforms) can be a fantastic choice. It’s affordable, fast to implement, and has a massive pool of developers who can jump in if needed. But when your website becomes more than just an online brochure – when it’s central to how you interact with clients or deliver value – it’s worth considering whether bespoke can give you that extra edge.

Of course, going bespoke does come with risks. You’re tied to the developer or agency you work with unless you carefully plan for handover documentation and future support. For us, we’ve mitigated this by doing everything internally – our team has the expertise and capacity to handle both the design and development in-house. This gives us full control over the process and ensures continuity. That said, it has been a massive undertaking for our very small firm, taking up significant time and effort. We’ve also ensured our design system (which we call Lattice) is well-documented, so if we ever need to bring in additional developers, they can get up to speed quickly.

In the end, it all boils down to your business goals, budget, and how your website fits into your broader strategy. Bespoke makes sense for us because of our scale, ambitions, and need for unique functionality. But for many SMEs, WordPress (or even Shopify, Wix, etc.) will tick all the boxes.

It’s not about one being better than the other – it’s about what’s right for the job at hand.

Best,

Aaran

 

[fisicx]

But aaran - that still misses out on the huge range of options available to the business owner. Wordpress and built-from-scratch are only two of many.

And even an off the shelf CMS can be heavily customised to the extent it’s not even recognisable. Headless Wordpress being one example.

 

[Deleted member 365208]

But @aaran_abpraxis - that still misses out on the huge range of options available to the business owner. Wordpress and built-from-scratch are only two of many.

And even an off the shelf CMS can be heavily customised to the extent it’s not even recognisable. Headless Wordpress being one example.

That’s an interesting point, and I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with headless WordPress until now. From what I’ve read having a quick look around, it seems like it could add even more complexity to the setup, especially for businesses without a dedicated development team. I’d be curious to hear if you’ve had direct experience with it – how has it worked out in practice for businesses you’ve seen using it?

One of my concerns with WordPress in general has always been the security aspect, particularly when plugins are involved. From ensuring plugins are secure and up-to-date to managing regular updates for WordPress itself, it seems like an ongoing task that could introduce vulnerabilities if not handled carefully.

For us, avoiding those risks was part of the reason we went bespoke – it gave us more control over what’s in our system and how it’s secured. That said, I can see how headless WordPress could address some of the issues associated with traditional WordPress setups. I’d love to hear more about your perspective on where it works best.

 

[fisicx]

Or...

You could investigate the many other platforms to see if they meet your needs. A small business may just need a GBP. A simple online store could just use Shopify. Even Wix might suffice for some.

As to headless wordpress, It was complicated to set up but it did the job. Only tried it once then went back to standard wordpress. If configured with care the security issues are minimal.

And you often don't need lots of plugins. Many simple functions can be added to your theme.

And you can enable auto-updates. This keeps your site up to date. If there is a problem WP will automatically roll-back.

Or just use one of the many other CMS applications.

 

[Deleted member 365208]

Or...

You could investigate the many other platforms to see if they meet your needs. A small business may just need a GBP. A simple online store could just use Shopify. Even Wix might suffice for some.

As to headless wordpress, It was complicated to set up but it did the job. Only tried it once then went back to standard wordpress. If configured with care the security issues are minimal.

And you often don't need lots of plugins. Many simple functions can be added to your theme.

And you can enable auto-updates. This keeps your site up to date. If there is a problem WP will automatically roll-back.

Or just use one of the many other CMS applications.

That’s interesting, and it’s helpful to hear about your experience with headless WordPress. From what I’ve read, it seems like it could work well in certain scenarios, but for us, the added complexity wouldn’t have justified the potential benefits. It sounds like you found the same, given that you ultimately went back to a standard WordPress setup.

I also wanted to touch on your mention of a Google Business Profile. While it’s a great tool and an important part of an online presence, I don’t think it’s enough on its own for businesses today. A GBP is useful for discoverability – showing up in local searches, displaying reviews, and providing contact info – but it doesn’t give businesses the ability to truly showcase their brand or engage meaningfully with their audience.

Even for businesses where you might think a website isn’t necessary, it can still play a crucial role. Take a local tradesperson, like a plumber or electrician. On the surface, they might rely on word-of-mouth and a GBP listing for leads, but a simple, well-built website can instantly add credibility. If potential customers are choosing between two businesses on Google, the one with a professional website, showcasing services, testimonials, and clear pricing, often wins the work in my experience.

Similarly, a cafe or takeaway might seem like they can get by with just a GBP, but having a website allows them to go further. They can post their menu, take online orders or reservations, and even run loyalty programs or promotions – all things that help them build deeper relationships with their customers.

A website lets businesses control their narrative. It allows them to tell their story, highlight what makes them different, and build trust in a way that a GBP just can’t. And in competitive industries, that’s often what makes the difference between a customer choosing your business or a competitor’s.

When it comes to recommending solutions, I always think it depends on the client’s needs. Since we’re not primarily a web development agency, we typically link our clients with trusted partners who can offer the best platform for their situation. For smaller, local businesses, something like Wix or Squarespace might be ideal – cost-effective, simple, and quick to set up. For e-commerce businesses, Shopify or WooCommerce often works well, depending on the scale and complexity of their store. For companies with unique technical needs or who require a more integrated approach, bespoke can be the right choice, like what we’ve done for our firm.

— Aaran

 

[fisicx]

I agree that a business may get benefits from a website but there are many alternatives.

The lady who made a cake for my wife's 60th birthday has a GBP and instagram page. She also markets on nextdoor. This bring in sufficient leads to keep her busy. She doesn't need to expand or grow.

Which is why only suggesting Wordpress or hand-coded is far too polarised. A business will choose the tools appropriate for their marketing plan. Or to write it a different way: your marketing plan plan will determine the type of online or offline techniques.

 

[Deleted member 365208]

I agree that a business may get benefits from a website but there are many alternatives.

The lady who made a cake for my wife's 60th birthday has a GBP and instagram page. She also markets on nextdoor. This bring in sufficient leads to keep her busy. She doesn't need to expand or grow.

Which is why only suggesting Wordpress or hand-coded is far too polarised. A business will choose the tools appropriate for their marketing plan. Or to write it a different way: your marketing plan plan will determine the type of online or offline techniques.

That’s a good point, and I completely agree – every business should choose the tools that align with their goals and resources. For someone like the cake maker you mentioned, a GBP and social media channels like Instagram or Nextdoor might be more than enough if her goal is simply to maintain a steady flow of work. Not every business needs to scale or build a complex online presence, and those tools can work brilliantly in cases like hers.

Where I think websites come into play is when businesses are looking to take things a step further – whether that’s expanding their audience, building more trust, or offering something their competitors don’t. For instance, a cake maker who wants to attract more high-end clients might benefit from a sleek portfolio website showcasing their best work, along with testimonials and a booking system. It’s all about matching the platform to the ambition.

I also agree with your point about marketing plans driving the choice of tools. For example, if a business relies heavily on foot traffic or local word-of-mouth, their priorities might be very different from a brand focused on online sales or a global audience. That’s why, when we work with clients, we always start by understanding their goals and crafting a strategy that works for them – whether that’s a simple GBP and Instagram setup or something more tailored, like a website with integrated e-commerce or booking features.

At the end of the day, the “right” solution depends on what the business wants to achieve and the resources they have available to get there.

— Aaran

 

[Alan]

what an interesting thread. And quite a lot of miss understanding.

However, just thought I'd comment

the common understanding of self-hosted is that you have complete comtrol over your app and data, this can be acheived by using a shared host or using a PaaS or a VPS or bare metal. The opposite of self hostedis commnly though of as where you dont have full control, e.g. Wix, Shopify, Framer, WordPress-dot-com ( Automatttic ) etc

Also just for those wanting choices Drupal have now entered into teh CMS market with Drupal CMS "puts the power of Drupal into the hands of marketers, designers and content creators." I haven't tried it ( yet )

Also I'd like to understand what the OP means by "bespoke" -the context of the question pitting WordPress againts "bespoke" would indicate given that WordPress is a blogging platform that can be tailored to be like a CMS is that "bespoke" means creating a blogging or CMS platform from scratch - which of course would be insane for any non Fortune 500 company

 

[Karimbo]

I dont understand the OP at all.

They de-wordpress sites for clients to save them money on hosting? My experience is that hosting costs are a drop in the ocean compared to developer cost.

Hosting cost is a bit of a pain once a month or so. But it's not that expensive and also, i thought a host is a host and wordpress host is just a marketing angle to appeal the primary use case for hosting.

 

[Karimbo]

I meant to say pain once a year. Not month. I pay £140 a year for about 16 websites I own..I pay annually as I get a discount for paying together. Hosting is cheap.

If I was paying a developer to "de wordpress" my sites. I'd be having to pay the developer £50+ an hour to do that.