WordPress
WordPress, Webflow or a custom build: choosing without regret
Three good options with three different failure modes. The questions that decide it, and the answer that is usually right.
All three can produce an excellent website. They differ in who can change it afterwards, what it costs in year three, and what happens when you need something the tool did not anticipate.
WordPress
Choose it when non-technical people will edit content often, you need a blog that actually works, or you will sell something through WooCommerce later.
The cost is maintenance. Core, theme and plugin updates are not optional; an unmaintained WordPress site becomes a security problem within a year. Budget for it or buy a care plan.
The failure mode is plugin sprawl. Twenty-eight plugins, four of them abandoned, and a page that takes six seconds to load.
Webflow
Choose it when the site is mostly marketing pages, design fidelity matters more than editorial volume, and you want hosting handled.
The cost is the ceiling. Anything genuinely custom — a calculator, a login area, a real integration — means bolting on third-party services, each with its own subscription.
The failure mode is lock-in. Export gives you static HTML, not a working CMS. Moving off Webflow is a rebuild.
Custom build
Choose it when the site is really an application: booking, quoting, accounts, anything where the logic is the product.
The cost is that you own it. No plugin ecosystem to lean on, and content editing has to be built rather than assumed.
The failure mode is dependence on whoever built it. Insist on plain, boring technology and readable code for exactly this reason.
The four questions that decide it
- Who edits content, how often, and how technical are they?
- Will you sell online within two years?
- Does anything on the site need to calculate or remember something?
- What is the annual maintenance budget, honestly?
The honest default
For most small and mid-sized service businesses, a well-built WordPress site with a custom theme and a short plugin list is the right answer. It is not fashionable advice, but it survives a change of agency, a change of staff, and a decade of ordinary use — which is more than most alternatives can claim.
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