WordPress or custom development? An honest comparison

In short: WordPress for standard sites. Custom development when your process is the product.

I built my first client websites with WordPress and Joomla, so this is not a comparison from the outside.

Where WordPress is the right answer

• A company site, a portfolio or a blog with standard needs.
• A small budget and a short timeline.
• You want to edit pages yourself with a familiar editor.
• A plugin already does what you need.

In those cases, building custom software would waste your money.

Where it starts to hurt

• Unusual business rules. Payment in parts, special order flows, stock as a ledger, role-based work screens. Plugins stretch, then break or conflict.
• Many plugins. Each is another thing to update and another way in for an attacker. Updates can clash.
• Performance and structure. A heavy theme plus many plugins can slow a site down.
• Data you need to trust. Reports built on top of plugin tables are hard to keep consistent.

Where custom development pays

• Your process is the product: ordering, invoices with installments, subscriptions, a client area.
• You need permissions that match your team.
• You want a clear data model you own.

Where custom development costs you

• A higher starting cost and a longer wait.
• Every feature is built, tested and maintained by someone. There is no plugin to install.
• You depend on whoever knows the code, which is why handover and documentation should be agreed in the scope.

How I decide with a client

I ask what the site must do that a ready-made tool cannot. If the answer is "nothing", I tell you to use a ready-made tool.