WordPress or a custom-built website? An honest comparison
WordPress runs 40% of the web — but is it right for you? We don't build in WordPress, and here are the arguments for it and the three cases where you should.
This article was translated from Danish. Read the original.
Let’s get the conflict of interest on the table straight away: we don’t build in WordPress. We build in Astro, which produces static pages. So read this with that caveat.
In return, we also write out the three cases where WordPress is the right choice — and where we would send you elsewhere ourselves.
What the two things actually are
WordPress is a content management system. A database and a PHP program run on the server, building each page every time somebody visits it. You get an admin interface where you can write pages and posts, and an ecosystem of more than 60,000 plugins.
A custom-built static site is built once, when the code changes. The server sends out plain HTML files — there is no database to look things up in and no program to run. Content is edited either in files or through a separate editing tool.
That is the whole difference, and everything below follows from it.
Speed
This is where the difference is largest and most measurable.
A typical WordPress site with a theme and 15 plugins loads 1.5–3 MB and takes 2–5 seconds on mobile. Not because WordPress is badly built, but because each plugin adds its own JavaScript and CSS on top, and because the page has to be generated on every request.
A static site typically sits at 100–400 kB and under a second. There is nothing to generate — the file already exists.
That matters beyond how it feels: Google measures load time directly (Core Web Vitals) and uses it in ranking. And on mobile, a noticeable share of visitors leave if the page is slow to appear.
WordPress can be made fast with caching and discipline around plugins. It just requires somebody to keep up that discipline.
Security and maintenance
WordPress is the world’s most attacked CMS, precisely because it is the most widespread. The vast majority of break-ins happen not in WordPress itself, but in outdated plugins.
That means maintenance isn’t optional. Core and plugins have to be updated, and an update can break something in itself. Budget DKK 300–1,500 a month for somebody to keep an eye — or on doing it yourself every month.
A static site has no database and no program running. There is literally nothing to log in to. That removes the entire category of problems.
Who can edit the content?
Here WordPress wins, and it should be said plainly.
With WordPress any employee can log in and write a news post. No code, no developer, no waiting. That is the single biggest reason it became so widespread, and it is entirely real.
A static site requires either that somebody edits files, or that a separate editing tool is set up. This blog is Markdown files — that suits us, because we are developers. It does not suit an organisation with five people who need to write news.
Cost over three years
| WordPress | Custom-built static | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | DKK 8,000–30,000 | DKK 10,000–40,000 |
| Hosting per month | DKK 50–300 | DKK 0–100 |
| Maintenance per month | DKK 300–1,500 | DKK 0–300 |
| Plugin licences per year | DKK 0–4,000 | DKK 0 |
| Three years total | ≈ DKK 25,000–90,000 | ≈ DKK 12,000–50,000 |
The ranges are wide, because both can be done cheaply and expensively. The point is the direction: WordPress is often cheaper to start with and more expensive to own.
The three cases where you should choose WordPress
We mean it:
1. Several non-technical editors need to update often. If you have a communications department posting news every week, WordPress is the right answer. Anything else becomes a bottleneck.
2. You need a mature ecosystem immediately. A membership system, a course platform, an advanced webshop with Danish shipping modules — there are ready-made plugins that work tomorrow. Building that from scratch is expensive and foolish.
3. You want to be able to change supplier easily. Everybody knows WordPress. If you find a cheaper developer in two years, they can take over without difficulty. A custom solution ties you to fewer possible suppliers.
That last argument is stronger than people in our industry like to admit.
When custom-built wins
Speed and SEO are decisive. If you are competing for search terms where everybody else has a heavy WordPress site, speed is an advantage you can take.
The content rarely changes. Most business sites are updated a couple of times a year. In that case you are paying for an editing interface nobody uses.
You want as few moving parts as possible. No database, no plugins, no login. Fewer things that can break while you are busy with something else.
You need something that doesn’t exist as a plugin. If the system has to fit your workflows rather than the other way round, you are into development anyway.
What we do ourselves
We build in Astro. Pages are built at deploy time, served by nginx as plain files, and typically sit under 300 kB. There is no database to look after.
If you need to be able to write yourself, we add an editing tool — then you keep the speed and get the editing too. It costs a bit extra in setup, and we say so before we begin.
And if it turns out WordPress suits you better, we say that. It is cheaper for everyone than building the wrong thing.
Frequently asked questions
Can you move from WordPress to a static site? Yes. The content can be extracted, and the URLs preserved with redirects so the Google rankings come along. It is an ordinary redesign project.
Are static sites bad for SEO? On the contrary. All the technical parts — speed, clean HTML, structured data — are easier to get right without a CMS in the way. What decides SEO is the content, and that is the same either way.
Can I have a blog without WordPress? Yes. The blog you are reading right now is static. Full-text search, tags, RSS — all of it without a database.
What about Wix and Squarespace? Fine for the very first year, if you build it yourself and are in a hurry. You just don’t own anything, and you can’t take the site with you. See what a website costs.
Why us
Cheaper than most, and not worse for it
We are three developers. No project managers, no salespeople, no open-plan office downtown. That overhead is what you would otherwise be paying on top of the work itself, and it is why we can keep the price down on websites, webshops, web apps and mobile apps alike. Every price is published and fixed in writing before we start — from DKK 375 a month or DKK 3,995 one-time. See prices.
Cheaper does not mean less. We build and run our own products: NBS Booking, NBS Food and the KalorieTracker app, which is live in the App Store and Google Play. So we have already paid for the mistakes we advise you about. You talk to the person writing the code, and you own the code afterwards. If you want to move on without us, you can.