Digital Ohana
If you've ever shopped for a website, someone has probably told you to "just use WordPress." It's free, it powers a huge share of the web, and there's a plugin for everything. So why did we stop building on it?
This isn't a post about WordPress being bad. It's a good tool for certain jobs. But for the kind of business we usually work with, a local shop or service company in Las Vegas or Hawaii with a handful of pages and a phone that needs to ring, we think a custom-coded site is the better fit. Here's an honest look at both.
What WordPress does well
WordPress is a content management system. Its biggest strength is letting lots of people publish lots of content without touching code.
- Big teams publishing often. If you have several writers posting articles every day, WordPress gives you editor roles, drafts, scheduling and a familiar dashboard.
- Huge ecosystem. There are themes and plugins for almost anything, from event calendars to membership areas.
- Lots of people know it. It's easy to find someone who can work on a WordPress site.
If that sounds like your business, WordPress may be a fine choice, and we'll tell you so.
Where WordPress costs small businesses
Most small business sites aren't newsrooms. They're five or so pages that change a few times a year. For that job, WordPress brings a lot of machinery you pay for in other ways.
- Constant updates. WordPress core, the theme and every plugin need regular updates. Skip them and you risk security problems. Run them and something occasionally breaks.
- Speed. Themes and page builders load a lot of code to support features you'll never use. Add a few plugins and pages get heavier, which is felt most on phones.
- Security. Because WordPress is so popular, it's a common target for automated attacks. Outdated plugins are a frequent way in.
- Hidden ongoing costs. Premium themes, plugin licenses, security tools and hosting that can handle it all tend to add up year after year.
None of this means a WordPress site can't be fast and secure. It can, with ongoing care. The question is whether you want to pay for that care on a site that doesn't need what WordPress offers.
What a custom-coded site does differently
When we say custom-coded, we mean the site is built on code we write and maintain ourselves, then designed and written for your business, without a theme, a page builder or a pile of plugins underneath.
- Fast by default. The page only loads what it actually needs, so it's quick on a phone with a weak signal.
- Fewer moving parts. No plugin updates to chase, and far less that can break on its own.
- Harder to hack. There's no admin login page or outdated plugin for bots to probe.
- You own it. Your domain, hosting and accounts are in your name, and the code transfers to you at launch. You're not locked into a platform or a monthly builder subscription.
The honest tradeoffs
Custom isn't perfect for everyone.
- You may not edit it yourself in a dashboard. For most owners, changes are things like new hours, a price update or a fresh photo. Our care plan covers up to 30 minutes of changes a month, done within 2 business days. Without it, small updates are a flat fee.
- It's not built for daily publishing by a big team. If that's you, a content management system is probably the right call.
- Complex stores need more planning. Online stores are quoted up front so you know the scope before we start.
How to decide
Ask yourself a few questions:
- How often does your site really change? Daily, or a few times a year?
- How many people need to publish to it?
- Do you want to manage updates and plugins, or would you rather not think about it?
- How important is speed on phones to your customers?
If your site changes occasionally and its main job is getting people to call, book or request a quote, a custom-coded site is usually simpler, faster and cheaper to keep running.
Thinking about switching?
If you're on WordPress now, moving doesn't mean starting over. We move your content and photos, set up redirects from every old URL so your rankings carry over, and leave your business email alone. Read more on our website migration page, or see what's included on our pricing page.
The easiest first step is a free homepage concept. We'll look at your current site and design a homepage that shows what a custom-coded version could do. You keep it either way.
