WordPress, another CMS or custom-built? A decision guide
Short answer: For most small and medium-sized businesses, WordPress is more than enough, and it is what we build in. If you mainly sell products online, Shopify may suit you better. A custom-built system is right when you need something no ready-made platform can do, and then it is usually a system behind the website, not the website itself.
There is no single best CMS platform for every business. Which of the best CMS platforms suits you depends on what the website needs to do. This guide is for you if you are about to build a new website or switch platform. We go through what each option is good for, how they differ in ownership, portability, maintenance, security and cost over time, and which questions to ask before you decide.
What you’ll get from this article
Three ways to build a website
There are basically three ways to get a website up and running:
- An open-source CMS, such as WordPress. You install the system with a web host, choose or build a theme and add features with plugins. You control the installation and the content.
- A rented platform, such as Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or Webflow. You pay a monthly fee and the platform takes care of the server, updates and tools. The website lives with the provider.
- Custom development. Everything is built from scratch for you. You get exactly what you need, but everything that is built also has to be maintained.
It is not always either-or. Much of what is called custom-built today is in practice WordPress with purpose-built features on top, and that is often the best combination.
When WordPress is enough, and why we build in it
WordPress is by far the most common system. According to W3Techs, it is used by 40.2 per cent of all websites and has 58.6 per cent of the market among websites where the system is known (4 October 2026). Size alone is no proof of quality, but it has practical consequences for you as a business owner.
These are the reasons we build our clients’ websites in WordPress:
- You can update it yourself. Text, images, news and new pages can be added without knowing how to code. A website that is kept up to date does a better job, both for visitors and in Google.
- No licence fee for WordPress and plenty of freedom to move. WordPress is open source. You pay for the build, the hosting and the maintenance, and possibly for premium plugins or themes, but not for the right to use the system itself.
- Lots of people know it. There are plenty of developers around the world who work with WordPress. If you ever want to change agency, the website can be handed over without starting again.
- It grows with you. Bookings, forms connected to your CRM, multiple languages, an online shop with WooCommerce and your own features can be added when the need arises.
- A good foundation for visibility. Headings, URLs, metadata and redirects can be fully controlled, which is what SEO work needs.
We build without heavy ready-made templates full of unnecessary code, because that is a common cause of slow WordPress websites. You can read more about how we approach a build under business websites. If you want to understand the difference between the design and the technical build, we have written about web design and web development.
WordPress also has weaknesses that are worth knowing about. It needs maintenance, and badly built or neglected plugins can affect both security and performance. That is why we see building and maintenance as one whole. More on that further down.
When another platform is a better fit
Shopify, when ecommerce is the business
If the online shop is the core of what you do, and you want checkout, payments, stock and shipping in place quickly without thinking about servers, Shopify is a strong option. The pricing is based on a monthly fee for the plan you choose. On top of that, there can be costs for payments, apps and themes. So the total cost depends both on which features you need and on how much you sell.
If you already have a WordPress website with a lot of content, or a shop that is part of a service business, WooCommerce may be the wiser choice. We compare the two in detail in WooCommerce or Shopify?
Wix and Squarespace, when it needs to be quick and simple
Wix and Squarespace are website builders where you drag and drop blocks onto a page. For a simple website you want to set up yourself, such as a presentation page for a new business, they work. The downside shows when you want to grow or move:
- A Wix website cannot be moved as it is. Wix itself says the website has to run on its servers, because it is built on its own technology. The content is yours, but if you leave Wix, the website itself has to be rebuilt on another platform.
- Squarespace exports part of the content. The export is mainly designed to be imported into WordPress, and not all content and features come with it. When you move, parts of the website therefore have to be rebuilt. What is included right now is shown on Squarespace’s help page.
- Check the connections before you choose. The integrations on offer differ between platforms. Make sure the systems you use, such as your CRM, accounting, bookings and measurement, can be connected the way you need.
Webflow, when design leads
Webflow gives designers a lot of visual control over layout and animations. It suits teams that want to design in detail without writing code themselves. Here too, the website lives with the provider. The code can be exported on some paid plans, but CMS content, forms, search and password-protected pages do not work after export. For a business that wants to be able to move the whole website to another hosting environment without rebuilding, that is an important limitation.
When custom-built is right
A website rarely needs to be built entirely from scratch. What often needs building is what happens behind it: the flow from enquiry to quote, time reporting that goes straight to invoicing, a customer portal, a course platform or a connection that means the same information is not typed into three places.
Signs that you have that kind of need:
- You live in Excel. Important processes are held together by spreadsheets that get sent around and that only one person understands.
- The same information is entered several times. Customer data in one system, hours in another, invoices in a third.
- Ready-made systems force you to change how you work in a way that costs more time than it saves.
- You need a portal where customers, employees or participants log in and see their own information.
Then a custom-built system is right, and we build those too. We start with how you work, sketch before we code and build in stages, with what saves the most time coming first. Read more about our custom business systems. The website itself can still run on WordPress and talk to the system.
Custom-built has a price that does not show in the quote: everything you build yourself, you also have to maintain. There is no shared update from a worldwide developer community. That is why it is only worth it when the need is real and recurring.
What decides it: five questions to ask
Feature lists look much the same on most platforms. The differences only show when you ask what happens over time.
1. Who owns the website?
Ask who is registered as the owner of the domain, the hosting account and the installation itself. With WordPress, you should be able to get the whole website out: files and database. On a rented platform you own your content but not the technology it runs on. The domain should always be in your company’s name, whatever the platform. More on that in domain name and web hosting.
2. What do you take with you if you switch?
It sounds like a theoretical question until you want to change provider, or until the provider raises its prices. A new provider often rebuilds the website whatever the platform, so the question is rarely whether the code can be moved. What decides how smooth a switch will be is whether you keep the domain, the content, the data and your visibility in Google. A good test: if we stopped working together tomorrow, what would you take with you?
3. Who takes care of maintenance?
Every website needs maintenance. On a rented platform the provider does it for you, and you have to accept the changes it makes. With WordPress, someone needs to update the system, the theme and the plugins, test that everything works and take backups. That is where many WordPress websites fall short. The system is not the problem; the problem is that nobody is responsible.
4. How is security handled?
According to the security company Patchstack, around 91 per cent of the new vulnerabilities reported in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025 were in plugins and around 9 per cent in themes. Only a handful were reported in WordPress itself, and they were low priority. That shows how important it is to keep track of which plugins and themes the website uses, and that someone is responsible for updates, security and backups. Ask who does the updates, how often backups are taken and how quickly a website can be restored if something goes wrong.
5. What does it cost over time?
Do not just compare the start-up cost. Calculate over three to five years and look at the pricing model:
| Option | Start | Ongoing | What makes the cost grow |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | The build | Hosting and maintenance | New functionality you choose to build |
| Shopify | Low to medium | Monthly fee, payment fees, apps | Sales, more apps, a higher plan |
| Wix, Squarespace, Webflow | Low | Monthly fee per plan | A higher plan for more features, a rebuild if you move |
| Custom-built | High | Hosting, maintenance and further development | Everything that is added has to be maintained |
The cheapest start is not always the cheapest solution. A website that has to be completely rebuilt when you want to grow has a hidden cost that does not show in the first year.
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Common mistakes we see
- Choosing a platform because of a nice-looking example. The look can be achieved in any system. Ask instead what you need to be able to do in two years.
- The domain is in someone else’s name. A former agency, an employee who has left or a freelancer. It becomes a problem when you want to change provider.
- A WordPress website with nobody responsible for it. Built a few years ago, never updated since. It is slow, vulnerable and hard to change.
- Custom-built for the sake of it. Building your own publishing system for an ordinary business website rarely gives you anything WordPress does not already do, but it does give you more to maintain.
Quick guide: what suits you?
- A service business that wants enquiries: WordPress.
- An online shop that is the core business: Shopify or WooCommerce, depending on how much content and customisation you need.
- A simple website you want to build entirely yourself and do not plan to outgrow: Wix or Squarespace can work, knowing that a move means a rebuild.
- Internal workflows, portals or connections between systems: a custom-built system, ideally together with a WordPress website facing your customers.
Whatever you choose, make sure someone is responsible for hosting and maintenance. With us, that is a separate service: our web hosting and maintenance service includes updates, nightly backups and monitoring, with servers in Sweden.
What most people won’t tell you
The platform is rarely what makes a website good. What decides it is structure, copy, loading time and forms that work. A well-built WordPress website beats a custom-built website that nobody updates.
Custom-built sounds exclusive but often becomes a dependency. If only one developer understands the code, you are locked in. Choose custom-built when you need something no ready-made platform can do, not because it sounds better.
The cheapest build is rarely the cheapest. A website without hosting, updates and backups gets expensive the first time something breaks.
How we work
- We suggest what fits, not what we would rather build. WordPress when it is enough, which it is for most, and Shopify or a custom-built system when the need calls for it.
- You control the installation. You get access to the website’s files and database, and the domain is in your company’s name, so you can take everything with you if you change provider.
- We plan for maintenance from the start. If you choose our hosting and maintenance service, we take care of updates, backups and monitoring of what we build. We host over 600 domains today.
- Measurement can be in place from launch. If you add our measurement, such as Tokig Analytics, we set it up at launch, so you can see which pages and channels bring in enquiries from day one, not just clicks.
Not sure which route suits you?
Tell us what the website needs to handle, and we will tell you whether it should be built in WordPress, on another platform or custom-built, and why.
Book a free review or call +46 8 545 222 22, weekdays 08:00–17:00 (CET)
Frequently asked questions
Is WordPress secure?
Yes, when the website is looked after on an ongoing basis. Many of the reported vulnerabilities are in plugins and themes, so what matters is keeping an eye on them, updating them and having working backups and monitoring.
How much does WordPress cost?
The system itself is free. You pay for the build, the hosting, any paid plugins and the maintenance. Calculate over three to five years, not just the build.
Are Wix or Squarespace bad for SEO?
Not in themselves. For a simple website, the basics work. The limitations show more when you want to grow or move.
Can we switch platform later?
Yes, but it costs. That is why it pays to choose right from the start and to make sure you own the domain, the content and the accounts.
Do we need a custom-built system for a customer portal?
Often, but not always. First check whether a ready-made system can handle the workflow. If it forces you to change how you work in a way that costs more time than it saves, custom-built is right.
Developer at Pixeltokig. Tashnif built our customer portal and our own tools, including Tokig Insights, which connects calls and forms to the right channel.
Read next
- WooCommerce or Shopify?
- Web design or web development: what’s the difference and what do you need?
- Domain name and web hosting: the difference and what to keep track of