WordPress or a Hand-Built Site?

If you've asked around about a new website, someone has probably told you to just use WordPress. It's common advice, and sometimes it's the right advice. But WordPress comes with upkeep of its own, and it isn't the only way to get a good site.

I work on both sides of this. I host and look after existing WordPress sites, and the sites in my plans are built in code instead. So this isn't a pitch against WordPress. It's how I'd decide.

What WordPress is

WordPress is open-source software for building websites (WordPress.org). The software itself costs nothing: you can use it, change it and run a business on it without paying a license fee (WordPress features). The look comes from a theme. Features WordPress doesn't have come from plugins, and WordPress.org's directory lists over 75,000 free ones, as of October 2026 (WordPress plugins).

Free software isn't a free website, though. If you install WordPress yourself, you need your own hosting and a domain (Get WordPress). Then someone has to keep the whole thing running.

When WordPress still fits

These are the situations where I'd tell you to keep WordPress, or pick it:

• You already run one and it works. If your WordPress site brings in work and you know your way around it, a rebuild is money spent to stand still. Keep it, and make sure someone looks after it.
• You publish a lot, and you do it yourself. WordPress began in 2003 as a personal publishing system (WordPress.org). If you put out articles, news or events every week and want to write them yourself, it's built for that.
• You need something a plugin already does. WordPress's own examples of plugin features include forums, calendars, galleries and forms (WordPress features). If a well-kept plugin does exactly what you need, that can be a faster road than having the feature built.
• You'd rather not run it yourself. Keeping WordPress doesn't mean doing the upkeep. I host and look after existing WordPress sites on a written quote, and you keep editing your content as you do now.

What WordPress asks of you

The software is free. The upkeep isn't. A WordPress site is WordPress itself, a theme, and usually several plugins, each from a different maker and each updating on its own schedule. New installations update WordPress itself automatically, but by default plugins and themes only update themselves in special cases, when the WordPress security team pushes a fix for a critical vulnerability (WordPress documentation). The rest waits for someone.

In practice, owning a WordPress site means four jobs:

• Updates. WordPress, the theme and every plugin, with a backup taken first and the contact form and checkout tested after.
• Plugins. Every plugin is more code to update and to trust. One its maker has stopped updating is worth replacing.
• Security. One login per person, the right roles, strong passwords and two-factor sign-in, and a plan for the day the site gets hacked.
• Hosting. A server that runs PHP and a database at current versions, plus backups you can restore and an HTTPS certificate that renews on time. WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or greater (WordPress requirements).

I've written each of these up already, so I won't repeat them here. What it takes to look after a WordPress site explains why each job matters, and 10 WordPress maintenance tasks to do every month is the checklist.

None of this is a reason to avoid WordPress. It's a reason to decide who does the work before you start.

How plan sites are built instead

The sites in my plans aren't WordPress. Each one is designed for the business and built in Next.js, a React framework for building websites and web apps (Next.js documentation), then hosted on Vercel. That's what I mean by hand-built: the site is written in code for you, rather than assembled from a theme and a stack of plugins.

Here's what that changes for you as the owner:

• There's no theme or plugin stack for you to update. The site's code has dependencies of its own, and keeping them current is part of the care plan.
• Upkeep is one monthly fee. The $79/mo care plan starts the day the site launches. It covers hosting on Vercel with SSL, daily backups, uptime monitoring, and security and dependency updates. It's month to month, with 30 days' notice.
• Changes come to me. Content and design changes aren't in the care plan. They're billed by the hour: $150 an hour in 15-minute increments with a 30-minute minimum, or $675 for a prepaid block of five hours. If you want to write your own blog posts, the edit-your-own blog add-on ($500) puts an editor in the site, with one training call. My post Will I Be Able to Edit My Own Website? covers how changes work.
• The code is yours. Once the build fee is paid in full and the site launches, the design, the pages and the code belong to you, and I hand over a copy of the code repository whenever you ask. If you end the care plan, I hand over your code and you can host the site wherever you like.

The trade-off is real. You give up editing every page yourself from a dashboard, and in return you aren't the one running updates. If editing everything yourself matters most to you, WordPress may suit you better.

Two related questions have posts of their own. If you'd like to keep writing in WordPress behind a site built in Next.js, see my post on headless WordPress; a WordPress-editable blog on a plan site is something I quote rather than include. And if you're also weighing Wix or Squarespace, my platform comparison covers the wider choice.

How to decide

If you're not sure which row you're in, write down what you'll actually change on the site in the next year, and who will do it. That list usually settles it.

Two ways forward

Keep your WordPress site. I host and look after existing WordPress sites case by case, on LiteSpeed servers I run. Tell me about yours and I'll send a written quote for hosting and upkeep before anything changes. Content and design changes aren't included. A $500 deposit starts the quote. It's refundable until you accept, and credited to the work. Ask for a quote.

Start fresh on a plan. Starter is $2,400 for five pages, Deluxe $4,080 for seven, and Premium $6,720 for ten. Each is one build fee, paid in full for 10% off or half now and half before launch, then the $79/mo care plan from launch day. A store beyond the simple shop, or a migration off your current platform, is quoted separately. See the plans, or start your project.