It's usually one of the first questions we get asked, and one of the first decisions that gets made badly. Do you build on WordPress, put it together yourself in a drag and drop builder like Wix, or have something coded from scratch? Each answer is right for a different business, and the wrong one tends to show up later as slow pages, awkward edits, or a site that quietly holds the business back.
Is WordPress Still the Sensible Default?
For a lot of businesses, yes. According to W3Techs' ongoing usage survey, WordPress powers around 40% of all websites globally, roughly 58% of every site that runs on a content management system at all. That scale isn't an accident, it means a huge ecosystem of themes, plugins and developers who actually know the platform.
The trade-off is maintenance. WordPress needs its core software, theme and plugins kept updated, and a site left unpatched for a year or two is a genuinely common way small businesses end up hacked or broken. It's flexible, but flexibility here means somebody has to own it.
What Do You Actually Give Up With a Drag and Drop Builder?
Builders like Wix are genuinely good at what they're built for, getting something online quickly with no code and no developer. For a hobby project or a very early-stage business, that's a fair deal.
Where it tends to break down is growth. Sites built on these platforms are often slower than they need to be, since you're working inside a fixed system rather than lean custom code, and that speed gap can matter for exactly the reasons we've covered in why website speed actually matters. There's also a lock-in problem, most drag and drop platforms don't let you export the site to run anywhere else, so switching later usually means rebuilding from zero rather than moving house.
When Does It Actually Make Sense to Build From Scratch?
Custom-coded sites, built directly in HTML, CSS and whatever framework suits the job, sit at the other end of the spectrum. No unused plugin code, no builder overhead, just exactly what the business needs and nothing else. That tends to mean faster load times and more control, both over how the site looks and how it's structured for search engines.
The honest downside is that a custom-coded site usually can't be edited by the business owner directly, at least not without support. It suits businesses who want a site built properly around what they actually do and are happy to have a developer handle changes, rather than businesses who want to log in and tweak text themselves every week.
None of these three is universally "best." A Sheffield sole trader testing an idea and a growing company that depends on its website for enquiries are solving different problems, and the right platform follows from that, not the other way round.
A Quick Way to Think About It
- WordPress, good middle ground: flexible, widely supported, needs ongoing maintenance to stay secure.
- Drag and drop builders, fastest to launch, weakest on speed, SEO control and long-term flexibility.
- Custom-coded, fastest and most tailored, but changes typically go through a developer rather than the owner.
If your site is already showing the strain, whichever platform it's on, it's worth reading through 5 signs your business website needs updating before deciding whether to patch it up or rebuild properly.
If you're not sure which route actually fits your business, get in touch with our team. We'll give you a plain, honest recommendation rather than pushing whatever we find easiest to sell.
