WordPress or custom PHP? How we help clients choose

One of the first questions every client asks us is some version of: "Are you building this in WordPress, or what?" It's a fair question. WordPress runs a huge chunk of the web, and most people have at least heard of it.

The honest answer is that we build both — custom PHP sites and WordPress themes — and the right choice depends on three things: how often the site changes, who's going to be editing it, and what kind of growth you're planning for.

When custom PHP is the right call

Most business websites we build are custom PHP. The reason is simple: the content on a typical 8-page services site doesn't actually change very often. The hero copy, the about page, the services list, the contact info — these update maybe twice a year. You don't need a content management system to handle that. You need a fast, secure, well-built site.

Custom PHP wins on a few axes:

• Performance. Our custom sites consistently score 95+ on Google PageSpeed. There's no plugin bloat, no JavaScript framework, no theme files loading 40 widgets. Just the code we wrote.
• Security. There's no admin login at a predictable URL for bots to hammer, no plugin marketplace introducing new vulnerabilities, no quarterly emergency patches.
• Total cost. No premium plugin subscriptions, no annual theme renewals, no maintenance budget eaten by keeping things up to date.
• Programmatic capability. When we need to generate thousands of SEO landing pages from a database — like the system we built for AP Mobile Auto Repair — custom PHP makes it straightforward.

When WordPress is the right call

We absolutely use WordPress when it makes sense. The three scenarios where it consistently wins:

1. The client publishes a lot. A real blog with weekly posts, a news site, an active editorial team — WordPress was built for this and does it well.
2. Multiple non-technical editors. If three people need to be able to add pages and update content without calling us, a proper CMS is the right tool.
3. Specific WordPress integrations the client already uses. If you're moving from another WordPress site and have an established workflow, or you rely on a specific plugin ecosystem (WooCommerce, LearnDash, etc.), starting fresh in custom code rarely makes sense.

When we build in WordPress, we build a clean custom theme — no page builders, no Elementor, no Divi. Those add the same performance and maintenance problems that drive people to ask for "just a fast site" in the first place. A well-built custom WordPress theme can score 90+ on PageSpeed if it's done right.

What we won't do

We won't build sites with Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, or any other page builder. We've seen too many client sites built that way come to us a year later asking why everything is slow and why every minor change requires fighting the builder. Page builders ship enormous amounts of CSS and JavaScript to make designing-without-code feel possible — at the cost of the resulting site.

If you have an existing page-builder site and want to migrate to something faster, we can do that. We'll either rebuild it as a clean custom theme (if WordPress still makes sense) or move it to custom PHP (if it doesn't).

How we decide on a new project

We ask three questions in the first conversation:

1. How often will the content change after launch?
2. Who will be editing it — you, your staff, or us?
3. Is there a programmatic component (landing pages, location pages, product pages) that needs to scale?

If the answers are "rarely," "us," and "no" — we'll quote it as custom PHP. If they're "weekly," "internal team," and "no" — WordPress with a custom theme. If they're "rarely" but "yes, we need 500 location pages" — custom PHP with a programmatic system. Almost every project lands clearly in one bucket once you ask the right questions.

The wrong answer is letting the tool drive the conversation. The right answer is letting your actual needs drive the tool. If you'd like to talk through which way your project should go, get in touch and we'll give you an honest recommendation either way.