I build both — hand-coded sites, React builds, and lean WordPress with no page builder — so I have no side to sell you here. The argument below is about total cost across five years, and it is one WordPress sometimes wins.
The build prices, since almost nobody publishes them
| Size | WordPress | Custom-coded |
|---|---|---|
| One page | $350 | $500 – $1,500 |
| Up to 10 pages | $1,500 | $1,500 – $2,500 |
| Up to 30 pages | $2,500 | $3,000 – $7,000 |
Those are my published rates, and every build includes complete SEO rather than billing it as a separate monthly service — the one exception is the WordPress landing page, where full SEO is a $200 addition. So at ten pages the two routes cost about the same to launch. The five-year difference is everything below.
Where the money actually goes
| WordPress | Custom-coded | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | $20 to $60 a month for anything that performs | $0 to $20 on static hosting |
| Plugins | $300 to $900 a year once you need forms, SEO, backups, security | None |
| Maintenance | Updates monthly, or it breaks | Nothing to update |
| Getting hacked | A real, recurring risk | No database, no login, no attack surface |
The launch-price gap closes somewhere around year two or three for most small sites. After that, custom-coded is simply cheaper to keep alive.
- $300–900
- WordPress plugin licenses a year
- $0–20
- Static hosting a month
- 2–3 yrs
- Where the build gap closes
The part nobody quotes for
Plugin maintenance is not a line item, so it never appears in comparisons. It appears as somebody's Tuesday afternoon.
A WordPress site with fifteen plugins needs those plugins updated, and each update can break the layout, the forms, or the checkout. Skip the updates and you accumulate security holes. Run them and somebody has to check the site afterwards. Neither option is free, and both stay invisible until something breaks.
Speed, and why it is not close
A static site is files on a server. No database query, no PHP execution, no plugin chain running before the first byte reaches the browser. That difference shows up directly in Core Web Vitals, which Google uses as a ranking signal.
WordPress can be fast. Getting it there means caching plugins, a CDN, image optimization, and usually a more expensive host. More cost, and more to maintain.
When WordPress is the right answer
I would put you on WordPress if:
- Non-technical staff publish weekly. A newsroom, a busy blog, a job board. WordPress editing is genuinely good, and a static site needs a CMS bolted on to match it.
- You need the plugin ecosystem. Membership, LMS, complex WooCommerce. Rebuilding those from scratch is not a good use of anyone's money.
- You need one page, this month. A $350 WordPress landing page is the cheapest way I know to put a real, editable presence online.
When it is not
Most brochure sites. A practice site, a firm site, a company profile with eight to twenty pages that changes a few times a year. That is the majority of what small businesses need, and it is exactly the case where five years of plugin licenses buys nothing.
The question is not which technology is better. It is who edits the content and how often. Answer that honestly and the choice makes itself.
Lock-in, which is the real argument
With a custom-coded site you get the repository. Any developer can pick it up. There is no vendor, no monthly platform fee, and nothing that stops working if you stop paying somebody.
That matters more than the monthly saving, though it only matters if the coded route suits how you work. Compare a hand-coded build against a lean WordPress build and pick on that, not on the launch price.
