WordPress or custom? WordPress wins more often than we'd like.
WordPress is the right answer for a content-heavy site whose team already knows it, and for budgets under roughly ₱60,000 where a custom build cannot be done properly anyway. A custom build — our default is Next.js, TypeScript and a headless CMS — wins on speed, on anything transactional, and on not accumulating a plugin stack that breaks on update. The deciding question is who maintains it: WordPress needs someone competent every month, and an unmaintained WordPress site is the most reliably hacked thing on the Philippine web.
The trade-offs, without the sales pitch.
| Factor | WordPress | Custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Entry cost | Lower — theme plus setup | ₱24,000 one page, ₱120,000 for 5–8 pages |
| Editing content | Excellent, familiar to most teams | Headless CMS; as good, less familiar |
| Speed on mobile data | Needs work and discipline | Fast by construction |
| Plugin/update risk | Real and ongoing | Dependencies you chose, updated deliberately |
| Security exposure | The most attacked platform on the web | Smaller surface, no admin login by default |
| Maintenance need | Monthly, non-optional | Periodic; less urgent |
| Finding another developer | Anywhere, any budget | Harder and dearer locally |
| Best fit | Content sites, known teams, small budgets | Transactional, performance-critical, long-lived |
Cases where we’d tell you not to hire us.
Your team already runs it well
A marketing team fluent in WordPress publishing weekly will move faster on it than on anything we would build them. That fluency is worth more than our architecture preferences.
The budget is under ₱60,000
At that level a custom build is either scoped down to nothing or quietly cut short. A good WordPress theme, set up carefully, is the honest answer.
You need a specific plugin ecosystem
Membership, LMS, complex forms, certain booking tools — mature WordPress plugins exist and rebuilding them custom is rarely justified.
And where it’s worth the difference.
Anything transactional
Payments, bookings, accounts. The failure modes are expensive and you want to own the code that handles them, not inherit a plugin's.
Speed actually matters to your revenue
Most Philippine traffic is a mid-range Android on mobile data. We hold a pass/fail speed gate at launch; hitting that on WordPress is possible and it is work.
Nobody will maintain it
Counter-intuitive, and it is the strongest argument. An unmaintained WordPress site gets compromised; an unmaintained static build just sits there.
We build on WordPress rarely, and we will say so when it is right for you. What we will not do is take a ₱50,000 budget for a custom build — that produces a bad custom site instead of a good WordPress one, and you would be right to resent it.
Asked either way round.
Is WordPress good enough for a business website in the Philippines?
For a content-led site with a team that maintains it, yes. WordPress powers a large share of the web and the objection is not capability, it is upkeep: plugins update, conflict and occasionally break the site, and an unmaintained WordPress install is the most commonly compromised thing on the web. Budget for monthly maintenance or do not choose it.
Why would a custom website cost more than WordPress?
Because nothing is pre-built. React Web Development Services charges ₱24,000 for a one-page site and ₱120,000 for a 5–8 page business site, against ₱15,000–₱40,000 for a basic WordPress build from a Pampanga agency. The difference buys speed, a smaller security surface, and no plugin stack to inherit — which is worth paying for on a transactional site and often is not on a brochure.
Can a WordPress site be fast?
Yes, with caching, image discipline and restraint about plugins — it is achievable and it is ongoing work. A custom build starts fast and stays fast without that discipline, which matters most where Philippine buyers actually are: a mid-range Android phone on mobile data.