One of the first decisions any Northern Ireland business faces when investing in a new website is whether to go with WordPress or a fully custom-built solution. Both have their place—and the right choice depends entirely on what you need the website to do.
The short answer
For most small to medium businesses in Northern Ireland—service companies, retailers, professional services, hospitality—WordPress is the right choice. It's flexible, cost-effective, and powerful enough to handle everything from a 5-page brochure site to a 500-product online store.
Custom-built applications make sense when you need something WordPress can't do: bespoke business software, client portals, complex booking systems, or applications that integrate deeply with your internal operations. We build these with Laravel, a modern PHP framework that's ideal for complex web applications.
What WordPress does well
Content management. WordPress gives you an intuitive admin panel where you can update text, add images, publish blog posts, and manage pages without touching any code. Your team can handle day-to-day content changes themselves, which saves time and money.
Cost-effectiveness. A professional WordPress website typically costs between £2,000 and £6,000—significantly less than a custom build. That's because WordPress provides the foundation (user management, content editing, media handling, security updates), and we build your design and functionality on top of it. Less development time means lower cost.
E-commerce. With WooCommerce, WordPress becomes a capable online store. Product catalogues, payment processing, shipping calculations, stock management—it handles all of it. For most NI businesses selling online, WooCommerce is more than enough.
SEO capabilities. WordPress is inherently SEO-friendly. Clean URLs, proper heading hierarchy, fast loading times (when built properly), and excellent plugins like Yoast and RankMath make it easier to rank in Google for terms like "plumber Belfast" or "accountant Armagh" or whatever your target keywords are.
Ecosystem and longevity. WordPress powers over 40% of all websites globally. It has a massive developer community, regular security updates, and thousands of plugins. Your investment is safe—WordPress isn't going anywhere.
Where WordPress falls short
Complex business logic. If you need a system that calculates custom quotes based on 50 variables, manages a fleet of vehicles with inspection schedules, or handles multi-step approval workflows with role-based permissions—WordPress isn't the right tool. You can force it to do these things with plugins, but the result is usually slow, fragile, and expensive to maintain.
Heavy data processing. Applications that need to process large datasets, generate reports from multiple data sources, or handle thousands of concurrent users require a more robust backend than WordPress provides.
Deep integrations. If your website needs to sync bidirectionally with your accounting software, pull live data from your ERP system, or integrate with multiple third-party APIs in complex ways, a custom application gives you far more control and reliability.
Unique user experiences. Client portals where customers log in to view their invoices, track project progress, manage their hosting services, or collaborate with your team—these are custom application territory.
When to choose WordPress
WordPress is ideal when you need:
✓ A professional business website with 5-50+ pages
✓ A blog or news section you update regularly
✓ An online store with up to a few hundred products
✓ Contact forms, booking widgets, and standard integrations
✓ Good SEO performance for local NI/Ireland searches
✓ The ability for your team to manage content without a developer
When to choose custom
A custom application is worth the investment when you need:
✓ Complex business workflows or process automation
✓ A client portal or dashboard with user roles and permissions
✓ Deep integration with accounting, CRM, or ERP systems
✓ Custom reporting, data analysis, or document generation
✓ An application that replaces spreadsheets or manual processes
✓ Something that gives you a genuine competitive advantage
What about the "hybrid" approach?
Many of our clients end up with both. A WordPress website handles the public-facing marketing side—the homepage, service pages, blog, and contact forms—while a custom application powers the business operations behind the scenes.
For example, a construction company might have a WordPress website showcasing their projects and services, while a custom Laravel application manages their fleet inspections, job scheduling, and client reporting. The two can work together seamlessly without either being compromised.
Cost comparison
5-15 pages, responsive, SEO-ready
E-commerce, payments, stock management
Bespoke software, portals, complex logic
The custom route costs more upfront, but for the right project it pays for itself quickly. If a custom application saves your team 20 hours per week of manual admin work, the maths are straightforward.
Our recommendation
Start with WordPress unless you have a clear, specific reason to go custom. A well-built WordPress site from a competent developer (not a page builder template) will serve 90% of NI businesses brilliantly. If your needs outgrow it, or you identify a process that needs automating, we can build a custom solution alongside it later.
The worst outcome is paying for custom development when WordPress would have done the job perfectly. The second worst is cramming complex business logic into WordPress when it really needs a proper application. We'll tell you honestly which approach makes sense for your situation.
A note on page builders and DIY platforms
You might be wondering about Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress page builders like Elementor and Divi. These platforms have their place—they're fine for personal blogs, hobby sites, or testing a business idea before committing to a proper website.
For a serious business website, they have real limitations. Page builders generate bloated code that slows your site down, which hurts both user experience and Google rankings. They lock you into their ecosystem, making it difficult and expensive to migrate later. Their SEO capabilities are limited compared to a properly built WordPress site. And their templates, while attractive in demos, tend to look generic in practice—your website ends up looking like thousands of others.
We don't use page builders. Every WordPress site we build uses a custom theme coded specifically for your business. It loads faster, ranks better, and gives us complete control over every detail of the design and functionality.
What to look for in a developer
Whether you choose WordPress or custom, the quality of the developer matters more than the platform. Here's what to look for when hiring a web designer in Northern Ireland:
A real portfolio. Not template demos—actual websites they've built for real businesses. Check them on your phone. Check how fast they load. Look at the attention to detail.
Technical knowledge, not just design. A website that looks good but loads slowly, isn't accessible, or has poor SEO is only half-finished. Your developer should understand performance optimisation, security, and search engine visibility.
Honest advice. A good developer will tell you what you actually need, not what makes them the most money. If WordPress will do the job, they should say so—even if a custom build would be a bigger invoice.
Ongoing support. Websites need maintenance. WordPress needs updates, security patches, and occasional fixes. Make sure your developer offers a care plan or ongoing support arrangement so your site stays healthy after launch.