WordPress or a custom PHP site

Both can be a good website. The choice is who changes the content, and how often. The technology should follow that, not the other way around.

Choose WordPress when people publish

If a colleague will add services, news, or landing pages without opening the code, WordPress earns its keep. The cost is real: updates, a theme that must tolerate the editor, and the discipline to avoid plugin sprawl.

A custom theme still matters. WordPress is the publishing tool. The theme is the design and the guardrail. Editors should get patterns that match the site, not a blank builder on every page.

Choose custom PHP when the pages are a set

If the site is a home page, a few services, and a contact form, a PHP site is easier to reason about. There is no editor to secure, no plugin update on a Thursday, and no database required for a page that rarely changes.

Changes go through the templates. That is a feature when the pages are part of the product, and a problem when you wanted a blog that three people can feed.

A simple test

Ask who will change the site in six months, and what they will change. If the answer is “a developer, occasionally,” custom PHP is usually enough. If the answer is “the team, every week,” build WordPress and spend the effort on the theme and the editor.