BuildFirstSite
Web design & development · Australia
Comparison
WordPress vs a Custom Website in Australia
WordPress powers around 43% of the web, so the question is fair: why build custom? This page gives the honest answer, including the cases where WordPress is genuinely the better choice for you.
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Pricing
Fixed prices, published
| Package | Scope | Delivery | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter A credible presence, live in a week. | 3–5 pages | 5–7 days | $800 |
| Business Room to explain everything you do. | Up to 10 pages | 2–3 weeks | $1,900 |
| Unlimited Multi-service, multi-location, no page cap. | Unlimited pages | 3–4 weeks | $3,500 |
Ongoing Care + SEO is $250/month — optional, cancel with 30 days notice. See all pricing →
All prices AUD · GST not included · You own the code
The short version
WordPress is a content management system built in 2003 for blogging. It is enormously capable and enormously popular. It is also, in its typical small-business configuration — a page builder plus twenty plugins on shared hosting — slow, fragile, and expensive to keep running. A custom build on Next.js costs about the same up front and materially less over five years.
We will say plainly where WordPress wins, because it does win in some cases. Skip to the last section if that is what you are here for.
Side by side
The five-year cost, in AUD
Up-front price is the number everyone compares. It is the wrong number. Here is what each option actually costs over five years for a typical ten-page Australian small business site.
The maintenance line is the one that surprises people. WordPress maintenance is not optional — an unpatched plugin is how most small-business sites get compromised. A static custom build has no plugin layer to patch, so maintenance is a choice rather than a requirement.
Why the speed gap exists
- Page builder CSS. Elementor and Divi load their full stylesheet on every page, including styles for elements that page never uses.
- Plugin JavaScript. The average WordPress site runs 20+ plugins, many adding render-blocking scripts.
- Server-side rendering on every request. WordPress executes PHP and queries a database for each visitor. A static build sends finished HTML.
- Shared hosting latency. Most SMB WordPress sites sit on shared hosting several hundred milliseconds away from the visitor.
We measured this rather than assuming it — see our PageSpeed comparison of real Australian sites. Since Core Web Vitals became a ranking factor in 2021, that gap is a ranking gap too.
When WordPress is the better choice
Honestly: if several non-technical people need to publish content daily, WordPress is hard to beat. Its editing experience has had twenty years of refinement. If you are running a serious content-marketing operation with multiple writers, or you need a specific plugin ecosystem (complex membership tiers, LMS, certain booking systems), WordPress is the pragmatic answer.
We will tell you that before quoting, rather than after. If a headless CMS on top of a custom build is overkill for your situation, we say so.
When custom is the better choice
- Your site is largely stable — services, pricing, contact, a handful of landing pages.
- Speed and search ranking matter to your lead flow.
- You are tired of plugin updates breaking your site.
- You want predictable costs with no platform fees.
- You want to own and move the code without asking anyone.
Our fixed prices for a custom build are on the pricing page, and the wider market context is in what a website actually costs in Australia.
Common questions
Is WordPress bad?
No. WordPress is excellent software and powers a large share of the web. The problem is the typical small-business configuration — a page builder plus many plugins on shared hosting — which is slow and needs constant maintenance. A well-run, lightweight WordPress install can perform well; it just takes deliberate effort that most SMB builds never receive.
Can I edit a custom website myself?
Yes, if we add a CMS layer. For a site where content changes occasionally we usually recommend sending edits to us, which is included in the maintenance retainer. If you need daily self-service publishing we will add a headless CMS or recommend WordPress — whichever genuinely fits.
Can you migrate my existing WordPress site?
Yes. We keep your URLs so existing search rankings carry over, set up redirects for anything that changes, and preserve your content. Migration is quoted as part of the build rather than as a separate surprise cost.
What happens to my site if I stop working with you?
Nothing. You have full source code and repository access in your name, deployed to your own Vercel account where possible. Any developer can pick it up. There is no proprietary platform to be locked into.
How much does a WordPress website cost in Australia?
A typical small business WordPress build runs $2,000 to $4,000 up front, plus $15 to $60 a month hosting, $500 to $1,500 in premium plugins over five years, and $50 to $150 a month maintenance if you want it kept patched. That lands between $6,700 and $18,100 across five years. Our fixed custom build is $1,900 for the same page count with free hosting on Vercel and no plugin fees.
Is WordPress cheaper than a custom website?
Cheaper up front sometimes, more expensive over five years almost always. Hosting, premium plugins and mandatory maintenance add up, while a static custom build has no plugin fees and free hosting on Vercel. The five-year table above shows the difference.
Get a fixed price
Tell us what the business needs to do and we will send back a written scope with a fixed AUD price within one business day.
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