Custom website, WordPress, Webflow or Shopify: which should you choose?

The quick answer by business type

WordPress

According to W3Techs, WordPress runs 39.6% of all websites and 58.3% of sites built on a known content management system (October 2026), though its share has been edging down as hosted builders grow.

Strengths: a familiar editor, tens of thousands of themes and plugins, and plenty of developers who know it. You can host it anywhere, so you own your site.

Watch out for: plugin sprawl. Every plugin adds code to maintain, update and secure, and heavy themes can slow pages down. A WordPress site needs regular updates and someone responsible for them.

Webflow

Webflow lets designers build visually and gives editors a clean way to update content, with hosting included. After its May 2026 restructure, site plans start at $15 a month billed yearly (Basic), with Premium at $25, as reported by Flow Ninja.

Strengths: strong visual control, no plugins to maintain, good for marketing sites where design matters.

Watch out for: you build inside Webflow’s platform. As Elsner’s guide notes, moving off it later is hard, and usually means rebuilding the site.

Shopify

Shopify is the strongest choice when selling products is the main job. As Attract Group points out, it bundles payments, inventory, shipping, taxes and checkout, which WordPress needs several plugins to match. Shopify’s pricing page lists Basic at €19 a month billed yearly in the EU (€27 month to month), with an online card rate of 1.9% + €0.25 through Shopify Payments; prices are set per region.

Strengths: reliable checkout, a large app store, and less to maintain yourself.

Watch out for: transaction and app costs that grow with your sales, and design limits if you only use stock themes. A custom-designed Shopify theme solves the second; our work for Magnolia Blooms, a boutique florist, is a Shopify store designed from scratch.

Custom-built

A custom site is designed for your brand and built in code, usually on a modern framework such as Next.js, with a content management system so your team can still edit pages.

Strengths: the fastest possible pages, a design nobody else has, no platform or plugin fees, functionality built for exactly what you need, and full ownership of the code.

Watch out for: a higher upfront cost than a template, and structural changes need a developer (content updates don’t, if a CMS is set up). Elsner estimates custom sites at anywhere from $15,000 to over $250,000, and Ambrite argues they only pay off when the website itself is a competitive advantage. For many service businesses, it is.

Costs compared

Speed, SEO and AI search

Any of these can rank on Google. What matters is that pages load fast, content is clearly structured, and search engines and AI assistants can read it; Google’s own guidance says there are no special requirements to appear in its AI features beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet. Platforms differ in how much control you have: a custom build lets you tune every detail, while WordPress and Webflow depend on the theme and plugins you choose. For more on being found by AI assistants, see how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT.

Ownership and lock-in

Ask who owns the site and what happens if you leave:

• WordPress and custom sites can be moved to any host. You own the files.
• Webflow and Shopify host your site on their platforms. You can export content and products, but the design and build usually stay behind.
• Whoever builds it, make sure the domain and hosting are registered in your name.

At Orryvelle, websites are fully the client’s on payment, including the design, the code, the domain and the hosting, even when we manage them on a retainer.

How to decide

1. What is the site’s main job? Selling products points to Shopify; winning enquiries and trust points to a custom or Webflow site; publishing at scale points to WordPress.
2. Who will update it, and how often?
3. What do you need beyond pages? Bookings, portals and calculators favour custom.
4. How much does speed matter to your customers?
5. Would you be comfortable rebuilding if you ever switched platforms?

Not sure? Our websites service starts with a free consultation where we recommend the platform and explain why.