If you’ve shopped for a website before, you’ve probably been told “Just use WordPress.” It powers a huge percentage of the internet, and it’s the tool of choice for a lot of agencies. So why do we choose to hand-code every site instead? Here’s the short answer: we want your site to be faster, safer, easier to update, and cheaper to own over the long haul. WordPress doesn’t make that easy.
WordPress still has its place
Give credit where it’s due. WordPress:
- Gets a basic blog online quickly
- Has thousands of plug-ins and pre-made themes
- Lets DIY owners tweak things without touching code
If you’re launching a hobby blog or need a throwaway landing page, it might be the right fit. But when your business relies on its website to rank, convert, and scale, the cracks start to show.
Where WordPress breaks down for small businesses
- Speed hits a wall. Page builders, plug-ins, and theme frameworks stack on top of each other. The result: 50+ network requests before your page even renders. Google and your visitors both bounce.
- Security is never “set it and forget it.” A WordPress install is a cocktail of PHP, MySQL, and plug-ins made by different teams. Miss an update and you inherit a vulnerability. We’ve rescued more hacked WP sites than we can count.
- Routine updates become chores. Updating copy seems simple until the drag-and-drop layout breaks on mobile. Then you’re elbow-deep in shortcodes on a Friday night.
- Hosting is rarely optimized. Cheap shared hosting squeezes hundreds of installs onto one server. You “save” $10/month and lose conversions every day.
What we use instead
We build every site with a modern Jamstack-inspired setup:
- Static HTML, CSS, and a sprinkle of vanilla JS for the front-end
- Eleventy as our static site generator so we can work fast and keep content reusable
- Netlify/Vercel-grade hosting for global CDNs, instant rollbacks, and rock-solid SSL
- Headless content options when clients need a blog or frequent updates
That combo lets us ship sites that routinely score 95+ on Google Lighthouse without a single plug-in. There’s nothing to hack because there’s no database. And deployments happen in minutes, not hours.
What it means for you
When we skip the page-builder route, you get:
- A site that loads in under a second on mobile
- Fewer bugs because the codebase is lean and auditable
- Content changes handled by our team in hours, not weeks
- Hosting included with the subscription—no surprise invoices or maintenance retainers
Most importantly, your site becomes an asset instead of an ongoing headache. That’s exactly why we don’t touch WordPress for our clients.
2024: WordPress.org vs WP Engine — why it matters
On September 25, 2024, WordPress.org reportedly blocked WP Engine—a leading managed WordPress host—from accessing key WordPress.org resources. For many site owners, that meant broken expectations around one of the biggest reasons they picked managed WordPress in the first place: smooth, automatic updates and tight integration with the plugin/theme ecosystem.
What triggered the dispute
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Trademark and licensing questions
Leadership around WordPress.org took issue with how the WordPress name and brand were leveraged in WP Engine’s offerings. The view was that WP Engine benefited from the WordPress brand without aligning with the same licensing/usage standards expected across the ecosystem. -
A business-model clash
WP Engine provides a polished, controlled, “managed” layer over WordPress. That convenience is great for customers, but it raised concerns that a highly proprietary wrapper profits from the open‑source core without contributing enough back or staying fully in step with open‑source norms.
The immediate impact on WP Engine users
- Limited access to the WordPress.org plugin/theme infrastructure and related update mechanisms
- Manual workarounds from WP Engine to keep sites patched—useful, but not as seamless as before
- A non‑trivial number of customers weighing migration—time‑consuming and stressful for busy teams
The bigger takeaway for businesses
Even though WordPress is open source, a lot of real‑world workflows still depend on centralized infrastructure controlled by a few entities. When policy or platform relationships change, everyday site owners can get caught in the crossfire. That’s not a knock on WordPress—just a reminder that platforms (and their governance) evolve, sometimes abruptly.
Why this reinforces our approach
Issues like this are exactly why we don’t build client sites on WordPress. With our stack:
- There’s no single plug‑in hub or theme directory your site depends on to function
- No CMS dashboard that can change out from under you
- No database layer for attackers to poke at while you’re sleeping
We keep your site in a simple, portable format—static files on a fast global CDN—so policy changes elsewhere don’t become your emergency.
What’s next if you’re on WP Engine (or similar)
If you’re currently on a managed WordPress host, the safe play is to:
- make sure you have full backups; 2) audit your critical plug‑ins (security, forms, checkout); 3) decide whether you want to wait for a policy resolution or plan a transition. If you’d like a second set of eyes, we’re happy to review and outline a low‑risk migration path.
Curious what a hand-coded site could look like for your business? Reach out and we’ll walk you through it.
