Why Custom-Coded Websites Perform Well

Introduction

Building custom-coded websites is my passion and while they require more work to build than a website made from a page builder, their long-term benefits make them the ideal choice for the small business owner.

A little research online will reveal that many small businesses build their websites using a page builder like WordPress or Wix. Why? Well, it’s cheap and requires little-to-no coding, allowing the owners to drag and drop elements on the page.

The drawback is that platforms like WordPress come with a lot of unnecessary code and many plugins, making them more vulnerable to hacking and load much slower than custom-coded websites. Let’s dig a little deeper into these two crucial aspects...

Performance and Speed

Custom-coded websites are built with efficiency in mind. Since every line of code serves a purpose, there is never any extra fluff slowing down the site. Only necessary scripts and styles are loaded, making the site super lightweight. This results in faster load times and smoother user experiences. In contrast, page builders often come with bloated code and unnecessary features, slowing down websites and potentially frustrating users.

According to Google’s page load time statistics, if a user has to wait 3 seconds for a website to load, they will abandon it and try another one, which means the slow website has lost a customer and essentially gave it to their competition. Imagine having a slow-loading website for several years. How many lost customers would that be? In the end, the convenient and cheap page builder turns out to be inconvenient for both visitors and business owners.

The issue with performance and speed mainly has to do with how websites display content. The static approach involves creating files once and serving them unchanged, while the dynamic method generates content on-demand from a data source. Static delivery is generally faster because it prepares files on the browser instead of on a web server. WordPress, which uses dynamic generation, often slows down sites unnecessarily when their content rarely changes.

Security

If you have a static website, meaning no online shop or login-system then security is not much of an issue at all. This is simply because custom-coded static sites have no entry points for hacking. WordPress, being a popular platform, is a frequent target for hackers. Its reliance on plugins also introduces potential security risks, as not all plugin developers maintain the same level of security standards.

Dynamic websites, which rely on databases and server-side platforms, are vulnerable to attacks because as the server prepares the site for the browser, hackers can exploit this process to compromise the site. Static websites are much safer because there’s nothing for attackers to target—no databases, session tokens, or data being transmitted that hackers could intercept or manipulate. With no steps in the process for them to exploit, there's little opportunity for them to slip in and compromise the website. If you have a strictly informational site (like a standard 5-page website with a contact form), there is no point in using a platform like WordPress, whose overhaul of bloated code used to generate your site is not even needed, and therefore wasted.

Custom-coded websites that do have a backend, such as an eCommerce website, have the advantage that they can be built with security as a top priority from the ground up. Developers can implement the latest security best practices and regularly update the code to address new vulnerabilities. There won’t be endless amounts of plugins to worry about but only what I choose is best for the website’s security. That way, I can keep track of any necessary updates, making sure a website is secure without getting lost in a saturated code base.

Conclusion

While page builders and WordPress have their place in web development, particularly as a faster and cheap solution, custom-coded websites will always have the edge when it comes to speed, security and visitor-to-customer-conversion. For businesses serious about their online presence and looking for a long-term, high-quality solution, custom coding remains a must and I’ll be here to support you through each step so you can focus on what you do best!