Our Custom Sites VS Builder-Based Sites

Our Custom Coded Websites vs Builder-Based Websites (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress-based)

What's the difference between our custom coded websites and builder-based websites? Let’s break it down from a business perspective, focusing on performance and long-term scalability. Ultimately, the choice boils down to the specific needs of your business, and we lean toward custom sites as the better option for many reasons.

Custom Static Sites

A custom static site is built with pre-written HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that are served directly to the browser. These files are ready to go, which makes static sites incredibly fast, secure, and lightweight. With a custom site, you have full control over every line of code, enabling you to optimize for performance, security, and user experience.

Custom static sites shine when it comes to performance and user experience. Since all the files are pre-built, there’s no need for a server to query a database or compile content dynamically. As a result, static sites offer lightning-fast load times and minimal server-side processing, which is a huge advantage for SEO and user engagement. The less code and fewer dependencies your site has, the quicker it loads, and the better it performs, even on slower networks or lower bandwidth.

Builder-Based Sites: The Pros and Cons

Builder-based platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress-based page builders allow users to create websites without extensive coding knowledge. These platforms provide a drag-and-drop interface, pre-designed templates, and built-in hosting, making them an attractive option for individuals and small businesses looking for a quick and easy way to establish an online presence.

However, this convenience comes at a cost. While these platforms make website creation simple, they often introduce performance limitations. Many builder-based sites include unnecessary code, excessive divs, and bloated styling, which can slow down load times and impact user experience. Additionally, because these sites rely on shared hosting environments and dynamic content rendering, they may struggle with performance compared to custom static sites.

Security is another important consideration. Since builder-based platforms are widely used, they are frequent targets for hackers. These platforms depend on third-party plugins and themes that require regular updates to maintain security. If updates are not managed properly, websites can become vulnerable to attacks. Furthermore, users have limited control over security configurations compared to custom-built solutions.

Performance and SEO

In today’s digital landscape, speed is paramount. A slow website doesn’t just frustrate users; it also harms your SEO rankings. You will lose 50% of your potential customers if your website takes 3 seconds or more to load. Custom static sites are inherently faster because they don’t require database queries or server-side logic to compile content. The website files are ready to be served immediately, and there’s no unnecessary processing involved, leading to faster load times. This is especially important for SEO, as faster websites tend to rank higher on Google.

Although builder-based websites can be optimized for speed, achieving optimal performance often requires additional plugins and fine-tuning. Even with performance-enhancing tools, these sites may still struggle compared to custom static sites, especially when page builders introduce excessive code. On slower networks or lower-end devices, builder-based websites can experience longer load times, which can negatively impact user experience and SEO.

Not only that, search engine crawlers can index static websites more efficiently as their pages are fixed and always available. WordPress sites are dynamic by default, meaning that they generate pages on-the-fly using PHP and database queries, which can make crawling harder, meaning worse SEO performance. Crawlers often struggle with client-side javascript rendering, making indexing harder. As a result, a standard WordPress site may face challenges in achieving optimal search engine visibility.

Dynamic Full-Stack Applications

For businesses that require dynamic content—like blogs or frequently updated product listings, there are many good alternatives such as Nextjs or SvelteKit. Both allow you to combine both Static Site Generation (SSG) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR) within the same project, providing the flexibility to choose which pages are statically generated and which are dynamically rendered at runtime. This makes it a great choice for sites that need frequent updates without sacrificing performance. Some examples of when you will require real-time updates are News websites, E-commerce sites, Stock Market websites, Live Event websites, and so on.

Astro for Static Sites

For businesses that prioritize speed and performance without needing constant content updates, Astro is another option. Astro is a new modern static site generator that renders your entire website to static HTML, removing all Javascript from your final build by default. This allows you to build highly optimized static sites and serves the content in the most lightweight and efficient way possible. While Astro is designed for static sites, it can also handle dynamic content, but it’s most effective when your website doesn’t need to rely on constant changes. If you want to include a blog in your website, Astro can also be used. However, any updates, like adding a new post or making changes, would require a rebuild and redeploy of the site which probably takes a minute to finish. This is less ideal for highly dynamic sites that require real-time updates, but it's definitely more than enough if you don't need instant content updates.

Take our website that you are on now as an example. Our website is built using Astro, and while it's static and incredibly fast, we only need to update the content occasionally. By rebuilding and redeploying the site, we can ensure that the content is always up-to-date while still taking advantage of Astro's performance benefits. For businesses with less frequent content changes, Astro provides an excellent solution for fast, reliable, and easy-to-manage websites.

The Bottom Line: Custom Static Sites are Often the Best Choice

A custom static site offers superior performance and security, making it a great choice for businesses that want to build a fast, lightweight website that stands the test of time. For businesses needing dynamic content, Next.js is a powerful tool that strikes a balance between flexibility and speed. While builder-based websites offer convenience, its reliance on plugins, themes, and third-party integrations can not only slow things down, but also result in higher security vulnerabilities.

Most businesses do not require dynamic websites, in my opinion. However, this depends on your specific needs and requirements. Hit us up to discuss more on which option is best for your business. We offer the best bang for the buck as we prioritize not only the sole development of your dream business website, but also the 24/7 support and maintenance that come with it. Head on over to our pricing to learn more.