# WordPress vs Next.js for Small Business > The two-year math: €1,800–4,800 on WordPress vs €290–1,346 custom. Where the plugin tax hides, and the 3 cases where WordPress honestly wins. - Author: Yurii Skyba, Skyba Tech (https://skyba.tech) - Published: 2026-07-21 - Category: tecnologia - Reading time: 6 min - HTML version: https://skyba.tech/en/blog/wordpress-vs-nextjs-small-business --- Roughly 40% of the web runs on WordPress, which makes **WordPress vs a custom website** sound like a settled question. It isn't – but it's also not the religious war both camps make of it. It's a cost-and-fit question, and it has a boring, checkable answer for each situation. Here's the comparison we'd want as a small business owner: what each one actually is, where the money goes over two years, and the specific cases where WordPress is simply the right call. ## The one-paragraph version of each **WordPress**: a content management system. You pick a theme, add plugins for features, and manage everything from an admin panel – no programming. **Custom (we build with Next.js)**: code written for your specific site, compiled into fast static pages. No admin panel by default, no plugins – just exactly the features you need, implemented once. Neither is "modern vs outdated." WordPress is from 2003 and actively developed; Next.js is what companies like Netflix build on. The difference is architectural, and it plays out in speed, security and running costs. ## Where WordPress genuinely wins - **You publish constantly.** Blog three times a week, run a content site, manage a large catalog that non-technical staff update daily – the WordPress editor is mature and your team learns it in an afternoon. This is what it was built for, and it shows. - **DIY on a €0 budget.** Free theme, €5/month hosting, 30–40 hours of your own time. The result won't be fast or pretty, but it will exist – the right trade when validating an idea. - **You need a solved niche feature today.** Memberships, forums, complex booking – somewhere in WordPress's 60,000 plugins your feature already exists at "good enough" level. And the corollary nobody selling custom sites says out loud: **if your current WordPress site works and doesn't hurt, keep it.** Migrating a functioning site for ideology is money spent on a problem you don't have. ## The plugin tax: where WordPress costs hide A working WordPress business site typically accumulates 20–30 plugins – SEO, cache, forms, security, backups, sliders. Each one charges rent in three currencies: - **Speed.** Every plugin ships code your customer's phone must download and execute. Typical result: 400–800 KB of scripts and load times of 3–4 seconds – measured against Google's 2.5-second LCP threshold, that's a failing grade with ranking consequences. (How to check your own site in 2 minutes: [website speed and Google rankings](/en/blog/website-speed-google-ranking).) - **Security.** Powering 40% of the web makes WordPress the #1 target. Unpatched plugins are the standard break-in route, so updates aren't optional – they're a monthly chore with occasional emergencies. - **Maintenance money.** Because that chore scares owners, agencies sell it back as a service: €50–150/month, indefinitely. The "cheap" €800 site quietly becomes €2,000+ per year of ownership. None of this is a scandal; it's just the real total cost, and it belongs in the comparison. ## What the custom side trades away – and gets The honest trade-off first: **frequent self-service publishing is not the strong suit.** Changing a price or a text is trivial; running a three-posts-a-week blog without a developer requires adding content tooling, which adds cost. If publishing is your business, reread the WordPress section. What you get in return: static pages with nothing to hack in the WordPress sense, load times comfortably inside Google's thresholds, no plugin roulette after updates – which is why our maintenance costs **€39/month and is optional**, not a life-support subscription. And the part we consider non-negotiable regardless of who builds for you: **you own the code.** We hand over the full repository at delivery; whether staying with us is worth it has to be proven monthly, not enforced by lock-in. (The wider ownership checklist – domain, hosting, licenses – is [its own article](/en/blog/own-your-website-code).) ## The two-year math | | WordPress (agency-built) | Custom (our pricing) | | --- | --- | --- | | Build | €600–1,200 | €290–890 | | Maintenance, 24 months | €1,200–3,600 | €0–456 (optional) | | **Two-year total** | **€1,800–4,800** | **€290–1,346** | Ranges are market-typical for Spain (sources and context in [what websites cost in Spain](/en/blog/website-cost-spain-2026)); our numbers are the published ones on [the pricing page](/en#pricing). The pattern holds even if you argue individual figures: WordPress front-loads convenience and back-loads cost. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can I edit content myself on a custom site? Routine changes – texts, prices, photos – are either handled within maintenance or built as editable areas if you tell us what changes often. What you don't get is a universal admin panel. If you need one daily, that's a real requirement and points to WordPress or adding a CMS layer – say it upfront and the recommendation changes. ### My WordPress site is slow. Fix or migrate? Measure first – PageSpeed Insights, two minutes. A plugin cleanup and proper caching sometimes rescues a WordPress site for a few hundred euros, and then you're done. If it still fails the 2.5-second bar after cleanup, or maintenance fees are eating you, migration typically pays for itself within 1–2 years of canceled subscriptions. ### Is Next.js overkill for a five-page site? The technology is heavyweight; the *result* is the opposite – plain, fast, static pages with no moving parts to break. You don't operate the machinery, we do. What you experience is the output: a site that loads in around a second and doesn't need weekly patching. ## The short version WordPress wins when content volume rules: frequent publishing, DIY budgets, niche plugin needs – and a working WordPress site you already have is a site to keep, not migrate. Custom wins when the business rules: speed that survives Google's thresholds, no security treadmill, no mandatory monthly fees, code in your hands. Run the two-year math for your case, and if you want a second opinion on where you land, describe your site in two WhatsApp messages – we'll answer honestly, including when the answer is "stay where you are."