Most web agencies will tell you they use “the best tool for the job.” That’s true for us too, but it’s also a bit of a non-answer. Here’s the honest version: what we actually build on, why we chose it, and the handful of situations where we’d point you somewhere else.
WordPress Is Our Default: Here’s Why
We build the majority of our client websites on WordPress. Not because it’s the flashiest option, but because it’s the right one for most of what our clients need.
WordPress powers around 43% of all websites on the internet. That scale matters: the ecosystem is deep, problems are well-documented, and the platform isn’t going anywhere. When something breaks at 9pm before a product launch, there’s a solution, and we can find it fast.
More importantly, it means clients can actually use their site after handoff. WordPress has a familiar, well-supported admin interface. If you want to add a page, update a staff member, or publish a blog post, you don’t need to call us. That’s by design.
We Don’t Use a Standard WordPress Theme
This is where we differ from a lot of agencies. Most WordPress sites are built on off-the-shelf themes (Divi, Avada, or whatever came bundled with the hosting plan). They’re fast to set up, but they carry a cost: bloated code, visual constraints, and a site that looks like a hundred others.
We build on Sage, a WordPress starter theme built on modern development practices. It’s a framework, not a finished product, which means every site we build starts from a clean slate. The code is lean, the structure is logical, and there’s no dead weight carried over from features the client will never use.
For clients, the difference shows up in two places: page speed and design fidelity. You get a site that loads fast and actually looks like the design, not a design that’s been compromised by what a theme would allow.
How We Handle Page Builders
Page builders (tools like Elementor or WPBakery that let you visually drag and drop your layout) are common in the WordPress world. We have a nuanced view of them.
For sites that need a genuinely complex layout, or where a client needs to build new pages themselves without developer help, a page builder can be the right call. When we use one, we build a custom set of blocks and components tailored to that client’s design system. The result is that clients can edit and extend their site without accidentally breaking anything.
For simpler sites, we skip the page builder entirely. It’s one fewer moving part, faster page loads, and less to go wrong.
Our Hosting Isn’t an Afterthought
We host client sites on servers we manage ourselves. That might sound like a minor detail, but it has real implications.
Shared hosting (the kind you get from budget providers) means your site sits alongside hundreds of others on the same server. One poorly configured neighbour can slow everyone down. Security vulnerabilities on one site can affect others.
On our infrastructure, your site has dedicated resources. We control the server environment, which means we can configure it specifically for WordPress performance and security. We handle updates, monitoring, and backups. If something goes wrong, you call us, not a hosting company’s support queue.
When We Step Outside WordPress
WordPress is not the answer to every brief. Here are the situations where we’d steer you differently.
Simple one-page sites. If you need a single landing page with no blog, no content management, nothing that changes regularly, WordPress is overkill. We’ve built a handful of these as lightweight, custom-coded sites. Faster, simpler, cheaper to maintain.
E-commerce at scale. For complex stores that need a physical point-of-sale system, or an operation large enough to need a dedicated app ecosystem, Shopify is the stronger platform. It’s purpose-built for selling, and that shows at the high end. The honest caveat: Shopify’s strengths are strictly e-commerce, so don’t expect it to handle complex content, blogs, or anything outside of selling as naturally as WordPress would.
How We Handle E-commerce
For most small business online stores, we build on WooCommerce, the e-commerce layer that runs on top of WordPress. It’s free to use, and because it sits inside WordPress, we can extend it using custom development rather than reaching for a paid plugin every time something doesn’t quite fit. For a small business watching its monthly outgoings, that flexibility has real value.
The honest caveat on WooCommerce: scaling it takes experience, specifically on the hosting side. It’s not a platform you want to grow into without someone who’s done it before.
Is There a Decision Framework Here?
If you’re trying to figure out what your site should be built on, here’s a simple way to think about it:
- Do you need to update content regularly? WordPress.
- Do you need a design that doesn’t look like a template? WordPress, built properly.
- Are you selling products online? WooCommerce, unless you’re at scale, need a POS, or your operation is genuinely complex, in which case Shopify.
- Do you need a single landing page with no CMS? Something lighter.
Most small business websites fall into the first two categories. Which is why WordPress is where we start most conversations.
If your project sounds like it fits that mould, let’s talk. We can walk through what a clean, custom WordPress build would look like for your business — no obligation, no pitch.
