Which website platform is best for your business?
With so many website platforms to choose from, it can be tricky to know what’s best for your business, particularly if you’re not sure about the options or the differences between them.
The answer to the question, which one do I pick, is generally determined by what you need and want to do with your website, and very importantly, what is your budget?
Your digital agency will be able to provide guidance on which platform will be best for you. That being said, it can be useful to have a bit of background knowledge about your options to help you understand why certain solutions are pitched.
Our top picks
After over 15 years in the website-building business, we have tried out or encountered almost all the major platforms on offer. With that experience, we choose to offer four website types: Standard WordPress, WordPress WooCommerce, Shopify and Laravel.
We know them in depth, and we understand how to maximise their potential to deliver stunning websites for our clients time and time again.
Standard WordPress
Powerful, flexible and trusted since 2003, WordPress remains one of the world’s most popular CMS systems, and for good reason!
Ideal for SME businesses, WordPress offers a perfect blend of simplicity, performance and professional design. It’s intuitive, user-friendly, and highly scalable, meaning your website can evolve seamlessly as your business grows.
What sets WordPress apart is its incredible versatility. Our developers can craft a unique, fully customised website that reflects your brand's personality, not just another cookie-cutter template with a refreshed colour scheme. WordPress makes it easy to add non-standard functionality tailored to your business goals.
WordPress WooCommerce
If you have products to sell or to showcase, a WordPress WooCommerce site is a great solution.
This website type comes with all the benefits of a standard WordPress site. A familiar admin, bespoke styling, and scalability, with the added integration of product management and sales.
Shopify
Shopify is a CMS system and platform whose primary function is to provide a solution to build websites for e-commerce. While in the vast majority of circumstances we recommend WordPress WooCommerce, Shopify offers a budget-conscious alternative.
The compromise with a Shopify website is a much lower level of customisation. We can still integrate your branding through colours, fonts, images, and other simpler styling decisions, but the overall originality remains limited.
Laravel
If you are a business with an extensive website system or an e-commerce site with a high sales volume, Laravel provides an excellent solution. This brilliant tool can also be used to create highly bespoke non-client-facing applications such as costing calculators, tracking systems or complex internal product management tools.
Laravel websites and applications are incredibly lightweight and fast compared to WordPress, as it doesn’t carry unnecessary built-in code, which can make WordPress websites feel weighty.
As a web application framework, Laravel provides our developers much deeper and more comprehensive control in comparison to WordPress websites. This allows for advanced integrations, highly bespoke features and complete customisation control over both the backend and front-facing client-side. With Laravel, the limitations are your imagination and your budget.
Quick guide
Type | Eccomerce | Budget | Speed | Customisation | Advanced Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WordPress | No | Low-Mid | Good | Great | Limited |
WordPress WooCommerce | Yes | Mid | Good | Great | Limited |
Shopify | Yes | Low | Good | Okay | No |
Laravel | Yes | Mid-High | Excellent | Excellent | Yes |
Still wondering which website type is right for you and your business? We always complete a full scope with our clients, discussing needs, wants and business aspirations to ensure you have a fully functioning website that is truly right for you.
Get the ball rolling by contacting us for a comprehensive scope and quote.
