WordPress or Laravel? When a brochure site is enough — and when you need an app
WordPress is great for a company site and a blog. It breaks when it has to pretend to be an order system, booking tool or CRM. Here are practical criteria — no ideology.
The first-call question is usually: “Wouldn’t WordPress be cheaper?” Often yes — and we say so. Equally often a client describes a CRM, configurator, B2B panel or bookings and expects brochure-site pricing. Then WordPress becomes expensive: plugins, workarounds, security holes and a system nobody wants to touch.
When WordPress is the right choice
- A company site up to 10 pages, a blog, news, a project gallery.
- Marketing should edit content, not a developer.
- No customer logins, recurring payments or complex roles.
- SEO and publishing articles matter more than business logic.
Even then, pick a proven theme or a simple custom template — not a “swiss army” stack of 40 plugins. Every plugin is another attack surface and another thing that can break on update.
When Laravel is cheaper over 2–3 years
A custom app costs more up front. It usually wins when:
- You pay monthly for a SaaS that covers 60% of needs and spreadsheet the rest.
- The order, quote or booking process is specific to your industry.
- You have several tools that do not talk to each other (store, warehouse, invoices, courier).
- Security and GDPR are not optional — customer data is the core of the business.
- You want a feature WordPress “cannot do” without another paid plugin and custom code anyway.
Security: plugins versus one stack
WordPress is target number one for automated scans because it runs millions of sites. A hole in a popular plugin means mass breaches the same day. Laravel is not magically unbreakable, but the attack surface is smaller: one codebase, controlled dependencies, no random catalogue plugins. We cover the practices in our article on Laravel security.
How we advise at GESOFT
We do not push Laravel for its own sake. If a responsive site with a CMS, a form and SEO is enough — that is the Starter package. If you describe order flow, staff roles and integrations, you get an application quote. The difference is also visible in our inspirations: those are systems WordPress simply cannot carry well.
Not sure which side you are on? Describe what the system should do. Within 24 hours you get an honest recommendation: CMS, application, or staging (site first, panel later).
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