Every week someone on Gran Canaria tells us: "My cousin built my WordPress site five years ago and now it is slow, the contact form spam is out of control, and I am afraid to update anything." At the same time, WordPress remains the default recommendation from hosts, freelancers and YouTube tutorials. More than 40% of all websites still run on it in 2026.
Popularity is not the same as fit. This article compares WordPress and custom-built websites honestly: where WordPress wins, where it costs you money and rankings, and how to decide for a typical service business in Las Palmas, Maspalomas or the south coast.
What WordPress does well
WordPress earned its market share for good reasons:
- Familiar editing: add pages, blog posts and images without touching code
- Huge plugin library: contact forms, SEO, booking, memberships, WooCommerce
- Easy to find help: thousands of developers know the ecosystem
- Strong for publishing: news sites, magazines, weekly blogs
If your team publishes multiple times per week, or you need WooCommerce with complex product rules, WordPress (well maintained) can be the practical choice. The problems start when WordPress is used for a five-page brochure site that changes twice a year.
The downsides nobody puts in the quote
Speed
WordPress builds each page by querying a database on every visit unless caching is configured perfectly. Add Elementor or Divi, twenty plugins, and shared hosting at €5/month, and you often land below 50 on PageSpeed mobile. Google uses speed via Core Web Vitals. Slow sites lose rankings and visitors. We break down the mechanics in why WordPress is slow.
Security
WordPress is the most targeted CMS globally. Outdated plugins are the usual entry point. You need updates, backups, firewall rules, and someone watching when a zero-day hits a popular plugin.
Maintenance drift
Skip updates for six months and the site becomes fragile. Update everything at once and the homepage layout breaks. Many Gran Canaria business owners do not have a technical person on staff. The site slowly rots until a client mentions "I tried on my phone and it would not load."
What "custom website" means in 2026
Custom does not mean reinventing the wheel from scratch in raw HTML. At CanarySites it usually means Next.js: pages pre-built at deploy time, served as static files from edge locations in Europe. No PHP, no plugin stack on the public site, no database query on each page view.
The result looks like any professional marketing site, but loads in under a second. That architecture is what we describe in our guide to a static website without a CMS. If you still want a dashboard to edit text yourself, we add a headless CMS (Sanity, Contentful) without sacrificing speed.
Side-by-side: typical service business site
Imagine a plumbing company in Telde or a relocation advisor in Las Palmas: home, services, about, contact, FAQ. Five pages, updated a few times per year, needs NL and EN, must rank locally.
- WordPress path: theme + page builder + SEO plugin + security plugin + caching plugin + hosting €15-40/month + quarterly maintenance. Launch in 2-4 weeks if nothing breaks.
- Custom path: designed pages in Next.js, deployed on Vercel, schema markup and hreflang built in. Launch in 1-3 weeks. Hosting often included in agency plan. No plugin updates.
Both can look polished. The difference shows up six months later in speed scores, support tickets, and Google visibility.
When WordPress is the better choice
- You publish blog content weekly and marketing depends on it
- Multiple staff edit the site daily without developer help
- You run WooCommerce with dynamic stock, coupons and customer accounts
- Your team already knows WordPress and you budget for maintenance
WordPress with a lightweight theme, minimal plugins and proper caching can perform adequately. It just requires discipline most small businesses do not have time for.
When custom beats WordPress
- Brochure or lead-generation site for a local service (lawyer, clinic, trades, agency)
- Speed and mobile performance are priorities (most searches on Gran Canaria are mobile)
- You want multilingual NL/ES/EN with clean SEO structure
- You update content occasionally, not daily
- You want predictable costs without surprise plugin renewals
Expat-facing businesses often fit this profile. Read setting up your website as an expat in Spain for how language and legal pages factor in.
Cost comparison over three years
WordPress looks cheap at first: free software, €10 hosting. Realistic totals include premium theme, Pro plugins (SEO, forms, backup), security service, and a developer when something breaks after an update. €800-1,500/year is common for a business that wants it done properly.
Custom build at CanarySites: from €549 one-off or €49.95/month (Professional tier) with design, hosting and support included on monthly plans. Premium multilingual from €999. See pricing and website costs in Gran Canaria for ranges by project type.
Custom costs more upfront on some quotes, but total cost of ownership drops when you are not paying someone to fix plugin conflicts every quarter.
SEO: which ranks?
Google does not prefer WordPress by default. It prefers useful content, fast pages, mobile usability, and clear structure. A custom site with proper titles, LocalBusiness schema, and hreflang for Dutch and English sections often outranks a sluggish WordPress competitor in local niches on the island.
Reviews and Google Business still matter either way. Technology does not replace getting Google reviews or a solid local SEO strategy.
Migration: moving off WordPress
If you already have WordPress, migration is straightforward for brochure sites: export content, rebuild design in Next.js, redirect old URLs, improve speed. Clients often see PageSpeed jump from the 30s to the mid-90s without changing their offer or photos.
Keep WordPress if the shop or blog is central to revenue and working well. Replace it if the site is mainly a credibility piece that embarrasses you on mobile.
Real example from the island
A dental clinic in Las Palmas rebuilt from WordPress (PageSpeed 41) to Next.js (PageSpeed 96) in early 2026. Same photos, same services list, same domain. Organic clicks from mobile search rose over the following quarter without any ad spend change. The owner still updates opening hours twice a year through us. That is the typical custom-site client here: not a developer, not a blogger, just someone who needs the phone to ring.
How we advise at CanarySites
We default to Next.js for service businesses on Gran Canaria because results are predictable: fast, secure, multilingual-ready. We build WordPress when the project genuinely needs it. We do not sell WordPress because it is easier for us.
Unsure which camp you are in? Request a free audit. We look at your current setup, traffic sources, and how often you edit content. You get a straight recommendation, not a sales pitch for the most expensive option.
View our website service or contact us to talk through your project.