Custom Code vs. Page Builders: When Each Makes Sense

Answer: It Depends (But Let Me Make That Useful)

Well, there’s your answer. Clean, simple. It depends on what you are looking for. You can stop reading here.

In all seriousness, I build custom websites and apps for a living. So, most people would expect me to tell you that page builders are a waste of time, money, energy, and everyone should hire a developer.

I am not going to do that.

Here's the truth: sometimes Squarespace (or any website drag-and-drop builder) is the right call. Sometimes a WordPress template gets you 94% of what you need in a few hours (and sometimes a few tears—but that’s just the nature of dealing with computers, not something unique to page builders). Sometimes the right answer is the one that ships fastest for the lowest cost.

And sometimes those quick builds turn into a nightmare when you realize you need a feature the website or plugins don't support, your subscription fees jump to a rate you don't feel comfortable with, or you don't actually own the underlying code.

The question and answer to "Should I go with a prebuilt website or custom code?" is probably one of the most annoying answers in the tech industry: it depends.

But that answer isn't helpful or satisfying. So, this is my attempt to make that answer genuinely useful, from as neutral a perspective as possible. I will break down options when each make sense, what the tradeoffs actually are, and how to figure out what fits your situation.

No gatekeeping here. No "you need a 10k custom coded website for your underwater basket weaving landing page." Just an honest take from someone who has used both options.

This article is for founders, freelancers, and small businesses deciding how to build—not for engineers optimizing for fun.

Defining the Playing Field

Before we dive headfirst into comparisons, let's get on the same page about what we're actually comparing.

Page Builders

These platforms let you build a website with drag-and-drop tools (no code necessary, though many allow custom code).

Here are some examples:

• Wix/Squarespace - The "build it yourself overnight" option. Sleek and professional templates, limited flexibility.

• WordPress + Elementor/Divi - More powerful, but now you are having to manage plugins, hosting, and updates.

• Webflow - The middle child of the previous two. More control, but can get complex if you let it.

• Shopify - If you are selling products, this could be perfect for you and is often the default. Solid until you need something that it wasn't designed for (i.e., something other than selling products).

Custom Code

This means someone (potentially you, if you're technical) writes real code that runs your site or app. The tech varies with lots of options: React, Node, Python, HTML + CSS + JavaScript, whatever. The point is that this is meant to be built specifically for your use case and needs; you own it, and it isn't locked inside someone else's platform.

The Spectrum

Here’s where it can get blurry for users and even developers. Web builders can be pushed pretty far. Some "custom" sites are just heavily modified templates. The line between custom and prebuilt isn't always clear.

For this post, the question we are trying to answer is this: are you renting a platform's constraints, or are you building something you fully control?

Or perhaps more simply: does renting make sense (with the potential to buy later), or does owning the code first make more sense?

In some ways this can be understood from a housing perspective. You can rent a space and it will function for what it can, but the day you decide that a wall is in the way of efficient living you can't just knock it down. When you own a space you can knock down walls (tear the whole thing to the ground if you wanted).

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In the future writing actual code will be like using a pro DSLR camera, and no code will be like using a smartphone camera.

When a Page Builder Is the Right Call

Let me be clear: page builders are not a compromise. For a lot of projects, they are the best tool for the job.

This next paragraph is a bit of a call-out. So, if you are a programmer and don't feel like being called out, then skip it. If you disagree, send me an email! Let's chat.

I think that there is a stigma (at least in the programming community) about using a drag-and-drop builder, and that stigma is wrong. There are real use cases, and the problem isn't "well the coding community is being destroyed by these quick, lazy solutions," the problem is "what does an end user need and for what price."

On User Needs

User needs trump a programmer's "feeling" about the industry. If a user needs something, either provide it yourself for a competing cost, or find a solution that is more compelling to the user.

You need to launch fast

If your timeline is "we need something up and running in a week," a page builder wins every time. A custom build with complex requirements can take weeks (if not longer). A Squarespace site can be live tonight.

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Launch fast. The reason to launch fast is not so much that it's critical to get your product to market early, but that you haven't really started working on it until you've launched.

Your budget is tight and your needs are simple

A small business needs a landing page, an about us, a contact page, and maybe a blog (this is not a command but my assessment of it). That is not a $5,000 endeavor. That's $200/year website builder subscription with a custom domain and a weekend of time.

Small businesses need to start somewhere, and starting small and scaling up is the right call. If you later decide you need something a little more complex you can move up to adding more complexity to your drag-and-drop site, or you can decide to hire a programmer or a team.

You want to manage it yourself

If you want to update your own content, swap out images, or add a new page without emailing or texting a developer every single time, page builders are designed for this purpose.

You're validating an idea before investing more

Building a full custom product before you know if it is worth it, feasible, or market ready is a founder's classic mistake. A page builder lets you get something in front of people fast. It shows off your idea without throwing money into a hole that might not spit it back out.

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Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort. When good enough gets the job done, go for it.

When Custom Code Is Worth It

Okay, my turn now. I am not going to lie; this is where my bias will show the most. I love programming, and programming solutions that actually work. I love to get feedback on my work that says "this is EXACTLY what I needed." That is where custom code can make sense.

Custom code isn't about showing off or peacocking around. It's about building something that does exactly what you need it to do. Nothing more, nothing less. And it is something that you actually own.

You might be thinking, well I don't need custom code for a portfolio site (cough cough tylergordon.dev). Here is the thing though, I get to control the entire site. The code, the look and feel, the way you click a button and the responsiveness to that button. Often times custom coded websites are able to do things before page builder sites.

One example is AI integration. Some page builder sites are integrating AI into their sites (some are still missing it). Using those AI services often times cost a flat fee (and sometimes have overage fees) and you are forced to use whatever model they use. You don't get a say in the matter. With a custom coded site like this one I get to choose which AI model I use, even the level of model I use. gpt-5.2 costing too much money? Downgrade to 4o. Don't like the responses from OpenAI? Switch to Claude.

Okay, enough about me. Let's get into the reasons when custom code is worth it.

Your project has real functionality

User accounts, Payments, Dashboards, integrations with other systems, custom workflows, logic that goes beyond "display content." That all falls into a category where custom code will make sense. You might be able to get pieces of that functionality from the page-builder sites, but it will be limited and sometimes confusing to set up.

If you need your site to do something and not just show something you're pushing against what page-builders were built for.

Performance and scale matter

Page builders are generated by code (yes, they run on real code so in a way it is "custom code" but not in the way I am talking about). This code can be bloated, filled with unneeded calls, and sometimes slow to respond. That's not a jab, it's a tradeoff they make to stay flexible with multiple use cases and beginner-friendly.

But if your site needs to load fast, handle traffic spikes, or rank well on Google, that bloat can cost you. With custom code (and servers you "own") you can easily manage traffic spikes, load times, and Google page mapping.

You don't want to be locked in

When you are building a site with a site builder you don't 'own' the site in the traditional sense. You are renting the space, code, and platform. If they raise prices, change features, or shut down-you're stuck.

the core majestic monolith is still gleaming in the sunshine. In fact, the architectural harness has not only carried us incredibly far, but when I examine the codebase today, I smile. This is still good. Very good. It's not full of cruft, not a graveyard of bad decisions, not a stacked ledger of technical debt.

In the age of platform dependency, one strategic misstep can lock your business into a closed system and potentially jeopardize its future.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks about

Welcome to modern day capitalism. Every option has a sticker price. Every option will have a hidden gremlin that will pop up and say, "oh yeah, you want that feature? $20." Those aren't imaginary they are real and guess what--they suck.

Now, you don't need everything listed above. For example, you might not need a payment processor, or domain name. These are just ideas for different things that might go into building a custom website.

The Hidden Costs of Page Builders

Subscription fees... forever. Squarespace monthly pricing is from $25 to $56 a month^[1]. Wix is $17 to $39 a month^[2]. That doesn't sound like much but the math adds fast.

Plugin roulette. Need a feature that the platform doesn't support? Well I have good news and bad news. Good news: You can probably find it in a plugin that is provided. Bad news: you are now dependent on another third-party developer to:

1. Keep it updated

2. Keep it secure

3. Manage the price

Migration pain. You've outgrown your Wix site, or maybe your site builder site has increased costs above what you are comfortable with. Either way, now what? You can't export your site and move it somewhere else. You are rebuilding from scratch.

The Hidden Costs of Custom Code

Okay, honesty time. Custom code also costs money. Developers, servers, databases, image caching. All of it has a price tag, although the price tag is much more adaptable to your needs. Have a lot of data but a small userbase? Pay more for the database and less for the server. Have a large userbase but don't need to cache information? You probably don't need AWS to manage content.

These "addons" could probably be labeled like plugins for custom code. However, you get to set the price on a sliding scale instead of a fixed cost.

Technical Debt is a metaphor, coined by Ward Cunningham, that frames how to think about dealing with this cruft, thinking of it like a financial debt. The extra effort that it takes to add new features is the interest paid on the debt.

Higher upfront investment. Okay this is the part that stings a little bit and there is no way around it. Developers need to eat. Paying a developer to build you a site will most likely cost more money upfront. The tradeoff is you get to own the codebase after all the work.

Server, database, and other features. This is probably the sneaky part. No one talks about these because they oftentimes get forgotten about when the excitement of building something is in the forefront.

Now, in theory you could host all of these out of the comfort of your home. You could set up a hosting server, a database, and other hosting options. So technically it could be free. However, these options require a lot of upkeep, and potential security risks to your home network.

I am not going to address those options in this article (but hey... maybe that would be a good topic for a future article). Being real people don't want to host things out of their home. There are services for hosting your site and extras. Render, Supabase, AWS, Microsoft Azure, to name a few.

Each of these have a cost, most will be adaptable for your needs. AWS S3 buckets for example charge you based on usage. Which is a double-sided sword. Don't use it a lot? Cheap. Users spike (hopefully you have a monetization strategy so that your earnings are proportional)? Can get expensive and fast.

Without consistent monitoring of these services hidden costs can grow to exponential prices, which can be scary. A small anecdote: I was in my junior year of college. One of my classes had us set up an AWS account for a project we were working on. I did NOT set it up correctly under the free tier that the college was using. I woke up one morning to a report in my college email that I almost glossed over. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the number on the screen.

Usage: $2,500.

Mind you I am a broke college kid at this point. I was freaking out. I had configured the service incorrectly and it nearly cost me. Thankfully the customer service worker at AWS was understanding of my situation and took care of the bill. But it could have been very bad.

My prices

Okay shameless plug time. I am going to paste my own prices for website development here (it is my blog, right?).

All of these are the base prices with optional upgrades depending on what you are looking for.

How to Actually Decide

Here are the questions I would personally ask if you came to me trying to figure out what you want to build:

In business, too many people obsess over tools, software tricks, scaling issues, fancy office space, lavish furniture, and other frivolities instead of what really matters. And what really matters is how to actually get customers and make money.

The Bottom Line

There's no wrong answer here, just an answer of what you want from your site. If the answer is right for your situation, your budget, your timeline, and your goals then you can't go wrong.

Page builders are great tools. They have opened the way to the internet that was previously gatekept with esoteric knowledge by a small group of coding wizards. I recommend these tools to people all the time. If you need something simple, fast, and cheap--don't let anyone convince you that you need to spend an astronomical amount on custom development. That's the gatekeeping nonsense I mentioned earlier.

But if you are building a product with real complexity, something that you own, and something you are betting your business on then cutting corners on the foundation is a mistake which you will pay for later.

Here is the secret about building a business. 1. Have a product that users love. 2. Use the right tools for what your needs are. 3. Earn more than you spend. At the end of the day the question isn't "oh, did you get the flashiest thing?" It is "did you get the thing that you needed?"

Where I come in

Okay, okay, okay, shameless plug time. Here we are at the end of the article, let me tell you a little bit about what I do. I build custom websites, apps, and software. No templates. No page builders. Just clean code that you own and is built exactly for what you need.

That's not the right fit for everyone--and I'll tell you if it's not. The software industry is a competitive market especially for a freelancer, but spending thousands of dollars on something that you could spend a fraction of the cost on is something that I will be honest about.

I care deeply about people, and I want them to do what is best for their business. Feel free to reach out any time and I will give you a quote and the realities of your business.

Thanks for reading.

-Tyler