What Webflow and WordPress do very well
They put a site online in a few days, with proven templates, a visual editor and an ecosystem of extensions for almost everything: forms, blog, multiple languages, appointment booking. For a firm, a shop or an SME whose site presents the business and brings in enquiries, that is more than enough.
They also make your teams autonomous: changing a text, publishing an article, adding an offer, without calling a developer. That autonomy matters more than people think: a site nobody can edit ages in silence, and a design that is three years old eventually shows.
We use Webflow when it is the right tool, and we say so plainly during the diagnostic. A custom-coded brochure site where a builder would do costs more for a result the visitor will not be able to tell apart.
Where they reach their limits
The first limit is logic. As soon as you need user accounts, different rights depending on the visitor, a quote calculation, document uploads or a deep connection to your CRM and invoicing, the builder forces you to stack extensions and third-party tools held together by fragile automations.
The second limit is maintenance. On WordPress, every extension is an update to follow and a potential vulnerability; a site left without maintenance becomes a risk. On Webflow, hosting and template are tied to the platform: you do not walk away with the site under your arm as simply as with code.
The third limit is what you have to guarantee: performance when extensions pile up, and accessibility, an obligation in force since 28 June 2025 for many sites that sell or take bookings online. On a Webflow site as on a custom one, most corrections are made in the template; you still need to master that template.
When custom code becomes necessary
Custom code becomes necessary when the site becomes the first screen of your system: a space where your clients follow their cases, upload their documents, sign and pay; an order or booking journey that feeds your CRM, your follow-ups and your cockpit directly, with no re-entry between the form and the sale.
It also becomes necessary when the brand demands a design that looks like no template, or when a platform, an online service or an e-commerce site with particular rules must hold up under load and evolve every week. We then build with React or Next.js, on a foundation and a design system that belong to you.
Custom code is not an end in itself: it is the answer to a precise requirement. If you cannot name that requirement in one sentence, accounts, connection, journey, performance, a builder is probably enough.
What it costs, and how long it takes
The Essential Website costs €4,000 excl. VAT and is delivered in 2 weeks: five pages built to convert, a form linked to your inbox, the technical basics of search optimisation and analytics tracking installed, with editing access and a one-hour handover. The domain name and hosting stay in your name; extra pages are handled as a Sprint.
A custom site is built in 4 to 8 weeks depending on complexity, content included, and every sprint ends with a version you can browse. One precise component, a client space or a booking journey for instance, starts at €6,000 excl. VAT as a Sprint. The Website and Acquisition Program, from €15,000 excl. VAT, covers positioning, sitemap, copywriting, custom design and build, technical SEO and the launch of the first campaigns.
In both cases, plan for what comes next: Care, from €250 excl. VAT per month, covers monitoring, backups, security updates and small evolutions every month. A site without maintenance is the one case where the builder and custom code meet: both age badly.
Five questions before deciding
Who will edit the site, and how often? Does the site need accounts or restricted spaces? Which tools must it talk to, and how reliably? What must you guarantee, in performance and accessibility? Who will maintain it in three years?
No single answer settles it, but together they almost always draw the path. Three answers on the “brochure” side: take a builder. Two answers on the “application” side: scope a custom build, or start with a brochure site and add the application component as a Sprint once the need is confirmed.
Search ranking does not settle it: a builder and a custom site rank equally well when the structure is clean and the pages answer your clients' real questions. Content is what moves a site up, not the technology that displays it.