The Honest Comparison
Speed, SEO, security, cost over time. Real Lighthouse scores, not marketing claims.
Performance Scores
Google Lighthouse Performance score (0-100) directly affects your search rankings via Core Web Vitals. Here's what NH businesses typically see:
Wix / Squarespace
30-55
Platform overhead, JavaScript bundles, and render-blocking resources you cannot remove.
WordPress (page builder)
40-65
Divi, Elementor, WPBakery. Better than Wix but still slow due to plugin overhead and unused CSS.
Feltworks hand-coded
94-97
Clean HTML and CSS. No platform overhead. No unused code. Sub-2-second load time on mobile.
Side by Side
| Factor | Hand-coded (Feltworks) | WordPress | Wix / Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse Performance | 94-97 | 40-65 (with page builder) | 30-55 |
| Mobile load time | Under 2 seconds | 3-8 seconds typical | 4-10 seconds typical |
| SEO flexibility | Full control, zero overhead | Good with right plugins (Yoast, RankMath) | Limited. Platform controls key elements. |
| Security vulnerabilities | None. Static HTML only. | Plugin/theme CVEs weekly. Requires constant patching. | Platform-managed, but you have no control. |
| Build cost (NH small biz) | Starting at $1,500 one-time | $800-3,000 depending on developer | $0-500 DIY or $500-2,000 with designer |
| Ongoing cost (year 2+) | $0 or $50/mo care plan | $200-600/yr (hosting, plugins, theme) | $204-$540/yr platform fees, non-negotiable |
| File ownership | You own all files. Move anywhere. | You own files but database dependency. | Platform owns your site. Can't export cleanly. |
| Content edits | Requires HTML knowledge or care plan | Admin dashboard. Anyone can edit. | Drag-and-drop. Easy for non-technical users. |
| 3-year total cost estimate | Starting at $1,500, around $3,300 with care | $1,700-4,800 | $1,112-$2,120 (DIY) or $2,000-$4,600 (with designer) |
The Details
Google published research showing that 53% of mobile visitors leave if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. For local businesses in New Hampshire, where most searches happen on phones while driving, commuting, or standing in a driveway, this isn't abstract. Someone searches "HVAC repair Concord NH" while their furnace is failing. Your competitor's Wix site loads in 6 seconds. Your hand-coded site loads in 1.4 seconds. They call your competitor before yours finishes loading.
WordPress sites built on page builders like Divi or Elementor are slower than their marketing suggests. These tools generate large CSS files (often 200KB+ of styles the page never uses), multiple JavaScript files that block rendering, and font loading patterns that delay the largest element on the page. None of this can be easily removed without rebuilding the site.
A hand-coded site has exactly the CSS it needs. No more. The result is a Google Lighthouse Performance score of 94-97 versus the 40-65 typical of page-builder WordPress sites serving NH local businesses.
Core Web Vitals (the performance metrics Google uses to rank pages) include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). WordPress sites with page builders typically fail LCP and FID on mobile. Hand-coded sites consistently pass all three.
WordPress can rank well in the right hands. A developer who knows what they're doing can strip unnecessary plugins, implement caching, use a fast theme, and get performance scores in the 80s. That's real skill that costs real money. The average contractor or landscaper hiring a local web shop gets a Divi or Elementor site that looks fine but performs poorly.
For NH businesses competing in towns like Concord, Manchester, Goffstown, or Loudon, where keyword competition is low and a well-optimized site can reach page one in 30-60 days, the performance advantage from hand-coded HTML is meaningful and directly translates to more inquiries.
WordPress powers 43% of the internet. That makes it the largest attack surface in web history. The WP Scan vulnerability database tracks thousands of known vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins and themes. A site running 8 plugins (typical for a small business) has 8 potential attack vectors that need monitoring and patching.
A hand-coded HTML site has none of this. There's no database to inject. No admin portal to brute-force. No plugin to exploit. The worst someone can do is deface the files directly, which requires server-level access that Cloudflare's infrastructure makes extremely difficult.
A hand-coded site on Cloudflare Pages is as secure as any small business website can be. There's simply nothing to attack.
WordPress looks cheap until you add up what it actually costs:
Over three years a WordPress site built for a typical NH contractor runs $1,700 to $4,800 depending on the level of ongoing support. Our flat-rate site (starting at $1,500) plus the optional care plan ($50/month) typically totals around $3,300 over 3 years. Comparable cost, but with a site that loads faster, ranks higher, and doesn't need plugin updates.
The one genuine advantage of WordPress is the content management dashboard. If you need to update your site frequently and don't want to pay someone to do it, WordPress makes that easier. For most NH service businesses, content changes are infrequent enough that a $50/month care plan handles them same-day.
WordPress makes sense if you need a complex application, have a developer on staff, or run a content-heavy site with multiple authors. For NH local service businesses that need to rank in their town and convert mobile visitors into calls, hand-coded is the right choice. The performance advantages are real and the cost difference over time is minimal.
If you have a current WordPress site and want to see how it actually performs, use our free audit tool. It runs the same Lighthouse analysis Google uses and gives you an honest report in 30 seconds.
FAQ
WordPress can rank well if configured correctly. Most small business WordPress sites are not configured correctly: they use page builders that add excessive JavaScript and CSS, plugins that conflict, and themes full of code the site never uses. The result is slow load times that hurt rankings. A hand-coded site with the same on-page SEO will outperform a bloated WordPress site in Google's Core Web Vitals scoring, which directly affects rankings.
Wix sites typically score between 30 and 55 on Google Lighthouse Performance. Squarespace sites score similarly, usually 40 to 60. These platforms include significant overhead that cannot be removed. Hand-coded sites from Feltworks score 94 to 97 on the same test. Run a test on any Wix or Squarespace site at PageSpeed Insights to verify.
A WordPress site typically costs $800-$2,000 to build plus $300-$600/year in hosting, plugin licenses, and theme updates. Over 3 years that's $1,700 to $3,800 at minimum. A hand-coded site from Feltworks starts at $1,500 (one-time, flat rate) plus an optional $50/month care plan. Similar total cost over time, significantly better performance.
If you know basic HTML, yes. If not, our $50/month care plan includes unlimited content edits. Most NH service businesses find they rarely need to update their site themselves. The content that matters (services, prices, contact info) changes infrequently. We handle edits same day.
Ready to make the switch?
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