You should own your website, not rent it.

There has never been a better time to build a website for your business, brand, or even just a personal digital home. With all of the different tools and platforms out there, you have the capability to build whatever you want—and often, without much of a time commitment or learning curve.

But not all website building platforms are created equal. Not all approaches are as accessible as others. Back in the day, you had to create a website piece by piece, and know how to code. You had to be able to create HTML files, style them with CSS, layer in interactivity with Javascript, and make things reusable with PHP. 

Then came language frameworks, which both complicated and streamlined the process. You no longer had to reinvent the wheel every time you built a site—instead, you could leverage a coding system built to keep things consistent and scalable.

You would upload your website files to a server, typically set up through a hosting provider. Your hosting provider would commonly give you access to cPanel, where you could manage your website files (and even have an email server.) And if you weren’t happy with your hosting provider, you could pack up your files and move them to a new host.

But building websites the old fashioned way was not accessible to everyone. Not everyone wants to learn how to code, or has the time to update hard-coded files (not to mention debugging something when it breaks.) That’s where website builders came in. I’m referring to the platforms that streamlined the whole process so much so that you didn’t even have to touch code if you didn’t want to: Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, etc. You could use a visual page builder and interface to set up your site, modify settings, choose new styles, and add content. You could even set up e-commerce, and accept payments for your products or services.

Easy, quick, streamlined, attractive, and optimized. That’s what these platforms promise you, but what happens when you need a piece of functionality that doesn’t exist on the platform? An integration that isn’t in their extension library? What happens when they increase their monthly fees again (and again, and again)? You start thinking that maybe it’s time to move to a new service, so you start looking at the other options, and then you find out: your website cannot be exported. Your website only works with (insert name here). Your website is built on a proprietary framework that only works on their platform—sorry! You were actually renting your digital real estate this entire time.

All too often, we get clients that have run into this situation, and need help migrating their website to a new platform. In almost every case, we have to rebuild the website from scratch. So what do we choose to build websites? WordPress. WordPress is an open-source framework, which means the code isn’t locked behind a proprietary system. The beauty of this framework is that you own the site, which means you can use it to build just about anything and you can migrate it to any website host.

With WordPress, you have the reliability of an established framework, the portability of a scratch-coded site, and the flexibility to handle any functionality you or your developer can dream of. If you don’t like your current hosting situation, you can simply export your entire WordPress install and move it. And if you no longer need your website at all, you can download and zip a backup of your site for the archive. The website is your property, and you get to decide what to do with it and how to maintain it.

You have the freedom to build practically any kind of website using WordPress as the bones. I really like to leverage the Custom Post Type functionality to build all sorts of custom applications, from team member listings to interactive project maps to robust intranets and more. And the fact that WordPress is built using PHP means that I have the capability of custom-coding plugins that are completely bespoke for my clients, like pulling equipment listings from their warehouse software, pushing rental reservations to their in-store point-of-sale systems, and building custom quoting tools based on specific calculations.

Sure, the upfront cost to build a completely custom, bespoke website or web application may seem high, but consider the fact that you are in much more control over the costs with a WordPress setup that you are with a proprietary framework. You can choose which pieces of functionality you need and grow from there—unlike a platform that constantly raises their fees or slowly starts upgrading necessary features into higher and higher price tiers, or quietly downgrades the features and performance boosts that got you to sign up in the first place.

Your website is your digital storefront—your headquarters. Some businesses are okay with renting their storefront or office space, and that’s completely fine! Renting does have its benefits: you can spin up faster, development can be more streamlined, and you don’t have to pay a large lump sum up front. But if your business and brand are important to you, you need to consider that owning your website outright gives you flexibility, portability, and freedom that renting simply does not.

If you value strong design and a bespoke solution, a custom WordPress website is the answer for your next build. At Zykin Design, we specialize in building completely custom websites led by strategic design decisions, not templates. No two websites we build are the same. In fact, we do things the old school, hand-crafted way—we start with digital design mockups to explore page layouts, content writing, imagery sourcing, and a thoughtful user experience. By the time we’re ready for development, you know exactly what your website will look like, so we can ensure your digital storefront aligns with your vision with no unpleasant surprises at the end.

Building a new website or refreshing an existing one can be overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to decide what platform you want to use. Just remember that when you rely on third-party platforms, you are renting your digital office space instead of owning it. If you’re okay with that and need the features that those platforms provide, then it’s worthwhile to consider. But if you’re looking for something that you can retain ownership and portability of, you need an owned solution.