Laravel or WordPress? When each one fits – cost, maintenance and limits
WordPress fits when you mainly publish content and want to edit it yourself; Laravel fits when your website has to do something – sign customers in, process data, take payments or run workflows. With me, a website starts at €1,490 and a Laravel application at €5,990. To be upfront: I build with Laravel and React. So you can weigh my recommendation, this guide explicitly covers the cases where WordPress is the better choice.
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- By Maurice de Felice, web developer in Augsburg, Germany
What is the basic difference?
WordPress is a ready-made content management system: you install it, choose a theme, add features with plugins and edit content through an interface. Its strength is that a lot works without programming.
Laravel is a PHP framework: a toolkit for developers to build custom applications with their own data model, logic and interfaces. Its strength is that exactly what your process needs gets built – without detours through plugins that almost fit.
Both run on PHP and on common web hosting. The real question is not the technology but this: are you publishing content, or building an application?
When is WordPress the better choice?
- You want to publish articles, news or references regularly – without a developer.
- Your requirements are common and covered by widely used, well-maintained plugins.
- Several people on your team edit content, and many already know the interface.
- Someone on your side installs updates for WordPress, the theme and the plugins regularly.
When is Laravel the better choice?
- Users sign in and see different data – customers, partners, staff, administrators.
- You model your own workflow: orders, offers, approvals, deadlines, bookings.
- Money flows through the platform: payments, balances, subscriptions, refunds.
- The application exchanges data with other systems (CRM, accounting, external APIs).
- With WordPress you would need so many plugins and workarounds that maintenance becomes unmanageable.
How do cost and maintenance compare?
With WordPress, running costs are often higher than expected, because every plugin brings its own updates, vulnerabilities and sometimes licence fees. With Laravel, the initial cost is higher, but the code contains only what you need. The cost calculator shows what your project would cost.
| Criterion | WordPress | Laravel |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | Cheap if theme and plugins fit | Custom; web apps from €5,990 with me |
| Editing content | Built-in editor | Built for your needs or connected |
| Custom logic | Through plugins or custom plugin code | Core strength |
| Updates | WordPress, theme and every plugin separately | Framework and packages, managed in the code |
| Dependencies | Many plugin vendors | Few, deliberately chosen packages |
Maintenance after launch: €95 per hour or a maintenance contract
What do I use myself – and why?
For applications I use Laravel with PostgreSQL in the backend and React with TypeScript in the frontend, plus automated tests and a CI/CD pipeline. That is how the auction platform YachtBrokerBid was built: roles for owners, brokers and admins, a credit system with a complete booking history and Stripe payments. With WordPress and plugins that would only have worked with many workarounds.
For plain company websites a framework is not necessary. I built the website of the German cleaning company DARMEL in HTML, CSS and JavaScript – 51 landing pages, fast load times and a contact form, with no application logic behind it.
Can WordPress and Laravel be combined?
Yes, and often that is the most sensible route: WordPress for the website, blog and content, a Laravel application for a customer portal, bookings or internal workflows – connected by a shared login link or an API. Editing stays simple, and the logic lives where it is easy to maintain. More on that on web app development.
What do clients often ask?
Planning a project?
In a free initial call you get an honest assessment of scope, timeline and a fixed price – by video, or in person in Augsburg and Munich. I usually reply within 24 hours.
About the author
Freelance web developer in Augsburg, Germany. By day a backend developer at one of Germany’s largest comparison portals; as a freelancer I build websites, web apps and SaaS platforms with Laravel and React – for example the SaaS platform YachtBrokerBid. More about me
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