Letterpress
WordPress
A publishing machine with a custom theme I design. Pages, posts, a real editor for non-developers.
The two machines
WordPress is a press.
Laravel is a mill.
I build both. I will not flatter a stack because it is fashionable. The right machine is the one whose grain matches the job — so you are not fighting the CMS every Thursday, or paying custom-app prices for a brochure.
Jig and mill
Laravel
An application. Objects, roles, money with rules, the process only you have.
When WordPress is the honest pick
Staff will write. The important public things are pages and posts. You want a blog, a sermon archive, a menu, a case-study wall, a brochure that a human can extend without opening a terminal. WooCommerce is fine for a standard catalog. Membership plugins are fine for “pay to read.”
What I will not do: install a page-builder circus, a 40-plugin SEO suite, or a “multi-vendor marketplace” plugin and call it architecture. The theme is custom. The plugins are few and named.
When Laravel is the honest pick
Clients or staff log in and do work. The important thing is a record — a job, a property, a claim, a trip, a SKU with a formula. Money is not a donate button. Search is a product. Something has to sync with Square, QuickBooks, a desktop tool, a partner.
Laravel means I design the admin too. You do not get “just add a page” for free unless I build that. That is the trade: the data model is yours, the CMS convenience is not.
The hybrid I will sometimes recommend
WordPress for the public story, Laravel for the logged-in work, same design language, two codebases that share a header and a login story. Heavier. Correct when marketing and the app have different editors and different cadences. I will say so on the quote if that is the grain.
What I will not pretend
WordPress is not “cheap Laravel.” Laravel is not “WordPress for grown-ups.” A $4,000 calling card does not become a portal because someone said API in a meeting. If the ticket is confused, I write back with the smaller true job — not a padded estimate.
Chooser
Answer these. Steal the lean.
Six questions. A lean appears. It is not a quote and it is not a contract. Override it on the ticket if your gut disagrees — then tell me why in the notes.