WordPress or SaaS in 2025: what to choose to start a business

When launching a new project in 2025, the first technical question that needs to be answered is: “Are we building our own house or renting an apartment?”

In the context of web development, “your home” is a classic CMS (WordPress, 1C-Bitrix, OpenCart), where you control the server and code. “Rent” are SaaS platforms (Tilda, InSales, Shopify, Wix), where you buy a subscription to a ready-made infrastructure.

A wrong choice at the start often leads to the fact that after six months the business hits the technical “ceiling” of the platform, and the project has to be rewritten from scratch. Let's look at the key differences without water or bias.

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What is WordPress (CMS) and SaaS

WordPress (self-hosted CMS) is an Open Source content management system. You buy a domain, rent a server (VPS/VDS), install a CMS and have full control over the files, database and architecture. You have the right to write any code, connect any plugin and integrate any database.

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a cloud product. All technical parts (domains, hosting, DDoS protection, backups, updates) are on the provider’s side. Your area of ​​responsibility is only content, design (often within the block constructor) and settings in the admin panel.

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5 Comparison Criteria: Where the Devil Lies

1. Data ownership and control (Data Sovereignty)

• WordPress: 100% control. You can unload the user base, move the site to another server in 2 hours, or completely change the ordering logic.
• SaaS: Control is illusory. You can lose access to the platform at any time due to blocking, tariff changes, or service leaving the country (case with Wix/Shopify in Russia). Exporting a database fully (while preserving connections and architecture) is often impossible: SaaS services provide banal CSV tables, but uploading the “design and structure” will not work. This is Vendor lock-in.

2. Time-to-Market (Launch speed)

• SaaS: Absolute winner. You can launch a landing page or storefront on Tilda or InSales in 2-3 days. The platforms are tailored to the lack of programmers on staff.
• WordPress: Requires more time. You need to buy a server, configure SSL, install the core, select a theme, configure a child theme, protect the site with a firewall (Wordfence), configure caching (Redis/LiteSpeed). Without experience, this will take weeks.

3. SEO and Core Web Vitals in 2025

• WordPress: Highest score if hands are straight. You can make a website lightning fast, configure the output of WebP/AVIF formats, implement custom breadcrumbs, Schema.org micro-markup at the PHP code level and generate Sitemaps according to any rules.
• SaaS: Good for starting, but as it grows, SEO issues arise. Download speed is limited by the provider's servers. Control over the HTML code is minimal. Implement a complex CNC hierarchy (with filters like /category/iphone/red/128gb/) in a SaaS store is often simply impossible.

4. Scaling and Integrations

Nine out of ten clients come to us at NBM-IT with the phrase: “We made a website using a website builder, but now we need clever synchronization of warehouses with 1C and a non-standard bonus system. And the platform does not allow this".

• WordPress (or Bitrix): Non-standard bonus system? We write PHP code and connect the API. Authorization via Telegram? We are writing a gateway. Your programmers can change the core business logic.
• SaaS: You are limited to the list of integrations provided by the tariff. If InSales doesn’t have a module for your exotic CRM system, you’ll have to build complex “crutches” through Zapier/Make.com, which will ultimately ruin your budget.

5. Price (TCO - Total Cost of Ownership)

• SaaS: Cheap to start. A subscription for 1,000 - 3,000 rubles per month seems profitable. But TCO begins to go off scale after 2 years, when, due to the growth of the base or integration requirements, you switch to Enterprise tariffs for tens of thousands of rubles monthly.
• WordPress: Relatively expensive “entrance” (paying the studio for development if you are not making a template), but cheap to own. Renting a powerful VPS server will cost 1000 rubles/month, and you will have no restrictions on the number of products, pages and administrators.

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Conclusions: what to choose?

1. Choose SaaS (Tilda, InSales) if:

   • You are a startup and testing the MVP hypothesis.
   • You are a micro-business with a range limit of up to 300 products (without complex accounting).
   • You need a business card website for contextual advertising (one-page).
   • There are no IT specialists on staff.

2. Choose Open Source (WordPress, 1C-Bitrix) if:

   • You sell complex products (B2B, wholesale).
   • A website is the backbone of your business (online portal, large e-commerce).
   • You need high organic traffic (SEO).
   • Integration with the company’s internal ERP/CRM systems (1C, MoySklad) is planned.
   • The data of your users (152-FZ) must be stored strictly within your system.

If your business has become cramped within the framework of standard SaaS solutions and you need to switch to an independent platform, NBM-IT engineers are ready to help with migration. We transfer databases, page routes and SEO weight to new, high-performance CMS without losing positions in Google and Yandex.