The same landing page can be built on Tilda from 1,500 ₾ or on custom code from 1,700 ₾. The price difference is pocket change — but the difference in what you get, and what you keep paying later, is substantial. Let’s sort it out without religion: our portfolio has both, and we honestly recommend whichever solves your task cheaper.
The economics of engines
A website’s price is hours of work plus platform fees. With a builder the work is cheaper, but there’s a subscription forever. With custom code the work costs slightly more, but hosting is close to zero. WordPress sits in between: the platform is free, but you need hosting and plugin upkeep.
| Tilda | Custom code (Astro) | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page build | from 1,500 ₾ | from 1,700 ₾ | — |
| Corporate site | from 2,800 ₾ | from 3,400 ₾ | from 3,800 ₾ |
| Platform fees | ~1,000+ ₾/yr | ≈0 (Cloudflare hosting) | hosting 200–600 ₾/yr |
| Edit it yourself | yes, visual editor | via us, or a CMS | yes, admin panel |
| Loading speed | average | maximum | depends on plugins |
| Who owns the code | the platform | you | you |
When Tilda is the right choice
Tilda wins when launch speed and self-service matter: build in a week, launch the ads, the marketer edits texts and blocks themselves. For testing a hypothesis, a seasonal promo or a standard services site it’s an excellent tool. Our case FinHack is a corporate site on Tilda: 25+ services, the client edits content themselves, built in 3 weeks.
The honest downsides: a subscription forever, design and speed ceilings, and you can’t “take the site with you” — moving means rebuilding from scratch.
When custom code is the right choice
A custom stack (ours is Astro + Cloudflare) wins over the long run: you own the code, hosting is free, loading is instant — and speed directly affects both conversion and search rankings. Custom logic — calculators, integrations, client dashboards — only lives here. Archam Print with its 3D-printing calculator and ASB Catalog with 2,000+ items could not have been built on a site builder.
The honest downsides: edits go through a developer (or we wire up a headless CMS, which costs more upfront), and launch takes slightly longer.
When WordPress
When the site is first and foremost content: a blog, an editorial team, many authors. Plugins cover almost any need, but the ecosystem charges rent in upkeep: updates, backups, security. Left unattended, WordPress slowly grows weeds.
A simple selection rule
Launch and test → Tilda. Speed, SEO and custom logic → custom code. A content machine with an editorial team → WordPress. Stores are a separate story — the engine follows the catalogue and the region: we covered it in the online-store article.
Above all: an engine is a tool, not an ideology. At the brief we calculate the economics of your task 2–3 years ahead (build + subscriptions + edits) and recommend the option that’s cheaper in total — all prices are public on the home page.