WORDPRESS, COMPARED
WordPress runs two of every five websites.Tome is for the part of yours a plugin can't run.
If you're on WordPress, you have a site that works and a plugin for every job. This page puts WordPress and Tome side by side: what each one gives you, how it gets to you, what a year costs when a professional does the work, and the cases where WordPress is the right answer. There are several.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Stay on WordPress until it can't.
Choose Tome
Your site works and a plugin does every job. Stay, until one of three walls: permissions that follow an org chart, money that has to move in one piece, or courses tied to certifications. On Tome, those and a CRM all live in the site's own database. Install the packs and engines yourself, or have us build the platform.
Choose self-hosted WordPress
If the site is mostly pages and posts, a plugin already does the job, and you want the biggest pool of themes, plugins and people there is.
Choose WordPress.com
WordPress.com handles the hosting, with a plan from $4 a month billed yearly (it renews at $6) and plugins allowed from the Personal plan up.
THE TABLE
Three ways to run a business site.
| Feature | Tome | Self-hosted WordPress | WordPress.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | One platform: pages and blocks, with courses, checkout, CRM and memberships as engines that share one database and one login | The CMS, a theme, a page builder, and a plugin for each job | Hosted WordPress on a plan; plugins from the Personal plan up |
| How it gets to you | npm install into the Payload project you already have, or we build it: an MVP for $25,000 fixed, platforms from $55,000 | Install on any host, from $2.99 a month in the first year; add plugins one at a time | Pick a plan: $4 to $45 a month billed yearly, renewing at $6 to $57 |
| Blocks | 161 across 12 packs; 2 packs (19 blocks) free | Core blocks, plus a builder: Elementor from $60 a year for one site, Kadence from $99 | Core WordPress blocks; Elementor or Kadence as plugins, on a paid plan |
| Courses | Learning engine, $300 a year: courses, lessons, progress, quizzes, certificates | LearnDash $259 to $599 a year; LifterLMS free core, bundles $199 to $799 in year one and double at renewal | LearnDash or LifterLMS as plugins, on a paid plan |
| Checkout | Commerce engine, $400 a year, set up with us; priced by the year, not by the sale | WooCommerce free; WooPayments 2.9% + 30¢ per US card, plus 1.5% on international cards | Commerce plan, $45 a month billed yearly (renews at $57), with WooCommerce |
| CRM and email | CRM & Marketing engine, $400 a year: contacts, pipeline, campaigns, intake forms, in the site's own database | FluentCRM Pro from $103 a year; or HubSpot's free plugin with paid tiers from $7 a seat a month to $800 a month plus $3,000 onboarding | FluentCRM or the HubSpot plugin, on a paid plan |
| Members and permissions | In a platform build, roles that follow your org chart | Flat roles out of the box; MemberPress from $199.50 in year one (renews at $399), with a 4.9% fee on payments at that tier | MemberPress as a plugin, on a paid plan |
| Updates | npm update; every pack is tested against the current Payload release before it ships | Core updates itself; plugins and themes are opt-in, and the official advice is to be able to roll back first | Core is managed; plugins still update on their own schedule |
| Owning it and leaving | Your code and your database, standard TypeScript any shop that knows the stack can run | GPL code; content exports as WXR to any WordPress site; paid plugins renew every year at full price | The standard WordPress export; the plan is the hosting |
| Built and kept by a professional, year one | Static site $3,950 all in; MVP platform $25,000 plus $300 to $700 a month | Roughly $5,300 to $45,000 for site and store, before card fees; a course build is extra | A 5-page site from WordPress.com's own service is $499 plus a plan; partner agencies from $5,000 |
Sources for every cell are at the bottom of the page.
WHAT A PLUGIN CAN'T DO
Three walls the shelf runs into.
01
Permissions that follow the org chart
A membership organization needed a unit leader who could see her own units and nobody else's, with access that moved when people did. WordPress gave us flat roles and a membership plugin with its own idea of who a member is. On Tome the organization is the data model, so a role means what the org chart says it means. The running version is on the Vanguard study.
See the Vanguard study →02
One database, not a plugin per job
On Tome, the course a member takes, the order she places and the record the CRM keeps of her are one person in one database, behind one login. On WordPress each of those is a plugin with its own tables, its own licence and its own renewal date. WordPress's own troubleshooting guide says what to do when two of them fight: turn plugins off one at a time until the site works again. Core itself is well kept: six vulnerabilities reported all of last year. The other 11,300 were in plugins and themes, and 46% weren't fixed by the time they were made public (Patchstack's 2026 report). The shelf is where the work is.
03
Walk the org chart
Walk the org chart on starter.wabbit.com. Every role you see there is a real permission, and nothing on the page is a screenshot. It's the same foundation we build client platforms on.
Open the demo →WHERE WORDPRESS WINS
Four cases for the shelf.
Mostly pages and posts
A site that's mostly pages and posts belongs on WordPress. The editor is mature, there are 8,654 free themes, and a hosted plan with plugins starts at $4 a month billed yearly.
A deep pool of people
You want a deep pool of people. WordPress runs 40% of the web, and published rates start at $15 to $28 an hour on Upwork and $25 to $49 for companies on Clutch. If being able to replace your vendor next week matters more than anything on this page, that pool is the reason.
A plugin already exists
A plugin already does the job. There are more than 60,000 of them. If one is maintained and fits, installing it beats building.
Edit everything yourself
You want to edit everything yourself, visually. Elementor alone sits on about a third of WordPress sites, and the tutorials for it are endless.
If that's you, stay. The shelf is the right tool for most sites, and Tome only earns its keep at the first wall.
WHAT IT COSTS
The software by the year, the work by the job.
The blocks
Free
$0
Marketing Starter and Content Writer, 19 blocks. A free account, no card, no trial.
Craft Library
$250/yr
Every paid pack and theme. Stop whenever you like: what you've installed keeps working; you just stop receiving new releases.
The engines · added per project, on any plan
Learning
$300/yr
Courses, lessons, and progress.
CRM & Marketing
$400/yr
Contacts, pipeline, campaigns, and intake forms.
Commerce
$400/yr
Catalog and checkout, set up with us because it touches payments.
Agency
$4,800/yr
Every engine included, for studios running many client sites.
The plugin bill, and the person who runs it.
Tools only means you assemble WordPress yourself: a builder and a handful of plugins, with nobody keeping it patched. Built and kept means a professional does the build and stays on, whether that's WordPress's care plan or Tome's retainer; a course build sits on top of the WordPress numbers below and isn't broken out on its own line.
About $506 to $1,075 in year one, before card fees
Hosting, a builder, LearnDash, FluentCRM and WooCommerce. SiteGround's $2.99 becomes $17.99 to $44.99 a month at renewal, and LifterLMS bundles and WPForms double.Roughly $5,300 to $45,000 in year one, plus a course build
A site and store build from $3,200 to $40,000, hosting and plugins around $1,075, and a care plan from $1,068 to $4,680 a year.$3,950, and the site is yours outright
$2,750 for the site and $100 a month for Care, which keeps it patched and current.$25,000 fixed, plus $300 to $700 a month
The retainer is roughly 15% a year and covers security patches, platform updates and backups.From $55,000
Always scoped first in a $5,000 Architecture Sprint that's credited to the build.Tome costs more than a plugin shelf in year one, and this page won't pretend otherwise. What the fee buys is one platform where the permissions, the money and the certifications are engines you own, with no shelf to keep compatible.
FIVE STEPS
From a WordPress export to a running platform.
- STEP 01
Export what you have.
WordPress's own export gives you a WXR file with your posts, pages, custom post types, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and users. Media comes across with it. Nothing on this list is locked in.
- STEP 02
Model the operation, not the site.
The Architecture Sprint is two weeks and $5,000, credited to the build: the data model, the phases, the risks, and an exact price. If you don't build with us, you keep the architecture.
- STEP 03
Build it, or install it.
An MVP is $25,000 fixed; a full platform starts at $55,000. If you have a developer and a Payload project, the packs and engines install with one npm install and a free account, and the get-started guide takes about an hour.
- STEP 04
Bring the content in and keep the URLs.
Posts and pages import; the addresses you've earned rankings on redirect to their new homes, so nothing you've published goes dark.
- STEP 05
Launch, then keep it current.
Care is $100 a month for a site; the platform retainer runs $300 to $700 a month. Security patches, platform updates and backups are ours to do, and the code stays yours.
WHERE TO NEXT
Bring the site, or start clean.
Browse the blocks
All 161, with live previews.
Two packs are free with a no-card account.
Browse the blocks →See it running
One Tome install doing all of it at once.
starter.wabbit.com
Open the demo →Have it built
If what you've outgrown is the shelf, a platform shaped to your operation is what we do.
How we build platforms →Checked 25 September 2026.
If something here has gone out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
W3Techs (market share) · wordpress.org/download/releases (releases and versions) · Tools › Export documentation (the export format) · Plugin and theme auto-updates (auto-update behaviour) · Troubleshooting FAQ (the plugin-conflict advice) · wordpress.org/themes (theme count)
wordpress.com/pricing (plans, renewals, the plugin rule) · wordpress.com/website-design-service (the $499 site service, $5,000 partner floor)
SiteGround · Kinsta · WP Engine · Patchstack (State of WordPress Security in 2026) · Codeable · Upwork · Clutch · WebFX web design pricing · WebFX redesign pricing · WP Buffs · SiteCare
/blocks (the live block count) · /subscribe (plans) · /platform-builds (builds, Sprint, retainer) · /pricing