Which platform is better for SEO promotion: WordPress, Tilda, Webflow, or a custom-built website?

To ensure a website consistently receives traffic from search engines, it is important to consider not only content and links but also the technical foundation. Below is a comparison of which platforms are truly suitable for search engine optimization and which may limit growth.

WordPress
The most popular content management system in the world, suitable for both blogs and large websites and online stores. The platform requires installation on hosting, a basic understanding of website structure, and experience working with plugins.

The main advantage of WordPress is its flexibility: users can configure almost everything, connect third-party themes and modules, and extend functionality using WooCommerce or SEO tools. A drawback may be the need for technical support and potential conflicts between plugins.

Cost: a free plan is available, the Personal plan costs $4 per month, Premium — $8, Business — $25, and eCommerce — $45 per month. A domain is required for full functionality; it is free with the subdomain example.wordpress.com, while a .com domain costs from $10–12 per year or from 4000 tenge per year for .kz.

Tilda
A website builder aimed at beginners, designers, and small businesses. The platform was developed with an emphasis on simplicity: a website can be assembled in a few hours without coding knowledge. The interface is visual and works on a drag-and-drop principle. For advanced design, there is the Zero Block tool, which allows creating unique blocks from scratch.

Tilda includes built-in forms, analytics, CRM integrations, and the ability to connect online payments. Code export is supported, and there are educational materials in Russian.

Cost: a free plan with limited functionality is available, the Personal plan costs $15 per month, and the Business plan — $25 per month. For full publishing, a domain is required, costing from $10–20 per year depending on the zone. When connecting a domain through the platform itself, DNS or CNAME is used.

Webflow
A professional tool for designers and developers who want maximum control over the appearance and behavior of a website without writing code. The platform supports visual editing, responsive design, CMS, animations, and code export.

Webflow is suitable for those who need to create a technically complex and unique website. The interface is available only in English.

Cost: the free plan includes a subdomain connection and 50 MB of storage. The Basic plan costs $14 per month, CMS — $23, and Business — $39. For large projects, an Enterprise plan is available upon request. Connecting a domain example.webflow.io is free with any paid plan. A domain must be purchased separately, costing from $10–15 per year for .com and from 4000 tenge for .kz. Through Webflow, you can use a domain from any registrar, with configuration done via DNS.

Website from scratch
Creating a website from scratch manually involves full development without using ready-made builders and CMS. This approach includes HTML and CSS markup, programming functionality in JavaScript, Python, PHP, or another language, database setup, hosting selection and payment, and domain registration.

The main advantage of manual development is complete control. Design, structure, functionality, loading speed, and security depend solely on the developer. The website can be optimized for specific tasks and adapted to non-standard scenarios. This is especially important for startups, services with personal accounts, internal systems, or complex logic.

The drawback is high labor intensity. Even a simple landing page will require time, technical resources, and regular maintenance. Additionally, any changes will need to be implemented manually or by a team.

Cost: when developing independently, expenses include a domain costing from $10–15 per year for .com, from 4000 tenge per year for .kz, hosting from $2 per month for standard websites to $10–20 for projects with high traffic, databases, and APIs, as well as possible costs for component libraries, graphics, or external APIs.