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WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet. That number alone tells a clear story. It is not a coincidence — it is the result of a platform that has consistently proven itself more flexible, more maintainable, and more cost-effective than the alternatives for businesses of all sizes. For small and medium businesses in Hong Kong, WordPress remains the most practical foundation for a website that actually supports business growth in 2025.
This article explains what the platform does well, where other platforms fall short, how businesses across different industries in Hong Kong are using it, and what two real Hong Kong businesses achieved after switching to a professionally built site.
Small and medium businesses in Hong Kong face a specific challenge when it comes to their website. The business needs something that looks professional, works well on mobile, handles multiple languages, connects to local payment tools like FPS and PayMe, and can be updated without calling a developer every time. Most off-the-shelf platforms promise all of this but deliver only part of it.
WordPress development addresses these requirements because the platform was built to be extended. It is open-source, which means any developer can build on top of it, and it has a large global ecosystem of tools, plugins, and integrations that have been tested across millions of sites. For a Hong Kong SMB, this means the platform can be shaped precisely around the business rather than the business having to adapt to the platform's limitations.
Worth knowing: WordPress is not a website builder in the way that Wix or Squarespace are. It is a content management system — a CMS — which means it gives developers and business owners direct control over how the site is built, structured, and maintained. That distinction matters when the business grows and needs more than a template can offer.
The practical advantages of the platform for a small or medium business come down to three things: ownership, flexibility, and the ability to scale without rebuilding. Each of these has a direct impact on cost and control over time.
When a business builds its website on a hosted platform like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify, the website lives on that company's servers under that company's rules. If the platform changes its pricing, discontinues a feature, or closes down, the business has limited options. The content, the design, and the data are all tied to a system the business does not own.
A site built on WordPress is different. The files, the database, and all the content belong to the business. The site can be hosted on any server, moved to a different hosting provider, backed up independently, and handed from one developer to another without restriction. For a small business in Hong Kong that is building a long-term digital presence, that level of ownership has real practical value.
A professionally built WordPress website in Hong Kong also gives the business full control over its SEO data, its analytics setup, and its integration with third-party tools. None of this requires ongoing permission from a platform provider.
One of the most common problems small businesses face with their websites is outgrowing them. A site built on a basic template works fine for a business with ten products and one location. When that business grows to fifty products, adds a second location, introduces a booking system, and needs a members-only section, the template cannot accommodate the new requirements without significant workarounds or a complete rebuild.
The platform is designed to grow with the business. New functionality is added through plugins or custom development without touching the existing structure. A site that starts as a corporate presentation can have an e-commerce store added to it. A blog can become a subscription-based content platform. A booking form can be replaced with a full scheduling and payment system. These changes happen within the same installation rather than requiring a move to an entirely different platform.
The platform comparison is a question most Hong Kong business owners ask at some point. The honest answer is that every platform has a use case where it makes sense. The question is whether that use case matches your business — now and in three years.
Wix and Squarespace are genuinely useful for businesses that need a simple, presentable website quickly and have no plans to extend it significantly. A freelancer who needs a portfolio, a small restaurant that needs a menu and a contact form — these are reasonable use cases for a website builder.
The problems start when the business needs more. Builders limit customisation to their own templates and feature sets. SEO options are basic compared to what the platform offers with tools like Rank Math or Yoast. Integrations with CRM systems, local payment gateways, and marketing automation tools are limited or unavailable. And as the business adds features, the monthly cost of a builder plan rises quickly — often to the point where a properly hosted site would have been less expensive from the start.
Shopify is a strong platform for straightforward online retail. It is easy to set up, reliable, and handles the basics of product management and checkout well. For a business selling a small, stable catalogue of products to a straightforward customer base, Shopify works.
Where Shopify becomes expensive and restrictive is when the business has specific requirements. Custom checkout flows, complex product configurations, subscription models, and integration with local Hong Kong payment methods like FPS, PayMe, and DivIT all require either expensive Shopify apps or workarounds that add ongoing cost. Shopify also charges a transaction fee on every sale unless the business uses Shopify Payments, which is not available in Hong Kong.
WordPress with WooCommerce handles all of these requirements without transaction fees and without forcing the business into a fixed set of features. The store is built around the business's actual product logic, pricing structure, and fulfilment process rather than adapted to fit a platform's standard model.
| Feature | WordPress + WooCommerce | Wix / Squarespace | Shopify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site ownership | Full — hosted on your own server | Platform-owned — you are renting | Platform-owned — you are renting |
| Customisation | No limits — built to your requirements | Template-based with fixed limits | Moderate — restricted for complex needs |
| SEO capability | Full technical SEO control | Basic — limited technical options | Good for products, limited for content |
| HK payment methods | FPS, PayMe, DivIT, Stripe, PayPal | Very limited local options | Limited — no Shopify Payments in HK |
| Transaction fees | None on WooCommerce orders | Fees apply on some plans | Fees apply unless using Shopify Payments |
| Scalability | Grows with the business — no rebuild needed | Limited — rebuild required at scale | Good for simple stores, costly when complex |
| Content marketing | Full CMS with advanced blogging | Basic blogging tools | Limited — not designed for content |
One reason the platform has maintained its dominance is that it is genuinely useful across very different types of businesses. The same system that runs a legal media publication also runs an online toy catalogue, a charity donation system, and a catering e-commerce store. The difference is in how it is built and configured for each use case.
For retail and food businesses in Hong Kong, the platform with WooCommerce handles online product sales, menu displays, reservation systems, and delivery integrations. A food and beverage business can manage its product catalogue, run promotional pricing, process orders through local payment gateways, and update its menu without needing developer help for every change.
For businesses with complex catalogues — multiple product variations, custom pricing tiers, or wholesale customer groups — the platform allows this logic to be built directly into the site rather than approximated through workarounds. An art gallery that sells original works alongside prints, with different pricing, shipping, and checkout logic for each, is a practical example of where a well-structured site handles requirements that a standard e-commerce template cannot.
Professional services firms use the platform for corporate presentation sites, team directories, service descriptions, and lead capture. Law firms, consultancies, and financial services businesses benefit because the site can be structured precisely around their service model — with practice area pages, team profiles with filtering, and contact forms that route enquiries to the right person.
Education businesses manage online course listings, student registration, and content delivery. Health and wellness businesses use it for booking systems, member portals, and class schedules — often with payment integration built directly into the booking flow. In each case, the platform provides the structural foundation and the ecosystem of tools to build what the business actually needs.
A useful way to think about it: The platform is not a product with a fixed set of features. It is a foundation. What gets built on top of that foundation depends entirely on what the business needs. A charity donation system, an event marketplace, a legal subscription platform, and a seafood e-commerce store can all run on it — because the platform is shaped around the business, not the other way around.
Law Asia is a legal media platform serving legal professionals across Asia. Before working with DOOD, the site was built on a drag-and-drop website builder that had served its initial purpose but was creating operational problems as the business grew. Updates required disproportionate effort, SEO performance was limited by the platform's constraints, and the subscription and payment functionality the business needed was difficult to integrate cleanly.
DOOD migrated the entire site to WordPress with no downtime and no loss of existing content or data. The new site was built with a custom subscription store, paywall integration for premium legal content, and an AI-assisted search function that allows legal professionals to find specific content quickly across a large and growing archive. Both the English and Chinese language versions of the site were structured with independent SEO optimisation.
The Law Asia team was trained to manage content, update subscriber information, and monitor site performance independently — reducing the operational dependency on external developers for routine tasks. Within six months of launch, qualified leads increased by 300% and the site began ranking on page one for key legal industry search terms in Hong Kong and across the region. Visit law.asia to see the result.
Wine Paradise HK is a Hong Kong-based wine retailer with a strong physical presence and an ambition to grow its online sales channel. The existing website was functional but slow, difficult to update, and not optimised for mobile — a significant problem given that the majority of its customers were browsing on smartphones.
DOOD rebuilt the site on WordPress with a custom WooCommerce store designed specifically for wine retail. The product catalogue was structured to allow customers to browse by region, grape variety, price, and occasion. Local payment gateways including FPS and Stripe were integrated with a streamlined checkout. The site's SEO was rebuilt from the ground up with keyword targeting around how Hong Kong wine buyers actually search.
The Wine Paradise team received full training to manage their own inventory, update product descriptions, run promotional pricing, and review sales data through Google Analytics. Online sales increased by 200% within the first few months after launch. The site now ranks on page one for several wine-related search terms in Hong Kong, generating consistent organic traffic without paid advertising spend.
If this article has raised questions about your current website, the following actions are available directly through DOOD:
The platform case for small and medium businesses in Hong Kong is straightforward. It offers full ownership of the site and its data, the flexibility to build what the business actually needs rather than adapting to a template, the ability to grow without rebuilding, and a cost structure that becomes more efficient over time compared to hosted platforms with mounting subscription and transaction costs.
The caveat is that the platform is only as good as how it is built. A poorly configured WordPress site can be slow, insecure, and difficult to maintain — which is where many businesses who have had a bad experience have encountered problems. The platform itself is not the issue. The issue is whether it was built correctly by people who understand both the technical requirements and the business it is meant to serve.
DOOD builds sites for Hong Kong businesses with a focus on long-term performance, clean maintainable code, and outcomes that are measurable. Every project starts with an understanding of the business model, the target audience, and the specific problems the site needs to solve. If your current website is not working as well as your business deserves, speak with the DOOD team about what a properly built WordPress site could do for your business in 2025.
