WordPress or custom Laravel: which should a Bangladeshi business pick?

Both can look excellent. The better choice depends on who will update the site and what it has to do in two years, not on what sounds more modern in a meeting.

Choose WordPress when

You need a shop, a blog, or a marketing site that a non-developer can edit. WooCommerce, a careful theme, and a short training session get most retailers live without inventing a new admin panel.

Choose Laravel when

You need something a theme cannot do cleanly — role-based access, invoices tied to projects, a client dashboard, or an API that an Android app will call. That is custom software, even if it has public pages in front.

A third option

Plenty of clients start on WordPress and later add a Laravel tool beside it. You do not have to rebuild everything on day one. Tell me what you sell and who will log in; I will recommend the quieter path.