When building a new website, one of the first things you’ll need to decide is whether you want to take the DIY approach and build it yourself or hire a professional web designer.
Both approaches have their pros and cons so it can be difficult to determine which option is the best fit for your project. In this post, we’ll break down the benefits and drawbacks of each so you can see for yourself which is the better choice to meet your goals.
The DIY Option: Build Your Own Website
With the emergence of tools like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly, many small businesses now have the option to build their own website without the need to hire a professional. Business owners can choose from a growing variety of builders with most offering a free trial so you can see which works best for you without commitment.
Some of the advantages of DIY website builders are:
- They can be very cost-effective (usually under $20 per month) with some even including free plans for businesses on a shoestring budget.
- Most offer a reasonable selection of professional website templates catering to a variety of industries.
- Many builders feature simple drag-and-drop tools that require no coding knowledge to use.
- They’re frequently an all-in-one solution including website hosting, SEO tools, and analytics.
- Security, technical updates, and maintenance are handled for you.
- From start to finish, you can usually launch a new site in a fairly short span of time.
Most DIY builders come with a range of features catered to small businesses and can be a great solution for startups or businesses with tighter budgets.
On the flip side: while many DIY builders offer a range of great features, you won’t find much depth to the tools available.
Some of the disadvantages of DIY website builders are:
- They offer limited customization options which can result in other businesses in your industry having very similar websites or copying your design entirely.
- More advanced features for hosting, SEO, and analytics are often unavailable.
- If you ever need to change providers, your website will need to be built again from scratch.
- Support can be limited depending on which service or plan you purchase.
- Since this is the do-it-yourself option, expect to rely largely on yourself (although some services do offer expert help for an additional fee).
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a simple site with basic features and don’t mind putting the work in yourself, then a DIY website is most likely the best solution for your needs.
