Build it yourself or hire an agency?
With a website builder you put a site together yourself. A web design agency designs and builds it for you. Which one fits depends on your budget, your time and what the site has to achieve.
What a website builder is
A website builder is a tool such as Wix, Squarespace or WordPress with a ready-made theme. You pick a template, fill in your text and photos and pay a monthly subscription. A web design agency is a team that designs and builds the website for you, around your business. This guide compares the two: building it yourself with a tool, or having your website built by people who do it every day.
When building it yourself works
A website builder suits you when you are just starting out, have a small budget and mainly need to be online. A simple site with your services, contact details and a few photos can go up in a weekend. You stay in control and can change things straight away. Count your own hours, though. You write the text, choose the photos, make the template work on a phone and keep it all up to date.
When an agency pays off
Hiring an agency pays off when your website has to bring in customers. A tradesperson who wants quote requests, a practice looking for new clients or a company whose competitors use the same template. An agency designs around your offer and your customers, improves the copy, makes the site load fast on a phone and builds in a technical foundation for search engines. You keep your time for your own work.
What to compare
Look past the first month’s price. With a website builder you pay a subscription for as long as the site exists, and moving to another platform is often hard. Ask an agency who owns the website and the domain after launch, who runs the hosting and whether you can edit text and photos yourself. With either option, open an example site on your phone: does it load quickly, and can you see straight away how to get in touch?
How DTB WEB builds your site
You first get a free design, made with the text and photos from your current website and social media. If you like it, we agree one fixed price before we build the rest. After your approval the website is live within 7 days. Once the final payment is made, the site is yours. You work online and directly with the people building it, wherever your business is.