Building A Website Yourself vs. A Professional Custom Website

Your website is one of the most important aspects of your business and not something you want to neglect. It is the first thing your potential customers see. Their first impression is very important.

When starting or improving a website, you have two options: Building a website yourself with (free) web building tools or having your website built by professionals with years of experience.

Both options have their pros and cons. In this article we will explain the differences so you can decide which option fits your company best. Let’s start with do-it-yourself tools.

Do-it-yourself tools for building a website

Pros

Easy to use – To make a simple website, you can use do-it-yourself tools such as Wix, Weebly or Squarespace. Those tools are not hard to use, and you can make basic changes to existing templates easily.

Quick solution – It can be an easy solution for your business to build a website using tools and templates. Navigating through working templates and adjustable parts is something that is definitely an advantage when building your own website.

Price – Another advantage can be the price of building your own website. Nowadays, you can choose between many affordable templates and themes that may fulfill your needs. Those templates and themes are mostly not that expensive so it could be a choice if you are on a budget.

Learning – When building your own website using the available tools, it is good to find out how everything works. When you need to make changes, you can try to do it yourself. Along the way you will learn more about the basics, which can be beneficial in the long run.

Cons

Generic – Of course, tools and templates are easy to use, and that is why tons of businesses use them. What also happens is that all those businesses will have similar looking websites. If you are only looking for a website that gets the job done, go ahead and use do-it-yourself tools. If you are looking for a personal and original website that fits your brand, you should consider a professionally built custom website.

Limited – The amount of options with do-it-yourself tools is limited. If you need a website that fits your custom branding and has to fit perfectly, then a website builder tool is probably not for you. If a big part of your revenue comes in through your website, then you should be able to optimize every detail on your website to make your page fit your clients’ needs.

Time-consuming – Learning and trying to build a website yourself can be time-consuming and can take a long time. You could also have spent that time on other things to build your business. If you have the time to educate yourself and to research website building, take courses, read books and websites, then you can try and build a website yourself.

Support – If you are having trouble building a specific element on your website, it can be hard to explain your situation to a stranger of a website builder company.

Professional custom made websites

Pros

Flexibility – The flexibility you have when you let professionals build your website is endless. Everything you need for your business can be implemented. You can choose what your website should look like, an option that you do not really have with standard website builders.

Stand out – One of the most important advantages of having a custom made website is that you will stand out from thousands of websites that use existing themes and templates. Imagine 10 billboards in a row, all from different businesses, using the same layout and structure. The only thing that separates them is their company name. Would any of them really stand out?

Problem-solving – Whereas you may encounter several problems when building your own website, when handing over that task to professionals you do not have to worry. You can try e-mailing a DIY website builder company for advice or help, but that only takes you so far. When asking the professionals who build your website, they can go to great lengths to find a solution to your problem by using their network, knowledge and experience.

Support – If you are practically paying nothing for a website builder, do not expect stellar support. If you take a look at the reviews of companies like GoDaddy, Weebly or Aabaco, you will see that most people are not satisfied with the support of these website builders. The cheaper the option, the less support you will receive. You really get what you pay for. So with low to no cost you should have low to no expectations also!

Performance – A custom website can perform much better and faster than a website built with a standard free template. Website developers know which elements need to be removed or optimized to speed up your website, for example. Page speed is something that is crucial. Did you know that almost 50% of the people will abandon your website when your page does not load within 3 seconds?

Security – With a custom made website it is harder to get hacked. If you are using an available theme that you have purchased or downloaded for free, the information of that theme is publicly available. This means any hacker can get his hands on the same theme and study the source code. Once a hacker knows the full code of that theme, he will also know the vulnerabilities. With a custom theme, you will not have that problem, because your own custom theme is not available anywhere.

Customization – There are a lot of people who think that a DIY website is the solution to all their problems and then quickly realize often how limited and cookie cutter these tend to be. You can customize your website and tailor them to your clients’ needs with a professionally designed custom website.

SEO – Sometimes, website building tools are not designed in an SEO-friendly way. Custom websites can be built into anything you need, and you can make your website rank easier with a custom design.

Time efficient – Imagine all the time you would not have to spend on learning, studying and building your website. All you need to do is to know what you need for your website and the professionals will take it from there.

Cons

Price – If you are on a budget and do not need much customization or flexibility, then a custom website would not really fit you. However, if you want to have a website that is built exactly how you want and need it, then you should consider a custom made website.

Development time – To design a custom website, it takes some time. Whether you need small or big changes, it is going to take a short while before you will see them on your website. When building a website yourself, you can start changing right away, whereas when you let others build it for you, it might take some time. But is waiting a short while bad when you know you are going to get a great looking, professional, original website?

To conclude

Let’s go over the pros and cons of both options one more time to make it clear:

Do-it-yourself tools for building a website

Pros

• Easy to use
• Quick solution
• Price
• Learning

Cons

• Generic
• Limited
• Time-consuming
• Support lacking

Professional custom made websites

Pros

• Flexibility
• Stand out
• Problem-solving
• Support
• Performance
• Security
• Customization
• SEO
• Time efficient

Cons

• Price
• Development time

With a custom professional design, you will satisfy your customers, customize anything you want and save time. You can even drive more sales, because an original and professional looking website attracts customers and makes it easy to do business with you.

Our web design approach brings together several areas of expertise plus years of experience in content strategy, design and development, optimization for Google and outright site performance, e-commerce and a strong focus on appealing to your end-customer to maximize your website’s effectiveness. If you are looking to take your business to the next level, please contact us for a quotation.