DIY Website vs Professional Web Designer

What DIY actually costs

Site builders are cheap in money and expensive in time. The subscription is modest; the cost is the evenings spent on it, and the fact that the result usually looks like the template it started from.

What a designer does that a template cannot

A template arranges whatever you give it. A designer decides what the page should ask the visitor to do, then removes everything that gets in the way — which is the part that changes whether the site brings in work.

The question is not whether you can build a website. It is whether the one you build will bring in enough work to justify the weekends.

How to decide

• If the site is a formality and nobody will find you through it, DIY is fine.
• If customers will judge you by it before they ever call, it is not.
• If your time is worth more than the difference in price, that settles it.