GUIDES
Website builder or custom build: what suits your business?
Ben Schmidt, Owner of Flowrenix · Updated:
Short answer
For a website that presents your business, shows your contact details and that you want to maintain yourself, a website builder is entirely sufficient in many cases. A custom-built solution pays off when something should happen on the website that a builder cannot handle according to your rules, such as booking with your own processes, customer records, automatic invoices or syncing with other software, and when it matters to you that the code and data belong to you.
Two ways to your own website
A website builder is a service where you put your website together yourself from templates and building blocks. Well-known examples are Wix, Jimdo or Squarespace. The provider takes care of hosting and technology, you pay a subscription and edit the content in an editor in your browser.
A custom solution is built for your business: page structure, features and data model follow your processes. In between are content management systems such as WordPress, which can be extended with plugins and need regular updates. None of these routes is better in principle; it depends on what your website needs to do.
When a builder is enough
A website builder is a good choice if your website mainly informs. I say so in the first call, too, when it applies.
- You need a few pages: services, about us, opening hours, contact.
- Customers get in touch by phone, email or contact form, and that works for you.
- You want to change texts and images yourself without asking anyone.
- You want to start quickly and keep initial costs low.
- The provider already offers what else you need, such as a small shop or an appointment form, in the form you need it.
Where a builder reaches its limits
A website builder can do a lot, but only as far as the provider intends. The provider decides on features, design and where the data is stored. That is not a flaw but the principle: you get a finished product and less room to manoeuvre in return.
You notice it when your process differs from the template. A booking where an appointment needs a person and a vehicle at the same time, packages that are deducted with every booking, or a connection to software for which no ready-made plugin exists: this is where many off-the-shelf solutions end. Also check before you start which content and data you can export if you switch later.
When a custom solution pays off
In my experience the decision tips when the website no longer just shows things but takes on work.
Booking by your rules
Availability, lead times, cancellation deadlines, several calendars or payment at booking, exactly the way your business works.
Customer records
What a customer has booked, paid and still owes is in one place, instead of spread across inbox, calendar and Excel lists.
Automation
The invoice is created after the appointment, reminders go out by themselves, stock syncs with another system without anyone entering it twice.
Data ownership
Source code and database are in your name. You decide where the data is stored and can change who maintains it without rebuilding the website.
Comparing costs over the years
A website builder costs little at the start and then a regular subscription. A custom solution costs more at the start, followed by hosting, domain and, if you wish, support. So do not compare only the starting amount but everything that adds up over several years, and include your own time for upkeep. Which items come up on an ongoing basis is covered in the article What does a website cost to run?.
What is binding is the capped price in the quote: an upper limit in writing, before I start.
What this looks like in my projects
For Autolounge AG, the website syncs the vehicle stock with AutoScout24 automatically, so nobody enters a vehicle twice. At the restaurant Gusto d'Oro in Winterthur, table reservations land in a database instead of the inbox. For the driving school Alfadrive, booking with a calendar per instructor and payment runs in its own system; the case study is at Alfadrive.
In all three cases it was not about appearance but about a process the website was meant to take over. How I build such websites is described on the page Websites with booking.
Five questions for your decision
If you answer most of these questions with no, a website builder is probably the right choice.
- Should customers trigger something on the website that creates work today, such as booking, ordering or uploading documents?
- Do you maintain the same details in several places today, such as in the calendar, in Excel and in your accounting?
- Does your process need rules that a ready-made solution does not know?
- Should the website exchange data with other software?
- Does it matter to you that the code and data belong to you and that you can switch provider?
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
Often, yes. If your website is meant to inform and customers get in touch by phone or form, a builder is usually the cheaper and faster solution. I tell you that in the first call, too.
Yes. Texts and images can be carried over, the technology is rebuilt. So that you do not lose visibility on Google, the old addresses should permanently redirect to the new pages.
Yes, you maintain content such as texts, images and opening hours yourself. The handover includes an introduction and written instructions. I take care of changes to processes and features.
How much it ends up costing depends mainly on features, content and languages. Before we start you receive a capped price in writing, and you do not pay more.