Website builder or a person: which one fits a small business?

I build websites for a living, so you'd expect me to say "hire a person." For a lot of small businesses, a builder app like Wix or Squarespace is the right choice, and I'll say so to anyone who asks. The question is which kind of owner you are.

Who builders are great for

Builders are good software. They've had years to get the drag-and-drop part right, the templates are decent, and the monthly fee is low.

They're a great fit if:

• You like editing. Some owners enjoy tinkering with their site on a Sunday night. If that's you, a builder gives you full control and you'll never wait on anyone.
• You have the time. A first version takes a weekend or two. Keeping it current takes an hour here and there.
• Your site is simple and changes often. A one-page site with hours and a phone number, updated by you whenever the hours move.
• Cash is tight right now. A builder is the cheapest way to have something online today.

If that list describes you, use a builder. You'll be fine.

Where builders fall short for busy owners

The software works. The problem is usually the hours around it.

Nobody makes the change for you. The builder gives you the tools. When the price list changes on a Thursday and you're running a job site, the site stays wrong until you get home and remember. When a small business site is out of date, the usual reason is a busy owner.

Templates look like templates. Visitors don't know which template you used, but they can tell when a site looks like a lot of other sites. That matters more for some trades (salons, restaurants, photographers) than others.

Overloaded pages get slow on phones. Builders make it easy to add things. A slider, a video background, three widgets, a pop-up. Each one is small. Together they make the page slow on a phone with two bars of signal, and that's where most of your visitors are.

What hiring a person gets you

• Someone to email. "New photos." "Closed Monday." "Raise the haircut price." You send it, it gets done, you get told when it's live.
• A site built for your trade. A plumber's site and a cafe's site need different things on the first screen. A person who builds for small businesses knows which.
• Speed by default. A site made from plain, light pages loads fast because there's nothing extra on it.

The cost is that you pay more, and you depend on a person. Pick one who answers email.

The two-year math, both ways

Here's the comparison with real numbers where I have them and stated guesses where I don't. Change the guesses to match you.

Builder app, two years

• Builder fee: say $20 a month (an estimate; check the plan you'd actually pick) × 24 months = $480
• Your setup time: say 20 hours
• Your upkeep: say 1 hour a month, 24 hours over two years
• Your time, if it's worth $50 an hour to you: 44 hours × $50 = $2,200

Total: $480 in fees plus 44 hours of your time. If those hours are worth $50 each to you, that's $2,680.

Hiring me, two years

• Build: $1,500
• Steady plan, $149 a month × 24 months: $3,576 (that's hosting plus 1.5 hours of changes every month)
• Your time: the emails you send me

Total: $5,076, and close to zero hours of your time.

What the math says

If your time is worth nothing to you, or you enjoy the work, the builder wins by a lot. Even if you value your hours at $50, the builder usually still comes out cheaper on paper.

What the math doesn't show is what happens to those 24 upkeep hours. With a builder, they often don't happen. The site goes stale, and a stale site costs you calls you never hear about. With a plan, the hours are already paid for, so the changes get made.

Lower plans exist too. If your site barely changes, Hosting alone is $39 a month, and changes are $100 an hour when you need one. Over two years that's $1,500 plus $936, so $2,436, plus whatever changes you ask for. And if you'd rather not pay the build up front, it can start at $0 down when you take Steady or Busy for 12 months.

An honest test

Here's the simplest way to decide.

If you'd rather spend a Saturday on it than $149 a month, use a builder.

If you'd rather spend the Saturday on anything else and email someone on Monday, hire a person.

Both are reasonable. The wrong choice is the in-between one: paying for a builder you never log into, with a site that still says "Summer hours" in February.

If you go with a builder

A few tips so it works out:

• Pick the plainest template that fits. Simple templates stay fast and age well.
• Put your phone number and your main button on the first screen.
• Check the site on your own phone, on cellular, not just on Wi-Fi.
• Put a reminder in your calendar once a month to look at your own site like a customer.

If you want a person

That's what I do. I build the site, host it, and make the changes when you email. You can read who I am and what I've built on the about page, and every price, with what each plan covers, is on pricing.