The comparison
5 ways a small business gets a website.
A site builder you run yourself, a site you rent by the month, a freelancer, an agency, or a studio like ours. The up-front cost matters less than what you own at the end, who writes the words, and what breaks later without anyone noticing. Here's the full comparison, including where each of the other four is the better choice.
No prices listed
They change weekly
The differences don't
Side by side
Scroll sideways on a phone| What matters | Site builder, AI or by hand | Website by the month | Freelancer | Traditional agency | This studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns it when you stop paying | Nobody. The site is a feature of the subscription and goes dark when it lapses. | Usually them. Stop paying and the site, and often the domain, goes with it. | You, if the handover is done properly. Ask where the files and logins live. | You, in most contracts. Read the clause on who holds the hosting account. | You. Domain, hosting, analytics, and the site are created in your name first. We're a collaborator you can remove. |
| What you pay for, over time | A monthly plan for as long as the site exists, plus apps. | A monthly fee for as long as the site exists. 5 years of a low monthly number isn't a low number. | One payment, then ad hoc fixes at whatever the rate is that year. | A build fee, then a retainer that the build was often priced to lead into. | One build, scoped and quoted in writing. Ongoing care is optional and decided after launch. |
| Who writes the words | You on a Sunday, or a model, into the same template boxes. | A template, increasingly a model, with your town name swapped in. | Varies from excellent to whatever you sent over. | A copywriter working from a brief you filled in once. | Written from verified facts about your business, then run through a check that rejects 87 phrases every competitor uses. |
| Speed | Shared platform. Fine until the third app is installed. | Almost always a page builder on a content system, with a plugin for everything. Slow is the default. | Whatever they know. Sometimes very fast, sometimes the same plugin stack. | Often the same content system, tuned by a retainer. | Static pages, no page builder, no plugin stack. This site scores 100 on Google's performance test on a simulated slow phone. |
| Getting found | The basics the platform provides. Usually one page per service at best. | Templated pages that read like every other client's. | Depends entirely on the person. | Usually a separate search retainer, sold after the build. | A real page for every service and place you work, with its own title and structured data, included in the build. |
| Works for everyone | As accessible as the template happens to be. | Rarely considered until a letter arrives. | Rarely in scope unless you ask. | Available as an add-on audit, priced separately. | Built to the accessibility standard from the start and tested before launch. |
| What is checked before launch | Whether you clicked publish. | Whether it loads. | An eyeball pass, if there is time. | A QA round, quality varies with the account team. | 5 checks that can block the launch, plus a real phone tap and form submit watched landing in analytics. |
| Time to live | An afternoon of your time, then every weekend after. | Days. | Weeks, depending on their queue. | Months, depending on the approvals. | About a week once your content is in. The schedule risk is photographs, and we say so up front. |
| Who fixes it at 11 at night | Their support queue and your evening. | Them, for as long as you are current. | If they are reachable. | A ticket, inside the retainer. | Nothing to patch. Static files don't break at 11 at night, and there's no admin login to break into. |
| The right answer when | It's a hobby, a test, or a one-page placeholder you'll replace. | You need something up this week and accept that you're renting. | Budget is tight and the referral is good. Ask for the handover in writing. | You're a large brand with a marketing team and a long approval chain. | You're a business that has to be believed, and you want to own the result. |
Rented by the month
- You $ / month
- The vendor's account domain, site, hosting
- Stop paying the site goes dark
Built and owned
- Your account domain, hosting, analytics, site
- Your name on all of it
- The studio collaborator, removable
We left prices out on purpose. Every column changes its numbers more often than this page could keep up with, and the column that looks cheapest in year 1 is rarely cheapest in year 5. The math is in what a cheap monthly site actually costs.
Why the build itself is different
One job, one weekIf a quote covers 3 of the 4, you're being sold a compromise. Most sites end up one or the other because the people who make them look good and the people who make them fast and found are different vendors, working in sequence, punching in and punching out. Here, design, copy, code, search, and accessibility are handled by specialists at the same time on the same build. The 5 checks that gate a launch cover all 4.
A note on AI site builders. They're the new version of the old template. Every template company is racing to have a model do what they used to pay freelance developers to do: pull from the same component library, fill it with the same phrases, ship it in an afternoon. It's faster than ever, and it's still the same site as the shop down the road.
Where the other 4 win
Credit where it's dueA builder
If the business is still an experiment, don't pay anyone yet. Put up one page yourself, learn what people ask for, then come back with real material. That's a good use of $40.
A monthly site
If something has to exist by Friday and you're fine renting, it does the job. Just know what you'll have on the day you stop paying, and keep the domain in your own name no matter what they offer.
A good freelancer
The best individual builders are better than most agencies and cheaper than us. The risk is the handover and whether they'll pick up the phone in a year. Ask both questions before you pay a deposit.
An agency
If you have a marketing department, a brand book, and 8 people who need to approve a headline, you need an agency's account team more than you need us.
Not sure which column your current site is in?
Send us the address. We run the 5 checks and tell you what we found, whether or not you ever hire us.