Comparison
Is a builder good enough?
Often, yes. Website builders have got genuinely good, and we've talked plenty of people out of paying us when a template would have served them better. Here's where the line actually falls.
The short answer
A builder is the right answer for most small businesses that need a presence, a few pages and a contact form. A custom build earns its cost when the site has to do something specific — speed at scale, unusual flows, real integrations, or serious search competition.
Side by side
Where each one actually wins.
| Factor | Wix, Squarespace and Shopify themes | Us |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to launch | ✓$0–$500 plus a monthly fee. | From $89 for a page, $279 for a site. |
| Time to launch | ✓A weekend if you do it yourself. | Days to weeks. |
| Speed on a cheap phone | Heavy by default; hard to fix from inside. | ✓Built to a performance budget. |
| Technical SEO ceiling | Fine for basics; limited when you're genuinely competing. | ✓Full control of every signal. |
| Editing it yourself | ✓Excellent. That's the whole product. | Depends what we wire up — say so up front. |
| Unusual flows or integrations | Plugin roulette, then a wall. | ✓Whatever the business actually needs. |
| Monthly cost over 3 years | Subscription forever, rising. | ✓Hosting is often under $20/mo. |
| If the platform changes terms | You migrate, or you accept it. | ✓You own the code. Move it anywhere. |
When you should NOT pick us
Written plainly, because the alternative is you finding out three weeks in.
- You need a presence, not a machine — a few pages, some photos, a contact form.
- Your budget is genuinely tight. A good Squarespace site beats a cheap custom one every time.
- You want to edit everything yourself, constantly, with no developer involved.
- You're testing an idea and might throw the whole thing away in three months.
- You're selling a handful of products and Shopify's defaults cover your flow.
We've turned work away for every reason in the left-hand list. It costs us a project and saves both of us a bad one, which has consistently been the better trade.
When we're the right call
- You're competing in search against people who are serious about it.
- Speed is costing you — you can see the bounce rate on mobile.
- You've hit a wall the platform won't let you past, and you're stacking plugins to work around it.
- You need real integrations with systems you already run.
- The subscription plus plugins now costs more per year than hosting a custom build would.
If you pick us
What it would actually cost.
Public starting prices, so you can compare like for like rather than waiting on a quote.
from $279
Business website
A multi-page site for a real business — what you do, who you are, how to reach you — that looks like this decade.
2–4 weeks
from $429
E-commerce & Shopify
A store built to sell — fast product pages, a checkout that doesn't leak, and the tracking to prove what worked.
3–6 weeks
from $179
Performance & Core Web Vitals
Make it fast — measured on the cheap phones and slow networks your customers actually use.
1–3 weeks
01
14-day build refund
02
Fixed price, in writing
03
You own all of it
04
No lock-in on monthly plans
Still weighing it up
Tell us what you're deciding between.
Describe the project and we'll tell you honestly which of the options above fits — including when the answer is one that doesn't involve paying us.
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