One of the biggest decisions you will face when you decide to build a website is whether to build it yourself or whether to hire a web developer to build it for you. In this blog we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages for each of these options, why so many people choose to build their own websites, and also why it may not be the best option for you business.
These days there are many platforms that allow you to build your website yourself for an affordable subscription fee. Some of the more popular ones include Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and WordPress. The reason these platforms are so popular is because they have a drag and drop system which allows users to easily build and customize their own website without having to learn any code.
But despite these platforms making building websites far easier than they once where, they do still require some skills and time investment. An absolute beginner for example would need to learn about web hosting, some basic design concepts, choosing color schemes, using whitespace properly, editing photos and other skills. Without putting in the time necessary to learn these skills the website could end up looking and performing badly which could reflect poorly on the persons business.
Another disadvantage is that a lot of website that are build on these platforms end up looking very similar to one another. The reason for this is the drag and drop builders are much more limited in their design capabilities than building a website using code. So for those who are looking to create a create impression with their website and want a more unique and professional look that really stands out from their competition than a drop builder may not be the right choice for you.
In a addition to having limited design capabilities drag and drop builders are also limited in their functionality. So for example, if your website needs a specific type of booking system, than you might not be able to achieve this functionality using a drag and drop builder. For your website to achieve this your only option would be to use a professional web developer who would use PHP or a similar coding language to create this function for you.
How you build your website can also have an impact on the speed and loading times of your website. These days especially, people have no patience for slow websites and they will simply leave your site rather than waiting for a slow web page to load. Web building platforms can be quite bulky and can include many plugins which can slow your website. A web developer on the other hand will use code to create your website which is very lightweight and they don’t need to attach any plugins to the site making load times lighting fast, creating a far superior user experience.
In conclusion, choosing to build your website yourself can be a budget friendly option and may be a suitable for some business, especially those who are just starting out. But for a more established and professional business that is looking to make a great impression on their potential customers, using an experienced web developer is the way to go. The website will be more unique, attractive and its performance will be far more superior than the alternative.