What you are actually choosing between
A template (a website builder) means Webnode, Wix, Solid Pixels and similar services. You pick a look, click your pages together, fill in the copy and the photos, and the website runs on their servers. You pay monthly or yearly for as long as you want the website online.
A custom website means someone builds it for you from scratch around what your business needs. You pay once, the website is yours and it runs until you switch it off yourself. With me that includes the copy, the structure and the launch, you tell me what you do and the rest is my job.
Both routes are legitimate. The difference is what you get for the money and how much of your time it costs. And your time is the one thing you will never see in a website builder’s price list.
What it costs over three years
Three years is a sensible horizon, that is usually how long a website lasts before you want it redone. The chart above uses the plans you can actually run a business on: your own domain, no third-party ads, forms. The cheapest plans for a few tens of korunas usually cannot do that, which is why they are not in it.
- A basic template (Webnode Mini, CZK 165 a month) comes to CZK 5,940 over three years. That is the same amount as a custom one-page site at CZK 5,900, you just pay it in pieces and after three years you keep on paying.
- A business template (Webnode Standard up to Profi, Wix Light and above, CZK 249 to 449 a month) reaches CZK 9,000 to 16,000 over three years. A multi-page custom website at CZK 12,900 sits in the middle, and year four costs nothing.
- The domain is the same everywhere, roughly CZK 250 a year. Hosting for a custom website from me costs nothing, with a template it is in the plan.
So honest conclusion number one: a template is not much cheaper. What decides it is everything around the price.
Over three years a template and a custom website cost about the same. They differ in who does the work and who owns the website at the end.
When a template really is enough
I am not going to tell you that everybody needs a custom website. A template is a sensible choice when:
- You are still testing whether the business will last. For a few hundred korunas you find out whether it is worth investing more in a website.
- You need a website this evening. You can click a simple page together in a builder in one evening, as long as you have the copy and the photos ready.
- You enjoy it and you have the time. Some people like building their own website and do not mind tweaking it as they go. Then it is a cheap hobby, not a cost.
- A one-page site is all you need. What you do, where, and a phone number. No bookings, no orders, no ambition to reach the first page of Google.
In cases like these I will happily tell you not to get a custom website yet. You will come back when you need one, and that is fine.
When a custom website pays off
- You want the website to bring customers from Google. Templates are technically fine, but nobody works out for you which pages to have, what to put on them and how people in your line of work phrase their questions. That is the work that decides it, and with a custom website it is included.
- You need bookings or orders. A calendar for a salon, a cake order with a date and a number of servings, an enquiry for a tradesman with a photo. A builder either cannot do this, or only in a generic way and for an extra fee.
- You do not want to spend your evenings tinkering. The people who come to me after a template do not talk about hours, they talk about weekends. And about the result not looking the way they wanted anyway.
- You want to own the website. The code, the domain and the logins are yours. If you wanted to go to someone else, you take the website with you. From a builder you take nothing.
- You want someone who picks up the phone. When something breaks or you want to change your prices, you write to me, not to a support chat in a foreign language.
Three things you will not see in a template price list
1. Your time. Your first website in a builder is not one evening, whatever the advert promises. It is choosing a template, writing the copy, hunting for photos, fixing the mobile version and working out why the form will not send. Count those hours at your own hourly rate and compare them with the price of a custom website. For most people it turns out they paid for their “free” website twice.
2. The result. A template looks like a template. That need not be a bad thing, but it looks the same as thousands of other websites, and a customer can tell, even if they do not know why. The copy and the photos are still down to you, and the copy is exactly what sells.
3. Moving. A website builder site cannot be exported. When you want something better after two years, you start from zero. With a custom website you get the code and you can take it to any developer. More on what to watch out for in the article 7 things to check before you order a website.
How to decide in two minutes
Answer four questions. If at least two of them are “yes”, a custom website makes sense.
- Do I want people to find me on Google, not just to have a website that exists?
- Do I need bookings, orders or an enquiry form tailored to my line of work?
- Is an hour of my work worth more than a few hundred korunas? Then building a website is an expensive hobby.
- Do I want the website in my own hands, including the option to leave?
You can get the final price of a custom website in a few seconds in the price calculator, with no e-mail and no form. And what a website should contain in different lines of work is written up step by step: salon, tradesmen, café, cake shop and gym.
What if you already have a template
Do not throw it away. If jobs are coming in through it, it works, so change nothing. If they are not, the culprit is usually not the technology but the content: nobody finds the website, or it is not clear what you do and what the customer is supposed to do next. I wrote up the five most common mistakes in the article Why your website brings no customers.
And if you decide to move, nothing goes to waste. The copy and the photos come with you, the new website is built alongside the old one and the domain is pointed at it on launch day. Customers notice nothing, except that the website is suddenly faster.