Website Builders - A Reflection

Especially in times of tight budgets, many people ask themselves: Do I really need a web designer for my website? Or is a budget-friendly website builder sufficient? We want to take a closer look at this question here.

One sees the offers time and again: website builders or services that promise to create a website quickly, uncomplicatedly, and affordably. These offers sound tempting in times when life and business are becoming increasingly expensive. And the question is justified: What are the exact advantages of professional web designers? Can a lot of money be saved with a builder?

We want to address this question in three points. First, we want to look at what specific offers are available. Because there are indeed important differences. In a second step, we want to examine the advantages of these offers and why it can sometimes be sensible to use them. But of course, we wouldn't be web designers if we didn't find our profession meaningful. Therefore, in a third step, we want to look at the advantages a web designer brings to you that a builder does not yet reach. Then you can decide for yourself what suits you and your situation best.

What Alternatives are There to the Web Designer?

There are numerous different alternatives to the traditional web designer, and we want to shed some light on them here:

1. The Classic Website Builder

Many providers, especially telecommunications companies and smaller startups, still have the classic website builder in their portfolio. This is an online interface that allows the user, to a greater or lesser extent, to build their own website using visual elements. This is an advantage over an external web designer in that you can do everything yourself and are not dependent on the expertise of others. However, this advantage can also be a disadvantage: you have to do everything yourself.

• Classic website builders have a learning curve because the interface is not always intuitive.
• You invest your own time in creating your website.
• You inevitably have to familiarize yourself with the subject matter to build a website.

2. The Website Service

There are providers who enhance the website builder with a human operator. In practice, this works in such a way that you, as a customer, have a detailed analysis conversation with the provider so that they know which direction to take. Subsequently, an employee of the provider uses a classic website builder to build your website there. Some providers also write suitable texts for you, some even include suitable images right away.

• Your own familiarization with the website builder is not necessary here.
• However, the help of the provider is necessary for creating and modifying the website.
• These offers are often significantly more expensive than classic website builders.

3. The AI Website Builder

With the spread of AI, new business models are also emerging. Some providers already offer packages where an AI creates the complete website for you. In practice, the process can look different. From a complete website creation after entering a single command to a mixture of AI and classic website builder, everything is possible. The latter solution seems most sensible to me because the content created by the AI can be changed more easily than if you have to adjust the command and have the website recreated. Personally, I think we shouldn't fool ourselves. AI will soon replace the traditional programmer, and, to a certain extent, other skills of a web designer as well. But after the initial hype a few months ago, it is becoming increasingly clear:

• Even AI requires experienced operators, for otherwise, nothing meaningful comes out of it.
• So far, AI products are often predictable, boring, and not very individual.
• In marketing, where highlighting individual "selling points" is of particular importance, AI still has disadvantages.

The Advantages of Website Builders

Website builders have several advantages. The most noticeable is, of course, the price, which is often unbeatably cheap - although you have to be a bit cautious here because even small amounts quickly add up if you have to pay them monthly. But there are also other, perhaps less noticeable advantages:

• You can often create a website faster than with a web designer.
• You often don't have to bring your own texts or images. While web agencies also offer to create texts and select suitable media, this often comes at an additional cost. Many website builders include this service.
• Website builders do not require programming knowledge.

Why Choose a Web Designer Then?

Websites from builders are cheaper, easier, often even at the push of a button - so what advantages could a traditional web designer have?

Well, there are some. First, it may be important to remember that cheap and fast are not necessarily characteristics of quality. At the same time, it is also not automatically a sign of quality if something is particularly expensive. Good web designers usually find ways to create a professional website that fits the customer's budget without compromising on quality.

We have already seen in another article what makes a successful website at its core: focusing on the needs of the customers. This includes many aspects:

• Load time
• Accessibility
• Customer-centric texts and content
• Customer-centric structure of the website
• Data protection
• Security
• Sustainability

Of course, it cannot be said across the board that website builder websites lag behind a website from a web designer in all these points. But in many of these points, compromises are made to keep the builder offer so affordable. Customers usually have no influence on which cookies are set by builders - which has implications for the GDPR compliance of the website. Customers often also lack the experience to assess whether a website is truly customer-centric and search engine optimized. And while the accessibility of websites from builders has improved significantly in recent years, the same cannot always be said for the load time.

Overall, builder-generated websites lag behind websites from web designers in many of these points. But what also comes into play are factors that may be of interest to you as a website owner:

• Independence: Websites from good web designers are designed so that you as a customer are not tied to the agency but could always commission another agency to maintain and revise the website - without the need for them to familiarize themselves first. This is not the case with builder websites. You are bound to the provider and possibly other third-party providers for better or for worse.
• Scalability: Builder websites can only to a limited extent be scaled or adapted to changed requirements. This limitation can be of great importance, especially for startups and in fast-paced industries.
• Time: With traditional website builders, you still have to do it yourself. A web designer saves you this time of familiarization with the tools.
• Image: Builder websites are often recognizable as such - either by the domain or by a note in the footer of the page. This often casts doubt on the professionalism of the company and can damage the image.
• Individuality: With a builder, you get a website from a builder - and it looks like one. Most builder websites look very similar visually, which is due to the technical constraints. You only get a truly individual website from a web designer.

And finally, let's address a misconception: Websites from web designers can also be operated and adjusted by you as a customer. You are not dependent on us as web designers for every change of texts, images, or other content. We are very happy to introduce you to the operation of the CMS, be it WordPress, Drupal, or another!

Conclusion

In our consultations, we do not generally advise our customers against website builders because these offers undeniably have their advantages. Especially in prototyping, when you only need a short-lived new website quickly, such builders are very useful.

For a professional website that should be individual, high-quality, and durable, website builders are not recommended. In this case, it is worthwhile to hire a web designer.