Website Design – Build Your Own or Hire a Professional?
Website design? Now that you’ve purchased a domain name, signed up for web hosting, and linked the two together, all that’s left to do is build your website. You’re potentially just a few days away from launching your website to the world. These are exciting times, and you’re probably itching to get started. But hold on a second… all that’s left to do is build your website? Really!?
Well, yes, really—especially if you’re using WordPress, one of the most user-friendly and versatile platforms available. WordPress makes it easy for anyone, even those with minimal technical skills, to create a professional-looking website quickly. However, the question remains: should you build your own website or hire a professional to do it for you?
In this blog post, we will explore the pros and cons of both approaches, helping you make an informed decision that aligns with your goals, budget, and timeline.
Building Your Own Website
Building a website these days isn’t like it was twenty years ago. You can build a fantastic WordPress website today without writing a single line of code.
This is made possible thanks to pre-built themes (which give your site a pre-set design), page builders like Elementor (which let you build custom pages using a drag and drop web interface), and plugins (pieces of software containing functions that add features to your site). We’ll cover these in greater detail below.
Themes: A theme is a pre-built template where your new website begins its journey. All themes offer customization options. The easiest themes to work with are based on page builders. They provide a foundation that allows you to focus on creating content rather than designing from scratch.
Page Builders: A page builder is a WordPress plugin that gives you a drag-and-drop page builder interface. Our favorite page builder is Elementor. It’s an exceptional tool that many themes are built upon, making it a top recommendation for those new to web design due to its user-friendly interface and robust features.
Plugins: A plugin is a piece of software in a .zip folder you upload to your website in the WordPress backend and activate. Plugins add features and functionality to your website, such as Google Analytics integration, cache features, and contact forms. There’s a plugin for virtually everything you can imagine. You can explore a wide range of plugins on the WordPress Plugin Directory. Additionally, for enhancing your site’s SEO, check out some of the best SEO plugins for WordPress.
The bottom line is whatever type of website you want to build, there is a pre-built theme that offers the design you want. There is a page builder that can achieve the functionality and layout you desire, and there is a plugin that will bring polished features to your site, so you don’t need to write a single line of code. Building your own website has never been more accessible and efficient.
Pros to Building Your Own Website
You’ll Save Money… Kind Of: Buying a WordPress theme, licenses for Pro versions of page builders (so you get all their great features), and plugins costs less than hiring a professional to build your website. However, if a site is slow, unattractive, or performs poorly on mobile, it’ll end up costing you more than it saves, so finding the right balance is crucial. For top-rated page builders, you can explore our recommendations here.
You’ll Learn Skills For Life: Building a website for the first time is essentially a massive crash course in web design, development, and the workings of WordPress. These skills are transferable, so when it comes time to build another website, either for yourself or someone else, you’ll be far more proficient.
Cons to Building Your Own Website
You Have a Big Knowledge Gap to Fill: There is a knowledge gap to overcome when building your own website. Remember when we mentioned themes, page builders, and plugins? Well, they’re only easy to use when you know how to use them. Learning the ins and outs of these tools requires time and effort.
Learning Everything Isn’t Easy: If we were to say to you “themes are easy to configure” or “page builders are easy to use,” we’d be assuming your ability to look at these things and learn them easily. This isn’t always the case for everyone, and some might find the learning curve steep.
You Don’t Have Design Experience: If you’re not a web designer, you are unlikely to know what a good user experience looks and feels like. This inexperience can lead to poor design choices and errors on your site that a professional wouldn’t miss.
Building Your Own Site Takes up Your Time: All these factors compound to create the biggest drawback to building your own site: time. Take your knowledge gap, add the time it takes to fill it, and then add the time it takes to learn about best practices for user experience (UX), and you have a significant time commitment to account for.
The question is, can you spare it? And if you can spare it, are you up for it? If you are, good for you! If you’re not, hiring a professional might be the best choice right now.
Building your own website can be a rewarding experience, but it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons carefully to decide the best approach for your needs and capabilities.
Hiring a Professional
Armed with time, a good WordPress theme, a good page builder, and the right plugins, anyone can build a website. So, why isn’t everyone doing it?
For many business owners, time is the biggest constraint when it comes to building a site. They simply don’t have the time to do it themselves. Also, some businesses earn more in a day than the fee of a professional website designer, making it more cost-effective to hire a professional.
Another significant constraint is the knowledge gap—even though it is perfectly possible for anyone to build a website with a theme, page builder, and plugins, some people can’t be bothered to do the legwork, watch videos, and read tutorials.
This is understandable. Web design isn’t for everyone! In these cases, hiring a professional web designer will likely be the best choice.
Additionally, the business benefits of a professional website design are enormous. A professionally designed website is typically well-crafted, guaranteed to make the best first impression with customers, and provide a good user experience, which makes visitors far more likely to convert, i.e., perform a profitable action.
Pros of Hiring a Professional
Pros Know What They Are Doing: Professional website designers understand what a good website looks like and how it should function. User experience and good design are top priorities for them.
They Have the Best Tools for the Job: These include premium WordPress themes, Pro versions of page builders, extensive icon and image libraries, Photoshop, and FTP software such as FileZilla for uploading files to WordPress.
The Final Product Will Be Exceptional: This is perhaps the biggest benefit of hiring a professional. Your website will not just look great; it’ll function and perform excellently, ensuring you provide your customers with the best experience. For instance, if you’re looking for high availability solutions, you might consider WordPress high availability hosting.
Cons to Hiring a Professional
It Isn’t Free: Expect to pay between £1,000 to £3,000 for a standard WordPress website and up to £10,000 for a large custom build.
It’s Going to Take Time: The most common lead time for a professional website is 3-6 months. This time is necessary to design, develop, and test the website. Importantly, however, it won’t be your time spent—that’s yours to use as you see fit.
If you decide that hiring a professional is the best route for you, check out our professional web design services. With our expertise, you can ensure that your website will not only look stunning but will also provide an excellent user experience and perform reliably.
Summing Up
Are you happy to spend time watching tutorials, reading guides, and working your way around themes, page builders, and plugins? If you are, building your own website sounds like a project you’ll enjoy. You’ll save money doing it yourself too.
The risk is building a website that isn’t good to use. A slow and unattractive site won’t lead to conversions. Likewise, a website that confuses your user journey will turn customers away. As we noted earlier in our article, if a site is slow, ugly, or performs poorly on mobile, it’ll end up costing you money, so there is a balance.
If you don’t have the time or patience to build your own website, hiring a professional will be the way forward. A lot of people ‘have a go’ at building a website before hiring a professional. This can be an enjoyable journey, but it may be best to start with a professional the first time around if you have the budget for it. It’s more efficient this way.
One way or the other, at UKHost4u we have the tools to help you craft your own website by yourself, and we have an in-house design team ready to jump on your project. For more information or to discuss your needs, feel free to contact us or open a ticket. Our team is here to help you every step of the way, ensuring you have the best possible experience building or commissioning your website.
