At this point, most businesses know that having a website is important to establish themselves as proper businesses. Where most businesses get stuck is deciding whether to save some money and build their website themselves using DIY website builders, or spend thousands of dollars on a professional agency website for their business.
Did you know that businesses have a third option? A hybrid option of getting an agency to create a stunning website for you, but with the ability to make all the changes that you need yourself. Vynxlabs has spent a year developing this hybrid solution in the form of our Website in 7 Days service. More on this later.
Let’s break down the Pros and Cons of agency websites vs DIY websites and at what stage in your business journey each makes the most sense.
The pros and cons of DIY website builders
DIY website builders like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace have made it easy for small business owners to create affordable websites. These platforms offer simple tools and templates, but they may fall short when it comes to website customization and scalability.
Pros
Affordable and accessible for small budgets
The flagship positive that DIY website builders will almost always have is that they are low-cost. WordPress, Square Space, and Wix all have plans that start below $20 per month, at the time of writing. WordPress comes with the cheapest starting option at just 4 dollars per month.
Quick setup with templates
The biggest website builders all have free template options available, and some paid templates as well. This is what lets businesses have a good-looking website within the same day of creating their account. As long you aren’t looking for extensive customizability, this is the fastest option to get started.
Suitable for basic, personal, or hobby sites
DIY website builders are great tools for when want a quick website set for personal projects, or when you aren’t looking for complicated functionality.
Cons
Limited customization and scalability
Now I know what some of you reading this are thinking. “You can customize and make scalable websites using DIY website builders.” Yes, this is possible, but this isn’t something that the average person just getting started can typically do. This is something that an agency is more likely to do, not Joe from Joe’s Transmission Repair down the street.
For the everyday business owner, trying to customize the website they have built themselves to have more functionality or to be styled better, will be extremely difficult and time-consuming. What the big DIY website companies don’t tell you is that while anyone can easily put a website online, styling it and creating a professional design that is unique to your business is something that you probably won’t be able to do on your own.
Hidden costs for premium features and plugins
Most times the most useful features of a website are locked away with your credit card being the key. Using WordPress as an example, the lowest tier plan has a very limited font selection. You have to pay for the upgrade to unlock “premium fonts” Here is the catch, most of those “premium” fonts are actually free fonts that you can go and download off Google Fonts right now.
Requires time, effort, and technical know-how to get it “right”
We alluded to this in the first con. The big website companies have spent millions on marketing showing off how anyone could get a website of their business online within a few hours. What they don’t market is that once you want to start customizing your website beyond the templates, you’ll need to know some website design (which is an entire career path on its own). If you haven’t been studying website design for a few months, you’ll be relying on “gut” feeling. You’ll know when it doesn’t look right, but won’t know what to do to make it look good. Your website will be in the uncanny valley of website design.
Often lacks professional polish, which can hurt business credibility
Let’s say you did try and make your own design changes to your website. First of all, we want to applaud you for giving it a try as we know its not easy, but chances are it is now looking a little rough around the edges. This isn’t your fault, the big website companies sold you on how easy it is to get a website for your business, but they didn’t mention that you should know a bit about website design before making your customizations. This ultimately leads to a reduced sense of professionalism with your business. We know the feeling of spending 2 hours trying to spice up a website and it just lands at “good enough.”
The pros and cons of agency-designed websites
This is the route businesses typically go after they are 1 or 2 years in operation as they are looking to have a more professional website design and custom website built for their businesses. Usually going this route has the best chance of getting the website that you want, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
Pros
Fully custom designs tailored to your brand
The biggest benefit of having an agency build your website for you is that they will be able to tailor the design specifically to your business and industry. A good agency design will take into account your existing brand, the industry, and your short-term and long-term goals to come up with a design that will meet your needs today and five years from today.
Comprehensive support, from design to launch
Typically agencies will do all the heavy lifting when it comes to creating your website and looping you in only as needed to get your feedback. From the very beginning, they are taking full responsibility for creating the design for your business and developing the website to recreate the design and functionality that your business needs.
Expertise in SEO, user experience, and conversion optimization
An agency not only can design and develop your website, but they usually also have expertise in areas of support. An agency is not only designing your website but also taking into account keywords that your business can rank for in your industry. User experience is something that is considered throughout the entire design and development process. A pretty-looking website is useless if it loads slowly and isn’t intuitive, that is the problem that user experience solves. Now that your website is ranking high on Google with SEO, and people find it easy to use through good user experience, conversation optimization is the final step that focuses on creating a website that makes it the most likely that someone will turn from a website visitor into a paying client.
Cons
Higher upfront costs, which may deter small businesses
The biggest con, and the one that everyone knows about, is that agency-built websites have a high upfront cost. Some agencies offer payment plans, or milestone-based payments, which can make the cost more manageable for a small business. Unfortunately, sometimes that isn’t enough and it just simply isn’t in the budget for a small business to afford an agency-built website.
Potential delays due to agency workload or miscommunication
Agencies are made up of people, and there is only so much a person or team can do. If an agency is known for producing great quality work, you may be looking at being on a waitlist that is months long. Other times delays happen through simple miscommunication. Perhaps the project manager you were talking with did not convey the information to the designer and developer correctly and now the design is off and they have to start all over.
Limited ability for business owners to make small edits themselves
Something that is common for agency-built websites is that business owner gives up the ability to make changes themselves relying on the agency to make changes for them on their behalf. This is usually because the tool the agency used to create the website is too complicated, or the business owner is afraid to make the changes themselves because they are scared of messing up the website they just spent a bunch of money and time getting just right. This means that the business owner is now at the mercy of the agency to make all the changes.
In the worst-case scenario, some agencies will not let the business owner make any changes themselves but also hold their website hostage. What this means is that even though the business paid an agency to build a website for them, the agency is choosing not to give up the website they created. Unfortunately, this is more common than you think. Always read your contract with an agency before signing it. If an agency doesn’t even have contracts, RUN!
Enter Vynxlabs: The best of both worlds.
Here at Vynxlabs, we have spent over a year creating a system and website-building framework that lets us build websites in 7 days or less.
What makes Vynxlabs different?
Now that you understand the pros and cons of DIY vs agency-built websites, it is time to show our hand and explain why we think Vynxlabs is the better option.
Hybrid model: Custom-built websites combined with user-friendly tools for DIY updates
Our hybrid website solution combines the professional website design typically offered by agencies with the affordability and user-friendly tools of DIY website builders. With Vynxlabs you get:
- A good starting point: We build out your website and style it for your business brands by choosing industry-correct colors, fonts, and images. This is something that Agency websites get right, but it’s hard to get to this point through DIY
- A DIY tool for easy updates: Once we have built out your website, we hand you the keys and you can update it just as easily as you would any other website. This is what DIY tools are great at, easy do-it-yourself updates. Typically agency built websites fail here
- Support when you need it: It could be a slow season for your business and you have more time to make updates yourself and all you need is the occasional guide. Other times you are swamped with too many things to do and keeping your website a the bottom of the list, we’ll take over for you here to help you out. Wherever you are in your business journey, we will provide you with the support you need.
Affordable pricing plans tailored to businesses of all sizes
We understand that no two businesses are alike, and every business is at a different stage. That is why we have created support plans to meet you right where your business is at. Are you a:
- Solopreneur: The most budget-friendly support plan we have. This plan was created for freelancers, brand-new businesses, and the solopreneurs of the world. You get complete access to the website we build out for you and all the features of Site Stitcher. This is all accompanied by email support provided by real people that give a sh*t.
- Business: For established and successful businesses, this one is for you. This comes with everything in the Solopreneur plan, and more. Because your business is successful, we know that your time is better spent running it. We will make all updates to your website on your behalf to save you time and let you do what you do best, being the owner of your business. You’ll also get analytics of your website included that are GPDR and CCPA compliant (no cookie banner needed)
- Enterprises: For the few large businesses reading this, this one was made for you. This comes with everything in the business support plan, but now you also have access to our professional services. If you need custom work and development, we can handle it. If you have multiple websites that support your business and need them all managed, or have multiple content editors, this is the plan for you.
Designed for growth: built-in scalability and enterprise grade features
Any website that we build using our platform (Site Stitcher) is designed for speed first. Whether you have 5 pages or 500, your website will be as fast as the day that you got it. Unlike website builders, we have designed our DIY tool to be fast at its core and to only build what your website needs, unlike DIY tools that load your website with a bunch of bloat that you don’t need.
500 pages sound like a lot, and it is. The good news is that we don’t place a limit on the amount of pages that your website can have, unlike some DIY tools.
Why choose Vynxlabs over DIY or traditional agencies?
You’re right, we are biased. Of course, we think that you should choose us over the DIY and traditional agencies. Give us a chance to convince you. Give us this chance to try and explain why.
Control without complexity
We built Site Stitcher from the ground up with the swamped business owner in mind. In fact, we want you to make your own updates, which means less work for us! But seriously, you shouldn’t need a designer or developer to make a simple image change to your website. You should especially be allowed to update your website at 2 am when a new good idea hits your brain.
Cost-effective customization
We will build out your website styling it to match your business’ brand and goals. This includes choosing the best colors (or using yours if you have them), writing all the words on each page, coming up with the structure and layouts, and choosing high-quality imagery. The result? A custom feeling website that came in at a fraction of the cost of a fully custom agency website but that is far more personalized than a DIY template.
Ongoing partnership
Vynxlabs isn’t here to be a one-time solution. We don’t just crank out websites like a puppy mill. We don’t stop communication the moment the project is done. We won’t bill you for every minute that we are on call. What we actually do is support you and your business’ website. We have seen how corporate website-building agencies work. They care about their bottom line the most, we care about the business owner behind the website. We care about giving small businesses the big business treatment because we are a small business ourselves and get it, it’s tough. Someone should be there to support your business and your website.
Built for conversions
All websites that we build, are built with increasing conversions at their core. We won’t just make something that looks pretty like some agencies and freelancers do. Pretty does not mean higher conversions. Design is not art. Design exists to serve a business goal. Art exists as an expression. We design with the business goal of conversions as our North star.
What should you choose?
If you’ve made it this far, you probably now have an idea of which option fits your business at the stage that it is at. If you still aren’t sure which is best for you, we’ll help you choose by summarizing each option.
Who DIY website builders are for?
If you are just starting out your business and you have a very tight budget, going with a DIY website is the clear choice. Your website won’t be as fast or as optimized, but with a template, you’ll get something that looks pretty good for cheap. DIY website builders are also great for people who do their business as just a side hustle and just need a simple website where people can learn more.
Who should choose an agency-built website?
If you have been in operation for a couple of years and have a consistent stream of customers, an agency-built website is for you. Chances are that you are in a position to make the investment into a custom agency-built website that will be unique to your business and be designed and developed from the ground up with your business goals in mind. If you still aren’t sure if this is the right move for you, use this test. If you already have 1 full-time employee, chances are that you can afford an agency-built website. Custom agency-built websites pay for themselves after a couple of months or sooner.
Who is Vynxlabs’ hybrid approach for?
Vynxlabs’ hybrid approach is best suited for businesses that value a fast and conversion-focused website. It is for the business owner who wants to have real control of their website but doesn’t mind a helping hand. Vynxlabs is for swamped small business owner who understands the importance of having an up-to-date website. Vynxlabs is for the solopreneurs on tight budgets, the successful businesses that want their website managed for them, and the large enterprises with dedicated teams of content editors.
Now you are probably thinking “Well it sounds like you could help every business, but is that true?” We know that it is true, but we don’t expect you to take our word for it. Because you actually read this, we want to say thank you. We will build you out a 5-page website, or recreate 5 key pages of your current website as a demo to prove ourselves, and as a thank you for taking the time to read this. Send us a message using our contact form and mention “I read the blog post” and we’ll reach out ready to demo our services by building a new website or recreating your existing site.
