To get a website built for your company, pick one of three routes: build it yourself on a platform, hire a freelancer, or hire a studio. Choose by how much the website has to do, and let the budget follow. Write down the outcome first, learn the five cost drivers, and insist on measured acceptance at the end. Full disclosure: we're a studio that builds websites. We wrote this guide to be useful even if you never hire us, and every check in it applies to our work too.
Start with the outcome you need
"I need a website" isn't a brief. "I need plumbing-emergency calls from my county" is. So is "I need online orders for 40 products," and so is "I need investors to take us seriously." Each one leads to a different build and budget, and often a different builder. Write your outcome in one sentence first, and every decision below gets easier.
Three ways to get it built, and when each one fits
Right when the site's job is simple and you have more time than money
Platforms in the Squarespace, Wix and Shopify class produce respectable sites for simple needs: a services page, a menu, contact details, a basic store. You pay in your own time and in template limits, and you hit a ceiling. Custom features and integrations get hard fast, and so does performance tuning.
Right for a defined project with modest complexity
A good freelancer beats a platform on customization and a studio on price. The risks are capacity and continuity. One person is a single point of failure for every deadline, and support after launch depends entirely on that person. Ask to see live sites they built, then test them yourself.
Right when the site runs part of your business
A studio brings a whole team, from design and engineering to strategy, and earns its cost on complexity: e-commerce that has to convert, integrations, customer portals, AI assistants, and performance and accessibility done properly. Picking a studio is a decision in itself, so we wrote a full guide to choosing a web design company.
Five things drive the cost, whoever builds it
At every level, the price comes from the same five places. Scope, meaning how many page types and features. Custom design vs template. Integrations such as booking, payments, inventory and portals, each of which adds real work. Content, meaning who writes the words and produces the photos, often the most underestimated item on the whole project. And post-launch support, which covers updates and security as well as changes. A quote given before those five are discussed is only a guess, and any builder worth hiring will walk you through each one.
How long it takes, and what slows it down
Platform DIY takes days to weeks, a freelancer several weeks, and a studio one to three months for most business sites. Ask builders what slows projects down and many will name the client's side: content that isn't ready and decisions that sit waiting. If you want it fast, have your words, your images and your decision-maker ready.
Check it's good before you make the final payment
- Test on a real phone, on cellular. The builder's laptop proves nothing. Speed and usability on a phone decide your results. (What a slow site costs you.)
- Run it through a grader for speed, accessibility, findability and security, and ask the builder to explain any weak lens. A measurement beats a feeling.
- Click everything. Every link, every form (do the submissions arrive?) and the checkout, if you have one.
- Confirm ownership. The domain sits in YOUR registrar account, the admin logins are in your hands, and you have a written note of where the site is hosted. If the domain sits in a vendor's account, a falling-out with that vendor can take your website with it.
- Get the support terms in writing. What's included, how fast they respond, and what they charge by the hour after that.
Questions owners ask before a build
How much does it cost to build a business website?
It ranges from a platform subscription you assemble yourself, to four figures with a solid freelancer, to five figures and beyond with a studio, because you're buying different things at each level. The drivers are scope, custom design, integrations, content and support. Distrust any quote issued before those are discussed.
How long does it take to build a website?
Days to weeks for a DIY platform site, several weeks with a freelancer, and typically one to three months with a studio. At every level, a frequent cause of delay is on the client's side: content that isn't ready and decisions that wait.
How do I know the finished website is good?
Measure it before final payment. Test it on a real phone, get a graded reading for speed, accessibility, findability and security, click every link and form, and confirm in writing that you own the domain and hold the admin logins.
Have it built the measured way
Tell us the outcome you need. We'll come back with a reading and a plan instead of a pitch.
Build with Houtos How to choose a firm