How to get a website
for your business.
The 5 ways, compared.
I make my living from the fifth one. So I will tell you first when it is the wrong choice.
How to get a website for your business comes down to exactly five routes, and price is the least interesting difference between them. What actually changes your life afterwards is two other things: who changes a price when you need one changed, and whose name the keys are in — the domain, the code, the accounts — the day you want to leave. This table compares the five on that.
Prices checked on the official pages on 3 October 2026 · Reviewed every 60 days
All five, side by side.
| Site builder (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow) | Freelancer | Agency | AI on its own (Lovable, Bolt, v0) | Learning it with someone beside you | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | From $15 to $18 a month, paid a year up front | One payment, wildly variable | A large one-off, usually plus a monthly fee | Free, or a few dollars a month | $3,500 once |
| How long until you have it | A weekend | Weeks | Weeks or months | An afternoon for the first screen | 15 to 20 hours |
| Who changes a price | you | they do, when they can | a ticket does | you, if you understand what it generated | you |
| Whose name the domain and accounts are in | they live inside the builder | whatever you agreed | usually the agency's | yours | yours, handed over one by one |
| If you stop paying | the site disappears | it stays up, if you hold the logins | it stays up, if you hold the logins | it stays up | it stays up: there is no monthly fee from me |
| How far it goes | as far as the builder goes | as far as they go | far, if you keep paying | it stalls once you leave the simple stuff | as far as you go, and you keep learning |
| Do you learn anything | no | no | no | a little, the hard way | that is the whole point |
Builder prices come from their own pricing pages, checked on 3 October 2026: Wix from $17.77 a month and Webflow from $15 a month, both paying a year up front. I am not putting numbers on freelancers and agencies because they vary too much for any figure to be honest.
When each one works
and when it does not.
A site builder: Wix, Squarespace, Webflow
from $15–18 / month, paid yearlyYou drag blocks around and build it yourself. It is the cheapest route and the fastest way to get something decent online.
- You do it yourself over a weekend.
- Nobody has to get back to you.
- It looks fine without knowing design.
- Your site lives inside them: stop paying and it disappears.
- What you can do ends where the builder ends.
- Moving the site elsewhere later means starting over.
A freelancer
one payment, wildly variableOne person builds it to fit your business. Done well, it is the best value on this list.
- Built for your business, not for a template.
- You talk to the person actually building it.
- The day they stop replying, you are left with a site nobody else understands.
- Every change waits on them having time.
- If you never agreed in writing whose name the domain and accounts are in, that usually becomes a fight.
An agency
large one-off + monthlyA team with a process. It is the right call when the project is big and someone has to answer for it.
- There is somebody to hold accountable.
- They can carry large projects.
- It does not collapse when one person leaves.
- Changing one word goes in as a ticket and comes out whenever.
- The code and the accounts usually end up in their name.
- You pay for the structure, not just for your site.
AI on its own: Lovable, Bolt, v0, ChatGPT
free, or a few dollars a monthYou ask and it builds. For the first screen it is remarkable, and plenty of people get that far alone.
- Free or nearly, and very fast at the start.
- The accounts are yours from day one.
- It stalls the moment you leave the simple stuff: the admin page, payments, emails.
- If you do not understand what it generated, you cannot fix it when it breaks.
- And it breaks.
Learning it with someone beside you
$3,500, onceThis is the one I do. Fifteen to twenty live hours, one on one, building your real software while I explain every step. You walk out with it published and every key in your name.
- No monthly fee from me: you pay once.
- The domain, the code and the accounts are in your name.
- Next time you want something changed, you change it.
- You keep my written instructions and carry on alone.
- You have to put in 15 to 20 of your own hours. If you do not have them, this is not for you.
- It is the highest upfront cost of the five.
- If what you want is to never touch it, do not buy this — have me or an agency build it instead.
What suits you,
based on your case.
A site builder. Wix or Webflow. Stop deliberating, and come back to this page when you outgrow it.
A freelancer — but agree in writing that the domain, the code and the accounts stay in your name. That paragraph is worth more than the discount.
An agency. Ask up front whose name the accounts go in; if the answer is "we manage those", keep asking.
AI on its own. Lovable or Bolt. It is free and in an afternoon you know whether the idea holds.
Learn it. It is the only one here that you pay once and it stops charging you. And if you do not have 15 to 20 hours, do not buy it.
Tell me your case and I will say
which of the five fits.
Even when the answer is "use Wix and do not pay me anything". I would rather say that than sell you something you do not need: picking the wrong route means paying twice.