The three types of business who will build you a website.

Out of all of the different options out there for getting a website, you can break them down into three main categories. 

1. Do-it-yourself providers, usually with a Software as a Service offering. Think Squarespace or Wix. 
2. Web developers who use pre-packaged templates to build you a site
3. Custom website developers 

DIY websites are a quick and easy way to get up and running. They are cheap, typically they charge nothing more than a reasonable monthly fee, and for that you get the ability to pick from some templates, drag and drop some content around, upload some images and your logo, and you're done. These sorts of websites are fantastic if all you need is a web presence, it doesn't matter what it is, simply that it works; the downside, however, is that they are what the are - you can't customise anything, you can't optimise anything, and you can't add anything that they don't allow. 

The next group are the web design companies that operate in the lower end of the market, typically websites for around a few hundred dollars, with a monthly hosting fee. The reason they can keep their costs low is that they use pre-designed templates to build your site. Some of these templates can be quite attractive, but they're also pretty generic. The advantage of these sorts of website is the cost, and the flexibility of having your own hosted CMS, so you have options for customisation. The downside is usually related to the template itself. If the template doesn't support what you're trying to achieve, then engineering it in can often be more complex and expensive than just writing it all from scratch in the first place. If you can find a template that does exactly what you want, then these sorts of agencies can work out to be a real cost saver, and often any changes you want are easily accommodated. Eventually, however, you WILL run into a wall - these sorts of agencies aren't set up for complex custom work. 

The last category of agencies are the custom website developers - businesses like Assembler. We design and build everything from scratch, so that your website fits your needs exactly, and can be easily customised to accommodate any functional or technical requirement. The downside is both time and cost; it takes a lot longer to build a custom site, so therefore it costs more. Prices vary enormously - from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand, depending on the agency you're working with, and the functionality you're looking for. 

Now that you understand the types of businesses you'll run into, you can make a more informed decision as to where your needs in the marketplace are best served. Typically the DIY sites are for businesses that don't care much about their website, the template developers are for businesses on a seriously limited budget, and the custom developers are for everyone else. We'll be getting into the various types of custom web developers in future blog posts, so stay tuned to find out more! 

Assembler is a web design agency based in Perth, Western Australia. This blog is intended to be an informal, behind the scenes look into the web design and development industry. If you like our content, please follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook!