TJ Slade
Web designer · Kansas City
If you run a small business in Kansas City and you need a website, you basically have two paths: build it yourself on a DIY site builder like Wix or Squarespace, or hire a web designer to build it for you. The ads make the first one look free and the second one look expensive, and neither is quite true. I'm TJ Slade, a Kansas City web designer, and I want to give you the honest version of web designer versus DIY site builder, including the times I'll tell you to save your money and do it yourself.
I have no interest in talking you into a site you don't need. Some businesses are genuinely better off starting on a builder, and I'll tell you exactly which ones. But the DIY route carries costs that never show up on the pricing page, and the professional route buys you things that are easy to undervalue until you're missing them. Here is how the two actually compare, and a simple way to tell which one fits where your business is right now.
The short answer
A DIY site builder is the right call when your site is simple, your budget is genuinely tight, and your time is worth less than the money you would save. A web designer is the right call when the website has a real job to do, bringing in leads, sales, or credibility, and you would rather that job be done right than done by you at midnight. Most owners know in their gut which camp they are in. The rest of this post is for confirming it.
What a DIY site builder actually is
DIY builders like Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Shopify let you drag pre-made blocks around a template until you have something that looks like a website, then pay a monthly fee to keep it online. They are genuinely impressive tools. For a small monthly cost you get hosting, a template, and an editor you can learn in an afternoon. The pitch is that you can do the whole thing yourself, and for a certain kind of site, that pitch is honest.
The catch hides in the word template. A builder hands you the same starting point as everyone else who picked that theme, and the polish is on you. It will get you online. Whether it gets you customers depends entirely on how much time and taste you pour into it after the free trial ends.
What hiring a web designer actually gets you
When you hire a designer, you are not paying for the pages, you are paying for the decisions. Which layout turns a visitor into a phone call, what to say before someone scrolls, how the site reads on a phone, how fast it loads, and how Google reads it. A good build has the SEO basics wired in, works on every screen, and is designed around your specific customers instead of a generic template's idea of them.
You are also buying your time back, plus someone to call when something breaks. The design is custom, the code is clean, and the person who built it is the person who answers when you need a change. If you want to see what that difference looks like in a finished product, my portfolio is the honest version, real sites you can click through on a phone.
The real cost of DIY, the part the ads skip
The monthly fee is the cheap part. The expensive part is everything the fee does not cover:
- Your time. A builder is only free if your hours are free. The nights you spend nudging boxes around are nights you are not running your business.
- The results gap. A template that looks fine can still quietly fail to convert, and you will not know why, because you cannot see the leads you never got.
- The ceiling. Builders are easy until you want something they do not do, and then they are a wall. You either give up the feature or start over.
- Accessibility and legal exposure. Builders rarely handle accessibility well, and the Department of Justice has been clear that the ADA applies to business websites. Most owners never find out until it is a problem.
- The rebuild. Most of the redesigns I take on started life as a builder the owner quietly outgrew. Paying twice is the most expensive way to save money.
None of that shows up when you sign up. It shows up later, one hidden cost at a time, which is exactly why DIY feels cheaper than it often is.
When a DIY site builder is the right call
I mean this. Sometimes DIY is the smart move, and I will say so:
- You are testing an idea and need something online this week, not a permanent storefront.
- The site is a simple placeholder: your name, what you do, and a way to reach you.
- Your budget is genuinely a few hundred dollars, and it needs to go to the website itself, not a designer.
- You actually enjoy tinkering with it, and your time truly is free right now.
If that is you, start on a builder with a clear conscience. You can always hire someone later, once the site starts to matter more than the monthly fee. Starting simple and upgrading when you outgrow it is a normal path, not a mistake.
When to hire a web designer instead
Flip every one of those around and you have the case for hiring out:
- The website is how customers find you and decide whether to trust you. It is doing a real job.
- You have already outgrown a builder, or you are staring at a feature it cannot do.
- Your time is worth more spent on your actual business than on learning a design tool.
- You want it done once, done right, and off your plate.
The tipping point is usually the moment the site stops being a nice-to-have and becomes where your next customer decides. At that point the gap between a template and a site built for your business is measured in leads, and it pays for itself. If you get there, the next question is what to ask before you sign, and I wrote the eight questions to ask before hiring any web designer for exactly that moment.
A quick gut check
Still on the fence? Answer these honestly:
- Is this website a placeholder, or is it where customers decide whether to buy?
- Would the hours you spend building it be worth more spent on your business?
- Do you need anything a template cannot do out of the box?
- Do you want to be the one fixing it when something breaks?
Mostly leaning toward 'placeholder, my time is free, keep it simple'? A builder is fine, go save your money. Mostly the other way? You have probably already outgrown DIY, and hiring will cost you less in the long run than doing it twice. If you are not sure how the money compares, here is what a website actually costs in Kansas City, builder fees included.
Not sure which camp you are in?
That is the most common place to be, and it is exactly the conversation I like having. Tell me what your business does and what you need the site to do, and I will give you a straight answer, even when that answer is that a builder is fine for now. You can see honest ranges on the pricing page, or just reach out and we will figure out which path actually fits, one Kansas City business owner to another.