Now more than ever, the internet is the go-to place for sales, information, and global communication. It’s long since stopped being feasible for businesses to set up a brick-and-mortar shop and then wait for customers to find them. Big or small, if you want to have a successful business then you need to have a website of some kind.
Creating your own website means that you’ll have your own space on the internet where you can display your products, sell your business services, or enlighten others with interesting knowledge and facts. But how do you build a website to begin with? You can either hire a developer, build your site from scratch by yourself, or use a handy Website Builder – learn more about the website building process below.
How to build a website
When it comes to building a website, there are three main methods you can use to bring your online vision to life:
- Employing someone to build a website for you
- Building a website yourself
- Using a website builder
Both employing someone to build your website for you and building a website yourself from scratch using a website designer are considered the traditional methods of building a site. Website builders, on the other hand, are a more modern and innovative way of looking at website building.
While fully capable of producing exceptional and exquisite websites, it’s fair to say that building a website from scratch is a monumental challenge for most people. Not only does it require you to have a comprehensive understanding of how coding works (and a particular understanding of HTML and CSS or PHP and JavaScript), but you’ll also need to put in the time and money required to make the website functional.
These are often the main reasons why many businesses, particularly small businesses, choose not to invest in a website. But this is exactly where website builders like the one we provide at Fasthosts can help.
Why should you choose a website builder?
Traditionally, you either had to build your website from scratch yourself (coding it line by line) or hire an expensive web developer to bring your vision to life for you. However, more and more businesses are turning to website builders to get the job done. Here are the main reasons why:
1. No coding knowledge needed
With a website builder, all the complicated behind-the-scenes coding work is taken care of for you. All you have to do is decide how your website will look and feel, making building your website effortless.
Compared to traditional website building methods, website builders do away with all the necessary coding knowledge and allow you to construct a professional website through the use of premade templates and add-ons. This makes it so much easier to build your website without any prior knowledge.
2. User-friendly
Using WYSIWYG methodology (what you see is what you get), website builder users are presented with a GUI (graphical user interface) that allows you to drag and drop your desired features and elements onto your chosen template. You don’t need to know all the acronyms, you can just jump in and get started. This lets you organise your website pages however you want and add in any content you need without issue.
3. Edit from anywhere
Since website builders are an online service, your website’s web files will be hosted on your website builder’s server rather than your own computer. This means you can log into your account and edit your website from anywhere, at any time. This is particularly useful for those who travel a lot for work and need to use multiple devices.
4. Get beautiful designs instantly
Not good at graphic design? This isn’t an issue at all if you use a website builder! No matter which website builder you choose, you’re bound to find a wide range of beautifully designed web page templates that fit the style you’re looking for. So even if you’re not a great designer yourself, you can still create an eye-catching, professional-looking website that draws people in.
Whatever kind of website you’re creating, you can find a design that exactly suits your aims. For example, if you want to build an online store, our Ecommerce Website Builder has built-in ecommerce features to get you started, such as stock control tools, product filters, abandoned cart recovery and more.
5. Get up and running fast
Website builders make creating a website super simple thanks to ready-made templates and drag-and-drop features. For a basic website, you could get everything ready in just a couple of hours – perfect for those who need to get a website up and running ASAP!
6. Easy maintenance
Not only is the initial creation process super simple, website builders make it even easier to maintain your website over time. To keep visitors interested, you need to constantly update your website to eliminate bugs and provide new features and information. Thanks to the drag-and-drop customisation offered by your website builder, you can easily improve your website at any time with just a few clicks.
7. Affordable
Despite offering all of these amazing benefits, website builders are the most affordable option by far. You won’t need to hire an expensive web developer or spend money on a coding course. Instead, you can find a fairly priced website builder that even comes with free domain and email hosting. Many website builders also offer free trials or steep discounts for new customers, so this is the ideal option for beginners.
WordPress
One of the most popular tools for building and managing a website is WordPress, which is a content management system (CMS) that helps you host and maintain your website. WordPress is free, open source and comes with plenty of plugins to boost your site’s functionality. Plus, to improve the performance of your WordPress website, you can find specialised WordPress web hosting packages that are optimised for WordPress sites.
Hoping to create an ecommerce website? WordPress is ideal for this too. WooCommerce is an extremely popular WordPress plugin that helps you create and manage an online store. One of the best things about WooCommerce is that it’s free to download, unlike other popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Prestashop.
How much does it cost to build a website?
The cost of building a website is the main area where website builders outdo more traditional website construction methods.
In terms of price, the most expensive way to build a website is to hire a designer to build one for you. There is no real average cost for this but you could expect to pay anywhere between a couple of hundred pounds and several thousand. It all depends on how big you want your website to be and the quality of work. Of course, this doesn’t include the cost of your domain name and web hosting.
Even if you choose to build a website yourself, it will still cost you several hundred pounds to invest in the website designer software required to begin constructing your website.
But when you build a website with a website builder, these costs are dramatically reduced to as little as £5 a month. That means it could take years before your website builder-constructed site reaches the same cost as a traditionally made website. And that's before you consider the free trials that many website builders offer.
The cost of a website builder per month will vary but in most cases they are leagues cheaper than website design software packages.
Other factors to consider
In addition to your website building method, other factors can greatly affect the overall cost of creating your site. As mentioned briefly above, you’ll also need to factor in the cost of your domain name and web hosting, plus any other optional extras you want.
1. Web hosting
Web hosting provides a server that will host all of your website’s files – without this, your website won’t be able to exist online or welcome any visitors. Therefore, web hosting is an essential service if you want to build a website, and you’ll need to pay hosting costs to your web hosting provider to keep your site live.
2. Domain and SSL
Similarly, domain hosting is another essential service you’ll have to pay for. All websites need a unique domain name so that users can find you online. Many web hosting providers also sell domain names, and you may be able to get a free domain name with your web hosting plan from certain providers.
Some hosting plans will also include extra features like a free SSL certificate, which will help you save money overall. An SSL certificate is an essential security feature for your website, helping to prevent cyber attacks and data theft through secure, encrypted connections.
3. Plugins
Plugins are optional extras that can boost the functionality of your website. For example, ecommerce plugins can add ecommerce functionality to your online store, such as payment processing, order management and customer management tools.
Plugins are very commonly used for WordPress websites. There are plenty of free WordPress plugins to choose from, but for the best features and support, you may need to opt for premium plugins that can eat into your budget.
4. Design and images
There are plenty of free images online on sites like Unsplash and Pexels, but these free images may not be enough to set you apart from the crowd. For more unique and professional images, you may have to pay extra for premium photos, or you may even choose to hire your own photographer (which can get very expensive).
The same applies to your web design. Free templates and designs may be fine in the beginning, but as your business grows, you may find yourself hiring a designer to truly make your website stand out. All of these design elements can add up to make website creation more expensive than you anticipated, so watch out for this when setting your budget.
5. SEO
Building an eye-catching website is a good starting point, but it isn’t worth much if no one actually visits. To ensure more people come across your website, you need to understand the basics of SEO (search engine optimisation) to discover how you can make your website appear higher in search engine results for relevant terms. If you’re a total beginner, you may need to spend some cash on an SEO course, or if you don’t have much time to spare, hiring an SEO specialist might be a better option (although this will be a lot more expensive).
Looking at overall costs, you can expect to pay around £5-£20 per month for a basic web hosting plan, around £10-£20 per year for your domain name (or more for a premium domain), and up to £120 per year for an SSL certificate (although you can often get this for free with the right web hosting plan). Any optional extras you want will need to be added on top of these essential costs.
While web developers can cost thousands of pounds, a website builder should only cost a few pounds a month, so this won’t add too much to your total costs. Popular website builders like Wix and Squarespace cost between £10 and £15 per month, for example. Here at Fasthosts, our complete website builder package costs a similar amount at £12 per month, but new customers can get access to all of our fantastic features for just £1 per month for the first three months!
How long does it take to build a website?
When deciding how to build a website, the time it takes to build is important. But how long does it take to build a website, and how will this process affect your business? The last thing you want to do is invest in something only for it to lose you money because it takes months to build.
Traditionally made websites can take a long time to build, particularly if you have a very specific vision in mind. With a designer, they might have other projects happening at the same time. You could ask for yours to take priority, but this will likely increase the cost. And if you’re building a website yourself, you’ll likely have to set aside adequate time to build the site or even learn to code – time that you’ll have to take out of your daily schedule or free time. Overall, using either of these methods could mean it takes weeks or even months to get your site up and running.
When you choose to build a website with a website builder, you can have a professional-looking website ready to go in under an hour. This innate practicality makes website builders the best way to build a website if you need to set one up sharpish.
Static vs dynamic websites
Another factor that can greatly affect the time you need to build your website is whether you’re building a static website or a dynamic website. Smaller websites and static websites are generally easier and quicker to build, whereas large, dynamic websites can be more time-consuming.
Static websites load static, unchanging content that’s the same for every user that visits your site. The simplicity of these web pages means that static websites benefit from faster page load times.
On the other hand, dynamic websites are a bit more complex and will take longer to build. Dynamic websites can show different users different information each time they visit, featuring interactive elements, real-time updates and user-generated content. This is because data is taken from a number of different databases to render the website.
Creating a dynamic website will take more time, but it can greatly improve user experience by tailoring your site to fit the needs of each visitor. You can also speed up this process by choosing a high-quality website builder that supports dynamic website features. However, if you have an extremely unique idea in your mind for your website, this could mean that you need the flexibility and expertise of a web developer, as website builders can be a bit more limited in terms of customisation.
Are there any drawbacks to using website builders?
Despite their many advantages over traditional website designers, website builders do come with one drawback that you might want to bear in mind.
In general, website builders are considered to be overall less flexible when compared to a website built from scratch. Using a website designer, you can get the look, feel and content of your website constructed exactly how you want it, rather than being limited to the available templates.
Basically, if you have a very specific vision for your website that you want to capture, or any bespoke functionality that you need, a website built from scratch might be a better option for you.
Website construction and web hosting
A big thing you'll need to think about, regardless of whether you choose a website builder or website design software, is how your website will be hosted.
Having a website and hosting a website are not the same thing. Your site is your virtual presence on the internet, but the data that makes up its construction actually needs to be stored in a physical or virtual location. This is why servers are used to host websites.
When you build a website, you don't immediately have access to any form of web hosting. This is something that typically has to be paid for, which is usually the case with website designers and website builders. The good news is that some website builders might include web hosting as part of the package – with Fasthosts, you’ll also get a free domain for a year, a free SSL certificate and free professional email.
How to choose a web builder
By now it should be clear just how useful a website builder can be for small businesses and independent users alike who want to build a website. But that doesn’t mean that every website builder is right for you.
If you choose to go with a website builder, you'll want to think about the following things:
- What do you need your website for? Some web builders are better suited for ecommerce while others work well for blogging.
- What features do they offer and what ones do you actually need?
- How easy is it to use?
- What is their user support like?
- How will it look on a mobile platform?
- How scalable is the builder?
- Do they provide any web hosting options?
- How good is their value for money?
By going through all of these, you’ll be able to pick the best website builder to suit your needs.
The best website builder for small businesses
There are plenty of web builders out there for you to choose from, which can make choosing the best website builder for you a bit overwhelming. To help narrow down your options, we’ve taken two of the most popular website builders and compared them with our own website builder here at Fasthosts.
If you’ve been on the internet long enough, you’ve no doubt at least heard of Wix and Squarespace. Both are considered amongst the best website builders currently available. Wix in particular is considered relatively beginner-friendly, while Squarespace tends to be favoured by creatives and businesses. Both offer a range of features, free trials, and on average cost between £10 and £15 per month.
With the Fasthosts Website Builder 'Complete' package, not only will you get a suite of features capable of rivalling Wix and Squarespace, but you can also try it all for just £1 per month for the first three months!
Our complete package is just £12 per month and includes 350 separate web pages, unlimited storage, website optimisation tools, analytics, a free domain name, free SSL certificate, free stock images and much more. Ease of use is at the forefront of our website builder, allowing you to edit your website on the go. And we’ve even made sure your site is optimised for mobile so it'll look great on any device. Plus, if you need the room to scale, you can easily add an online store to your site if you decide to set up shop.
To top it all off, we include web hosting features with our builder, meaning you don’t have to set aside time to find someone to host your site. We also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you're not feeling it, you can cancel within the first 30 days without paying a penny.
If you want to learn how to use our website builder, we have a range of supportive guides available. Or, chat to our helpful 24/7 customer care team.
