"I'll just build it myself on Wix - how hard can it be?" Famous last words from every tradesman who's wasted 40 hours and ended up with a website that looks like it was built in 2005.
Let's cut through the marketing BS and look at what DIY website builders actually cost you - not just in money, but in time, opportunities, and credibility.
The Upfront Cost Comparison
On the surface, DIY builders look cheap. Here's what they advertise:
DIY Website Builder (Wix/Squarespace/GoDaddy)
- £10-20/month for basic plan
- "Free" templates
- "Easy" drag-and-drop builder
Professional Website Service (Sites for Trade)
- £59-99/month all-inclusive
- Built for you
- Managed and updated
Looks like DIY wins, right? Not so fast...
The Real Cost of "Doing It Yourself"
1. Your Time Is Worth Money
Let's be conservative and say you charge £40/hour for your trade work. Here's what building a decent website actually takes:
Realistic Time Investment:
- Learning the platform: 8-10 hours
- Choosing and customizing template: 6-8 hours
- Writing content: 8-12 hours
- Adding images/gallery: 4-6 hours
- Setting up contact forms: 2-4 hours
- Fighting with mobile responsiveness: 6-10 hours
- SEO setup (if you even know how): 4-6 hours
- Total: 38-56 hours minimum
That's £1,520 - £2,240 of your time you could have spent earning money!
And that's if everything goes smoothly. Most tradesmen tell us they spent 60-80 hours spread over months before giving up or settling for something they're not proud of.
2. The Hidden Costs
That £10-20/month basic plan? It doesn't actually include what you need:
What's NOT Included in Basic DIY Plans:
- Custom domain (yourbusiness.co.uk) - +£15/year
- Remove platform ads/branding - +£8-12/month
- E-commerce/booking features - +£15-25/month
- Analytics - +£10/month
- Priority support - +£8/month
- Professional email (you@yourbusiness.co.uk) - +£5-10/month
Real Monthly Cost: £45-75/month (nearly the same as professional service!)
3. Lost Opportunities
This is the big one most people don't consider. While you're spending weeks fiddling with website builders, you're losing customers to competitors who are already online.
The Opportunity Cost:
If a professional website brings you 5-10 extra jobs per month worth £200-500 each, you're potentially losing £1,000-5,000 per month in revenue while you're "saving money" building it yourself.
Three months of lost business = £3,000-15,000 you'll never get back.
Quality: The Brutal Truth
Unless you're secretly a web designer, your DIY website will look... DIY. Customers can tell. They've seen a million Wix templates with stock photos and wonky mobile layouts.
What You'll Struggle With:
- Writing compelling content - It's harder than it looks to explain what you do clearly
- Mobile responsiveness - Looks great on your laptop, terrible on phones (where 70% of people browse)
- Loading speed - DIY sites are often slow and bloated
- SEO - No idea how to get on Google? Most don't
- Professional photography - Phone photos rarely look good enough
- Ongoing updates - Who updates it when you're busy working?
The "I'll Get My Nephew To Do It" Option
Ah yes, young Jake who's "good with computers" and will do it for £200. How's that working out?
Reality Check:
- He's busy with college/his job
- Takes 6 months to get it done
- Disappears when you need updates
- Uses free hosting that goes down constantly
- No idea about SEO or lead generation
- You feel bad asking for changes
We hear this story constantly from clients who come to us after wasting 6-12 months.
What Professional Actually Gets You
For £59-99/month with a service like ours, here's what you actually get:
Included in Professional Service:
- ✅ Built in 7 days (not 3 months of your evenings)
- ✅ Professionally written content that converts
- ✅ Properly optimized for Google (local SEO)
- ✅ Fast, mobile-responsive design
- ✅ Premium hosting included
- ✅ SSL security (HTTPS)
- ✅ Unlimited updates and changes
- ✅ Google Business Profile setup
- ✅ Contact forms that actually work
- ✅ Analytics and monthly reports
- ✅ Ongoing support when you need it
- ✅ Someone else deals with technical problems
Real-World Comparison
Let's compare what you actually pay over 12 months:
DIY Website Builder
- Premium plan: £50/month × 12 = £600
- Your time: 50 hours × £40 = £2,000
- Lost opportunities (conservative): £3,000
- Ongoing updates/fixes: 10 hours = £400
Total Year 1: £6,000+
Result: Amateur-looking site you're not proud of
Professional Service
- Monthly fee: £99/month × 12 = £1,188
- Your time investment: £0
- Lost opportunities: £0
- Updates/maintenance: £0 (included)
Total Year 1: £1,188
Result: Professional site generating leads from day 7
When DIY Makes Sense
To be fair, there ARE situations where DIY might work:
- You're just starting out and literally cannot afford £59/month
- You genuinely enjoy web design as a hobby
- You have months of free time to learn
- You're not worried about looking professional
- You don't care about ranking on Google
For everyone else - especially established tradesmen who value their time and want to grow their business - professional is the clear winner.
The Bottom Line
Yes, you CAN build your own website. You can also cut your own hair, service your own van, and do your own accounting. But should you?
The question isn't "Can I save £40/month doing it myself?" The real questions are:
- How much is your time worth?
- How much business am I losing while I faff about with templates?
- Will my DIY website actually bring me customers, or just make me look amateur?
- Do I really want to deal with technical problems when I should be working?
Most successful tradesmen realize that paying someone else to handle their website - just like they pay an accountant to handle their books - is an investment, not a cost.
Skip the DIY Headache
Get a professional website built for you in 7 days. From £59/month with everything included. No technical knowledge needed, no wasted time, no amateur results.