Site builder or agency: build it yourself or have it built
A comparison without gloss: time, follow-up costs, legal duties, being found locally, and the question of who owns the site in the end. We will also say when building it yourself is the right call.
In short and in plain language
This page helps with one question. Do you build your website yourself? Or do you have it built?
A site builder gives you ready-made designs to fill in. It costs little at the start. For a small firm it is often enough.
If you build it yourself, you pay mostly with your time. You do the texts, photos and legal texts on your own.
If we build it, you know the price first. Your domain, content and logins stay with you. A domain is the address of your site on the internet.
Tell us what you have online today. We tell you openly which route suits you. The talk costs nothing.
Key figures
94 %
of trade businesses run their own website (Bitkom)
74 %
say customers have become more critical (Bitkom)
85 %
see an expectation of constant availability (Bitkom)
87 %
report noticeably higher price sensitivity (Bitkom)
Prices as of September 2026 · all amounts net plus VAT
- Website as a fixed price from 1,490 euros net, scope agreed before the quote
- Relaunch of an existing website from 2,900 euros net
- Website support from 49 euros per month, cancelable with one month's notice to the end of the month, no minimum term
- Hosting in Germany from 15 euros per month, cancelable with one month's notice to the end of the month, no minimum term
- Photo session on your site at no separate charge, included in the project price
If you have it built, you know the amount beforehand. A new website starts at 1,490 euros net and covers up to eight pages, a structure built around your trades, the preparation of your project photos, the enquiry form and the legal basics. Replacing an existing website starts at 2,900 euros net. Ongoing items are booked separately and can be canceled with one month's notice to the end of the month.
This page answers one question: should you build your company website yourself or have it built? We earn our living from the second route. That is precisely why the first one comes first here, and without being talked down. For a good number of businesses a site builder is the sensible choice, and anyone who recognises that saves themselves a quote and us a consultation. Where self-building runs into limits, we name them just as plainly. The wider frame of our work is under Services, every amount under Pricing.
The three routes side by side
The essentials in five sentences
- A site builder is fast, cheap to start with and entirely adequate for a small presence. If that is what you need, you do not need us.
- The real price of self-building is your time: many hours (project experience) in the first year, spread across evenings and weekends.
- Imprint, privacy notice, consent and encrypted transfer remain wholly your responsibility when you build it yourself.
- When you change provider, what counts is whether domain, content, design and server are in your hands. With us, all four are.
- If you have it built: fixed price from 1,490 euros net, with only a few appointments of your time across the whole project.
What a site builder genuinely does well
It would be dishonest to belittle self-building. A modern site builder delivers, within a few evenings, a presence that works on a phone, is served encrypted and looks considerably better than what many businesses have had online since 2012. Start-up costs are very low, there is no appointment to wait for, and you can change a phone number without asking anyone. For a one-person business that works purely on recommendation and needs a reachable calling card online, that is the right answer. Anyone who first wants to test whether a website brings enquiries at all is well served too. What a carefully built presence can do later is shown in our design examples.
Online within a few evenings
Pick a template, drop in the text, publish. No appointment, no coordination, no waiting for a draft.
Very low start-up costs
The monthly base fee is low with most providers. If there is no room for an investment, this gets you started.
You change everything yourself
New number, new opening hours, a line about emergency callouts: you type it in and it is there. Nobody has to find time for it.
Templates work on phones today
The common templates scale down cleanly. Ten years ago that was the main argument against self-building; today it is not one.
No technical knowledge needed
Server, updates, backups and the certificate run in the background. You look after the content and nothing else.
Enough for a small presence
If you need a page with your trade, your area and a phone number, and your work comes by recommendation, you are properly set up.
Where self-building runs into limits
The limits do not show up on the first evening but in the third month. A template does not fill itself: you need text for four to six services, usable photos of finished work, a structure that fits your trades, and legal notices that match what the site actually does. None of that has anything to do with the site builder; it comes up on every route. The only difference is who does it. When you build it yourself, you do it in the evening after ten hours on site. What belongs on each individual page is set out in our overview of a website for tradespeople.
Two items that are rarely costed in advance
The time in the first year
Setting it up is not the effort. The effort is the text and the images. In our experience, between signing up to a site builder and having a site you would happily show a customer lie many hours of your own working time (project experience). Then upkeep follows: more time every month so that services, team and references stay current. Set that against the hourly rate you earn on site and the comparison looks different from the first glance at a monthly fee. What most projects actually stall on is not the text but the photos — more on that under photos for trade websites.
- Many hours to the first usable state (project experience)
- One to two hours of upkeep a month, or the site ages
- The bottleneck is photos of finished work, not the technology
- Evening work after ten hours on site often gets left
What actually belongs to you
A website has four layers: the domain, the content, the design including the technology, and the server. With a site builder, three of them usually sit with the provider. As long as everything runs, nobody notices. It becomes apparent the moment you want to move: the text can be copied, the images downloaded, the structure stays behind, and the site has to be built a second time. The same applies when an acquaintance built the site on the side and the credentials never reached the business. If you want out of that position, our website relaunch page describes how a handover works.
- Domain registered to your business, not to the provider
- Content exportable as files at any time
- Design and technology licensed without an end date
- Server in Germany, and a move is possible
The item nobody costs in
Do not set the two routes against each other as price versus price, but as price plus time versus price. That changes the picture. The site builder costs little money and a lot of you; having it built costs money once and little of you. Which route is cheaper depends on what your hour is worth and how many hours you actually have free. The table below shows who takes on which task. The last row is the one most often overlooked in conversation, and the one a later move founders on. If you want to hand over upkeep for good, the terms are under maintenance and support.
| Task | Built yourself | Built by a specialist |
|---|---|---|
| Structure and design | Chosen from ready-made templates, done in hours | Built around your trades and your area |
| Text | You write all of it, usually in the evening | We write after a conversation, you approve |
| Images | Stock library or your own phone photos | Photo session on your site, included in the project price |
| Imprint and privacy notice | A template you adapt and keep current yourself | Basics set up; the legal review stays with you |
| Being found locally | Titles, descriptions and directory entries maintained by you | Page structure, local references and business profile aligned |
| Day-to-day changes | Possible immediately, but always costs your time | Covered by support from 49 euros per month, cancelable with one month's notice to the end of the month |
| If you want to move | Text and images come along, the structure stays behind | Domain and content are yours, and after full payment the design too |
Accessibility law does not apply to most trade businesses
Imprint, data protection and who answers for it
This point depends not on the tool but on responsibility. Whoever builds it themselves is responsible themselves, even when the site builder supplies a template. That template does not know your legal form, knows nothing about your chamber of trades, and does not know what your form asks for. If a letter arrives, nobody is sitting beside you to respond. When you have it built, we set up the basics and state what the site processes; we do not take the legal review off your hands, because that is not our field. What else needs maintaining for local visibility is under business profile.
- An imprint with complete details, reachable from every page
- A privacy notice that matches what the site actually does
- Consent before fonts, maps or analytics are loaded from outside
- Encrypted transfer for every form, without exception
- One person in the business who can respond if a complaint arrives
Who owns the site in the end?
This question never comes up at the start and always comes up at the move. Before any decision, check four things: who is the domain registered to? Can you get your content out as files? May you use the design and technology without a time limit? And is the server placed so that a move is possible? With us all four answers are the same: you. That is not generosity but self-interest — a presence you could leave at any moment is the best reason not to. How such a project actually runs is described under having a trade website built.
Three routes, three outcomes
The same task, three very different paths — with the advantages first.
Built yourself in a site builder
- Included: Very low start-up costs
- Included: Online within a few evenings
- Included: Changes at any time without asking anyone
- Not included: Your time is the real price
- Not included: When you change provider the structure stays behind
Done on the side by someone you know
- Included: Short routes and a personal connection
- Not included: Completion depends on one single person
- Not included: Credentials often never reach the business
- Not included: If that person drops out, nobody knows anything
- Not included: Updates and backups are left unresolved
Website from a specialist
- Included: The amount is in the quote before the start
- Included: Photo session on your site included in the project price
- Included: Domain and content sit with you, and after full payment the design too
- Included: Support from 49 euros per month, cancelable with one month's notice to the end of the month, no minimum term
- Included: Your own effort is limited to a few appointments
How it runs when you have it built
A conversation, without pressure
Half an hour on the phone or at your premises. We ask about trades, area, existing material, and about which enquiries you actually want. At the end we will also say if a site builder is enough for your case.
A quote with a fixed amount
You receive a list of pages, scope and price. Anything that adds effort appears as its own line with its own amount, so you can strike it without the rest wobbling.
Photo session on your site
We spend half a day with a finished or ongoing job and photograph what you are allowed to show. This appointment carries no separate charge; it sits inside the project price.
Build and one round of approval
You see the state of work as a link, not an attachment. Feedback is collected in one pass. If the business is flat out, the project pauses instead of creating pressure.
Launch and afterwards
The site goes live, redirects and directory entries are carried over. Whether you take on upkeep yourself or hand it over is your decision. We answer questions through contact.
Half an hour on the phone or at your premises. We ask about trades, area, existing material, and about which enquiries you actually want. At the end we will also say if a site builder is enough for your case.
You receive a list of pages, scope and price. Anything that adds effort appears as its own line with its own amount, so you can strike it without the rest wobbling.
We spend half a day with a finished or ongoing job and photograph what you are allowed to show. This appointment carries no separate charge; it sits inside the project price.
You see the state of work as a link, not an attachment. Feedback is collected in one pass. If the business is flat out, the project pauses instead of creating pressure.
The site goes live, redirects and directory entries are carried over. Whether you take on upkeep yourself or hand it over is your decision. We answer questions through contact.
What it costs
All amounts are net prices plus statutory VAT, as of September 2026. The fixed-price website starts at 1,490 euros net and covers up to eight pages, a structure built around your trades, the preparation of your project photos, the enquiry form and the legal basics. If an existing website is to be replaced and its content carried over, that starts at 2,900 euros net, because survey, migration and redirects are added. Four ongoing items exist, all cancelable with one month's notice to the end of the month and with no minimum term: website support from 49 euros per month, hosting in Germany from 15 euros per month, local visibility including the business profile from 290 euros per month, and search engine support from 490 euros per month. No item is a precondition for another, and the photo session carries no separate charge.
You want to know which route adds up for your business
Tell us which trades you offer, how many hours you can spare and what is online today. You will get a clear recommendation — including one that argues against a quote from us.