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Web Designer VS DIY Website Builder

Website builder

For businesses, brands or professionals thinking about the future, choosing between a coded website or a DIY website builder can be difficult. How can you determine which one will be most beneficial in the long run? Continue reading to find out.

What is a website builder?

Website builders are tools used for creating a website for those who have no idea about coding or those who are looking for a quick and cheap way to create their website. These DIY website builders, like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy and so on, exist to help such people escape the rigorous aspects of website building and jump to the fun aspect (where users just select from the different features and edit it to suit what they want on the website).

It is often referred to as DIY (Do it yourself) website builders because anyone with basic computer knowledge can create a simple website without involving a website designer or developer.

What is a web developer?

On the other hand, website developers are experts in website development responsible for creating codes used for running the back end of every beautifully laid website. Website developers build websites from scratch by creating a series of codes hidden inside the website.

A website designer’s role is closely related to that of a website developer. Website designers primarily focus on the overall outlook of the website and user experience. Some designers can choose to create codes others prefer to outsource to web developers. The designer then marries the design of the website with the codes to create the website.

Website designers or web developers are very skilled at creating and maintaining websites. They are responsible for the typography, colouring and overall layout of a website and markup languages used (CSS and HTML). They have both the technical skills and graphics skills required to create a website to suit the specific needs of the client. Asides that, website designers or web developers are also very knowledgeable in various strategic marketing means and SEO (search engine optimization) options for creating a high performing and responsive website.

Who uses a website builder?

It typically takes far less than thirty minutes to create a website with a website builder. It is affordable, easy to use and not time-consuming. This makes website builders attractive to anyone who wants a professional website up and running in no time because it comes with various templates, free or paid, that can be activated immediately. These templates can be customised, by making edits to the CSS of the template which can be done online without having to bother about downloading any kind of software to create the website. Website builders like WordPress, Wix, Shopify, blogger is home to many bloggers, business owners, professionals in various fields, online retailers, news companies and so on.

Who should use a website designer or web developer?

Business owners thinking of redesigning their websites, or website administrators seeking for ways to increase traffic or brands /business looking to get more results from users using their website or amateurs who know nothing about creating websites or just don’t want to bother about using available DIY website builders should consider hiring a website designer or web developer.

If questions like “who are the different types of people coming to the website or using the website?”, “What are they looking for?”, “What are the next steps they are likely to take on the website?” “How did they find the website?”, “How to keep them coming back?”, “How to convert these users or visitors to clients or customers?” keeps bugging anyone considering owning or redesigning a website, having a website designer or web developer work with them would pay off more than running to a DIY website builder.

Website designer VS DIY website builder, which is better?

Knowing that it is possible to own a beautiful website in just less than thirty minutes can be thrilling, especially for someone who doesn’t really want to be bothered about writing codes to create a website, DIY website builders would be more appealing. Considering that it also makes it easy to manage and publish contents easily, requires minimal technical resources or financial resources. Both amateurs and professionals can use DIY website builders. However, the thought of using a website designer or developer, who would create the website from scratch, would make many roll their eyes. They have probably heard how time-consuming and expensive it might be.

Professional web designers or web developers do more than just creating a website. They actually offer very good business solutions to brands or individuals who want more than just a beautiful website that they can push out content to. These set of people want a website that would improve their brands or businesses and keep it growing by being adaptive to changes in the digital world.

Imagine brands like Amazon, Netflix, Alibaba and so on built with DIY website builders. Even if they started that way, it is impossible to expect the kind of growth these brands have today if they had remained with the simplicity of such website builders. In fact, these brands employ a handful of developers who work 24/7 on the website to keep it as efficient as it is today. The Amazon of ten years ago is not the same Amazon of today. Why? It is because of the many possibilities that lie in owning control of their website and its hosting platform.

This is something people are not likely to get with using a DIY website builder because users are restricted to just design and functions. That’s why users can only make use of features available to them, not create the ones that suit the needs of the brand.

Conclusion

Having a website designer or website developer create a very unique website, with custom-made codes written to suit the desired website layout and functionalities, makes any brand, business or individual stand out. Developers are also mindful about changes in the digital world, so they can create codes that will help the website rank better on search engines by updating the website’s codes to suit search engine algorithms that keep changing.

The risk of being hacked is very low when using a website designer, unlike DIY website builders that use open-source content management system (cms). For businesses, brands or professionals thinking about the future, working with a website designer or web developer would be a wise step and investment in the future.