Build it yourself on a website builder, or have it done for you?

The best website builder for a small business is the one you actually finish. If you like the tools and have the evenings, building it yourself is cheap and flexible. If you don't, having it done can cost about the same over three years for a simple site (ours is £247, against about £270 for a builder's plan), and the site gets finished. Here are the trade-offs, honestly. We don't name other companies; the questions below work for any of them.

What “best” means for a small business website

A local business site has three jobs: be found when someone searches for what you do near them, look like a real business, and make it easy to get in touch. For most trades and local firms that's three good pages: home, services and contact. So the best choice isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that gets those three pages live, on your own domain, and keeps them right.

Doing it yourself with a website builder

What's good about it

• Cheap to start. Many builders have a free trial or a low monthly price.
• Full control. Change anything, any time, without asking anyone.
• Room to grow. Shops, bookings and blogs are usually available if you need them later.

The catches

• Time. You're the designer, the writer and the technical support. Much of the time goes on the words and photos, not the software, and that's the part that stalls.
• Their branding on your site. Some website builders put their own name, a badge or an advert on sites on their free or cheapest plans.
• Your own domain. On some plans your site lives on an address on the builder's domain. Your own .co.uk can mean a higher plan, and you should check whose name it's registered in.
• Who fixes it when it breaks. You do, with help pages and a support queue. That's fine until it's the week you're busiest.
• Leaving. You can usually take your domain, but not the site: each builder's pages usually only work on that builder, so moving means rebuilding.

Having it done for you

Done for you covers three quite different things:

• An agency or freelancer designs and builds a site for you. It can be excellent, and it's priced for bespoke work: published ranges run from about £1,500 to £8,000 up front (sources and dates in our cost guide).
• A monthly done-for-you plan builds the site and rents it to you. No big bill, but the plans we checked in August 2026 came to £864 to £2,183 over three years, and some keep the domain in their own name.
• Done with you, which is what we do: you answer questions, the site builds from your answers, and a person checks it before it goes live.

Whichever you pick, ask the same things: whose name is the domain in, what can I change myself, who fixes it and how fast, and what does it cost to leave?

Side by side

Three-year costs: the builder and monthly-plan figures are from providers' own UK pricing pages, checked in August 2026; the agency and freelancer figure is from ExpertSure's guide, updated September 2026. Details and dates are in how much a website costs in the UK.

Questions to ask before you choose

1. Whose name will the domain be registered in? It should be yours. Here's how to check who owns a domain.
2. Will the site show anyone else's name? A badge, a footer credit, or an address on someone else's domain.
3. What's the three-year total? Up front, plus 36 months of whatever you pay monthly or yearly.
4. What can I change myself, and what does a change cost?
5. Who fixes it when it breaks, and how do I reach them?
6. What does it cost to leave, and what do I take with me?
7. Does it work properly on a phone? Many of your customers will see it on one.

Where 3 Wee Pages fits, honestly

3 Wee Pages sits between the two. You don't face a blank page or a drag-and-drop editor: you answer plain questions, choose one of six looks, and your three pages build from your answers as you go. You see all of them before you pay. Your Pal, a real person, checks the site before it goes live.

• £149 to launch, then £49 a year from year two: what's included.
• Nothing on your site advertises us. No badge, no footer credit, and our name isn't in your page titles: see how a site shows up on Google.
• A .co.uk registered in your name, with Nominet.
• You change your hours, services, wording and contact details yourself, from your account, and two reviews a year by your Pal are included.

It isn't the right choice if you need an online shop, bookings or a blog: a website builder or an agency will do those better. If you want three pages that turn a search into a phone call, without the evenings, try the designer. It's free, and nothing is saved until you carry on. Would you rather build it yourself? Here's how to make a website for a small business, whichever tool you use.