What it is
A service where a site is assembled from ready blocks and lives on the service's servers for a monthly fee (Wix, Squarespace, Tilda and the like). Quick to start, but the site cannot be taken away and features are capped by the plan.
How we use it
We do not use them. We build sites on the client's own server: code and data belong to the client, and the only fee is the VPS. Why โ in the article "Your own server or a website builder".
When this choice comes up
- You need a site fast and cheaply, and a website builder is the first thing that comes to mind.
- You already have a builder site, but it has hit the plan's ceiling: orders into Telegram, your own discount logic or a CRM integration are unavailable or cost extra.
- The site runs in ads and must open instantly on a phone.
- You want the site to belong to you and survive a change of contractor.
Builder versus your own server
A builder is a rental: the site is assembled from the service's blocks and lives on its servers. Stop paying and the site goes off; want to move and you can take only the texts and images. Your own server is a small virtual machine registered to you: the site is written for the task, and its code sits in your repository with documentation.
How we use it
We do not use builders: we build sites on the client's server, either on Nuxt with a custom admin panel or on WordPress with our own theme.
- Lightness. The ยซะัั
ะฐะฝะธะต ะะพะฒะพะปะถััยป showcase is built for billboard traffic, almost always on a phone: no heavy page builders and no external fonts.
- Custom logic. The shirt store has stock by size and colour, wholesale prices, orders into Telegram and an owner's admin panel, things a builder either cannot do or offers "on a higher plan".
- One page instead of a long chat. Valery Afanasiev's business card is static files on nginx, with its own fonts and markup for search and AI.
More about websites and pricing under Websites and online stores.
Common problems when leaving a builder
- The code is not handed over. Texts and images can be extracted, the site itself cannot. It is rebuilt, this time so that it belongs to you.
- Search rankings. Old URLs are redirected to the new ones permanently, so you keep what search engines already know.
- Someone has to look after the server. Updates, backups, certificates, disk space. That is covered by a maintenance plan, not by hope.
- SEO limited by the plan. In a builder, titles, markup and files for AI are configurable only as far as the plan allows; on your own server, exactly as needed.
When a builder makes sense
When the site is temporary: a page for one event, a landing page for a month-long ad test, an idea you would not mind throwing away. Once a site brings in leads, runs in ads and lives for years, renting loses to your own server.