Every company striving to build and launch its online presence often struggles to choose between a website builder and a hand-coded solution. Both methods are efficient for website creation, though they possess several distinct features. Let’s discuss which method is better and in what situations.
Website builders are more often used for new project development because they provide preconfigured templates. Editor X, Tilda, Wix, Nicepage, Zyro, and many other modern platforms enable you to develop a simple yet easy-to-use and attractive website in just 1-3 days. Additionally, these builders can help save time and create an MVP to evaluate the efficiency of your idea and assess its performance.
Custom development involves a more thorough and personalized approach, typically achieved with the assistance of expert programmers. Creating a new web resource via custom development takes more time and is rather costly. Although, as a result, you get a thoroughly structured, complex website with maximum flexibility in functionality, architecture, and design.
When Is Website Builder Better?
The following situations let you choose any of the most reliable and functional website builders:
- You need to create and launch the website as fast as possible.
- The web project you are working with is simple (landing, portfolio, small blog, basic corporate website).
- Your budget is limited, and you have no prior coding experience.
- You do not need deep integration with the external systems.
When Is Custom Development a Smarter Choice?
In turn, custom development provides more technical possibilities, although it takes more time and money to be realized. It is recommended to choose custom development in the following cases:
- You plan to create a complex and flexible website with high performance and perfect code optimization.
- Requirements for a complex website’s architecture.
- Demand for a scalable web project (possibility to expand the website as it grows over time).
Comparing Main Parameters
To properly understand the differences between the two approaches, let’s discuss their basic parameters.
Price
Website builders provide free packages or paid solutions (from 20$ monthly, depending on the specified platform)
Custom development costs start from $1,000 and more, depending on the programmers’ skills and experience.
Launch speed
Builders allow you to create a new web project in 1-3 days.
Custom development takes from 1 to several months, depending on the project’s complexity.
Scalability
Builders are characterized by limited scalability options.
Custom website creation offers no limits and provides vast possibilities for structuring scalable web solutions.
SEO
SEO options in website builders are limited and vary across different platforms.
Custom development opens up a wide range of options for utilizing any SEO tools and functions to support your project.
Performance
Builders provide a standard security level, which always depends on the specific provider.
Custom development guarantees maximum safety of users’ interactions and data.
Benefits Of the Hybrid Approach
Each method of website building has its pros and cons: advantages and drawbacks. So, you should pick and utilize the best of them to build a stylish, functional, and thought-out resource.
The hybrid approach is your chance to choose something between web development and a website builder, combining these two methods into one efficient and flexible solution.
When one keeps the mentioned approach, the website is usually created in this way:
- The frontend or visual part (content blocks, menu, navigation, animations, buttons, and application forms) is structured in the website builder.
- Backend or internal processes (receiving, calculating, and processing data) are handled by competent programmers, external APIs, and servers.
Combining Nicepage templates with backend APIs is a vivid example of the hybrid approach mentioned. As a result, your visitor sees attractive visuals created through the website builder and can utilize its interface elements. For instance, – request form. Website builder transfers the data provided by visitors through an API. Furthermore, it is received by the server and recorded within your CRM system. At the end of this chain, the manager gets a notification about a new request.
You Decide What Is Best
Each of the reviewed methods of website structuring has its advantages and strong sides. Select one of the options, taking into account the required speed of launch, budget, and complexity of the future web resource. Nowadays, the hybrid approach yields the most beneficial results, combining the most valuable features of website builders and individual development.