The question is not really "which is cheaper"
Talk about a small business site almost always ends at price. How much will it take, how much will it need, where can it be done for less.
But for people whose site dies after a year, the problem was almost never the first cost. It was the second: prices have to change, new products have to go up, a Eid offer has to go in, and the person who built it is now busy.
So the real question of the decision can be said in one line: who will change this site six months from now?
If you know the answer to that, the rest gets easy.
When hiring a developer is really the right call
This needs saying first, because not every job is one to do yourself.
Hire a developer if:
- You need server code. Accounts for logged-in users, information stored in a database, direct connection to another company's software. These do not run inside the browser.
- It has to connect to accounting or inventory software. Making the site talk to a shop's POS or accounting software is a separate job.
- Many users will come at once and each has their own information. That is not a website, it is software.
- There are rules or licence obligations. Some businesses have specific rules about where data may be kept.
In these cases, wasting time trying it yourself means paying twice, because in the end you have to go to a developer anyway.
When building it yourself is the right call
The other side is just as clear. Build it yourself if the job of the site is:
- Introducing the shop or service, and keeping the address and phone number
- Showing a list of products or services with prices
- Keeping a form for orders or messages
- Showing photos, a menu, a rate card or a portfolio
- Taking booking or appointment requests
Most small business sites in Bangladesh fall inside this list. They do not need server code, and this is where the advantage of doing it yourself is biggest.
The advantage is not money, it is time. You do not have to phone anyone to change a price.
The cost that is not in the quotation
A quotation usually has the fee for building. What it does not have is the cost of changing, and after two years it is often the bigger one.
Think how many times a year you will need to touch the site:
- Price changes, two or three times a season
- New products or services, several times
- Eid or Puja offers
- A change of phone number or address
- Replacing old photos with new ones
If you have to chase someone else for each of these, the problem bigger than the cost is the delay. The offer starts on Friday and it goes on the site on Sunday, and that delay is the loss to the business.
The full five-year calculation, putting together the domain, hosting, the building fee and this fourth cost, is written up separately in how much a website costs per year.
Count the time too
Building it yourself does not mean free, there is a cost in time. The first time, it will take a few hours to set a site up and put your details in properly.
But it is not a one-time calculation. For those few hours the first time, you can make every change over the next two years yourself in minutes. For a person who never touches the site in a month, this calculation does not hold. For a person who changes a price or the stock once a week, it makes a big difference.
Ownership: this mistake is the costliest later
This gets talked about the least and hurts the most.
If a developer builds it, find out in writing at the start whose name these three things are in:
One, the domain. Is the domain registered in your own name and with your own email? In many cases the developer buys it in their own account, and later, if the relationship goes bad, the domain itself gets stuck. If the domain is stuck, you lose the address of your business.
Two, the hosting account. Do you have the login, or only they do?
Three, the site files. Is there a way for you to keep a copy? If not, the site is running without a backup.
The same questions apply if you build it yourself, only then the answers are in your own hands. The whole job of buying a domain and connecting it to a site in your own name is written up step by step in buying a domain and connecting it to your site.
You can combine the two paths
Many people assume the decision is one or the other. In fact a middle path is often the most useful.
Set up the ordinary part yourself: introduction, products, prices, form, photos. The day you really need something that cannot be done without a server, hire a developer for that one particular job.
There are two gains. One, no money goes on what you do not need. Two, when you go to the developer, you have a working site and a clear requirement in hand, and saying that makes the job smaller and cheaper.
Five questions before you decide
Ask yourself, and the answers will give you the decision:
- Will this site need user logins or a database? If yes, a developer.
- How many times a year will the text or prices change? If often, lean towards doing it yourself.
- Who do I go to for changes, and how fast can they do it? If you do not know the answer, that is the risk.
- Whose name will the domain and hosting be in? If the answer is not "mine", stop the talk here.
- If there is no contact six months from now, will the site still run? This is the most important question, and the least asked.
Questions and answers
Will it not look professional if I build it myself? Design and professionalism are not the same thing. A clean site where the price and phone number are easy to find and that shows properly on a phone does more than a much more expensive site. A buyer does not come to judge design, they come to look for information.
If a developer builds it, can I change it myself later? It depends on which system it was built with. Ask before work starts: "Can I change the text and prices myself, and how?" If the answer is vague, assume you will need them every time.
If two places quote two different prices, which is right? More important than the price is what is included. Find out in writing: how many pages, who supplies the text, who supplies the photos, how many changes are allowed, and after that what each change costs. Without these four, two quotations cannot even be compared.
How do I know whether server code is needed? A simple rule: if every user on the site has their own account and their own information, it is needed. If the site only shows information, shows photos and takes forms, it is not.
How hard is it to update it myself after building? Changing text, prices, phone numbers and photos is like typing into the boxes of a form. No coding is needed. Adding a whole new section is a separate job, but that too can be done by saying it in plain words.
In short
- The real question is not which is cheaper, it is who will change it six months from now
- If you need logins, a database or a link to other software, use a developer
- A site for introduction, prices, forms and photos is easier to build yourself
- A quotation has the building fee, and not the cost of changing
- Keep the domain, the hosting account and a copy of the files in your own name
- There is a middle path: the ordinary part yourself, the special job to a developer
- Before work starts, ask how many changes are included and what each one costs after that