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Build your website yourself or have it built? Decide in 5 questions
Building it yourself takes roughly 20 to 40 hours; having it built by an agency costs €500 to €3,500 for a small site. Five questions help you choose what suits you.
Building your website yourself is a good choice if you have more time than budget, enjoy doing it and a simple site is enough. Having it built is better if your time earns more in your business, if your site has to win customers over, or if you don't want to keep it up to date yourself. For a small business site, count on 20 to 40 hours of your own work (our rough estimate, not an official figure), and the work doesn't stop once your site is online. Below, you'll find which choice suits you and what each option costs in time and money. At the end, there's a decision tree in five questions.
When is building it yourself a good idea?
Doing it yourself isn't a second-best option. It's a good fit if:
your budget is small but you have time, for example if you're starting a side business;
you enjoy moving blocks, colours and photos around;
your site is simple: a few pages and a contact form;
you want to test an idea before putting money into it.
If you have almost no budget, start with a free Google Business Profile, so your business shows up in Google Search and Maps (Google), plus your Instagram or Facebook. You can also have a site for free, on a website builder's free plan, but without your own domain name: on Webflow, for example, at an address like yourbusiness.webflow.io (Webflow).
Which tool suits whom?
Prices checked on 4 November 2026, excluding VAT unless stated otherwise.
A website builder such as Wix, Squarespace, Jimdo, one.com or Hostinger. Hosting (the place where your site lives on the internet), security and technical updates are included; you pick a template and fill it in. Squarespace Basic costs €12 a month on a yearly plan, including VAT (Squarespace). Hostinger costs €1.99 a month if you pay for four years in one go; after those four years, you pay €9.99 a month (Hostinger). Bear in mind that you're tied to the platform: a Wix site has to keep running on Wix's servers (Wix Help). If you switch later, you can take your texts and photos with you, but you have to rebuild the site.
Webflow. More design freedom, but you won't master it in one evening. Basic costs $15 a month on a yearly plan (about €13, plus VAT); with it you can make pages, but not articles or listings that you add to yourself. For that you need Premium, at $25 a month (about €22) (Webflow).
WordPress. The most flexible, with thousands of themes (designs) and plug-ins (add-ons). But you, or someone you pay, look after the hosting, the updates and the security.
A website builder with AI. Wix, Hostinger and one.com have AI that makes a first version. At Wix, the AI also writes the first texts and picks images; according to Wix, that gets you a site within a few minutes, which you then still need to adjust (Wix). The texts do stay generic, though: you add your prices, your area and your examples yourself.
Does your site consist mainly of photos, as for a photographer or a tradesperson showing their projects? Then pick a portfolio template, and have your photos resized for the web: large photos slow a site down.
What does building it yourself cost in money?
With a website builder, you pay each year for the plan (Squarespace Basic: €144, including VAT), your domain name (€10 to €30 for a .be, according to Digimi, in Dutch) and possibly a mailbox on your own domain. So count on about €155 to €175 a year, plus the mailbox. If you fall under Belgium's VAT exemption scheme for small businesses (in 2026: turnover below €25,000 a year), you can't reclaim VAT, so add 21% to every price excluding VAT (Securex, in Dutch).
How much time does building it yourself really take?
More than the ads promise. A first version takes minutes; a site that convinces customers doesn't.
Wix itself reckons on about 20 to 40 hours for a small business site, spread over a few weeks (Wix).
Network Solutions, another provider, estimates 10 to 20 hours with a website builder, and 20 to 40 hours or more with WordPress and a template (Network Solutions, 10 July 2026).
The texts alone take 10 to 30 hours if you write them yourself, according to a Belgian agency (Digimi, in Dutch).
Where does that time go?
choosing a tool and learning to use it;
deciding which pages you need;
writing the texts;
taking or finding photos;
connecting your domain name and email address;
the contact form and the mandatory details about your business;
testing on a phone;
the basics for Google: a title and description for each page, and your Google Business Profile.
Now weigh that against the value of your own time. In Flanders, a self-employed person works 45.7 hours a week on average (Statistiek Vlaanderen, in Dutch). If you work full time, thirty hours on your site is two thirds of such a working week. At €50 an hour, that's €1,500 worth of hours you can't invoice: about what an agency charges for a small site (€500 to €3,500, according to Digimi). If your business is a side activity, you build in the evenings and at weekends. Thirty hours is then three to four weekends, if you put in eight to ten hours each time: no lost income, but less free time.
When is it better to have it built?
Your time earns more in your business than the site costs.
Your site has to work in two or three languages. Translating is work, and it stays work: on Wix, a change in the main language isn't translated automatically (Wix Help), and on Webflow you pay per language, per month. More in Setting up a bilingual Dutch-French website.
Your site has to inspire trust: as an independent professional, as a tradesperson showing your work, or if you sell to other businesses. There, the structure and tone decide whether a customer trusts you.
You don't want to have to think about it once it's online.
You want to comply with the rules. In Belgium, your name, address, enterprise number and contact details must be on your site. In checks by the FPS Economy in 2024, these were missing on 47.7% of the websites and social media pages examined (Forum for the Future, in Dutch). If you use cookies that require consent, for example for analytics or advertising, you also need a cookie banner: see Do I need a cookie banner?
Having it built doesn't mean you can no longer do anything yourself. Ask explicitly for a site you can edit yourself, and ask what a change costs if you don't do it yourself. You'll find what else to look out for when having a site built in Affordable website: where can you safely save?
What still needs doing once your site is online?
A website is never finished. If you build it yourself, you do this yourself too:
Maintenance. With a website builder, the platform takes care of the technical side. With WordPress, it doesn't: WordPress, the theme and the plug-ins need updates, as does the software on your server. One example: PHP, the programming language behind WordPress, will stop receiving security updates for version 8.2 after 31 December 2026 (PHP). If you have someone else do the maintenance, it costs €40 to €150 a month (Digimi).
New texts. An old price or wrong opening hours cost you trust: set aside time to keep your site up to date.
Monitoring. Are enquiries coming in? Does Google find you? Google Search Console, a free tool from Google, shows which search terms people use to find you.
The decision tree: build it yourself or have it built?
Do you need an online shop? Yes: choose a platform made for that, on your own or with help. No: go to 2.
Can you spend €500 or more, or a fixed amount each month? No: start with a Google Business Profile and a free or cheap website builder, and build the site yourself. Yes: go to 3.
Do you have 20 to 40 free hours in the coming weeks, and do you enjoy this kind of work? No: have it built. Yes: go to 4.
Is your site simple: a few pages and a contact form? Yes: build it yourself, with a website builder. No: go to 5.
Can you keep up with the maintenance and new texts yourself? Yes: you can build it yourself, with Webflow or WordPress if you want more freedom. No: have it built, and choose an option with maintenance included.
Still unsure? Start small, with a website builder, and bear in mind that you can't take that site with you if you switch later.
If you enjoy building it yourself, a website builder works out cheaper. Kintsu doesn't build online shops. If you'd rather have it built but still want to make changes yourself, Kintsu sits in between: we build your site, and then you edit it yourself in a simple editor, or ask an AI assistant to do it. You pay a fixed monthly fee, with no setup fee. If you leave, your content and your domain stay yours, you get your site as files, and you can take the design with you after twelve paid months (see pricing).
Sources
All sources accessed on 4 November 2026.
Webflow, pricing (in US dollars, excluding VAT)
Squarespace, prices per currency (including VAT)
Hostinger, Website Builder (in Dutch)
Network Solutions, How long does it take to build a website? (10 July 2026)
Digimi, website prices (in Dutch, updated on 23 October 2026)
Securex, VAT exemption scheme for small businesses (in Dutch, 15 October 2026)
Statistiek Vlaanderen, weekly working hours (in Dutch)
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