A site builder is essentially a complicated script that allows you to build a website yourself. It gives you a step-by-step wizard style interface to create HTML pages that you can use on your website or otherwise. It allows you to choose things like color, style, font, as you go through the process. Once you’ve done those things, you’ll have a finished product. This can be easy and quick to do compared to hiring a website developer, but it has many downsides. Some of which are;
1. You may not own the intellectual property rights to the code on your own website.
Some website builder websites, such as Squarespace, do not grant you the intellectual property rights to the HTML on the site. This means that you do not own the code for your website, ie. Squarespace owns it and gives it to you. They provide this expressly on their website in the Terms of Service; what does it say:
“Subject to the terms of this License, the Company grants you a personal, non-transferable, revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable limited license to (i) download, copy, modify, and display the Template, (ii) create Template Works, and ( iii) distribute the object code versions of Template Works to Third Party Users”
This means that you pay them money every month for ‘license fees’ – you could end up being banned from their system for whatever reason, or you could choose to switch providers and they could sue you for putting up the exact same website, with another provider. They may not, but they have a right to do so. This is extremely unfair, given the high price you pay for a service like Squarespace. Some of their plans cost $24 a month. At that price, if you paid for 2 years, you could own the full code and get a custom website, by a real human being. You could own all the IP rights to your own website, paying just 2 years, probably less if you get a better deal from a designer.
2. You don’t want to keep them forever, you want to cut costs.
If you had the code and intellectual property for the website, you could host it for just $3.96 a month, long term. Many reputable web hosting providers would give you hosting for $3.96 a month. It is much cheaper to have your own website designed and coded by a developer. If you had your website made by a developer, you could do it for $300-$500 and host it for $3.96 per month. If you did a 5-year hosting contract, you could do it for around $637, but if you have a website builder like Squarespace, you could end up spending $1440. That’s a whopping $803 savings!
3. Free advertising for the web builder.
Most web builders will create a free backlink on their website, this is very helpful to them from a search engine perspective. They get the good side of the deal from both ends. They not only charge you a huge amount of money, but also place links on client websites. This way they get publicity which, in turn, helps them get more customers.
If you spend money on building your brand and do some serious link building or search engine optimization for your website, it will end up being extremely expensive to do so, if you are doing it on borrowed land (i.e. on someone else’s intellectual property). another person). It’s always best to build your internet presence on your property, not someone else’s.
conclusion
The benefits of using a website builder are limited, such as cost: If you want a temporary website, like a conference or event website, a website builder is the way to go. But you should not use a website builder for a long-term website or a business website. Read and research before you buy.
