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Build it yourself or hire it out?
What each one really costs, counted in hours
Building your own first website takes most owners forty to sixty hours spread over several months, and the result usually still needs work on mobile, speed and security. Hiring it out costs money instead of evenings. The right answer depends on which of the two you have more of.
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How long does building your own website take?
Expect forty to sixty hours for a first site: choosing a tool, learning it, writing the text, sourcing images, laying out each page, then testing it on a phone. Most of that is not design work. It is the second and third pass, after you see what looks wrong on a small screen.
What does doing it yourself actually cost?
The subscription is the small part. Add the domain, a template, stock images and any paid add-on, then the hours themselves. At even a modest value on your own time, forty hours is worth more than a finished website costs, and the hours come back every time something needs changing.
Side by side
| What you are comparing | Doing it yourself | Hiring Strivon |
|---|---|---|
| Your time | 40 - 60 hours, then hours whenever it changes | Two conversations and a review |
| Money | Subscription, domain, add-ons, monthly | €450 - €1500 once |
| Skills you need | Layout, copywriting, images, mobile testing, SEO basics | None |
| Keeping it working | Yours: updates, backups, SSL, broken links | Included |
| Where it usually ends up | Live, then not updated again | Maintained as the business changes |
What do people get wrong building their own site?
Four things, almost every time: the site looks right on a laptop and wrong on a phone, images go up at full size so pages load slowly, there is no SSL certificate so browsers warn visitors, and the page structure gives search engines nothing to read. None of them are obvious from the editor - they only show up in what customers do next.
When does hiring out pay off?
When your hours are worth more spent on customers than on a page editor, when the site has to be trusted with money or personal details, or when you have already built one yourself and watched it go stale. If you enjoy the building and have the evenings, doing it yourself is a perfectly good answer.
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Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to build my own website?
In money, yes. In total cost, usually not. A builder subscription plus domain runs €200 to €600 a year forever, and the forty to sixty hours of your own time do not appear on any invoice. A Strivon site is €450 to €1500 once, with hosting and support included.
Can I build the site myself and have Strivon maintain it?
Yes. Strivon can take over an existing website, move it onto its own VPS hosting and keep improving it, including backups, security updates, an SSL certificate and unlimited support. You do not have to rebuild from scratch to hand over the maintenance.
How long does Strivon take to build a website?
The process is consultation and design, a written agreement, development, then testing and launch together. Your own involvement is two conversations and a review round. We agree the timeline in the first conversation, before anything is built or paid for.
Get your evenings back
Tell us what the site needs to do. You get a fixed price and a clear plan before anything is built.
Free and no obligation. We reply within one working day.