Build the website yourself or hire a studio? The real cost
Written by Temei · Updated · 6 min read
TL;DR
- There are three routes to a website: a drag-and-drop platform, a self-hosted WordPress build, or hiring a studio. All three can produce a site that works; what differs is whose time it consumes.
- Do not compare them on the up-front design fee. Add up the full 24-month cost, and include your own time in it — a line no supplier will quote for you.
- Building it yourself is right when you need to test an idea quickly and can live with a site that looks like many others. Hiring out is right when the website sits on the path the money takes.
Three ways to get a website
A drag-and-drop platform. You pay a monthly subscription, pick a template, and swap in your own words and pictures. Hosting, the security certificate and updates are handled for you. In exchange you work inside their template system, and moving the site elsewhere later depends on what that platform lets you export.
A self-hosted WordPress build. Open source, no licence fee for the core, but you rent the hosting, choose the theme and plugins, apply the security updates and take the backups yourself. You can change anything in the code, and you also have to remember the update schedule yourself.
Hiring a studio. You describe the goal; the studio handles design, engineering, optimisation and handover. You pay for the work up front, and your own hours go into briefing, reviewing content and sign-off rather than into building; crucially, you should receive the source code and control of the domain when it ends.
A 24-month cost worksheet
The table below deliberately has no numbers filled in, because subscription, hosting and domain prices are set by each provider and change over time. Look up the current prices yourself and fill them in; the studio column already carries Temei's published starting figures so you have one fixed reference point.
| Cost over 24 months | Drag-and-drop platform | Self-hosted WordPress | Hiring a studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | Subscription × 24 months | No core licence fee | No core licence fee |
| Hosting | Depends on the subscription — check for yourself | Hosting fee × 24 months | Depends on the infrastructure you pick |
| Domain | Annual fee × 2 | Annual fee × 2 | Annual fee × 2 |
| Design | Free or one-off paid template | Paid theme and plugins | From 1,888,000₫ (landing page) or from 5,000,000₫ (company website) |
| Your own time | Hours to build × what an hour of yours is worth | Hours to build, update and back up × what an hour is worth | Meetings, content review and sign-off |
| Maintenance and security | Handled by the platform | Yours, or outsourced | Optional, from 500,000₫/month |
| Cost of leaving | Depends on whether the platform lets you export | You can take the code and data | You can take the code if the contract says so |
How to use it: put real figures in every cell, total each column, then divide by 24 to get a monthly cost per route. For the "your own time" row, estimate the hours honestly and multiply by what an hour of your working time is worth — if that hour would otherwise be spent selling, that is the real price.
When building it yourself is the right call
When you are testing an idea and do not yet know whether anyone wants it. A page thrown together on a drag-and-drop platform is enough to run a few trial ads against.
When the budget is zero but the time exists, and you genuinely enjoy tinkering. Being able to fix your own website is a skill that keeps paying out.
When the website is a business card: one page, contact details, a map. If nobody makes a buying decision based on that page, deep investment is premature.
When hiring out is the right call
When the website sits on the path the money takes — you run ads that point at it, or prospects decide whether to contact you after reading it. Every click costs something now, and a slow page or a muddled message is a measurable loss.
When you need the SEO structure right from the beginning. Rewriting URL structure and heading hierarchy after a site has been indexed means redoing work you have already done, plus a redirect map on top.
When your time is worth more than the price difference. Estimate the evenings you would spend, multiply by what an hour of yours is worth, and set that beside the difference.
When you need a clean handover: source code, registrar access, documentation. That belongs in a contract rather than in a promise.
Five questions that settle it
- Does this website sit on the path a customer takes to a buying decision?
- How many hours do you expect to spend, and what is an hour of yours worth?
- Six months from now, who updates the content, and do they have the time?
- If you wanted to move elsewhere, what could you take with you?
- How much longer does this site need to keep running?
The worksheet and these five questions cover different halves, and this article does not join them up for you. The worksheet totals what can be priced: subscriptions, hosting, the domain, the design fee. The five questions above are about what no worksheet can price on your behalf — what your time, your risk and your attention are worth. Fill in all three columns, set the three totals side by side, and read them next to your own answers.
Frequently asked questions
Does building it myself hurt my SEO?
Not by itself. What matters is the structure and speed of the finished page, whoever built it. Grade your own page against an SEO checklist rather than against who made it.
If I move off a drag-and-drop platform, will I lose rankings?
There is a risk, and you reduce it by keeping the existing URL structure or setting up a 301 redirect from every old path to its new one. Export the list of current URLs before you start, and make the redirect map a named deliverable for whoever builds the replacement.
If I hire someone, can I still edit the content?
Yes, if you ask for that when the scope is agreed. Temei hands over instructions for the content you can change yourself — headlines, prices, images and forms. Ask specifically which parts you can edit yourself and which need a developer, before you sign.
If you want the middle path — hire for the part that matters most to you, keep the rest in-house — a dedicated campaign page is a sensible place to start: see the landing page design service from 1,888,000₫, delivered in 3–5 business days with instructions so you can keep it updated afterwards.