Find out whether you need an agency or just a website builder.
Squarespace, Shopify and Wix are genuinely enough for a lot of businesses. askBizly will tell you if yours is one of them, and save you an agency invoice if so.
Free to use. Ask as much as you like.
Before I suggest anything — what would a good month look like, and what can you pay for a lead?
That’s workable. Here’s how:
- Understand your business, customers and objectivesWhat you sell, who buys, and where you want to get to
- Create your growth strategyWhere the £2.5k goes, and in what order
- Fix what’s holding you backThe changes you can make yourself
- Connect you with a partnerOnly if you need a specialist
AI built on real human expertise
askBizly applies the judgement of people who have grown businesses, led marketing teams and hired agencies — more than twenty years of it. Their criteria shape what it asks and how it answers.
A growth plan built for your business
Not a template. It asks what you sell, where you want to get to and what you have to spend, then sets out what to do, in what order, and what it should cost.
Partners aligned to your objectives
If you want help executing, askBizly briefs partners against the plan you just built — and says why each one fits. It is free to you; partners pay only when an introduction becomes work.
Start here
What’s the actual job for the website?
Pick the website problem that sounds like yours — then decide builder or agency from there.
Website builder or agency: how to decide
The honest answer for a large share of small businesses is that a website builder is enough, and the agency money would do more good spent on marketing. Very few agencies will volunteer this.
The line is functionality, not quality. Modern builders produce sites that load quickly, work properly on phones and look professional, which is most of what a business website has to do. What they cannot do is anything the platform has not anticipated — a booking system with your particular rules, a live feed from your stock system, a members area, pricing that varies by customer.
So the deciding question is not "how important is our website" but "does our website need to do anything unusual". If the answer is no, a builder plus a few hundred pounds of a designer's time to set up typography, photography and structure will get you a site that is hard to distinguish from a £5,000 one.
If the answer is yes, go to an agency, and go with the functional requirements written down — that is the conversation where budgets get decided. askBizly will help you work out which side of the line you are on before you start ringing round.
How it works
Work out whether you need an agency or just a website builder.
Describe what the site has to do. askBizly says whether a builder is enough, which one, and when paying an agency is the cheaper path.
Understand your business and your website goals
Your goals for your website, what you’re doing now and what you’ve got to work with — in your own words, one question at a time.
Work out what’s holding your website back
What you tell it — and any proposal, report or figures you share — is assessed against clear website criteria, with what’s known kept apart from what’s assumed.
Create your website strategy
An action plan, a budget, a review or a brief for your website — with its evidence, assumptions and limits shown.
Help you execute
Do it yourself, go back to your supplier with better questions, or look at website partners — you decide.
Fix the problem
Four ways askBizly can help you choose a website builder
Get a plan for what to build, a realistic DIY-versus-agency budget, a review of a builder or quote, or a brief if you do need a web partner.
Diagnosis
Most businesses do not need a custom website yet.
askBizly works out whether a builder can do the job you actually have — brochure, booking, store — and what will break first if you stay on templates.
- Builder versus agency decided against the job
- SEO, forms and speed checked as limits
- What you can launch yourself this month
Budget
Know what a builder costs versus an agency site.
Subscription plus a template is one number. An agency brochure site is another. askBizly puts the two next to each other, including the time you will spend learning the builder.
- Wix, Squarespace and Shopify subscriptions in context
- DIY time costed, not just the monthly fee
- When the agency quote is actually cheaper
Review
Check a builder choice, a template, or an agency quote.
Share what you are considering. askBizly looks at whether the platform can grow with you, what SEO you give up, and whether the agency is selling work a builder would do.
- Platform limits spelled out in plain English
- Quotes judged against a DIY alternative
- Questions to ask before you lock in
Partners
If a builder will not do, a clear brief for the agency that will.
When you have outgrown templates, askBizly turns the pages and budget into a brief and looks for web partners who fit. Nobody is contacted until you say so.
- You see the brief before anyone does
- You approve the brief first
- No obligation to hire
Website builder questions people ask first
For most small businesses, yes. A brochure site, a portfolio, a service business with a handful of pages, or a straightforward shop are all well within what Squarespace, Wix or Shopify handle, and the result loads fast and works on mobile without you maintaining anything. You outgrow a builder when you need custom functionality, unusual integrations with other systems, or fine control over page structure for competitive SEO.
Squarespace is the strongest all-rounder for service businesses and anyone who cares about the site looking considered without hiring a designer. Shopify is the clear choice if selling products is the main purpose. Wix offers the most flexibility and the most opportunity to make something that looks homemade. WordPress with a page builder is worth it only if you have someone to maintain it. If content and search traffic are central to your plan, Squarespace or WordPress will serve you better than the others.
Three things, mainly. Distinctiveness, because you are working from templates many other businesses also use. Technical ceiling, since anything the platform does not support is either impossible or a clumsy workaround. And portability, as moving a builder site elsewhere later usually means rebuilding it. In exchange you get a working site for a fraction of the cost, no maintenance burden, and the ability to change things yourself without raising a ticket.
Good enough for a local service business and a straightforward brochure site, yes — both produce clean pages Google can crawl, and you can edit titles and descriptions. They get weaker when you need unusual URL structures, a large blog, or fine control over technical SEO. If organic search is the main way you expect to grow, Squarespace or WordPress will usually serve you better than Wix. If you win work from referrals and the site is a brochure, SEO is not the deciding factor.
When you are paying for workarounds every month, when a feature you now need is not on the platform, or when the site has become the product and a template is holding the conversion rate down. Do not move because an agency said templates look cheap — that is often a sales line. Moving means rebuilding, so the new job has to be worth that cost. askBizly will tell you whether you have hit the ceiling or just hit a sales pitch.
Squarespace and Wix run about £12 to £25 a month, Shopify more once you add apps. A competent agency brochure site is £1,500 to £8,000 plus hosting. The hidden cost of the builder is your time learning it; the hidden cost of the agency is every change you cannot make yourself. For a five-page service site, the builder usually wins on money. For a site that has to sell every day, the agency can be cheaper than a year of struggling inside a template.
Yes. The advice is free for business owners and always will be. askBizly is paid by the partners it introduces, and only when you choose to be introduced. Nothing is sent to anyone and nobody contacts you until you say so.
Stop guessing. Start growing.
Describe what the site has to do. Free, with no agency contacting you unless you ask.