"5 pages for $100." Read the second year.
Page builders aren't a scam — they're a subscription with a website attached. The $100 is usually the entry price, and the monthly fee is the business model. Below is a calculator so you can put your numbers in and see the three-year total, what your time is worth, and what you own at the end. And here's the part the ads skip: put typical numbers in — a $20-ish subscription, an app or two, a couple of your weekends — and the DIY route lands near $1,650 over three years. The same site from me lands near $645, and only about $595 of that is cash. Cheaper than DIY in money, not just in hours — and at the end you own the files. I'm not going to pretend I'm cheaper at absolutely everything; the calculator below is where you check me on it.
This little sky is live. It finds your area, pulls a forecast and draws the weather outside your window — sun, cloud, rain, storm, stars — from code I wrote myself.
On a page builder, that's an embed app at $5–$15 a month, and it looks like everybody else's. Here it's just part of the site.
The true-cost calculator
Drag the sliders. Nothing is saved, nothing is sent anywhere, no email needed. The numbers are yours to argue with — including with me.
DIY page builder
$1,652 over 3 years, including your timeBuilt & kept by JMI
$645 over 3 years, one price up front or $1,689 with the optional $29/mo care plan includedWhat you own at the end
Builder: an account. Stop paying and the site usually stops existing; moving it elsewhere means starting again.JMI: a domain in your name, a hosting account in your name, and the site files. Take them anywhere. I'll even help you move.
Side by side
Ten things that actually decide it. I've kept the builder column fair — I've used plenty of them, and they're good at what they are.
| DIY page builder | Built & kept by JMI | |
|---|---|---|
| Up front | Low, sometimes free — and a weekend of your life | $150 starter if your content is ready; anything bigger is one flat number after a phone call |
| After that | A subscription that runs forever and rises when they decide | About $15 a year for your domain. Hosting free. Care plan optional. |
| Who builds it | You, after work, inside a template | Me, by hand, with you on the phone |
| The words | You write every page — the part most people stall on | I write them with you, in the order customers actually read |
| What you own | An account on somebody's platform | The domain, the hosting account and the files, in your name |
| When it breaks | Help centre, community forum, ticket queue | My mobile. Same day on the care plan. |
| Custom features | Whatever the template allows — anything else is a paid app | I write the code: booking, calculators, dashboards, Python automation |
| Speed & search | Heavy template, generic markup, everybody's structure | Lean hand-built pages, real structured data, sitemap, fast loads |
| Your time | 10–30 hours, and more every time you change something | About an hour on the phone, then it's done |
| Who you're dealing with | A company with a few million customers | One local person whose reputation is his phone number |
How I'm cheaper than DIY — and where I'm not
Low prices usually mean a catch, so here's the whole trick:
- Hosting is genuinely free. Hand-coded sites live on Cloudflare Pages' free tier. There's no server bill to pass on — that's the $0 line in the breakdown above.
- No office, no staff, no reseller markup. Domains go in at what they cost me, about $15 a year, in your name.
- No app store. Booking, galleries, calculators, forms — I write them, so there's no $10-a-month plugin per feature.
- The code is written once, by hand. Nothing to renew, nothing to upsell you out of.
The one price I can't beat is $0. Free builder tiers exist, and if your budget is genuinely zero and you have spare evenings, use one — a site that exists beats a site you can't afford. Everything below still applies the day you outgrow it.
When the builder is genuinely the better choice
I'd rather tell you this than lose your trust for a job you'd have hated paying for:
- You enjoy building things and want a drag-and-drop editor you can change at 10pm without calling anybody.
- Your content changes daily — menus, stock, listings — and you want to edit it all yourself.
- You're testing an idea and want the cheapest possible way to see if anyone cares.
- You need features at real scale — a big store, hundreds of products, multi-staff logins. A specialist platform does that better than one person can.
- You have more time than money and the trade is worth it to you.
If any of those is you, say so on the call and I'll point you at the right tool instead of selling you a website.
Five questions to ask anyone selling you a website
Ask me these too. Write the answers down — including mine.
-
What does it cost in year two?
Not the launch price — the price twelve months from now, with every app and add-on you'll actually need. Get it in writing.
-
Whose name is the domain in?
If the answer is "ours, and we'll point it at your site", you don't have a website — you have a favour that can be withdrawn.
-
Can I take the files and leave?
A straight yes, with no exit fee and no rebuild. Anything else is a lock.
-
What happens when something breaks?
Who answers, how fast, and does it cost extra. "Submit a ticket" is not an answer when your phone should be ringing.
-
Can it do the one thing my business needs?
Online booking, a quote calculator, a members area, a Python script that does your invoicing. Ask for that specific thing, not a feature list.
My answers, for the record: year two costs about $15 for your domain (plus $29 a month only if you want the care plan); the domain, hosting and files are in your name from day one; yes, take them and go, and I'll help you move; my mobile answers, same day on the care plan; and the custom thing is the part I like most — see the Labs page for working examples.
What the extra money actually buys
Not "premium service". Specific things, that a template can't do.
Code that's yours
Hand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript — no proprietary editor, no licence, no platform deciding what your site is allowed to be.
Live features, not embeds
The weather sky on this page, the health monitor on the care page, the quote calculator — all written for your business, no monthly app fee.
Python behind the scenes
Scripts that sort your files, build your reports, clean your spreadsheets or check your site while you sleep. Automation a page builder can't reach.
Search engines can read it
Proper headings, structured data, a sitemap, fast loads and honest local signals — the boring stuff that decides whether Panama City finds you.
It works on a 2016 Android
Your customers aren't all on the newest iPhone. Lean pages load on old phones and bad signal, which is exactly when someone needs your number.
Somebody to blame
One person, one number, local. If it's wrong, you know exactly who to call — and he's the one who wrote it.
Questions
Are you saying website builders are bad?
No. They're a fine product for what they are, and for some businesses they're the right answer — there's a list above of exactly when. What I'm saying is that "$100 for 5 pages" describes the first invoice, not the next three years, and it doesn't tell you what you'll own at the end.
Why don't you name the builders you mean?
Because their prices change every few months and I'm not going to publish a number that's wrong by the time you read it. Put the price you were quoted into the calculator — that's the number that matters for your decision.
Am I locked in with you?
No. There's no contract on anything. Your domain, hosting account and files are in your name, and the care plan is monthly — stop it and your site carries on working exactly as it is.
What if I already built a site on a builder?
Send me the address. I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth moving, worth leaving alone, or worth putting on the care plan as it is. Sometimes "leave it" is the right answer and I'll say so.
Can you make my site do something a template can't?
That's the interesting work. Booking, quote calculators, customer dashboards, Python automation, connecting two systems that don't talk. Describe the annoying part of your week and I'll tell you whether it's buildable — and what it would cost.
Bring me the quote you were given
Text me what they charged and what it includes. I'll tell you plainly whether I can beat it on value — or whether you should just take it.
Prefer to read it as a guide? Website builder or web developer — the free guide.