Website Design – DIY vs. Outsourcing

Image via Megapixl stock photos

Website design is critical in today’s digital world. A website that is designed well can be successful and can get more visitors. Website design allows a business to create a great user experience, which is the key to success. Every business needs to try and ensure a great design for its website.

There are two options for website design. One is DIY (Do It Yourself) where you do the design yourself using resources you have. The other option is to outsource to a website design agency who can do a professional job. When you outsource, you need to spend money, whereas DIY hardly costs anything.

So, which is a better option? Should you choose DIY or outsourcing? Go through our detailed analysis and decide the best option for you.

DIY – Pros and Cons

In DIY, you will use your skills to create your website. You can do the design on your own or use a tool like a website builder. The other option is to use an in-house resource or appoint someone to do the design.

The pros of DIY web design are:

1. It saves a lot of money. Since you are doing it yourself, you won’t be spending money. Even if hire a designer, they will work for you full-time, and you can utilize them for other work.
2. The entire control of the website design is with you. There is no dependency on anyone. You can decide the website design exactly as you want since you are doing it yourself. All the content, layout, and stock photos are entirely up to you from the start.
3. You are the expert in your field. So, when you do the website design you know what you want and can do it through your design.
4. You know the goals of your website. Since you know what you want to achieve, you are the best person to do the design.

The cons of website design done by you are:

• You don’t have experience in website design. So, what you are doing is an amateur job. It will definitely not be as good as the design done by experienced website designers. You may need to improve your skills or get trained to be able to do this work.
• Your workload and responsibility would be increased. Apart from your regular work, you also need to do a new job. This takes time and effort. It also puts more pressure on you.
• You will only look at the website design from your point of view. You will not look at it from an external POV. This is where a professional agency scores.
• When you choose DIY, there are many limitations. You don’t have the tools to do professional design, neither do you know the techniques. For example, you may not be as well versed in SEO as a professional. You may not be able to get the best results through your work.

Outsourcing – Pros and Cons

With outsourcing, you hand over the entire website design work to a professional agency or a freelance designer. They would be experienced and have specialized knowledge. This would ensure that the work produces good results. However, it calls for expenses since they need to be paid their professional fees.

Pros of outsourcing:

• When you outsource your work to an agency or a freelancer, you are getting professional work done. You will obviously choose someone with experience and expertise. They know the in and out of website design. Most importantly, they know what the end user wants and will give you a website that users would like.
• Professional designers are well-versed with various design tools and technologies. They also know the techniques involved in design. This will help them design the best website for you. They would have expertise in SEO and can help you get a higher ranking for your website on Google search.
• If you design a website yourself, you will need a lot of time. Professional designers are fast, since they are well-experienced. They can do the entire work very fast while ensuring all your needs are met.
• The quality of the website will be top-class. Professional designers would have designed similar websites and understand the market. They would create a website that is line with latest trends. Their design would be attractive, have a good user interface and ensure users have a great user experience.

Cons of outsourcing:

1. The biggest problem with outsourcing is that you need to spend money. A professional agency would charge you fees. If you want a good agency with expertise, then you need to pay more. The money you pay would be proportional to the results you want. If you want quality, then you need to pay for it. Small businesses may face a problem getting the funds for it.
2. You won’t have control over the design process. As the client, you will state your need. You can also review the work done, and final approval is with you. But, the entire process of design is not in your control. As a business person, you may want to be in charge of the process. But that won’t happen when you outsource.
3. There are many agencies in the market. Choosing the best agency can be a problem. If you make a mistake and select the wrong agency, you won’t get good results. You may need to redo the work done and end up spending more time and money.

DIY vs. outsourcing – what to choose?

You should be able to decide the best option after having gone through the pros and cons. If you want the best website design, then you can choose outsourcing. But then you need to spend money and need a budget for it. Doing it yourself will give you control over the process and save money. But then, you need to spend a lot of time and effort. You can never get the same result as professionals do.

From this, it is very clear that if you are ready to spend money and want quality you must outsource to professionals. If you do not have the budget, then the only option is to learn design and do it yourself.