Website Builder.

Builders have greatly lowered the barrier to having your own website. You choose a template, replace text and images, connect the domain and you are online. For a sole trader who needs a business card on the web, for a club or association, or for a first test of a business idea, that is a reasonable route: low costs, no dependence on an agency and full control over the content.

The limits appear as soon as the website is meant to win customers. Builders often generate heavy HTML and a lot of JavaScript, which weighs on loading time on smartphones. Control over technical SEO details — page structure, structured data, canonicals, redirects, image formats — is restricted or locked behind more expensive subscription tiers. Custom functions such as calculators, configurators or connections to CRM and accounting are only possible via external widgets.

The most important point is switching. A builder website can generally not be exported and run elsewhere; design and structure are tied to the platform. Anyone who moves later rebuilds the site and has to redirect every old address to the new structure via 301 redirect to keep their rankings. That is doable, but it should be considered from the start.

Webflow occupies a special position: it is aimed at designers, offers more creative freedom and cleaner code than typical builders, but also requires more learning. For many SMEs the question in the end is not 'builder or agency' but 'what website do we need for our goal, and who will maintain it?'.