Where to start
If you’re not sure where to begin, that’s completely normal, and fear of making the wrong decision stops many people from progressing any further. There are a lot of options out there, and most of the information you’ll find online isn’t exactly impartial.
Before looking at specific platforms or tools, it’s worth spending a few minutes thinking about your own situation.
There are no right or wrong answers here. The idea is just to figure out what actually makes sense for you.
What do you need a website to do?
This is the most important question, and it’s worth being honest with yourself about the answer.
Most small business websites are doing one or more of these things:
Organise information – prices, services, availability. Somewhere to point people instead of repeating yourself.
Give credibility – a lot of people will look you up before they get in touch. A simple, clear website can make the difference between someone reaching out or moving on.
Be found – SEO matters, and the platform you choose can affect it. But how much it matters depends entirely on your market. A hairdresser in a specific town has a realistic chance of ranking well locally. Someone competing nationally in a crowded market is in a very different position. (More on this coming soon.)
Generate leads – worth mentioning, but also worth being realistic about. A website alone rarely generates leads. That’s a much bigger conversation involving SEO, content, paid ads, and time. If lead generation is your main goal, a website is just one small part of what you’d need.
Knowing which of these matters most to you will have a big effect on your decision – how much effort it needs, what platform makes sense, and how close to “perfect” you actually need to be.
What are you working with?
Budget – the more you’re willing to spend, the more flexibility you’ll generally get. But Done Is Better is focused on free and low-cost options – we’re not covering platforms with significant ongoing monthly costs like Shopify or Wix. That said, it’s worth thinking ahead. Some of the options we recommend, like Hostinger, offer strong deals for new users – sometimes with a locked-in price for a few years, before renewing higher. Worth knowing before you commit.
Time – some platforms can get you live in under an hour. Others have more of a learning curve. How much time you can realistically give this will affect which options make sense – and there’s no point choosing something that’ll sit half-finished because life got in the way.
Tech confidence – this isn’t about being good or bad with technology. It’s really about whether you’re happy to play around and troubleshoot. If something doesn’t work first time, are you willing to poke at it until it does? (One thing that can help with this – using ChatGPT or Claude to talk you through problems. More on that coming soon.)
A domain – if you don’t have one yet, it’s probably worth holding off until you’ve decided on a platform. Buying your domain through the same place can make things hook up more quickly and cleanly – even if you pay a fraction more. If you already have one, that’s generally fine – domains can usually be transferred without too much trouble. The main exception is Canva, which handles domains differently, and isn’t one we’d typically recommend anyway.
Email hosting – easy to overlook until it becomes a problem. If you’re on a free or very low-cost platform and you want a professional email address linked to your domain, you’ll likely need to pay for that separately. Some platforms do include it – Hostinger, for example, typically includes a free business email for the first year.
Branding – do you have a logo, colours, or fonts you want to stick to? Some platforms give you very little control over how things look. Soloist, for example, goes from free to £25 a month mainly to unlock proper branding options – which is a significant jump for what you get, even if it does let you host up to five sites.
How far are you thinking ahead?
Adaptability – is this a “just get me online” situation, or do you want something you can grow into? Some platforms are great for getting started but will limit you fairly quickly. Others give you more room to expand. It’s worth being honest about which camp you’re in – there’s no wrong answer.
E-commerce – do you need to sell anything directly through the site, even if it’s just a few products or services? Not all platforms handle this well at the low-cost end, and it’s much easier to factor in from the start than to bolt on later.
CRM and email marketing – will you want to collect enquiries, follow up with leads, or send emails to a list? Some platforms include basic tools for this. Others don’t. If it’s something you think you’ll use, it’s worth knowing before you choose.
Graphics and presentations – this might seem like an odd one, but it’s worth thinking about. Some platforms – Canva and Gamma, for example – are useful beyond just building a website. If you’d also pay to use them for social media graphics, presentations, or other content, that changes the value calculation quite a bit.