This could easily be turned into some lengthy article. However, we've got the very basic pro's and con's below. Along with some final ending thoughts near the end. Please feel free to add your own comments and questions.

Pros:

1. Ease of starting
2. Get started quickly
3. You (kinda) have control over your website
4. Free Templates
5. Great initial experience
6. It IS possible (for the most part) to make edits yourself

Cons:

1. Very little customization
2. Free Templates
3. Migration can be extremely difficult if not impossible without requiring a full site rebuild
4. Free version will have their logo plastered all over it
5. Shows lack of commitment
6. Creates commitment
7. Technical backup or customer service is slim
8. Typically price increase after introductory year
9. You do not own the code
10. Hidden costs if future growth is needed
11. Typically not SEO friendly
12. Transitions from the free domain name to
13. Limited functionality - Trade of ease of functionality implementation for ability to add a selected few with little or no technical skill
14. 'Templatey' feel no matter what you really do to it

In the end, you really have to decide for yourself (don't you hate when someone is supposed to tell you what to do and they say this?). We've tried to keep it as unbiased as possible. Is going with a website builder a good choice? That's really up for you to decide. If you're just wanting to test the water and put your very tippity toe in when it comes to your company, then a web builder may be just what you're looking for.

If you have even the smallest inkling of dedication that you'll be wanting to do this in the long run it might be worth the extra time, effort, and expense to invest in a solid quality web design so that you can be sure that your online presence will have the ability to grow with you. Because in the end, you may end up just spending a ton of money trying to rebuild your fancy web builder site all over again.

There are tons of resources online that give you the ability to completely build your own site. It may not be fast, and it may not be easy, but hey, you'll learn a ton of cool stuff along the way! One of the biggest drawbacks that we believe there may be is the questionable ability to do any serious SEO, and you can have all the websites you want but without SEO you mine as well just write some content in a word doc and leave it on your desktop. Because nobody is going to find it anyways without some search engine optimization tweaking. If you decide to go the self build route or you got a site up and running it would be worth reading our article on basic SEO that anyone can do (almost literally). It's free, effective, and doesn't cost any money. We even provide a checklist to make it nice and easy.

Remember, a good general rule to go by in web design (and pretty much in life) is, 'the easy way is hardly ever the correct way.'

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