How to choose a web designer
Choosing a web designer shouldn't be complicated, but most advice makes it worse. You'll read that you need to check portfolios, ask about processes, review testimonials – all true, but none of it helps you make the fundamental decision first: hire a freelance designer, pay agency prices, or buy a template and try to figure it out yourself? I've been doing this for over 20 years, and I still see people waste money because they chose the wrong approach for their situation, not because they chose the wrong designer.
This isn't really about quality. You can get excellent work from a freelancer or terrible work from a big agency. You can build a perfectly good site with a template or end up with an expensive mess. The question isn't which option is best – it's which one actually fits your project, your budget, and how you prefer to work.
What you're actually choosing between
A freelance web designer is one person handling your project. An agency is a team with different specialists and project managers coordinating everything. A template is something you set up yourself, or pay someone to customise for you. Most small businesses end up choosing between a freelance designer and a template, because agency pricing doesn't make sense until your project gets quite large or complex.
The mistake I see most often is people assuming bigger is automatically better, or cheaper is automatically smarter. A friend of mine spent £15k with an agency on a site that I would have built for £4000, and it wasn't any better – it just had more people in meetings. On the other hand, I've seen business owners waste weeks trying to make a £200 template do something it was never designed to do, when hiring someone would have been faster and cheaper overall.
When to hire a freelance web designer
You should hire a freelance designer when your budget is somewhere between £1500 and £10k, you want to work directly with the person actually building your site, and you need someone who understands that your website exists to help your business, not to win design awards. Most small business websites, portfolios, and even straightforward e-commerce sites fit this perfectly well.
The real advantage isn't just price, though freelancers are typically more accessible than agencies. It's that you work with the same person from start to finish. When you email me with a question, I answer it – I was in the original meeting, I know why we made certain decisions, and I don't need to check with anyone else before responding. There's no sales person handing you off to a designer who hands you off to a developer who hands you off to a support team. It's just simpler, and simpler usually means faster and less frustrating.
Freelancers also tend to be more honest about what you actually need, because we're not trying to hit monthly revenue targets. If you're asking for something that won't help your business, I'll tell you. If there's a simpler solution, I'll suggest it. I make my living from clients coming back and referring other people, not from maximising the size of individual projects.
The limitation is capacity and specialisation. I can't handle a project that needs five different specialists all working at the same time, and I can't do everything – I focus on Kirby CMS development, design, and front-end work, but I'm not a database architect or a native mobile app developer. For most business websites, this isn't a problem. For some projects, it is. Typical timeline is two to eight weeks depending on complexity. Typical cost is £2500 to £7500 for most of what I do, though it can go higher for e-commerce or more involved builds.
When you might need an agency
Agencies make sense when your project genuinely requires multiple specialists working together simultaneously – not just one after another, but actually coordinating at the same time. Large platforms with complex integrations, sites that need legal compliance review, projects with multiple stakeholders who all need regular updates and documentation. If you're spending over £15k and you need that kind of structure and oversight, agencies have the resources and processes to handle it.
The trade-off is cost and layers of communication. You'll pay two to five times what you'd pay a freelancer for similar work, and you'll spend more time in meetings with project managers. That overhead makes sense for complex projects. For a standard business website, it usually doesn't. I'm not saying agencies do bad work – they don't – but they're structured for a different scale of project than most small businesses need.
When templates work (and when they don't)
Templates make sense when you genuinely need something basic and cheap, and you're willing to live with the limitations. A simple site for a new business while you figure out if the business will work. A portfolio to show your work while you focus on actually getting clients. Something to point people to that's better than nothing.
The advantage is obvious: you can have a site up in a few days for a few hundred pounds. The disadvantage is less obvious until you hit it. Templates are built for everyone, which means they're optimised for no one in particular. You'll spend hours trying to make it do something it wasn't designed for, you'll compromise on functionality because the template doesn't support what you actually need, and you'll end up with a site that looks like dozens of others in your industry because they're all using the same template with different colours.
Templates also have a habit of accumulating hidden costs. That plugin you need requires a paid upgrade. The feature that should work needs custom code you have to hire someone to write. The change that should be simple requires a developer because you can't access that part of the template. A year later, you've often spent as much as you would have hiring someone to build it properly in the first place, and you still have a site that's compromised.
Use templates when you're genuinely constrained by budget and you understand what you're giving up. Don't use them because you think they're 'good enough' when what you actually need is a site that works the way your business works. I'm not against templates – I've used them myself for internal projects – but they have a specific use case, and 'I want a professional website but cheaper' usually isn't it.
What actually matters when choosing
Forget the marketing claims. Ignore award badges on portfolios. Don't get distracted by anyone's 'proprietary process' or 'unique methodology'. Every designer has a process – some are better than others, but it's not what determines whether you get a good website. Focus on whether they understand what you're trying to achieve, how you'll actually work together, and what happens after launch.
First, does this person or team understand what you're trying to do? Not just the website itself, but what the website needs to accomplish for your business. If someone isn't asking you about your customers, your competitors, and how you actually make money, they're probably focused on making something that looks good rather than something that works. Both matter, obviously, but working matters more.
Second, will working with them be straightforward or annoying? The best designer in the world is useless if you can't reach them when you need them, if they're unclear about timelines and costs, or if you just find them difficult to communicate with. You don't need to be friends, but you should be able to have a normal conversation about what you need without it turning into some elaborate consultant-speak performance.
Third, what happens after the site launches? Websites need updates, fixes, and changes. Make sure you understand who handles that, whether it's included, and how quickly they respond. I offer monthly management plans for clients who want ongoing support, but the important thing is knowing what you're getting before you commit to working with anyone.
Questions to ask
Ask these questions directly, whether you're talking to a freelancer, an agency, or someone setting up a template for you. The answers matter more than which category they fall into.
What's your actual process from brief to launch, and who will I be working with at each stage? This tells you whether they have a real process or just make it up as they go, and whether you'll be passed between different people or working with the same person throughout.
What CMS do you recommend for my project and why? Anyone who immediately says 'WordPress' without asking about your specific needs isn't really thinking about your situation. I use Kirby CMS for most projects because it's more secure, faster, and easier to manage than WordPress, but the right answer depends on what you actually need. The point is they should have a reason beyond 'it's what I always use'.
What's included in your price and what costs extra? Vague answers here mean surprise invoices later. You should know exactly what you're getting: design, development, content entry, training, hosting setup, or whatever else. If something important isn't included, that's fine – you just need to know upfront.
How many rounds of revisions are included, and what happens if I need more? Design requires iteration – you're not going to get it perfect on the first try. Make sure you understand how feedback and changes work before you start, not when you're halfway through and discover you've used up your included revisions.
What support do you provide after launch? Something will need fixing or updating eventually. Know whether that's included, charged hourly, or requires a separate support plan. I include basic fixes for the first month after launch, then charge hourly or offer monthly plans depending on what makes sense for the client.
Making the decision
Most small businesses are choosing between a freelance designer and a template. If your budget is under £1000, templates might be your only realistic option – just go in with your eyes open about the limitations. If you can stretch to £2500 or more, hiring a freelancer will almost always get you something better that actually fits your business properly.
Agencies make sense at a different scale. If you're spending £15k or more and you need multiple specialists coordinating together, that's when agency structure starts to justify the premium. For a standard business website or portfolio, you're mostly paying for overhead you don't need.
I'm obviously biased – I'm a freelancer, and this is how I make my living. But I've also turned down projects because they weren't a good fit, and I've referred people to agencies when that made more sense for their situation. The worst outcome isn't hiring the wrong category of designer – it's ending up with a website that doesn't actually help your business because you made the decision based on price alone or because someone sold you something you didn't need.
If you're not sure what makes sense for your project, get in touch. I'm happy to discuss what you actually need, whether I'm the right person to build it, and if I'm not, I'll tell you that too.