Comparison

SiteHike vs hiring a freelancer

What you gain and what you give up going with one person instead of a team.

The short version

A good freelancer can build you a very good website. The trade is not quality. It is coverage, and what happens in month four.

Some of the best sites we have seen in this trade were built by one person, so this is not a case against freelancers. It is a case about what a single point of failure costs when that site is also your main source of work.

Commonly $1,500 to $6,000 up front, with ongoing work quoted separately
Typical cost with them
No build fee, from $247 a month
What SiteHike costs

How each one works

Their approach

One person does the design, the build and usually the copy. You get a direct line to whoever is doing the work, which is genuinely better than being handed to an account manager.

The risk is concentration. One person gets busy, takes a holiday or goes back to full time work, and the site sits. Ongoing SEO and content are often outside the scope, so the site launches well and then stops improving.

Three things are worth asking before you sign with anyone, us included. Who owns the domain and the hosting account. What a change costs you a year from now. And whether the site is built on something that can be handed to somebody else if you part ways. Plenty of freelancers get all three right. Some build on a personal account with a template license that is awkward to move, and you only find that out on the day you try to leave.

Our approach

There are three of us, there are no account managers, and the work continues after launch. The website, the Google listing, the local SEO and the follow up are one system on one monthly fee, so nothing falls between two suppliers.

The practical difference is that there is no gap to fall into. The person writing your service pages is the same person watching the map rankings, so when a town slips it becomes a page rather than an email about whose job it was. You get a report every month either way, and when a month was quiet we say so.

The domain and the Google Business Profile stay in your name from the first day, and after the initial term the Webflow site is yours to take.

Who each one suits
  • Hire a freelancer for a one off build with a clear scope, when you have someone in house to keep it current.
  • Hire us when you want the site and the work that makes it rank handled together, and you do not want to chase anyone.
  • If you already have a freelancer you trust and the site is being kept current, stay with them. Paying two people to do one job helps nobody.

See what we would do with your site

A free audit of your website, your Google listing, and your local rankings. Then decide who you want building it.