You can hire someone to build a website in five places: a freelance marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr, a local web design studio, an agency that specializes in your industry, a directory run by a website builder, such as the Wix Marketplace, or a managed service that builds the site and then keeps running it for a monthly fee. Which one is right depends less on the build than on what happens after it. Somebody has to keep the site fast, fix what breaks and add pages as the business changes; decide who that is before you decide who builds it.
The five options side by side
| Where to hire | Good fit for | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance marketplace (Upwork, Fiverr) | A small, clearly defined site when you can manage the project yourself | Quality varies widely. Support after launch depends on one person staying available. |
| Local web design studio | Companies that want to meet in person and have a custom design | Many studios design well and stop at launch. Ask who writes the content and who handles search. |
| Industry-specialist agency | Companies that want a team that already knows their buyers and services | Usually higher cost. Check that the sites in their portfolio still load quickly today. |
| Website builder directory (Wix Marketplace) | A simple site on a platform you'll keep editing yourself | You're tied to that platform. Moving later means rebuilding. |
| Managed website service | Owners who want the site built and then looked after every month | A monthly fee and usually a term. Read what's included and what isn't. |
What it costs to keep someone in-house
Some owners consider hiring a web person on staff. For a sense of scale, the median pay for web developers and digital designers was $99,520 a year in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or $47.85 per hour. That's before benefits. For a company with one website, it rarely adds up, unless the site is the product.
Outside help is cheaper. It's also easier to get wrong.
How to check a builder before you sign
Look at their live work, on your phone
Portfolios show screenshots. Ask for the web addresses of three sites they built in the last two years, open each on your phone, and see whether it loads fast and reads well. Then run them through Google's free PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting. If their own clients' sites fail, yours probably will too.
Ask the questions Google suggests
Google publishes a list of questions to ask before hiring an SEO, and most of them work just as well for a web builder. Three are worth asking word for word: "Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?", "What's your experience in my industry?" and "What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?" A builder who can't answer the last one clearly is selling a design, which is fine if a design is all you want.
Get ownership in writing
This one matters more than any design choice. Before you pay, confirm that:
- The domain name is registered in your company's name, on an account you can log in to.
- You'll have full administrator access to the website itself.
- You can take the site, its content and its images with you if you leave.
- Your analytics and Google Search Console accounts belong to you, with the builder added as a user.
Owners who skip this find out years later, usually when the builder has gone quiet and the domain is about to expire in someone else's name. It happens. It's avoidable.
Ask what happens after launch
Who updates plugins? Who fixes a broken contact form at four on a Friday, when a facility manager has been trying to send you a request for a quote since lunch and keeps getting an error message? Who adds a page when you start offering a new service, and what does each of those cost? Get the answers on paper.
Where Inbound SDR fits among the five
Inbound SDR is the fifth option on the list: a managed service. We build your website, up to 100 pages, in the first month, planned around every service you sell and every area you serve, then host it and keep it healthy with ongoing monitoring. Each month includes two to three expert hours for technical fixes and page changes. On top of the site, we publish a new blog every business day, post it to up to 3 social platforms, and keep your Google Business Profile and directory listings accurate. Packages start at $1,000 per month on a 12-month term.
It's the wrong choice if you want a one-off build and plan to run the site yourself afterward, or if you only need a few pages and have the time to brief a freelancer, check the work and keep an eye on the site once it's live; a good freelancer or local studio is the better hire for that.
Quick answers
Is Fiverr or Upwork good enough for a business website?
For a small site with a clear brief, it can be. You'll be the project manager.
How long does it take to build a small business website?
It depends mostly on how fast the content gets written and approved. The design and build are rarely the slow part; waiting on page copy, photos and sign-off from the owner usually is.
Should I hire someone local?
Only if meeting in person matters to you. A builder who understands your services and your buyers matters more than one who's down the road.
Get the next one in your inbox
New playbooks, benchmarks and guides from our sales floor, for owners and sales leaders who sell to businesses. One email a month. See past issues.
