Every platform decision comes down to the same trade-off: how much control do you want, versus how much do you want someone else to maintain for you. A page builder like Squarespace or Webflow gets you a clean site fast and handles hosting, security, and updates for a monthly fee. Custom code gives you complete control and no platform lock-in, but someone has to build and maintain it.
If you'll be editing content yourself — swapping photos, adding blog posts, updating hours — a CMS is usually the right call. If your site needs something a page builder can't do out of the box, or you'd rather not pay a monthly platform fee forever, custom code pays for itself over time.
A good rule of thumb: start with what gets you live fastest for where you are today. A one-page or Basic-tier site rarely needs custom code. A Startup site with a dozen local-search pages, or a Custom Build with real app-like functionality, usually does.
We build on whatever platform actually fits the project — including no platform at all. If you already have a strong opinion one way or the other, tell us and we'll work with it.
