MadeThis vs. Building Your Own Website — Which Actually Makes Sense?

This is a question I get constantly from people starting online businesses: do I build my own website or use a platform like MadeThis?

I've done both. I built my first business site from scratch — domain, hosting, WordPress, plugins, the whole stack. And then I moved to MadeThis. I have a strong opinion here based on actual experience, not theory.

Let me walk you through what each path actually looks like.

What "Building Your Own Website" Actually Means

When people say "build my own website," they usually mean one of three things:

Option A: WordPress + WooCommerce — You get a hosting account (SiteGround, Bluehost, or similar), install WordPress, buy a theme, install WooCommerce for selling, add plugins for email capture, SEO, checkout optimization, security, and backups. Then you maintain all of it.

Option B: Squarespace or Wix — Easier setup, but you're locked into their ecosystem for product selling, and the e-commerce functionality at the base tiers is limited. Better for showcasing a portfolio than running a real product business.

Option C: Custom-coded — If you can code or hire a developer. High setup cost, maximum flexibility, ongoing maintenance.

I did Option A for about 8 months. Here's what that actually involved.

The Real Cost of DIY

Time to launch: About 3 weeks from "I want a website" to "the website can actually process a sale." That includes domain setup, hosting configuration, WordPress installation, theme customization, WooCommerce setup, payment gateway configuration, and testing.

Monthly costs: Hosting ($15–25/month), domain ($12/year), premium theme ($60–100 one-time or $60+/year for multi-site), essential plugins — Yoast SEO, a page builder, security plugin, backup plugin — that's another $100–200/year if you use premium versions. Call it $30–50/month all-in when averaged out.

Maintenance: This is the hidden cost. WordPress requires regular updates — core, themes, plugins. Every update is a potential source of conflicts. I had my site break twice due to plugin conflicts. Each time cost me 2–4 hours to diagnose and fix.

Technical incidents: At one point my contact form stopped sending email (email deliverability issue). At another point, my payment gateway integration threw errors intermittently. These are real problems that pull your attention away from building the business.

Total reality: 3 weeks to launch, $30–50/month, 2–3 hours/month of maintenance, and occasional incidents that cost hours to debug.

What MadeThis Looks Like

MadeThis is a platform built specifically for digital product businesses. Here's the same comparison:

Time to launch: I had a product page live and a real checkout working in about 2 hours. That includes creating the product, setting up the product page, configuring delivery, and testing a purchase.

Monthly costs: Priced for solo operators. No separate hosting, no plugin stack, no surprise bills for things breaking.

Maintenance: Zero infrastructure maintenance on my end. Updates, security, hosting, uptime — all handled by the platform. I've never had to debug a plugin conflict or troubleshoot a broken checkout.

What you give up: Full control over every pixel of your site design. Some flexibility on custom functionality. The ability to own your infrastructure completely.

Who Should Build Their Own Website

Building your own website makes sense if:

• You're a developer or comfortable with technical setups
• You have complex requirements that no platform supports out of the box
• You're building something that genuinely needs custom functionality
• You plan to hire someone to manage the technical side

Who Should Use MadeThis

MadeThis makes more sense if:

• You want to focus on building the business, not maintaining the website
• You're selling digital products (guides, templates, courses, memberships)
• You want to be generating revenue as quickly as possible
• You don't have a technical background and don't want to acquire one
• Your hours are limited and you need to spend them on high-value work

That last point is the most important one. Every hour I spent debugging WordPress was an hour I wasn't creating content, developing products, or building an audience. The opportunity cost of DIY is real and often underestimated.

The Honest Verdict

I switched to MadeThis and didn't look back. Not because it's perfect — no platform is — but because it dramatically reduced the time and energy I was spending on infrastructure versus the actual business.

If you're a solo entrepreneur selling digital products, the question "should I build my own website?" is really asking: "do I want to be a website manager or a business builder?" The platform you choose answers that question.

For a detailed breakdown of what MadeThis includes and how it compares to other options, the comparison page for MadeThis vs. Shopify is a good reference if you're weighing e-commerce options specifically.

Start with MadeThis and build the business. You can always migrate later if you outgrow it — but most people never do.