Mondovo vs hiring a web designer
Three finished versions of your site, before you spend anything.
You should not have to describe what you want to somebody and then wait to find out what they heard. Describe your business, approve a plan of what each page will say, and look at three complete designs. You pay when you put one live on your own address.
A good designer is worth hiring, and further down this page we say exactly when. This is not a page about how designers are bad at their jobs.
Side by side
What you get, and when you get it.
Not price — we will come to why we are not comparing prices. This is the part of the decision you can actually check before you commit to either.
Seeing your site before you decide
A quote, some references, and a portfolio of other people's sites. Yours does not exist yet.
Three complete versions of your own site, free to look at and free to change your mind about.
How many directions you see
Usually one, sometimes two. More directions is more of their time.
Three from one approved plan. A site can hold ten, and you choose which one is live.
Where the words come from
You write them, or you pay for copywriting on top of the design.
A plan drafted from what you told it, which you read and correct before anything is designed.
Changing something after launch
You send an email and wait for their next free slot.
Click the thing and change it, or ask for the change in a sentence. Nothing is queued behind anyone.
Who owns the finished site
Whatever the contract says. Worth asking before you sign, not after.
You do. Your own domain, registered to you, and you can point it elsewhere whenever you like.
What happens in a year
You go back to them, if they are still taking work.
The site is in your account with its history, and switching to a different design is a choice rather than a rebuild.
Somebody accountable for the result
Yes. That is the main thing you are buying, and it is real.
You are. You get the tools, a record of every change, and the ability to put anything back.
The order it happens in
Nothing here needs an appointment.
The reason most of this comparison is about timing rather than money: with a designer, the first thing you can look at arrives after you have committed. Here it arrives before.
- 1
You describe the business
In a few sentences, out loud, or by pointing at the website you already have. There is no discovery call to book.
- 2
You read the plan before anything is designed
What each page will say, drawn from what you told it. This is the step that catches the things that are wrong, and it is the step most worth your attention.
- 3
Three designs arrive
Same pages, same approved words, three genuinely different ways of looking. Pick one, or ask for another set.
- 4
You change what you want changed
Click on something and edit it, or describe the change in a sentence. Every version is kept, so anything can be put back.
- 5
It goes live on your own address
With the hosting and the padlock in the address bar included. That is the point at which it starts costing anything.
The honest part
When you should hire a designer instead.
We would rather you spent your money well than spent it here. If two or more of these describe you, hire somebody.
Your website is the business
If the site is the product — if it has to be better than every competitor's rather than merely good — that is art direction, and art direction is a person. Pay for it.
You want somebody to own the outcome
A designer chases you for the photographs, tells you the copy is not working, and answers the phone in six months when something needs doing. That is a real service, and for most people it is most of what they are buying.
You need judgement about your market, not a website
What to say, what to leave out, how to stand next to the business down the road. A good designer will tell you your idea is wrong. Software will not.
The brand does not exist yet
A name, a logo, an identity to apply to everything else you print and post. That is design work of a different kind, and it comes before a website rather than out of one.
You need something genuinely unusual built
A booking flow tied into the software you already run on, a calculator, something bespoke to how you work. That is a job for a developer.
None of that is faint praise. A designer who does those things well is worth what they charge, and this page is not trying to talk you out of one.
Before you start
Three things we would rather you heard from us.
Nobody checks it before you do
What comes out has not been reviewed by a person first. Read it properly before you publish, particularly anything about prices, qualifications, or what you do and do not offer.
You are the only one who knows the facts
The plan is drawn from what you said. If you skim it and approve it, whatever was wrong in it stays wrong all the way to the published page.
It is not art direction
You get three considered directions to choose between. You do not get somebody sitting across a table working out what your business should look like.
Not either-or
The sensible answer is often both.
Build a draft for nothing and see what your site could look like, then take the one you like to a designer as a brief instead of handing them a blank page. Or hire somebody for the identity and run the site here afterwards — add them to it as an editor and they change it directly. The paid plan includes three people on the account, and each extra one is $10 a month.
What this costs
Free until it is live. Then $20 a month.
We are not going to tell you what a designer charges. It varies enormously by person, city and scope, and any figure printed here would be a guess dressed up as a comparison. Compare what you get and when you get it, then decide what that is worth to you.
See the full price listWhat comes out
All of these started as a description of a business.
Nobody drew them first. Somebody said what the business does, approved the plan, and picked one of three.
The sensible questions
What people ask before they try it.
Do I need to know anything technical?
No. You describe the business, read the plan of what each page will say, and pick the version you like. Changing something later means clicking on it, or asking for the change in a sentence.
I already have a website. Do I have to start again?
No. Paste its address and the pages and words come across, then the design is rebuilt around them. If it is a WordPress site, the posts come too.
What if none of the three is right?
Ask for another set. A site can hold up to ten designs and you choose which one is live, so changing your mind later is a switch rather than a rebuild.
Can my designer work in it with me?
Yes. Add them to the site as an editor and they can change it directly. The paid plan includes three people, and each extra one is $10 a month. Whoever changed something is recorded, and anything can be put back.
Who owns the site and the web address?
You do. The domain is registered to you at your own registrar and points here through a record you control, so moving it elsewhere is something you can do without asking us.
What if I stop paying?
The site comes offline after the period you have already paid for. Nothing is deleted — the design, the content and the history stay in your account, and putting it back up later is not blocked by which plan you are on.
Your website
Look at three versions of it, then decide who should build it.
Drafts cost nothing, so finding out what your site could look like is not a commitment to anything.
For small businesses