I get asked a lot whether my job is disappearing because of AI. Whether people still need a web designer now that they can describe their business to ChatGPT and get a website out of it for free.
I understand why people ask. The tools have come a long way. You can talk to Wix or Hostinger and have something live in a few minutes, and ChatGPT will happily write you the code for a homepage while you make a coffee.
But the question is based on a misunderstanding of what I actually do. Making a nice looking website is maybe a third of the job. The rest is understanding the business I’m building for, working out who its customers are and what makes them get in touch, and setting the site up so it brings that business more work. That part is not a design task and AI does not do it. I’ve written before about what the web design process actually involves, and almost none of it is the pretty bit.
So here is an honest answer to the AI website builder vs web designer question, from someone who has been building websites since 2008 and whose living supposedly depends on the answer being no. AI genuinely helps with some things. With others it can actually cost you money. The trick is knowing which is which.
Can ChatGPT actually create a website?
Sort of, maybe, but the answer you’ll find online is usually out of date.
ChatGPT can write the HTML, CSS and JavaScript for a website in seconds. What it can’t do is put the site online. It won’t buy your domain, sort your hosting, set up your email or connect a database. It just creates the code and leaves the rest to you.
OpenAI did add a feature in 2026 called ChatGPT Sites that hosts simple sites for you. The catch, if you’re reading this in Kingston, is that it isn’t available in the UK. So for a British business the honest position is that ChatGPT gives you the raw materials and not a finished website.
There’s a quality gap too. When people test ChatGPT with a proper brief for a small business site, what comes back works but looks dated, more like a template from years ago than anything you’d want representing you now. Fine for a bit of fun. Not fine for a business trying to win someone’s trust.
Which AI is best for creating a website?
If you do want the DIY route, the most popular are Wix, Hostinger, Squarespace, Framer and a few newer ones like Durable.
Wix is where most people end up. You answer a few questions, it builds a site, and you tidy it in the editor. It’s the safest all-rounder if you’ve never done this before. If you’re weighing the main platforms against each other, I’ve gone through the differences in my Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress comparison.
Hostinger is the cheap option and the reviews are refreshingly honest about the trade. The design is functional rather than good. One roundup put it as roughly 80 percent of the features for 20 percent of the price, which is a fair way to think about it.
Framer is the one designers rate for good looking landing pages, though there’s more of a learning curve. Durable will spin up a whole site in about 30 seconds, which is handy if you need something online tomorrow and aren’t fussed how it looks.
They’re all capable enough. But read past the headline in any review and the same words keep coming up. Generic. Basic SEO only. Anything competitive still needs a person. That last point is the one that actually matters, and I’ll come back to it.
Can I make my own website for free?
You can, with a fairly big asterisk.
The free tiers are real. Wix, Framer and the others all let you build something for nothing. What you get on free is their branding stuck across your site and a web address that belongs to them rather than you. For anything that reads as a proper business you’re into roughly £10 to £30 a month once you add your own domain, and more again once you want the features a growing business needs.
So free is real for a personal project or to see if an idea has legs. For a business that wants to be taken seriously it isn’t really free, it’s cheap. Which is fine, as long as that’s the decision you know you’re making. It’s worth being clear eyed about the full picture too, because what a website actually costs is rarely just the monthly fee.
What AI is genuinely good for
I’m not going to pretend AI is useless, because it isn’t. There are times I’d point you towards it myself.
If you need any kind of presence online this week, an AI builder will beat waiting for a designer to have space in the diary. If you’re testing a new idea you’re not sure about, building something rough and cheap first is sensible before you spend real money. AI is also a decent starting point for first draft copy that you then knock into your own voice. And if all you need is a single page for a side project or a one off event, you honestly don’t need me.
If that’s you, use the tools. I’d rather say so than sell you something you don’t need.
Where AI quietly costs you money
Here’s the part the adverts skip over.
A website and a business result are not the same thing. You don’t actually want a website. You want more of the right people getting in touch. AI solves the first problem and leaves the second one entirely to you.
The output is generic, and generic doesn’t convert. An AI builder hands you and the designer down the road the same look and the same structure, because it’s pulling from the same patterns. A site built around how your particular customers make up their minds will beat a generated one every time. It’s the same reason a custom WordPress site beats a template, only more so, because a template at least started life in the hands of a designer.
The SEO is only skin deep. AI builders sort your meta tags and your mobile layout, which is the easy part. Ranking somewhere like Kingston or the wider Surrey area, where a handful of designers are all chasing the same searches, takes proper structure, local signals and a plan the tool won’t make for you. Getting a business found on Google is a job in itself, and it’s most of my week. It’s the reason my own site sits where it does.
And when the launch doesn’t bring in enquiries, AI can’t tell you why. It can’t sit with you and work out whether the problem is your pricing, your customers, or the thing on the page that’s quietly putting people off calling. Working that out is the actual job. It’s the bit no builder can touch. Then something breaks, or Google changes something, or you need a new page, and you’re back in the editor at eleven at night sorting it yourself.
AI is changing how people find you too, not just how sites get built
One more thing worth knowing, because it’s a separate shift that catches people out. It isn’t only about building sites. More people are starting their search for a designer by asking ChatGPT instead of Google, and that changes who gets recommended. I tested this on my own business and wrote up what happened in I asked ChatGPT to recommend a web designer in Kingston. If you’re thinking about AI and your website at all, it’s worth understanding both sides of it.
A real example
I redesigned a site for a client whose old one brought in next to nothing. Same business, same services, but a better structure and proper local SEO underneath it. Her enquiries went up a lot and she told me her business grew off the back of it. No builder would have produced that, because the win wasn’t the website. It was understanding her customers and building the whole thing around them.
That’s the difference in one story. AI makes pages. Results come from knowing what to put on them and why.
So do you need a web designer or not?
Be honest with yourself about what you’re actually buying.
If you need something basic online fast, you’re testing an idea, or the budget genuinely isn’t there yet, use an AI builder. There’s no shame in it. If your website is meant to bring in real business, if you’re competing for customers locally, or if you’ve got no interest in spending your evenings fixing it, that’s when you want a person. If you get to that point, it’s worth knowing what to look for when hiring a web designer so you pick a good one.
Most of the established businesses I work with tried the DIY version first. They came to me because the site looked fine and did nothing, and the real cost of the cheap option turned out to be a year of a website nobody found.
If you want a website that actually brings in business
I build custom WordPress websites for established businesses across Kingston, London and Surrey, and I stay involved after launch so your site keeps working for you. If you’ve tried the DIY route and it isn’t bringing in enquiries, that’s the exact problem I fix.
Book a free consultation and tell me about your business. I respond within 48 hours on working days and there’s no obligation to proceed.