AI website builder or a web design agency?

With an AI website builder, you describe your business in two sentences and get a site with text, photos and colours in a few minutes. Below is what you get and what's missing.

What "a website made with AI" means in 2026

The same label covers two different things:

1. AI website builders (Wix, Squarespace, Hostinger and others). You answer a few questions and the platform generates the pages. The site runs on the platform's servers and you edit it in its editor.
2. AI code generators (Lovable, Bolt, v0, or an assistant like ChatGPT or Claude). The result is code you can export and publish anywhere, but someone has to put it online, check it and maintain it.

For a local business, the first kind is the relevant one; the second needs technical skills.

What an AI builder does well

• Speed. A first version in minutes, not weeks.
• Starting cost. You can begin for free and pay only if you keep the site.
• Testing an idea. For an event page, a seasonal offer or a business that doesn't yet know what it will sell, it's enough.

Where the problems start

The address and the ads. On Wix's free plan, for example, the site gets an address like yourname.wixsite.com, Wix ads appear on every page and you can't connect your own domain. For your own domain and no ads you need a paid plan; in 2026 Wix's plans started at about $17 a month billed yearly.

Generic copy. The AI writes about your business from the two sentences you gave it. The result sounds fine but could be about any salon or any café. It doesn't know your prices, the questions your customers ask or what sets you apart from the place across the street. Google doesn't penalise AI-written text, but its guidance on helpful content stresses original information written from experience, which is exactly what text generated from so little input lacks.

Moving. Wix says in its own documentation that a site built there can't be exported or moved to another host, because it runs on Wix's technology. If you want to leave in two years, you keep your domain and some data, but the site gets rebuilt.

The cost over time. A monthly subscription looks small, but you pay it as long as the site exists. Extra features (bookings, a shop, more languages) usually push you to a higher plan.

Technical limits. Speed, page structure and what you can change for Google are whatever the platform allows.

The comparison

When an AI-built site is enough

• you need a page quickly, for a test or an event;
• customers don't compare before they come, and the site only confirms you exist;
• you have time to rewrite the text with real information: prices, hours, what exactly you do.

If you go this way, pay for your own domain from day one, registered in your name or your company's, and check that you can change the title and description of each page.

When an agency is worth it

• customers compare several options before choosing (a dentist, a mechanic, a contractor, a restaurant);
• you offer several services that people search for separately, and each needs its own page;
• you want bookings, reservations or orders that fit how you work;
• you want the site in more than one language;
• you want the site to be yours and movable at any time.

Questions to ask before you choose

1. Can I use my own domain, and is it registered in my name?
2. Can I move the site to another company if I want to?
3. Who writes the copy, and how will they know what my customers ask?
4. Can I change the title and description of each page for Google?
5. How much do I pay per year, not just in the first month?
6. Who makes changes after launch, and how long do they take?

The same questions are worth asking an agency. For a business website built by Manvro, the answers are on our web design page.