AI Website Builders vs. Traditional Web Development: Which is Better for You?

on 9 May 2024, by Bogdan, in Blog, Cloud, Guides

by Bogdan

The debate between AI website builders vs traditional web development is common for businesses looking to establish an online presence.

Sometimes choosing which web development technique to use for a project can be daunting, particularly for beginners. However, this choice only depends on a few factors. For instance, timing, cost, planning, designing, prototyping, etc.

In this post, we’ll compare AI website builders to traditional web development, looking at their key features, strengths, and limitations. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to decide which technique to use for your web projects and start building your website.

We’ll cover the following points:

What is an AI website builder

What is traditional web development

Key differences between AI website builder vs. traditional web development

How to choose your web development approach

Whether you’re a freelancer, a web agency building projects for clients, or a SaaS product manager, you’ll find this guide useful.

Straight away, we’ll begin by defining what exactly is an AI website builder.

What is an AI website builder?

By definition, an AI website builder is simply a tool that utilizes artificial intelligence to automate and simplify the website creation process.

These tools leverage AI models to analyze user input, recommend design elements, and generate a personalized website layout, media, and content based on the user input it is fed. This approach makes it easier for users to start building professional sites immediately, without requiring much technical expertise.

Without going too much into it, let’s dive a little deeper into what an AI website builder is by answering the following question:

How does an AI website builder make building a website any easier?

Understanding the concept of AI website builders (How does it work)

In simpler terms, an AI website builder is just your typical site builder – like Brizy, Shopify, Wix, or Elementor – but infused with AI. The AI usually automates some tasks.

Let’s use Brizy as an example.

In case you didn’t know, Brizy now offers a Brizy AI site builder product version.

What is Brizy AI Builder?

Brizy AI is a user-friendly site builder that creates stunning mobile-friendly and SEO-optimized sites for you within seconds using AI.

So, if you don't feel like dragging and dropping site elements into place, simply answer a few questions and Brizy AI will whip up what you need in just a couple clicks.

That’s how easy it is!

This AI builder provides you with the perfect place to start from and then customize your site to make it your own.

That’s enough of Brizy AI.

Let’s dial back and finish our explanation of how an AI website builder actually works. This is the concept behind it.

How do AI website builders work?

We already mentioned earlier that an AI builder is just your typical site builder infused with AI.

The way this works is: an AI website builder will require you to enter some input or share site information first. This information is typically your business industry, site name, business description, and other info like your contacts and email.

Then the AI builder will:

Generate website layouts based on your preferences or industry.

Create site content like product descriptions, web copy, headlines, or blog posts (often requiring your input and editing).
Recommend images and media to enhance your site.

That’s pretty much it!

Tip: When using Brizy AI, provide key details about your client’s business, what you do, services you offer, things of that sort, etc., in your business description. That’ll help the AI write a good copy for your web page.

Now, let’s dig into the nitty-gritty and highlight some key features of an AI website builder.

What are the key features of an AI website builder

Up to this point, if you have any questions, these features should hold an answer for you. The following are some of the key features of an AI website builder:

Access to a drag-and-drop interface. An AI builder doesn’t limit your creativity. After the website builder generates your website, you still have full creative control over what the final website will look like. Brizy AI, for instance, lets you customize every design element, fonts, colors, etc., using its drag-and-drop editor. And make the AI site completely unique to you.

Site owners can also regenerate an entire page.

Generate pre-designed templates on the fly. With an AI site builder, there are no pre-built templates to choose from as is the case with traditional page builders. Instead, after you enter business information, the AI will automatically produce ready-made templates for you on the go.

If you aren't impressed, you can regenerate an entire new page template and images until it fits your style. Every page regeneration is filled with unique combinations of colors, custom images, text elements, titles, and web copy to start with.

AI-powered suggestions everywhere. Sometimes, algorithms like that of Brizy AI go the extra mile to suggest some ideas for your site name based on your industry or preferences. It also suggests web copy, titles, texts, images/logos, and other site content. The entire AI site is full of AI suggestions.

NOTE: While AI does assist in generating website content, it's recommended to heavily modify it. This is because Neil Patel's experiment found that human-written content outperformed AI-generated content 94.12% of the time.

Multi-language ready. This feature is coming soon in Brizy AI. It gives site owners the ability to build websites with AI directly in their language of choice.

Share websites before publishing. Agencies can share their website with clients before publishing it to get client feedback and use it to make revisions before the final launch.
SEO-optimized sites. AI website builders usually come with built-in SEO tools that can help optimize a site's structure and content for search engines. They can also provide suggestions for keywords, meta tags, and other SEO best practices.
Features for ecommerce site. AI can improve the functionality of an ecommerce site by offering features like product recommendations, dynamic pricing, and personalized shopping experiences. These capabilities can boost online sales and customer satisfaction.
Build mobile-friendly sites. We need not mention this. All the sites you’ll generate are fully responsive on multiple devices.

BIG NOTE: Brizy AI is already working on the next version of its AI website builder. This builder will be able to generate a multi-page website. It also comes in a white-label version for our partners and clients to create sites under their brand.

So, what are the advantages of an AI website builder?

The advantages of building websites with an AI website builder?

The following are some of the AI website builder benefits.

It’s easy to use. If you’ve observed, you don't require any technical skills or coding experience to start building. Just enter your business details and AI handles all site building for you. No developer is required.

In addition, you can easily make changes to content or design using drag and drop builder rather than HTML edits. Updates happen seamlessly behind the scenes.

Increased speed and efficiency. Content creation is usually a bottleneck in website development. Therefore, automating tasks like design, content generation, and optimization can save you valuable time and resources. In just 30 seconds, you’ll have quality websites just from your business details and description. Ultimately, this will also boost your efficiency.
It’s cost-effective and affordable. With AI, businesses can create and manage their websites in-house, and save lots of money they’d have rather spent on things like website developer costs or digital agencies.

Some limitations of an AI website builder

On the flip side, AI website builders also have some limitations you’ll come across during use. Here are a few.

AI is still under development. While it can be helpful in some scenarios, it might not always generate the perfect results. You'll likely need to edit and customize the AI-generated content.
AI builders have limited creative control. If you have a very specific vision for your website, an AI builder might not offer the complete creative freedom you desire.
The success of an AI website builder relies heavily on its algorithms. In cases where the algorithms fall short, users might notice some errors. Or encounter limitations in functionality or design recommendations.

Up next, we’ll touch on traditional web development briefly.

What is traditional web development?

Traditional web development manually codes website projects and apps from scratch using programming languages. Primarily HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Plus other server-side scripting languages commonly PHP and Python. You aren’t only limited to these languages though.

There are two ways to go about this. You can code websites yourself/solo or build websites with developers, a project team, via a web agency, etc. Overall, traditional web development follows these steps:

Discovery & project planning. This step involves understanding client requirements, defining project goals, and creating a plan for website development.
Design and prototyping. Designers create mockups or wireframes of the website's layout and visual elements to outline the user experience, create sitemaps, and content creation, request revisions, etc.
Development. This is where code is written to implement the design, including front-end and back-end development.

Testing and debugging. The site is then tested for bugs, usability, and compatibility to ensure it functions as intended.
Deployment. The website is launched and made accessible to users on the internet.
Site maintenance. Ongoing tasks such as monitoring performance, updating content, addressing bugs, and ensuring site security.

Following these steps to build your website has some advantages you can benefit from. Let’s see.

The advantages of traditional web development

The following are some of the traditional web development benefits you will enjoy.

You’ll have unlimited customization capabilities and complete ownership. Manually coding from scratch lets you decide how the site looks and functions down to the smallest details. Based on your exact specifications, requirements, and needs. There are no limitations from other third-party platforms whatsoever.
Manually coded websites are highly scalable. You can add more complex features, functionalities, modules, and even computational infrastructure. The website is efficiently coded to accommodate all of this plus other futuristic changes.
High quality guaranteed. Usually, a team of experienced and qualified web developers can add, modify, or remove features and re-code things as per the need of the hour. This ensures excellent quality sites without any compromise.

Some limitations of traditional web development

Of course, manual coding is not without limitations. Especially, if you compare it to something like AI website builders. Here are some common drawbacks.

Traditional web development is super expensive. Agencies need to invest in a dedicated team. That is, hiring a whole IT team from designers, developers, QAs, and deployment experts, then paying them. Unless you’re a full-stack web developer, this approach is quite expensive compared to AI site-building.

Besides, you’ll need to pay developers for things like site maintenance, regular security updates and patches, for example, monthly.

Building sites require days to months to fully deploy. It takes at least 2 to 8 months to create a full-fledged website.

unchecked Building a single-page website requires 8-21 days to finish on average.

unchecked A small ecommerce site takes about 11-36 days to deploy.

unchecked On the other hand, an enterprise website requires between 15-40 weeks to complete and deploy.

So, if your goal, as an agency or solo freelancer is to reduce time to market, this timing can cause delays. Probably, you’ll have to invest further in development tools to reduce time to market

Steeper learning curve. Traditional web development requires some technical knowledge or relying on a developer.

Now that we’ve looked at AI website builders and traditional web development separately. Let’s do a website development comparison between these two techniques.

Key differences between AI website builders vs. traditional web development

In this section, we’ll do a side-by-side comparison between AI vs. traditional website development cost, ease of use, technical expertise, etc., in a table format.

Factors	AI Website Builders	Traditional Web Development
Ease of use	To start building a site, just provide your business details. Then, AI will create a full website. No coding background or designing experience is required.	Your website is manually coded from the ground up. So, this technique isn’t easy and requires extra effort and hard work.
Technical expertise	No technical expertise is required. Just your imagination.	Requires advanced technical expertise in programming languages, frameworks, and web development concepts/tools.
Budget	Often cost-effective, with subscription-based pricing models.	The traditional method is super expensive. Investing in a professional team and regularly paying them. Requires server resources and hardware to deploy, host, and site maintenance. Of course, plus other associated costs.
Customization	Since AI is still under development, there are limited customization options compared to traditional development. However, the builder offers flexibility through template customization and design tools.	You’re building from scratch. So, customization is unlimited to meet specific project requirements and design preferences.
Website complexity	Best suited for simple to moderately complex websites; may not be suitable for highly customized or advanced web applications.	Suitable for building simple to highly complex websites and web applications with extensive customization and functionality.
Desired features	Offers a range of built-in features and add-ons. However, it may have limitations on advanced features and integrations.	You can implement any desired features and integrations based on project requirements and technical capabilities.
Timeline	This method can significantly reduce time to market, allowing for quick website creation and deployment.	The development timeline may be longer due to the need for custom coding, testing, and iteration.

Choosing the right website builder vs developer mostly depends on the key factors we’ve outlined in the table.

Despite that, how does someone choose their web development approach?

How do you choose your website development approach wisely

There’s no one-size-fits-all to web development that suits every project.

The choice of web development approach largely depends on the specific project requirements, the timeframe available for development, and the criteria set for web development.

For instance, if you want to quickly launch a simple landing page for a new product or service, an AI website builder like Brizy AI or Wix is the perfect solution.

On the contrary, if you're building a complex ecommerce store with custom features and integrations, traditional web development may be the better choice. Robust ecommerce platforms like Amazon leverages custom development teams to build and maintain their highly scalable website. This allows them to integrate advanced features like personalized recommendations, secure payment processing, etc.

When do you choose the AI website development approach?

Essentially, if you want to:

Save time (reduce time to market)
Get fast online with your business, even if you don’t have coding experience.
Create custom MVPs and prototypes
Build static websites. Or any site that requires less to no scalability, demands simple UI, or the least technical knowledge.
Create an out-of-the-box web solution and see its viability against practical challenges,
And more.

Then, use AI website builders.

When should you use traditional web development

If you’re an agency that:

Wants complete ownership and unlimited customization capabilities in the future
Wants to build custom web solutions such as custom UI, personalized features
Is far-sighted and wants high-performing websites to resolve potential errors and bottlenecks in the near future
Or your requirements keep on fluctuating or the site requires constant adjustments, etc

Then, go the traditional web development way.

Basically, to assess which approach is the best fit for your specific needs and goals, carefully evaluate your project requirements, budget constraints, and timeline. Consult with web development experts or agencies for insights and recommendations tailored to your unique circumstances.

Conclusion

The key differences between AI website builders and traditional web development lie in factors such as ease of use, technical expertise required, customization options, budget, and timeline. However, it's important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The choice of platform depends on project requirements and the client's needs. You can use our post as a guide to select the best option for your goals.

If you are working on custom MVPs or projects such as simple sites, landing pages, portfolios, blogs, small business websites, etc., try out Brizy's AI Website Builder. This tool enables you to create stunning websites in under 30 seconds and customize them to make them uniquely yours.

Feel free to connect with us for a detailed discussion and share your experiences!

Article by Bogdan

Co-founder & Head of Design, Bogdan has a passion for everything that works great and looks awesome. Guilty for most of the UI and UX around this place, you can say "Hi" to him at bogdan at brizy dot io