Your website can be built by a freelancer, a company with a team, or a contract developer - and the difference between them is less about price and more about who actually sits down to work on your project. A freelancer is one person who designs and codes it themselves: you get direct contact and a single point of responsibility, but also a single calendar. A company with a team gives you cover and more throughput, at the cost of talking to an account manager while someone else does the work. A contract developer joins an existing team or an existing system and closes one specific piece, usually billed in stages.
Below you get a comparison of the three models, realistic price ranges, a list of questions for the first call and a set of red flags. I want you to be able to pick a supplier on your own after reading this - even if you never contact me.
Three supplier models - how they differ
The model decides who makes the technical calls and who picks up the phone when something stops working.
A freelancer is one person running the project from the first conversation to launch. They usually combine the designer and developer roles, work on WordPress or their own code, and juggle a few projects at once. The upside is directness - you say it once and the same person does it. The risk is availability: holiday, illness or a bigger project alongside yours can push your deadline.
A company with a team means several people with split roles: sales, designer, developer, sometimes a content person. You get a process, a contract and cover - when one person drops out, someone else steps in. You pay for that with margin and a longer path for information: something a freelancer fixes in fifteen minutes goes through a ticket and a queue here.
A contract developer is the model where you buy one specific stage: an integration, a checkout rebuild, a B2B portal, cleanup after someone else. It works when you already have a site and know what you want.
| Model | Who actually does the work | When it makes sense | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | one person, personally | company site, store, build from scratch | availability of one person, project queue |
| Company with a team | a team, contact through an account manager | big project, many threads at once, need for an SLA | longer decision path, margin, staff turnover |
| Contract developer | one person inside your process | an add-on to an existing system, integration, rescue job | no view of the whole, unless someone owns the direction |
What it costs - order of magnitude
The price of a website depends on how much has to be designed from scratch and how much can be assembled from ready parts. The table below shows the ranges you meet on the Polish market - treat them as orientation, because rates and tool pricing shift from year to year.
| Option | What you get | Order of magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Site builder (DIY) | a template, your own work, a subscription | monthly subscription, cost grows over time |
| Template implemented by a supplier | an off-the-shelf theme, your content and logo | lowest entry point, limited freedom |
| Site designed around your business | custom design, content, launch, training | several thousand zloty and up |
| System or store with integrations | logic, payments, ERP, e-invoicing, a portal | always quoted individually |
With me, projects are billed fixed-bid, usually 5,000-10,000 PLN net (Polish market rates) - you know the figure before we start and it does not grow along the way, as long as the scope does not change. On top of that comes maintenance: technical support Basic from 1,000 PLN, Pro from 2,000 PLN, Premium from 3,500 PLN net per month. The initial diagnosis is free. If you want the cost broken into components and want to see what really pushes the number up, I have it worked out in how much a website costs.
When it is worth hiring someone at all
Hiring someone makes sense when the site is meant to earn, not just exist. If you need one page with a contact form and a price list, and you have the patience for clicking, a site builder is enough and there is no point spending more. The line beyond which clicking it yourself starts to cost more than hiring someone I set out in the piece on doing the site yourself in a builder or hiring it out.
Hire someone when the site has to integrate with your tools, when you need to sell online, when you care about visibility in Google, or when your hour is worth more than the supplier’s rate.
How to vet a supplier before you sign
You can vet a supplier in fifteen minutes, and it saves you months of frustration. Do it in order:
- Open their work - not screenshots, live addresses. Check whether those sites still run and whether they are not five years old
- Measure them - paste the address into PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile score. It is the most honest free test of craft you have
- Open them on a phone - most traffic is mobile, and that is where the gaps show
- Check the company in the public register - the tax ID in CEIDG or KRS, Poland’s public business registers, the start date of the business, whether the name matches
- Ask for one client reference - an honest supplier gives it without hesitating
- Read the quote - does it contain a scope, or only a figure. A quote with no written scope is an invitation to a dispute
- Ask who will do the work - and whether it is the same person you are talking to
- Check what happens after handover - who fixes bugs in the first weeks and on what terms
If you are wondering whether the supplier has to be based in your city, the answer is short: they do not, but you then have to agree on the way of working differently. I broke that down in the piece on choosing a local or a remote supplier.
What to ask on the first call
Good questions show immediately who you are talking to. Ask these:
- What will the site be built on - WordPress, another system, or custom code - and why that one?
- Will I get full access: hosting, domain, admin panel, code?
- Who owns the design and the code once it is paid for?
- Will the site be mine forever, or will it stop working if I cancel a subscription?
- What exactly is included in the price: copy, photos, content entry, email setup, language versions?
- How many rounds of revisions are in the price, and what counts as a scope change?
- Who migrates the content from the old site, and what happens to the old URLs?
- What does handover look like: training, a recording, documentation?
- Will the site meet digital accessibility requirements - the EAA obligation has applied since June 2025 and covers online sales among other things
- What about maintenance: updates, backups, monitoring?
An answer of “we will sort that out as we go” to the first three questions is reason enough to keep looking.
Red flags
- A guarantee of first place in Google - nobody controls search results, so nobody can promise this
- A price given without asking about scope - a quote before a conversation is a lottery that comes back later as extra charges
- No access to the code and hosting - a site you do not hold the keys to stops being yours the day there is a dispute
- A portfolio with no addresses - just graphics, no working sites
- Payment fully up front - the norm is stages: deposit, milestones, the rest on handover
- Zero questions about your customers - if the supplier does not ask who the site should sell to, they are designing blind
What has to be agreed in writing
A contract, or at least an email confirming the scope, protects both sides. The minimum it should contain:
- Scope - a list of pages and features, not the phrase “company website”
- Deadlines - with a note that waiting for your materials moves the delivery date
- Price and payment stages - what, when and for what
- Revisions - how many rounds, within what time after handover
- Ownership and access - transfer of design rights on payment, the full set of passwords
- Hosting and domain - whose name they are registered under; the domain always yours
- What happens after launch - the support period and the terms of ongoing care
Off-the-shelf template or a design from scratch
Choosing between a template and a custom design is usually a choice between time and distinctiveness. A template is cheaper and faster, but it dictates the layout and drags in plugins you do not need. A design from scratch costs more, but the page layout follows your sales process rather than the other way round. I compared when each option pays off in a ready-made template versus a site built to order, and at the theme level in an off-the-shelf theme versus a custom design.
A practical rule: the more your sales depend on what happens on the site, the less sense a template makes.
How this works with me
I start with a free diagnosis - I look at your current site, or at what needs to be built, and tell you straight what has to be done and what can be skipped. Then you get a written quote with the scope and deadline spelled out, before I start anything. I run projects from start to finish personally, so you know who is working on your site and who answers when something needs fixing. The scope and way of working on new builds is described on the websites page, and after delivery you can stay on ongoing technical support - or not, if you prefer to maintain the site yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Freelancer or a company - which pays off better? For a company site and a typical store, one person usually works out better, because you are not paying for process overhead, only for the work. A company with a team wins on big projects running in parallel, or where you need formal support with a guaranteed response time. What decides, though, is not who issues the invoice, but whether the supplier shows working live sites and can write out a scope.
How long does it take to build a website? A simple company site is usually a matter of a few weeks; a store or a site with integrations takes longer. You have the biggest influence on the schedule: copy, photos and decisions on your side can stretch a project more than the code itself. That is why my quotes state that waiting for materials moves the delivery date.
Will the site be mine and will I get access to it? It should be, and you should. Once it is paid for you get the full set of access: admin panel, hosting, code and the domain registered in your name. If a supplier refuses to hand over passwords, or the site stops working when you cancel their subscription, that is not your site - that is a rental.
How do I tell whether a supplier knows their craft when I do not know the technology? You do not have to judge the code - judge the results. Open their work on a phone, measure it in PageSpeed Insights, check whether it loads fast and whether the contact form works. Then compare how the supplier answers the question about access and code ownership. An honest answer to that one says more than an entire portfolio.
Need something like this on your side? I design and build websites for B2B companies - from scratch or as a rebuild of what already stands. Send me the scope and a quote with a date comes back.