Ever wondered what makes web developers stand out in a world of web builders such as WordPress, Wix and the advent of AI?
Your website should reflect your business and your goals, so what are the right tools (or who are the right people) to help you achieve this? Of course we are a bit biased but we always recommend being informed before making a decision.
AI
AI is a tool used to gather information and to help assist people develop their tasks. As I’m sure most of you already know, AI is showing up everywhere and whilst it’s a good tool to gather information and learn, it should be used thoughtfully.
Though AI can generate the code base for a website a lot quicker than a person could, do you then know what that means and what to do with it? Where do you then put that code and what if you needed to change it.
Of course there are positives to AI, it reduces human development time, it can be cost effective and is readily available. It can also be used for other items such as content and images and a whole lot more outside of web development!
However AI is limited on what it can produce as it does not have the creativity that a person has resulting in generic looking designs and development and may struggle with complex integrations, custom functionality or handling high volumes of content as the business grows.
You also don’t know the quality of the code and the security risks. AI is very smart but still needs a human to review and make sure what is generated is correct. Great for developers who know what to prompt and how to apply it, but should the average user be relying on this?
Web Builders
A website builder is a tool that allows you to create a website without needing to write code. It takes advantage of AI with built in tools for copywriting and image generation. These platforms provide user friendly interfaces with drag and drop functionalities. Sounds simple right?
The positives of website builders are that they are designed for non developers and they require no technical skills, making it easy for anyone to build and manage their website. It can be cost effective and you can choose from a bunch of templates!
However, it is not built for complex systems. You may find it challenging to include unique and custom features to your website and even struggle to advance your website as your business grows because of these limitations. People can tell from a mile away that it's a WordPress template, It's not unique to themselves!
Also the security vulnerabilities and performance issues of plugins and relying on someone else to keep those up to date is a risk for your website as an out of date plugin is one of the most common ways your website gets hacked. Every plugin adds extra code, scripts and database information increasing your page loading times which will have a negative impact on your users' experience and no one wants to worry about that!
Web Developers
People have the understanding and creativity that bring original thoughts and ideas into web development. This allows people to meet specific clients' needs with the information and understanding we have that AI does not.
As web developers, we can offer full custom designs, layouts and bespoke features to make it your own, even though the manual development of planning, designing and testing can require a lot more time than it does for AI. This means that the cost can be higher depending on the extent of your project and needs.
Custom-built sites can evolve with your business and grow with you and your business, which in the long run is great as you can avoid costly rebuilds of your design and development. People can have face-to-face interactions to gain the best understanding of their clients and their needs, which means as web developers, we can ensure that our designs are easy to navigate and are accessible for certain clients with a diverse customer base-which AI is limited in doing.
