Are Website Builders A Threat To Web Developers?
Back in the day, web designers seemed like mystical warlocks who had the sacred knowledge about the inner workings of HTML and, then, CSS. But in 2022, there’s nothing supernatural about the Internet. In fact, it’s very mundane. And while the websites are becoming more and more convoluted code-wise, the design is simpler than ever. There are more ways to build a website with no coding experience as well — the so-called website builders like Wix are getting increasingly popular. Can they make dedicated web designers obsolete?
Website builders in the beginning
The first thing we should note is that website builders aren’t a new thing. At all. It’s hard to remember the time when there were none. Back then, we called them WYSIWYG editors, short for “what you see is what you get.” Those didn’t ask you to possess any coding skills and acted more like Photoshop for websites. The code they produced was ugly, but it worked. The most popular one was Macromedia Dreamweaver, now owned by Adobe.
And yet, even giants like Adobe didn’t “kill” web developers. WordPress didn’t either, even though many people were predicting the apocalypse. And when Wix appeared, the same prophesies started flying around. But nothing changed. It never does.
By the way, a lot of people earn decent money by building websites ON website builders for clients. Go figure.
Experienced web developers are as important as ever before
Does Wix work? Yes. It might be better than anything that had come before, but in the end, it’s a tool for landing pages and small businesses. The resulting sites end up being only slightly more memorable than Facebook pages. And when serious clients appear, they know they need real developers to build them a unique site. Sure, website builders are easy and cheap, but we rarely associate the word “cheap” with “quality.”
A big or aspiring company will never cut corners when it comes to a website. They need unique sites to sell their product and make themselves heard. And when it comes to SaaS (software as a service), the divide is even bigger: a site often does not act as an advertising brochure but actually IS the product. It requires unique skills only developers can offer.
Website builders aren’t going anywhere — just like web developers
For a lot of people, web builders are enough. They allow them to make a site quickly and cheaply. But people like that were never going to pay you serious money anyways. And if their business becomes successful, they will ditch their little site like that to pay you for a real thing. Nothing will change that.