Guide
Done-For-You Websites for Small Business: The Complete Guide
16 min read · Updated July 2026
You searched for a done-for-you website because you already know something most website companies pretend not to hear: you do not want to build it yourself.
You run a business. You fix pipes, roast coffee, photograph weddings, close real estate deals. You did not sign up to learn drag-and-drop editors, font pairing, mobile breakpoints, or whatever "SEO plugins" are. You want someone to build your website for you, keep it running, and get out of your way.
That is what "done for you" is supposed to mean. This guide covers what it actually means in practice, what a real done-for-you service should include, what it costs, and how to spot the services that say "done for you" but hand you an editor and a to-do list.
We run Hands Free Sites, a done-for-you website service, so we have a point of view. We will tell you when we are describing the industry and when we are describing ourselves, and we will be honest about who should not use us.
What "done for you" actually means
A done-for-you website service does the work. All of it. Someone else designs the site, writes the first draft of the copy, builds the pages, hosts it, keeps it online, and makes changes when you ask.
Your job is to describe your business and approve the result. That is the whole job.
Compare that to the two things it often gets confused with:
- A website builder (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy's editor) gives you tools and templates. You do the work. Builders are genuinely good tools. But a good tool is not a service, the same way owning a wrench is not the same as having a plumber.
- A freelancer or agency does the work for you, but as a project: proposals, meetings, revision rounds, invoices, and then a handoff where the ongoing upkeep becomes your problem again, or a retainer.
The DIY-builder-in-disguise problem
Here is the trap to watch for. A lot of services advertise "we build your website for you" and technically deliver on that sentence once. They set up a template, drop in your logo, and then hand you the keys to an editor.
From that day on, you are a website builder customer. Want to change your hours? Log in and find the right block. Add a photo? Learn the media library. Fix the thing that broke on mobile? That is in the knowledge base somewhere.
The build was done for you. The website is not. And the website is the part that lasts for years.
A quick test for any "done for you" service: ask them, "After launch, when I need my Tuesday hours changed, what exactly do I do?" If the answer involves you logging into an editor, it is a builder with a setup service bolted on. If the answer is "you tell us and we change it," it is actually done for you.
(For the record, at Hands Free Sites the answer is: you type "change my Tuesday hours to 10 to 6" into your dashboard, and the site changes. No editor exists for you to learn.)
What a done-for-you service should include
If someone else is running your website, these six things should be covered. Use this as a checklist when you compare services.
1. The build itself
The service should produce a real, custom site for your business: your services, your area, your tone, real pages (home, about, services, contact at minimum), written and designed without you touching a tool. If they need you to "fill in your content" in a template, that is your first sign of a builder in disguise.
2. Hosting, security, and upkeep
Hosting, SSL certificates, the CDN that makes it fast, uptime, backups. This should be invisible to you and included in one price. You should never hear the words "your SSL certificate has expired."
3. Edits and changes, ongoing
This is the one that separates real done-for-you from the disguised builders. Changing hours, swapping photos, adding a service, announcing a holiday closure: there has to be a way to get changes made that does not involve you editing the site yourself. Ask how changes work, how fast they happen, and what they cost. "Unlimited edits" with a 5-business-day ticket queue is a very different product from changes that happen when you ask.
4. Your own domain
The service should connect a domain you already own, or register one for you. Watch the pricing here: domain markup is a classic place for quiet margin. A fair service charges you what the registrar charges them, and the domain is registered in your name, not theirs. If the WHOIS record shows the service's name instead of yours, you do not control your own address.
5. Email at your own name
you@yourbusiness.com instead of yourbusiness@gmail.com. Small thing, big credibility signal. Some services include it, some charge for it, some skip it. Ask.
6. Ownership and the right to leave
The most important item on this list, and the one most services fail. If you cancel, what do you walk away with?
With most builders and many done-for-you services, the answer is: nothing. The site lives in their system, in their format, and it does not export. Your years of content are a hostage to your subscription.
A fair service lets you download your complete site files and take them to any host on the internet. If a service will not put "you can leave with your files" in writing, assume you cannot.
What it costs
Prices below are for the done-for-you category broadly, then our own numbers, stated exactly.
Hands Free Sites pricing
Our model is simple enough to state in three sentences:
- The build is free. We build your entire site, every page, and put it live so you can click through the real thing before you spend anything.
- Keeping it live costs about $12 a month, typically. That covers hosting, SSL, the CDN, and upkeep. The exact figure runs $10 to $12, and every line of it is itemized on your invoice.
- There is no required one-time fee. None. The base offering is the free build plus that monthly hosting.
Domains, if you buy one through us, are charged at exactly the registrar's cost plus the card-processing fee. No markup, and the domain is registered in your name.
What everyone else charges
For context, here is the realistic range for getting a small-business website built and run by someone else:
- Done-for-you subscription services generally run from roughly $20 to $150+ per month, often with a setup fee in the $0 to $500 range. The wide spread mostly reflects whether real humans do the ongoing edits and how fast.
- Freelancers typically charge somewhere in the high hundreds to a few thousand dollars for a small-business site, then hourly for changes. Quality varies as widely as price. Hosting and upkeep usually become your problem after handoff.
- Agencies commonly quote $3,000 to $15,000+ for a small-business site, with timelines measured in weeks or months. For complex, custom builds that is often the right answer. For a five-page local-business site it is usually paying for process you do not need.
- DIY builders look cheapest on paper, roughly $16 to $50 a month for a plan that removes ads and connects a domain. The real price is your time: the average owner spends dozens of hours getting a first version live, and the maintenance never ends. If your working hour is worth anything, DIY is rarely the cheap option.
How the Hands Free Sites process works
This is our process specifically, described so you know what "done for you" looks like in practice. The defining feature: you describe, we build. You never edit anything.
Step 1: Tell us about your business
You type a few sentences into the box on our start page. Plain English, like you would explain it to a neighbor: "We're a family-run plumbing company in Austin. Emergency repairs, water heaters, drain cleaning, remodels. Licensed and insured, 15 years."
That is the entire input. No questionnaire marathon, no content worksheet, no "please supply 800 words about your company history."
Step 2: We build the whole site
Our system designs and builds your complete site: homepage, services, about, contact, the works. Real pages with real copy written for your business, a contact form wired to your email with spam filtering, and a design chosen for your industry and tone rather than a template you have seen on three competitors' sites.
Step 3: You review the real thing, live
We put the site live on a Hands Free Sites address so you can click through every page on your phone and your laptop. Not a mockup, not a PDF of a design. The actual working site.
Step 4: You keep it, and changes happen by asking
If you like it, you keep it, and from then on changes work the way the checklist above says they should: you ask, in plain English, and the site updates. New photos, new hours, a new service, a whole new page. The first few changes are free when you sign up, and after that each change costs $1. No editor, no tickets to a design queue, no relearning software you touched once eight months ago.
Everything else on the base plan is included: gallery, blog, calendar, events and menu pages where relevant, an online shop connected to your own Stripe account, and analytics.
Ownership and leaving
We think this section belongs in every done-for-you guide, because it is where the industry is worst.
Here is our position, and what we believe you should demand from any service:
- Your files are yours. Every Hands Free Sites plan, including the base one, includes full file download. Your complete site as standard web files that run on any host anywhere.
- Your domain is yours. If you buy a domain through us, the WHOIS shows your name, and you can transfer it to any registrar, any time, in one click. We never hold a domain hostage.
- Leaving is allowed. Cancel whenever. Download your site, take your domain, go. No exit fees, no export ransom, no "your content lives in our proprietary format" fine print.
Who it's for, and who it's not for
Honesty section. A done-for-you service, ours included, is the right answer for some owners and the wrong answer for others.
Done-for-you is for you if:
- You want a professional website and have zero interest in building or maintaining one
- Your last three attempts at a DIY builder ended in an abandoned half-finished site (extremely common, no shame)
- Your time is better spent on the business than on the website about the business
- You want one predictable monthly cost instead of a surprise agency invoice
- You want to be able to say "change this" and have it changed
- You genuinely enjoy tinkering with your website. Some people do. If tweaking layouts on a Sunday sounds fun, a builder like Wix or Squarespace will make you happier than we will, because we deliberately do not give you an editor.
- You need a complex custom web application: customer portals, custom booking logic, software behind a login. That is agency or developer territory, and a fair done-for-you service will tell you so.
- You want pixel-level creative control over every element. Done-for-you trades some control for not having to do the work. If that trade feels wrong, it is wrong for you.
And if you are not sure what state your web presence is even in, start with the free audit. Paste your URL (or a competitor's) and get an honest report.
How to choose a done-for-you service: the 10-question checklist
Take this list into any sales conversation or pricing page. A real done-for-you service answers all ten without flinching.
- After launch, how do I change my hours? The single best filter question. "Log into the editor" means it is a builder in disguise. "Tell us" means it is a service.
- What exactly is included in the monthly price? Hosting, SSL, backups, and upkeep should all be in one number. Watch for "hosting sold separately."
- How fast do edits happen, and what do they cost? Get a number, not "fast." Unlimited-but-slow and metered-but-instant are very different products; know which you are buying.
- Is there a setup fee, and is it required? Some setup fees are honest, some are just a paywall in front of seeing anything. The best answer is that you see your finished site before paying at all.
- Do I see the real site before I commit? Mockups and "design previews" are not the site. Insist on clicking through actual working pages before money moves.
- Whose name is on the domain? Yours, or you do not control your address. Check the WHOIS answer specifically.
- What does the domain cost through you versus at a registrar? A markup here usually predicts markups elsewhere.
- Can I download my complete site files? Yes or no. "You can export your content" (a text dump without the design) is a no wearing a yes costume.
- What happens on the day I cancel? Walk through it: files, domain, email, timeline. Get it in writing.
- Is there a minimum term? Month to month is the fair default. A 12-month lock-in on a service you have never experienced protects them, not you.
Red flags, in plain terms
- "Done for you" on the homepage, editor tutorials in the help center
- Pricing you cannot find without booking a call
- The domain registered in the company's name
- No export, no file download, no written answer about leaving
- A required annual contract before you have seen anything they build
Frequently asked questions
What is a done-for-you website service?
A service that designs, builds, hosts, and maintains your website for you, and makes changes on request, so you never have to use a website builder or editor. You describe your business and approve the result; the service does the work, at build time and for the life of the site.
How much does a done-for-you website cost for a small business?
Across the industry, typically $20 to $150+ per month, sometimes with a setup fee, versus $3,000 to $15,000+ for an agency build. Hands Free Sites builds the site free and hosts it for about $12 a month, typically, with no required one-time fee. An optional $99 one-time upgrade adds your own domain, removes our badge, and makes the site indexable on Google.
Is a done-for-you website better than Wix or Squarespace?
Different products for different people. Wix and Squarespace are excellent tools if you want to build and run the site yourself. A done-for-you service is for owners who do not want to do that work at all. The question is not which is better, it is whether you want a tool or a service. Our full comparison: Hands Free Sites vs Wix.
Can I hire someone to build my website and then run it myself?
Yes, that is the classic freelancer model: pay once, take over maintenance. It works if you are comfortable with hosting, updates, and edits afterward. Most owners who search for "done for you" specifically do not want that follow-on job, which is what the subscription model solves.
Do I own my website with a done-for-you service?
Depends entirely on the service, so ask before you sign up. Many lock your site in their platform with no export. With Hands Free Sites, every plan includes full file download, domains are registered in your name, and you can leave anytime with everything.
How do I make changes if I do not have an editor?
With us, you type what you want changed into your dashboard in plain English ("swap the header photo," "add a page about drain cleaning") and the site updates. You get a few free changes at signup, then changes are $1 each. No software to learn.
How long does it take to get the site?
With Hands Free Sites, you see your complete site, live and clickable, about 5 minutes after you describe your business. Going Branded with your own domain takes longer, since domain registration and DNS steps depend on outside systems, but it is usually done the same day. Traditional services and agencies typically take days to months.
Is there a contract or minimum term?
Not with us. Month to month, cancel anytime, take your files with you. When comparing other services, check for 12-month terms and cancellation fees; they are common in this category.
Ready to see yours?
Tell us about your business. We build the site. Free.
You will see the whole thing, live, before you pay anything. If it is not right, you walk away having spent nothing but the two minutes it took to describe your business.
Not ready yet? Get a free audit of your current web presence first, or see exactly what everything costs.