Compare · us against the usual options
Compare
We tell everyone to shop around, so it would be strange not to help. Here is page-flow against the builders, the platforms, and the other agencies, judged by the one question that changes how you see all of them.
The question you didn’t know to ask
Once you’ve asked it, you’ll never evaluate a website offer the same way again.
When this is over, who owns the website?
Nobody buying their first website thinks to ask it. The industry is built on that. You compare templates, prices, and promises, and the one thing that decides whether you’re a customer or a hostage never comes up.
So run what we call the day-you-stop-paying test: imagine cancelling tomorrow, and ask what still exists. Is there a site? Is there code? Could someone else pick it up? Ask it about the builders, about WordPress, about agencies, and ask it about us. Everything in the table below is that test, applied.
The test, applied
Generalisations, honestly made. Any specific provider can be better or worse than its column.
| The day-you-stop-paying test | page-flowus | Website buildersWix · Squarespace · Cargo | Shopifyhosted shops | WordPressself-hosted | Typical agencyvaries wildly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| You stop paying. Does the site survive? | Yesyours forever | Noit’s gone | Noit’s gone | yes, if you run it | sometimes |
| Is there code you own? | Yesyour repository | Noan account, not code | theme only | yes, see below | ask first |
| Could any competent developer take over? | Yesby design | No | platform specialists | huge pool, mixed | depends |
| Who keeps it updated and patched? | we do, automatically | the platform | the platform | you, or you pay | support plan |
| Fast on a phone on a bad connection? | Yesas heavy as it needs to be | generic blocks, heavy | reasonable | depends on plugins | depends |
| Extra fees when you sell something? | Yesnone from us | on cheaper tiers | unless you use their gateway | gateway fees only | varies |
| Every price published up front? | Yesexportable, even | tiers that rise | tiers plus apps | hosting + plugins + time | rarely |
| Cost of leaving, stated in advance? | Yesat most one hour | start again | partial exports | a migration project | discovered at exit |
The full price side of this comparison is on the pricing page, exportable so you can put it next to anyone else’s quote.
Owning WordPress is real. It’s also different.
We won’t pretend WordPress fails the ownership test. It passes it in a particular way.
Self-hosted WordPress deserves an honest word. Unlike the builders, you genuinely can own one: the software is open-source, the files sit on hosting you control, and no company can delete your site by closing your account. If someone tells you WordPress is lock-in like Wix is lock-in, they’re selling something.
But it’s ownership of a different kind. Owning a WordPress site is like owning a machine you must service yourself: real possession, real responsibility. Owning a page-flow site is possession with the servicing designed in, and designed to be transferable.
Owning WordPress
- The code is open-source and the files are yours
- You administer the hosting, or pay someone who does
- Features come from plugins by dozens of separate authors
- Updates are your job, and skipping them is how sites get hacked
- Page builders inside WordPress can lock your content into themselves
Owning a page-flow build
- The code is yours, in a repository registered to you
- Hosting is optional and leaving it doesn’t threaten the site
- No third-party plugins, so nothing rots when a stranger loses interest
- Updates and security patches land automatically, every week, run by Aegis
- Standard tools throughout: any competent developer can take over
If servicing the machine sounds like something you’d enjoy, WordPress is a legitimate choice, and we’ll happily say so to your face.
The two things on our side of that list nobody else on this page offers: Aegis, which updates your dependencies weekly and fixes anything critical free, and a one-year warranty attached to the repository rather than to a support plan.
Or let the questionnaire say it
Five questions, one honest answer. Sometimes the answer isn’t us; we’d rather you knew now.
Answer all five and the verdict appears, even when it isn’t us.
One question, forever
Own it.Whatever you choose, ask the question first. If the answer should be “you”, price it or write to hello@page-flow.co.uk.