Should you build your own yoga website or hire a designer?

You know you need a new yoga website. What you might not know is how much of it you should do yourself.

Maybe you’re just starting out and spending thousands on a professionally designed website feels excessive. Perhaps you quite like the idea of building your own and learning as you go.

Or maybe you’re at the other end of the journey. You built your current website yourself years ago, your business has grown considerably since then, and every small change now seems to swallow an entire afternoon.

Somewhere between those two points is a question most yoga teachers eventually face:

Should I build my website myself, hire a web designer or work with someone who can help with the strategy as well as the design?

There isn’t one right answer.

It depends on your budget, your time, the stage your business has reached and, most importantly, how hard you need your website to work for you.

So let’s look at three different ways to create a new yoga website, including when we think each is the right choice.

First, what does your yoga website actually need to do?

Before deciding who should build your website, get clear about the job you need it to do.

If you’re newly qualified and teaching a couple of classes each week, you may only need a simple website that introduces you, explains where and when you teach and gives people an easy way to book.

If you run a busy yoga studio, retreats, teacher trainings, online courses or several different services, that’s a very different project.

The more important your website becomes to the way your business operates and attracts new clients, the more important the thinking behind it becomes too.

If you’re still deciding which platform to use, have a look at our guide to the best website builders for yoga teachers, where we compare Wix, Squarespace and WordPress and also look at the growing role of AI website builders.

But choosing the technology is only part of the decision.

You also need to decide who’s going to build it.

Option 1: Build your yoga website yourself

Let’s start with the most affordable option.

Do it yourself.

And we genuinely think this can be the right choice.

If you’re a newly qualified yoga teacher, your business is still taking shape and your website requirements are simple, you probably don’t need to spend thousands on a bespoke website.

Platforms such as Wix and Squarespace have made it much easier to create something professional-looking without knowing how to code. WordPress can also be a DIY option if you’re comfortable with a slightly more technical setup.

And AI is making the process easier still.

The advantages of building it yourself

The obvious advantage is cost.

You’ll need to pay for your website platform or hosting and perhaps a few additional tools, but you won't be paying someone for the design and build.

You’ll also learn how your website works.

That can be genuinely useful when you’re starting a business. If you know how to create a page, change an image or update your class information, you won't need to contact someone every time something changes.

And if your requirements are straightforward, a DIY website may be all you need.

A clear five-page website that tells people who you are, what you teach, where to find you and how to book can do its job perfectly well.

The downside of DIY

The biggest hidden cost is usually your time.

Website builders may be easier to use than ever, but that doesn’t necessarily mean creating a good website is quick.

You can lose hours adjusting spacing, trying different fonts, rewriting your homepage for the 15th time or wondering why something that looks perfect on your laptop has gone completely wonky on your phone.

And there’s another challenge.

When you're building your own website, you have to make all the decisions yourself.

What should go on the homepage? What belongs in the navigation? Which services deserve their own pages? What should the headline say? Where should your calls to action go? What are people actually searching for on Google?

Those aren't really website-building questions.

They’re marketing questions.

If that sounds like you, save your money.

Build something simple, clear and useful. You can always invest more when your business reaches the point where it needs more.

Has AI made DIY websites good enough?

For many yoga teachers, yes. AI has changed the DIY website landscape significantly.

Many website builders and hosting companies can now generate a starting website from a few prompts. AI can suggest layouts, create pages, help with imagery and produce draft copy.

What once took days can sometimes be generated in minutes. That lowers the barrier to creating your first website considerably.

But there’s a catch.

AI has made it much easier to build a website. It hasn't made the strategic decisions disappear.

An AI tool doesn't inherently know which students you most want to attract, what differentiates your teaching, which parts of your story matter to your audience or how your services should fit together.

And while it can generate plenty of copy, the result can easily sound like every other yoga website on the internet.

You know the kind of thing: “Embark on a transformative journey to reconnect with your authentic self in a nurturing sanctuary for mind, body and soul.”

Perfectly grammatical.

And it could belong to absolutely anyone.

AI is a useful tool. We use AI ourselves. But it works best when you bring the understanding of your business and your audience, and AI helps you turn that into something useful.

Option 2: Hire a freelance web designer

Perhaps you don’t want to build the website yourself, but you don't need a whole marketing process either.

A freelance web designer could be exactly what you need.

There are lots of talented designers who can take your existing brand, copy, photography and ideas and turn them into a professional website.

For an established yoga teacher who already has a strong sense of their audience and offering, this can be a great middle ground.

The important question: what's actually included?

This is where you need to do your homework.

“Web design” can mean very different things depending on who you hire.

Some web designers offer an extremely comprehensive service. They understand user experience, SEO, messaging and conversion as well as visual design.

Others specialise specifically in the design and technical build; and expect you to arrive with your brand, website structure, photography and finished copy ready to go.

Neither approach is wrong.

You just need to know which one you're buying.

If these things aren't included, that's absolutely fine, provided you know who will be responsible for them.

The key is finding someone whose skills match the gaps you actually need to fill.

Option 3: Work with a website and marketing partner

Sometimes the problem isn't simply: “I know exactly what website I need; I just need someone to build it.”

You might know that your current website isn't working, but not really know why.

• Perhaps your business has grown organically over several years and your services no longer fit together neatly.
• Maybe you're trying to appeal to everyone.
• Perhaps you struggle to explain what makes your approach different, or you're not sure which pages you need.
• Or maybe you need your new website to start bringing in people who don't already know you.

In those situations, the work needs to start before the website.

You need to think about your audience, positioning, messaging, customer journey, content and how people are going to find you.

Then you can design the website around those decisions.

That’s the approach we take at Wildheart.

We don't start by asking which colours you want on your homepage. We start by understanding your business.

Who are you trying to help? What do they need? What makes your approach different? What do you want your business to become? How should your website support that?

Once those things are clear, decisions about structure, content and design become much easier.

It costs more than doing it yourself because you're buying more than the technical build.

Which brings us to an important question.

What are you actually paying for when you hire a professional?

It’s easy to look at a website and think: “How can that cost thousands? I could make something that looks similar in Squarespace.”

And you might be right.

But, the visual pages you see at the end are only part of what you may be paying for.

Depending on who you work with, a professional website project might include:

• understanding your business and audience
• positioning and messaging
• planning the website structure
• deciding what content belongs where
• user experience
• visual design
• copy and content guidance
• keyword research
• SEO foundations
• technical setup
• booking, email and other integrations
• mobile optimisation
• accessibility
• testing
• launch support

You're also paying for experience.

Someone who’s built a lot of websites has usually learnt which ideas work, which ones don't and where projects tend to go wrong.

Sometimes, the most useful thing you're paying for is knowing what not to put on the website.

Of course, not every professional website project includes everything on that list. That's why it's so important to compare the scope of the service, rather than comparing prices alone.

DIY vs freelance designer vs website partner

Here’s the simplest way we’d think about the three options:

These are generalisations, of course.

A great freelance designer may offer strategy and SEO. An experienced business owner may be perfectly capable of planning their own website. And some agencies offer little more than design and development.

Look beyond the label and find out what you're actually getting.

How do you know when you've outgrown your DIY website?

You don't need to replace a DIY website simply because your business has been around for a certain number of years.

If it's still doing its job, keep it.

But there are some signs that the website you started with may no longer be enough.

That last one is important.

DIY often makes financial sense when you have more time than money.

As your business grows, that equation can reverse.

At some point, spending ten hours trying to solve a website problem yourself may become considerably more expensive than paying someone who can solve it in one hour.

So, which way should you create your new yoga website?

Here's our simple answer.

If you're just starting out…

Build it yourself. Seriously.

Unless you have unusual requirements or a healthy startup budget, keep things simple. Choose a straightforward website builder, create the pages you genuinely need and concentrate on developing your teaching and finding your first students.

You can always invest in a professional website later.

If your business is established and you know exactly what you need…

Consider a freelance web designer.

If your brand, message and offering are already clear and you mainly need someone with the design and technical skills to turn them into a professional website, a good freelancer could be an excellent fit.

If your business has outgrown your website…

Consider getting strategic help as well as design and development.

If you need to rethink how you present your business, clarify your message, restructure your services or make your website an active part of your marketing, look for someone who can help with those decisions before they start designing pages.

That's the point at which a new website can become much more than a cosmetic upgrade.

The website is the output, not the starting point

Whichever route you choose, try not to start with the website builder.

A beautiful website won't compensate for unclear thinking underneath it.

And the opposite is also true.

A relatively simple DIY website can work brilliantly when the business behind it is clear.

The technology is just the tool. The thinking is what makes the website work.

Ready for a new website?

If you've reached the point where your existing website is holding your business back – or you'd simply rather spend your time doing the work you love than building webpages – this is exactly the kind of thing we help with.

At Wildheart, we create WordPress websites for yoga teachers and other wellbeing businesses, starting with the strategy behind the website rather than jumping straight into design.

We’ll help you get clear about your audience, message and website structure, then create a site that feels like you and makes it easy for the right people to take the next step.

Keep exploring yoga website design

If you've decided to build your website yourself, your next decision is likely to be which platform to use.

Our guide to the best website builders for yoga teachers compares Wix, Squarespace and WordPress, and looks at how AI is changing the DIY website landscape.

And if you've already narrowed the choice down to the latter two, read WordPress vs Squarespace for yoga teachers: An honest comparison for a more detailed look at costs, SEO, maintenance and flexibility.

Whichever route you choose, remember that your website is only one part of your marketing.

You can explore more advice on websites, branding, content and growing your yoga business in The Art of Marketing Your Yoga Business series.