Building a website now takes a sentence. Type "make me a site for my bakery" into ChatGPT or one of the many AI website builders, and within a minute you have pages, copy, images and a published link. According to reports shared on X in September, ChatGPT Sites passed five million sites in its first three months, and it now supports custom domains.
For a small business owner, that raises a fair question: why pay for a template or a designer when an AI can build the site for free? The honest answer is that AI builders are good at some things and weak at others, and a template made for your trade covers different ground. This guide looks at both, and how they can work together.
What AI builders do well now
AI website builders have improved quickly. They are good at:
- Speed. You can go from nothing to a published site in minutes.
- A first draft of copy. They produce reasonable text for an about page, a services list or an FAQ, which is easier to edit than a blank page.
- Structure for common businesses. Ask for a café site and you will get a menu, hours and a location section.
- Changes on request. "Make the header darker" or "add a pricing section" usually works.
- Cost. Many are free or cheap to start.
For a simple site, such as a placeholder while you set up, a one-off event or a personal project, an AI builder may be all you need.
Where the results fall short
The weaknesses show up when the site needs to win business.
They look alike. People on X have been pointing this out for months. One widely shared post said you can instantly tell when an AI designed a site: the same cards, the same gradients, the same layouts. A tattoo studio and an accountant can end up with sites that look strangely similar. For a business that depends on looking distinctive, that is a cost.
The copy is generic. AI writes plausible text about a business it knows nothing about. It does not know your deposit policy, your fees, the questions your clients ask or what makes you different. Unless you give it all of that, it fills the gaps with general phrases, and sometimes with claims that are not true. Always check the text for invented details.
They do not know your trade's jobs. A small hotel site needs a booking bar on the first screen and a page for every room with the size and price. A probate firm needs fees and a process timeline. A sauna studio needs temperatures and session lengths. An AI builder may produce some of this if you ask precisely, but it will not know to do it if you do not.
Editing can be unpredictable. Asking an AI to change one thing sometimes changes another. Small fixes can turn into a long back-and-forth.
You still have to check everything. Forms, links, mobile layouts and search settings all need testing, just as with any other site.
One designer posted on X that most of the enquiries they now receive are from people asking for help redesigning a site they built with AI. That is one person's experience, not a statistic, but it fits the pattern: AI gets people started, and some find that the result does not do the job.
What a trade template decides for you
A template built for a specific type of business has already made the decisions an AI builder leaves to you. Someone has thought about what that kind of customer needs to see, in what order, and built the pages around it.
For example:
- MARROW, a template for multi-artist tattoo studios, includes an artist roster, a flash wall, healed work, a booking section built around deposits, and aftercare.
- Casa Tarde, a free template for small hotels, puts the booking bar on the first screen and gives each room type its own page with the size, sleeps and price.
- Marlow & Co, for fixed-fee accountancy practices, leads with the filing deadline and includes open pricing and a fee calculator.
You still have to replace the words and photos. But the structure is already right for your business, and the design is distinctive because it was made for a specific trade rather than generated from a general pattern.
Using both
AI and templates are not opposites. A practical approach uses each for what it does well:
1. Start with a template that fits your trade. That gives you the right structure and a design that does not look generic.
2. Use AI to draft copy. Give it real information about your business, such as your services, prices, policies and the questions clients ask, and ask it to write first drafts for each section. Then edit them so they sound like you and contain only true statements.
3. Use AI to edit the site. Framer, for example, includes an AI agent that can make layout and content changes from written instructions inside your project. You can ask it to adjust a section without rebuilding from scratch.
4. Check everything yourself. Read every word, test every form and look at every page on a phone.
Cost and time
An AI builder can be free and fast. A template costs money, usually a one-off fee, plus your time to customise it. A designer costs more, but does the thinking and the work for you.
When you compare, include the cost of your time. If an AI site takes you an afternoon and works, that is good value. If it takes several weekends of prompting and fixing and still does not bring in enquiries, the free option was not cheap.
Also consider hosting. Some AI builders host your site on their platform, and a template runs on its builder's hosting, such as Framer's paid plans. Check what each will cost per month once you add a custom domain.
A decision checklist
Ask yourself:
- Does my business need specific features, such as bookings, deposits, room pages or fees? If yes, look for a template built for your trade.
- Does looking distinctive matter for my customers? If yes, a generic AI layout may work against you.
- Do I have time to write and check the copy? You need to do this either way.
- Do I need this live today for a simple purpose? An AI builder is a reasonable choice.
- Will I want to change the site myself next month? Try editing whatever you choose before you commit.
To understand what you are buying with a template, read what is a Framer template?
AI has made it easy to build a website. It has not made it easy to build one that answers your customers' questions and looks like your business. A template built for your trade, edited with real information and some AI help, is often the fastest way to get both.