How Your Options Actually Compare.
There are a lot of ways to get a dental website. Some are free. Some cost $15,000. They all have different trade-offs. Here's an honest breakdown so you can decide what's right for your practice.
Option 1
Do It Yourself (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow)
These platforms are genuinely useful tools with a real advantage: visual drag-and-drop editing. You can update text, swap photos, and rearrange pages without touching code — no developer needed. If you enjoy managing your own site, that's a meaningful benefit.
The trade-offs for dental practices:
- • Your time is the real cost. Most dentists spend 20-40 hours building a site that still needs professional SEO work. That's time away from patients or family.
- • No structured data. None of these platforms add schema markup — the code that tells Google what your practice does, where you are, and what services you offer. That matters for local search and AI search.
- • Limited portability. Your site lives inside their system. If you outgrow it or they change pricing, moving can be difficult.
- • Page speed limitations. Platform overhead means slower load times than static HTML. Google uses speed as a ranking signal.
Our honest take: If you enjoy building websites and want to manage your own content visually, Webflow is the best DIY option. Website builders are genuinely good at that. What they don't give you: structured data, fast load times, written content, or someone who handles the setup. If you'd rather spend your time on dentistry, that's what we're here for.
Option 2
Dental Marketing Agencies
Dental-specific marketing agencies have been the default choice for years. There's a real case for them: they handle everything — design, hosting, SEO, content, ongoing updates — and the monthly fee includes actual work. If you want someone to publish blog posts, update your service pages, and actively manage your online presence month to month, an agency can do that.
The typical setup: $2,000-5,000 upfront, then $200-500/month. For practices that want a genuinely managed presence and are willing to pay for it, that's a legitimate service. The issues come when you want to leave, when you're getting templates instead of custom work, or when the "ongoing management" is mostly billing you for hosting that costs $10/month.
The bigger issue isn't cost — it's transparency about what you're actually getting.
A note on WordPress
Most dental agencies build on WordPress. It's the most popular CMS in the world, and it works — but it comes with trade-offs most dentists don't hear about upfront.
WordPress sites typically load in 4-6 seconds on mobile because of plugin bloat — contact forms, sliders, SEO plugins, security plugins, caching plugins to fix the speed problems caused by the other plugins. Each one adds JavaScript and database queries. The result is a site that scores 40-60 on Google PageSpeed.
There are also real maintenance costs. WordPress needs regular updates — core, themes, and plugins — or it becomes a security risk. That's part of what the monthly fee covers, and it's legitimate work. But it's work that only exists because of the platform choice. A static HTML site has no plugins, no database, and no attack surface. There's nothing to update.
WordPress isn't bad software. It powers a third of the internet for a reason. But for a dental practice — which is fundamentally a static brochure site — it's more complexity than you need, and that complexity has ongoing costs.
Four Things Worth Checking
Before signing with any provider, it's worth understanding what you'll own and what happens if you ever want to make a change. Here are four things to look into.
Who owns the domain?
Sometimes domains get registered under the provider's account rather than yours. It's worth confirming that your domain is in your name — it's easy to check and gives you peace of mind.
How to check: Search "WHOIS lookup" and enter your domain. The registrant should be you or your practice name.
Who controls the hosting?
With some setups, your website lives on the provider's server. That's fine as long as you're happy — but it's worth knowing whether your site is tied to the relationship or whether it would keep running independently.
How to check: Ask "if I cancel, does my website stay online?" The answer will tell you a lot.
Can you export your site?
Some platforms are proprietary — meaning the site is built inside their system and can't easily be moved elsewhere. That's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it's good to know upfront so you can plan accordingly.
How to check: Ask your provider to export your website as files you can open on any server. If they can't, the site is tied to their platform.
What are the contract terms?
Annual commitments, cancellation notice periods, and early termination fees are common in the industry. They're not inherently bad — but it's worth reading the fine print so there are no surprises.
How to check: Read your agreement. Understand the commitment length, cancellation terms, and what happens to your assets if you leave.
Worth noting: Many agencies handle all of this well. The point isn't to assume the worst — it's to make an informed decision. If your current provider gives you full ownership and you're happy with the work, that's great.
Option 3
Premium Custom Agencies ($10k–$25k+)
There are agencies that do exceptional work — custom design, real strategy, ongoing optimization. They charge $10,000-25,000+ for a build and $1,000-3,000/month for marketing. Some dental practices genuinely need this level of service.
The question is whether your practice does. A solo or small-group dental practice is fundamentally a local business with a static website. You're not running an e-commerce platform. You're not building a SaaS product. You need a fast, well-structured site that shows up in local search. That doesn't require a $25k build.
If you're a multi-location DSO, a practice doing $5M+ in revenue, or competing in a market like Manhattan — a premium agency might be the right call. For everyone else, there's a simpler path.
Option 4
Groundwork Dental
We build custom dental websites for $2,000 flat. No monthly fees. No templates. Everything transfers to your accounts on day one — the code, the hosting, the domain, the analytics. You own it all from the start.
After the build, your only cost is ~$12/year for your domain renewal. Hosting is free through Cloudflare Pages. There's no WordPress subscription, no Wix plan, no monthly "hosting fee."
We're not the right fit for everyone. If you want a full marketing department — paid ads, social media management, ongoing content strategy — that's not what we do. We build the foundation. A really good one. What you do with it after that is up to you.
What You Own With Us
Everything is in your name from day one. We get collaborator access so we can work on your site — but you're the owner. Revoke our access anytime. Nothing changes.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Real numbers. No asterisks.
| Feature | Website Buildere.g. Wix, Squarespace | Traditional Agency | Groundwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup cost | Free | $2,000–$15,000 | $2,000 flat |
| Yearly cost | $0–$200/yr | $2,400+/yr ($200+/mo) | ~$12/yr (domain only) |
| Design | Shared templates | Shared across clients | 100% custom |
| Mobile | Responsive templates | Varies by agency | Optimized on every device |
| Speed | Slow–moderate (50–80) | Moderate | 90+ PageSpeed |
| SEO optimization | Minimal | Varies by agency | Full — built for Google + AI |
| Content | You write it | Written for you | Written for you |
| Editing interface | Visual drag-and-drop | They manage it for you | Open code — any developer can update it |
| Ongoing updates | You do it yourself | Included in monthly fee | Pay as needed |
| Ownership | Hosted on their platform | Varies by provider | You own code, hosting, domain |
| If you leave | Limited export | Varies by provider | Nothing changes |
| Build time | Weeks (your time) | 4–12 weeks | 3–7 business days |
| GBP optimization | Not included | Sometimes, extra cost | Included |
Traditional agency assumes $200/mo ongoing after setup. Groundwork assumes $2,000 build + self-hosted. Domain renewal (~$12/year) goes to your registrar, not us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wix has a real advantage: you can build and edit your site visually without touching code. If you enjoy doing that and have the time, it's a legitimate option. The trade-offs for a dental practice: slow load times (the free CDN is limited), no structured data, Wix branding on free plans, and your site lives entirely inside their system. If they change pricing or you want to move, exporting isn't really an option. For a business that depends on local search visibility, it's worth weighing the free price against those limitations.
Squarespace makes genuinely attractive templates — better-looking than most Wix sites out of the box, and easier to customize visually. If design matters to you and you want to manage the site yourself without code, it's a reasonable choice. The trade-offs: limited SEO control, no schema markup, moderate page speeds, $16–45/month forever, and your site is locked inside their platform. You're renting a good-looking site you'll never fully own.
Webflow is the best DIY option if you're willing to invest time in learning it. The visual editor is genuinely impressive — you get real design control without writing code, and the output is cleaner than Wix or Squarespace. The trade-offs: steep learning curve, $14–39/month hosting, and you still need to handle SEO, schema markup, and content strategy yourself. If you have the time and interest, Webflow is a solid choice. Most dentists don't — and that's completely reasonable.
Run a WHOIS lookup on your domain (search "WHOIS lookup" and enter your URL). If the registrant isn't you or your practice, the provider may have registered it in their name. It's worth checking — and easy to do.
Depends on the platform. If it's WordPress, you can request a full export — but you'll need hosting and a developer to set it up. If it's a proprietary platform, you typically can't export anything. The site was never really yours.
For what they're providing? Not really. WordPress hosting costs $3–10/month wholesale. Static hosting (what we use) costs $0. The rest is margin. Some of that covers maintenance and support — but if you're paying $400/month for occasional content updates, it's worth knowing what the actual costs are so you can make an informed decision.
Because recurring hosting revenue is more profitable than one-time builds. If you own your site, you don't need the agency anymore. Their model depends on you staying. That's not necessarily malicious — it's just how the economics work. We chose a different model because we think it's more honest, even if it means less recurring revenue for us.
It might be. If your practice is doing well, your current patients find you easily, and you're not trying to grow — a template site that loads reasonably fast is probably fine. We're not here to convince you that you need something you don't. Where custom sites matter most: competitive markets, specialty practices (implants, cosmetic), and practices that want to show up in AI search results. If that's you, the difference is meaningful.
Want to See What We'd Build?
Send us your practice info and current website. We'll reach out to walk through what we'd build for you. No commitment, no pressure.