Website, or social page?

Every few months we get an email from someone asking us to build them a website — and by the end of the first call, we've talked them out of it. Not because we don't want the work. Because the honest answer is they don't need one yet.

This post is for people trying to answer that question for themselves. Do you actually need a website right now, or is a well-run Instagram, LinkedIn, or Behance page doing the job for you? Here's how we think about it.

What a social page is good at

A well-kept social page is a real thing. It's easy to update. It shows up in search. It reaches people you don't know yet. If you're a photographer, a chef, an illustrator, a small brand that ships one product a season — Instagram is doing most of the work of a website already.

For a lot of people we speak to, we say the same thing: before you build a website, get your social to the point where it's actually representing you. Consistent, on-brand, and showing the work properly. If that's not there yet, a website is just going to inherit the same problem.

What a social page can't do

The trouble starts when the social page has to do things it was never designed for. Take a booking. Sell more than one thing. Explain a service that needs more than a caption. Show up when someone Googles your business by name. Host a proper contact form. Build an email list. Own the audience you've built.

If any of those things matter — and for a lot of businesses eventually they do — a social page starts feeling like a rented flat with restrictions on where you can hang pictures.

Your social page belongs to a platform. Your website belongs to you. That's the whole difference.

The moment you probably do need a website

There isn't one clean rule, but here are the moments where we usually say yes:

You need someone to be able to book you, buy something, or contact you properly — and the current path is 'DM me on Instagram and hope I see it'.

You want to be found by people who don't already know your name. Google won't send anyone to your Instagram; it will send them to your website.

You're pitching for bigger work — grants, corporate clients, partnerships — where the other side expects a real web address on your email signature.

You want to build an email list, publish thinking, or run a shop. All three are painful on social platforms and straightforward on your own site.

What we tell people who ask

If you're in the 'not sure yet' camp, our honest answer is: get your social to a place you're proud of first, then talk to us. That way, whatever we build for you inherits an audience and a voice that already exist, rather than trying to invent them from scratch on launch day.

And if you're past that point — if the social page is doing well and can't stretch any further — that's a proper conversation to have. Get in touch and we'll help you figure out whether it's really a website you need, or just a couple of clean pages doing a specific job.