Website building software covers three genuinely different categories: software you install and run, a service you use through a browser, and tools that generate a site from files. Each fails in a different way.
Short answer
Website building software comes in three kinds. Installed software runs on your computer and sends files to a host. A hosted service runs in a browser and keeps everything on their machines. Code-based tools build a site from files. The kind you choose decides who fixes it when it breaks.
It runs on your computer, makes the files, and sends them to a host you pay for on your own. This was the normal way for years and it has not gone away.
The gain is that the files are clearly yours, and the software keeps working whether or not the company that made it does.
The cost is that hosting, uploads and backups are yours to sort out, along with anything that breaks in between. The software ages too.
It also ties the site to one machine. The person with the software installed is the only person who can publish, which is a problem the first time they are away and a price changes.
Everything runs in a browser and on their machines. Nothing is installed, hosting comes with it, and updates happen without you doing a thing.
The trade is that you depend on them. The site lives while the subscription does, and what you can take out again varies hugely. Ask before you sign up, not after.
For most small firms this is the right kind, because the other options need somebody to look after servers and backups, and usually nobody does.
Check who holds the domain. Some services register it for you, and that is fine as long as it is in your name and you can move it. Ask the question before you need the answer.
Build a site from source files and templates, usually run by somebody comfortable with a repository. Our page on static site generators covers this category in detail.
The result is fast and safe. Getting there needs skills most owners do not have, and should not have to learn.
It is right for a team with developers and wrong for an owner who wants to change a price on a Sunday.
The list below is what actually differs between the categories. Features do not; these do, and they are the things that matter in year three rather than in week one.
The first and third kinds give you files you hold. A hosted service holds the site for you, which is handy until you want it somewhere else.
In practice that gap is smaller than it sounds. Words come out of most services, and the layout rarely moves between any two of them anyway.
What matters more is the domain. Our page on one business, one domain covers why that is the asset to protect regardless of category.
Keep your own copy of the words and the pictures either way. A folder with the text of every page and the original photographs is cheap insurance and it survives any change of tool.
Installed software has a price and a separate hosting bill. A hosted service has one monthly fee. Code-based tools cost little to use and a lot in hours.
Compare the yearly total: hosting, the domain, any extras and somebody's hours. The one that looks cheapest on a price page is rarely cheapest over three years.
Time is the biggest hidden cost in all three. An hour a month of somebody's attention outweighs most of the price gaps.
Start with who will look after it. That one question rules out two of the three for most small firms before you look at a single feature.
Then check what leaving looks like. Our page on comparing builders covers testing an export rather than accepting a description of one.
Then compare what is left on the things you will really do, which is putting up a page and changing it later.
Ask who fixes it at eight in the morning when the site is down, a customer has phoned, and an answer engine is telling people you are closed. The kinds differ most on that question and least on anything a feature list shows.
Installed software that runs on your computer and publishes files, hosted services that run in a browser, and code-based tools that build a site from source files. Each puts responsibility in a different place.
A hosted service, usually, because the alternatives require somebody to take responsibility for infrastructure and in most small businesses nobody does. The trade is dependency on the subscription.
You hold the files, which is a real difference. The domain matters more, and content can be exported from most hosted services anyway. Layout rarely transfers between any two products in any category.
Annual totals including hosting, domain, add-ons and somebody's hours. The cheapest price page is rarely the cheapest over three years, and time is the largest hidden cost in every category.
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