A Hawaii business has four realistic ways to get a website: build it yourself on a website builder, hire a local freelancer, hire an agency, or have one person design and build a custom site with you. Each one is the right answer for someone. The best fit comes down to your budget, how much time you have, and how much your business depends on people finding you on Google and booking or buying online.
I'm Clay, and I design and build websites from the North Shore of Oahu. I'll walk through each option honestly, including the ones that don't involve hiring me.
What makes a Hawaii website a little different
Before the options, it helps to know what your site actually has to do here. A few things are true for a lot of businesses in the islands.
- Visitors plan on their phones. People research tours, restaurants, rentals and shops before the trip, then again from the hotel, the rental car or the beach. Your site has to load quickly and read well on a small screen, often on a weak signal.
- Search is island by island. Someone on Maui searching for a food truck isn't looking for one in Kailua. Google shows local results based on where the searcher is and what they typed, so your site and your Google Business Profile need to say clearly which island and town you serve.
- A lot of businesses are owner-run. The person updating the site is often the same person running the register, leading the tour or driving the truck. Whatever you choose, you need to be able to keep it current without a headache.
- Hawaii keeps its own clock. Hawaii doesn't observe daylight saving time, so anything that takes bookings needs to be set to Hawaii time, or a mainland visitor can end up an hour off for half the year.
- Place names get typed different ways. People search for towns both with and without the ʻokina and kahakō. It's worth using the correct spelling on your site and making sure the plain spelling shows up somewhere natural too, like an address.
Keep those in mind as you read the options below.
Option 1: Do it yourself on a website builder
Builders like Squarespace, Wix and Shopify let you pick a template, drop in your text and photos, and publish. You pay a monthly or yearly subscription, and hosting is included.
Who it fits
- Brand-new businesses that need something live this month
- Owners who enjoy this kind of work and have a few evenings to spare
- Simple sites: a few pages, a contact form, maybe a small shop
What to watch for
- Your time is the real cost. Writing, choosing photos and fiddling with layouts takes longer than most people expect.
- Speed takes effort. Big photo files, extra apps and heavy templates can slow a site down on phones. Builders give you tools, but it's on you to use them well.
- You're renting. Your site lives on their platform. If you leave, you generally rebuild somewhere else.
- It can look like a template. Plenty of businesses use the same handful of designs.
I'll be straight with you: if you're just starting out and money is tight, a builder is often the right call. A clean, simple site you keep updated beats an expensive one you can't afford yet.
Option 2: Hire a local freelancer
A freelancer is one person who builds sites, usually starting from a builder or a WordPress theme and customizing it for you.
Who it fits
- Businesses that want something more polished than DIY without agency pricing
- Owners who would rather hand the work to someone and review it
What to watch for
- Skills vary a lot. Some freelancers are designers, some are developers, and some are mostly good at installing themes. Ask to see live sites they built, and open them on your phone.
- Ownership. Make sure your domain, hosting and site accounts are in your name, not theirs.
- What happens after launch. Ask who updates the site, who handles security updates, and what it costs.
Option 3: Hire an agency
An agency has a team: a project manager, designers, developers, sometimes writers and ad specialists.
Who it fits
- Larger businesses with bigger budgets and several people involved in decisions
- Projects that need a lot of moving parts at once, like branding, a site, ads and ongoing content
What to watch for
- You may not work with the people doing the work. Communication often runs through an account manager.
- Process adds cost. Meetings, reviews and handoffs are part of the price.
- Long contracts. Read the terms on monthly retainers and what you keep if you leave.
A good agency is worth it for the right project. For a lot of owner-run businesses in Hawaii, it's more than they need.
Option 4: A custom build, designed with you
A custom site is designed from your brand and built to do the specific things your business needs, rather than adapted from a template. That might be a booking flow for a surf school, an online menu and catering form for a food truck, or a shop with an admin where you manage orders.
Who it fits
- Established businesses where the website directly brings in bookings, orders or leads
- Businesses that want to stand out from competitors using the same templates
- Anyone who needs features a builder can't do well, like custom booking rules, inventory, or a dashboard to run things
What to watch for
- It costs more up front than DIY. You're paying for design and engineering time.
- Who builds it matters. Ask the same ownership and after-launch questions you would ask a freelancer.
- Make sure it's built to be fast and readable by Google, not just good-looking.
A quick way to decide
Ask yourself three questions.
- How much of my business comes through the website? If it's mostly word of mouth and walk-ins, start simple. If visitors find you on Google and book online, the site is worth investing in.
- How much time do I really have? Be honest. If the site will sit half-finished for months, paying someone is often cheaper in the end.
- What does it need to do? Show info, take bookings, sell products, or run part of your business behind the scenes? The more it needs to do, the less a template fits.
Whatever you choose, cover the basics: a site that loads quickly on a phone, clear hours and location, a correct and complete Google Business Profile, and accounts that are in your name.
Where I fit
I'm one person who does the design and the engineering, so you get a custom site, store or admin without the agency layers. I don't hand over a prebuilt template. I build it with you, so it sounds and feels like your business, and I make sure it's fast and set up for Google from the start. After launch, I can keep looking after it on a monthly care plan. You can see the packages on my services page, some past projects on my work page, and a bit more about me on my about page.
Not sure where your current site stands?
If you already have a site and you're wondering whether it's holding you back, try my free website audit. Enter your address and in about 30 seconds you'll see how it does on a phone, using Google's own testing tool. No call unless you ask for one.
And if you're ready to talk about something new, you can start a project here. No pressure either way. I'm always happy to point you in the right direction, even if that direction is a builder.
