In short. Tilda is great for a fast start: a business card, a landing page or an idea test go live in an evening for roughly $50–150 a year. Custom development is for when the site starts to earn — when speed, search rankings, integrations like local payments and accounting, and actually owning the site all matter.
| Criterion | Tilda | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ≈$50–150 per year (plan) | From $1,000 one-off |
| Time to start | An evening | From 7 days |
| Load speed | Platform code for everything | A few kilobytes |
| SEO | Basic; the ceiling arrives fast | No limits |
| Integrations | Zero-block, embeds, whatever the platform allows | Anything: accounting, CRM, payments, APIs |
| Moving away | Content yes, the site no — it lives on Tilda | Code and access are yours |
| Design | Recognisable Tilda blocks | Yours alone |
Where Tilda genuinely fits
No snobbery: if you need a business card, a landing page for ads, an event promo or a quick idea test before a budget — Tilda builds it in an evening and is right to. If the site is not a lead source but proof that you exist, there is no reason to pay for custom work.
Where Tilda hits its ceiling
Trouble shows up once the site is meant to earn.
- Speed. The platform ships its own code for every case — on mobile data the page is noticeably slower than one built for the task
- SEO. Basic meta tags exist, but fine control over structure and speed does not — on a competitive query that is not enough
- Integrations. Accounting sync, local payment providers, pushing leads into a CRM — either through embed workarounds or not at all
You cannot take a Tilda site with you
The point people remember too late: on Tilda you rent, you do not own. Content exports, but the site stays on the platform and works only while you pay for the plan. A price rise, a shut-down project or a missed payment means rebuilding from zero. With custom work the code, domain and access are registered in your name.
Tilda's hidden costs
The yearly plan is not the whole cost. The domain is paid separately, some of the convenient blocks and features live only on higher tiers, and exporting the design to your own hosting works with limits and still needs a developer. For a business card that is pocket change, but for a growing site the yearly sums add up — and all that time the site is still not yours.
The honest arithmetic
Tilda is cheaper in year one and almost always more expensive over time — not through the subscription but through what you miss. If the site brings enquiries, the gap in speed and conversion between «a template like everyone else» and «fast and built for the job» covers the development cost within months. If it brings no enquiries and is not meant to, custom work is not worth paying for.
What to choose
Tilda for a business card, a landing page, a promo, an idea test. Custom development if you pay for traffic, compete for rankings, sell through the site or need integrations. It is a specific case of the broader «builder or custom» choice; price benchmarks are on our services pages.