For my self-employment, I needed a professional website. But I didn't want to spend a lot of money right away — I wanted to first understand what's actually possible with the different options out there.
So I tested: the AI website builder from IONOS, WordPress, and Claude with hosting.
In the end, I went with Claude Code for building it and IONOS for hosting.
Style, direction, content and site structure came from me. The rest of the design emerged through sparring with Claude Code — step by step, piece of feedback by piece of feedback.
It wasn't entirely without hiccups, of course:
- At first, I'd booked the wrong hosting plan. IONOS support was genuinely excellent about it, though.
- The SSL certificate caused problems at first.
- For security reasons, I deliberately avoided any PHP embeds.
What worked really well, on the other hand, was the technical setup: I could upload the website password-protected first and have other people test it. Everyone was impressed by how much had come together in such a short time. At the same time, we found spots together where the site still needed to become more personal and individual.
That's exactly where I am now: next, I'm sharpening my positioning, and with it the content. In three weeks, we're also shooting photos that will hopefully replace the current AI-generated images.
My interim verdict: for tech-savvy individuals, AI can be a genuinely good and cost-effective way to build a website. For small and medium-sized businesses, though, it needs a closer look. Security, quality and how you come across shouldn't be left to chance. And especially when it comes to images, AI doesn't convince me enough yet to replace professional support.