How are these comparisons kept honest?

A build rule: every comparison must name at least two situations where each side is the right choice. If one option won every row the page would be an advert with a table in it, and the build rejects it before it can be published.

Do you recommend things you do not sell?

Frequently. The Shopify comparison recommends Shopify for most conventional catalogues, which costs me the project. A recommendation that only ever points at what I sell is worth nothing to you, and you would work that out eventually.

What if the answer is neither option?

Then the verdict says so. Several of these end with "not a real choice" or "do both" — HTTPS versus HTTP is not a decision, and AEO versus SEO is the same work described twice.

Compare

Side-by-side comparisons that name where each side wins

51 comparisons across platforms, architecture, hosting, images and strategy. Each has a table, a balanced case for both options, and a verdict — sometimes that the answer is neither.

These 51 pages compare the choices that come up when commissioning or building a website: platforms, hosting, image formats, redirect types, schema formats and hiring models. Every one names at least two situations where each option is correct.

Platforms

Shopify vs WooCommerce Shopify wins on speed to market and operational simplicity; WooCommerce wins on control and content. Choose Shopify if the catalog… Read the comparison → Shopify vs a custom build Shopify wins whenever your catalogue fits a product grid — it will get you trading faster and more reliably than any custom build.… Read the comparison → WooCommerce vs a custom build WooCommerce wins when your team publishes content and the catalogue is conventional. A custom build wins when the data model does … Read the comparison → WordPress vs a static site WordPress wins when someone will genuinely log in and publish. A static site wins when nobody will — it is faster, cheaper to host… Read the comparison →

Architecture

Static generation vs server-side rendering Static generation wins whenever the page is identical for every visitor — it is faster, cheaper and has no runtime to secure. Serv… Read the comparison → Client-side rendering vs server-side rendering For anything that needs to be found, server rendering wins decisively. Client-side rendering delivers an empty document to crawler… Read the comparison → React vs Astro React wins for applications with continuous interactivity. Astro wins for content sites, because it ships zero JavaScript by defau… Read the comparison →

Hosting

Hiring

Hiring a freelancer vs hiring an agency A freelancer wins on cost and directness — you talk to the person doing the work. An agency wins on capacity and continuity: multi… Read the comparison → An offshore developer vs a local developer Offshore wins on cost, sometimes by a large multiple, and the difference is cost of living rather than capability. Local wins on t… Read the comparison → Building it yourself vs hiring a developer DIY on a website builder wins when the site is simple, the budget is zero and your time is genuinely free. Hiring wins as soon as … Read the comparison → Fixed price vs Hourly rate Fixed price moves the estimating risk to the supplier and requires a written scope; hourly moves it to the client and requires tru… Read the comparison → Template vs Custom design A template is faster and cheaper and constrains what the site can say; a custom design costs more and is shaped around your actual… Read the comparison → In-house vs Outsourced An in-house developer makes sense when the site changes weekly and is core to the business. Outsourcing makes sense when it change… Read the comparison → Maintenance retainer vs Ad-hoc support A retainer buys a routine and a response commitment for a fixed monthly cost; ad-hoc support costs nothing until something breaks … Read the comparison →

Images

AVIF vs WebP AVIF produces files roughly 30 to 50 percent smaller than WebP at the same quality, and encodes considerably more slowly. Serve AV… Read the comparison → JPEG vs PNG JPEG for photographs, PNG for images needing transparency or hard edges. PNG files of photographs are typically several times larg… Read the comparison → SVG vs PNG for icons SVG wins for icons, logos and line art without qualification: it is smaller, scales to any size without variants, can be styled wi… Read the comparison → Lazy loading vs eager loading Lazy-load everything below the fold and eager-load everything above it — particularly the LCP image. Lazy-loading the hero adds a … Read the comparison →

Technical

301 vs 302 redirects Use 301 for anything permanent — it transfers ranking signals to the destination. Use 302 only for a genuinely temporary diversion… Read the comparison → noindex vs robots.txt disallow noindex removes a page from the index; robots.txt disallow prevents it being crawled. They are not interchangeable, and using both… Read the comparison → A canonical tag vs a redirect Use a redirect when only one version should exist and users should never see the other. Use a canonical when both URLs need to rem… Read the comparison → An XML sitemap vs internal links Internal links matter more. A sitemap helps discovery; internal links tell a search engine what is important and pass authority be… Read the comparison → JSON-LD vs Microdata JSON-LD wins for almost every case and is what Google recommends. It lives in a script tag apart from the markup, so a template ch… Read the comparison → FAQPage vs QAPage schema FAQPage is for a page where you publish several question-and-answer pairs you wrote yourself. QAPage is for a page whose reason to… Read the comparison → HTTP vs HTTPS There is no real comparison left — HTTPS is required. Browsers mark HTTP pages as not secure, many browser features refuse to work… Read the comparison →

Strategy

AEO vs traditional SEO They share the same foundations and diverge on what wins. SEO optimises for a position in a list of links; AEO optimises for being… Read the comparison → GEO vs SEO GEO adds a new consumer rather than replacing the old one. It has one prerequisite classic SEO does not: AI crawlers must actually… Read the comparison → Organic search vs paid ads Paid buys traffic today and stops the moment you stop paying. Organic compounds and takes months to start. For a new business the … Read the comparison → Local SEO vs national SEO Local SEO is won through a business profile, consistent contact details and reviews, with the website playing a supporting role. N… Read the comparison → Publishing regularly vs Publishing nothing Publishing works when you have something specific to say that buyers search for; publishing nothing is better than publishing fill… Read the comparison → Google Ads vs SEO Ads buy traffic immediately and stop the moment you stop paying; SEO compounds over months and keeps working. For a new business t… Read the comparison →

Measurement

Google Analytics vs Cookieless analytics Google Analytics gives you cross-session user journeys, remarketing audiences and free unlimited scale, at the cost of consent req… Read the comparison → reCAPTCHA vs Honeypot and timing checks reCAPTCHA stops sophisticated abuse at the cost of visitor friction, accessibility barriers and sending data to Google on every pa… Read the comparison →

Commerce

Stripe vs PayPal Stripe gives you a checkout that stays on your site and a developer-grade API; PayPal gives you a payment method a large share of … Read the comparison → Guest checkout vs Required account Guest checkout removes a barrier at the highest-intent moment; a required account gives you order history, saved details and a mar… Read the comparison →

Website builders

The rule that keeps these honest

Every comparison on this site must name at least two situations where each side is the right choice. That is not an editorial aspiration — it is a build gate, and a comparison that fails it does not get published.

The reason is simple: a comparison where one option wins every row is an advert with a table in it, and readers detect that faster than anyone writing it expects. Several of these recommend things I do not sell, and one concludes that the comparison is not a real choice at all.

Questions about these comparisons

How are these comparisons kept honest?: A build rule: every comparison must name at least two situations where each side is the right choice. If one option won every row the page would be an advert with a table in it, and the build rejects it before it can be published.
Do you recommend things you do not sell?: Frequently. The Shopify comparison recommends Shopify for most conventional catalogues, which costs me the project. A recommendation that only ever points at what I sell is worth nothing to you, and you would work that out eventually.
What if the answer is neither option?: Then the verdict says so. Several of these end with "not a real choice" or "do both" — HTTPS versus HTTP is not a decision, and AEO versus SEO is the same work described twice.

Want a recommendation for your specific situation?

Send the brief and you get a reply within one business day — either questions, or a scoping call. If your project is not something I should take on, I will say so then.

Start a project WhatsApp

Response: Replies within 1 business day
Hours: Mon–Fri, 09:00–18:00 PKT — overlaps 05:00–14:00 UK, 00:00–09:00 US Eastern
Booking: Booking projects from October 2026