/ STEP 01 · SCOPE
Fixed scope, fixed price, before kickoff
Configurator → fixed-price brief. No "discovery phase" billed at day rate. You see the exact pages, exact deliverables, exact fee before the contract goes out. No surprises.
/ COMPARE · DIY · IN-HOUSE · AGENCY · ATTOH
The honest four-way compare. Where each route wins, where it breaks.
Most UK SMEs have four real options for the next website + revenue layer: a DIY builder, an in-house hire, a traditional agency, or an AI-first studio. We've sold against all three for two years. This is the version we send buyers when they ask why it's not Webflow + a hire + an agency retainer. No salesperson varnish — pick the one that fits your next 12 months.
/ THE TABLE · NINE DIMENSIONS · FOUR ROUTES
Where each route actually wins.
Nine dimensions buyers ask about. Four routes scored honestly. The ATTOH column is highlighted but the others aren't strawmanned — they win where they win.
| Dimension | DIY builder (Wix / Squarespace / Webflow) |
In-house hire (£55-90K + on-costs) |
Traditional agency (retainer + project) |
ATTOH Digital (AI-first studio + agents) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | 2-6 weeks if you do it yourself | 3-6 months from hire to first live page | 8-16 weeks typical | 14 days guaranteed · deposit back if missed |
| Upfront cost | £0-300 · plus your time | £0 today · £55-90K salary + 25% on-costs | £12-60K typical build + retainer | £997-£14,997 fixed · scope locked before kickoff |
| Standalone / portable | No — locked to the builder | Yes if hired right | Mixed — many use proprietary CMS | Yes · vanilla HTML/CSS/JS · no framework lock-in |
| Conversion + revenue routing | Templated · weak | As strong as the hire | Strong if they specialise · variable | Every CTA tagged · revenue evidence loop · weekly digest |
| Decision-support apps included | No | Build from scratch · 3-9 months each | Rare · usually a separate dev house | 22 Snap apps live · source-fresh · sit beside the site |
| Speed of change after launch | Fast for you · slow for anything custom | As fast as the hire's queue | Ticket queue · 1-4 week turnaround | Same-week for content · 14 days for new pages |
| Source freshness (UK regulation) | You | You / the hire | You / not their job | Automated · weekly checks against HMRC, CH, ICO, sector regs |
| Brand depth + strategy | None | Strong if hired right | Strongest · senior strategists, account teams | Senior sole-operator + collaborator network · sharp, not deep |
| Right for what scale? | Pre-revenue · <£100K | £5M+ · 3-year roadmap | £10M+ · multi-region, big brand | £250K-£10M UK SMEs · the middle that gets squeezed |
/ THE 4 STEPS · HOW ATTOH WINS THE COMPARE
The reason buyers switch to us.
Most prospects arrive having tried one or two of the other three. The pattern is the same — DIY hit its ceiling, in-house took too long, traditional agency was too slow and too expensive for the scope.
/ STEP 02 · BUILD
14-day delivery · senior + agent fleet
The build runs senior-only on the strategy + finishing, agent fleet on the assembly. No juniors learning on your money. Deposit back if we miss the 14-day window.
/ STEP 03 · LAYER
Snap agents + Operating Machine alongside
The website ships with 1-3 decision-support apps wired in (TradeSnap, HRSnap, FreightSnap — whatever fits the sector) plus lead routing + competitor watch behind the scenes.
/ STEP 04 · EVIDENCE
Revenue evidence loop, quarterly
Every CTA is tagged. Every quarter we read which buttons fire revenue and which die. Dead ones get folded, live ones get doubled. You see the maths, not a slide deck.
/ HONEST CALL · WHEN ATTOH IS WRONG
When you shouldn't hire ATTOH.
Three scenarios where one of the other routes beats us. We tell prospects this in the first call — saves everyone the bruised pitch.
/ 01 · GO DIY
Pre-revenue or under £100K — DIY is the right call
If you're under £100K and the offer is still moving weekly, a Squarespace or Webflow site is enough to take a deposit and prove demand. A £997+ ATTOH build is overkill until you know what you're selling. Come back when the offer locks.
- You need to take a deposit this week
- The offer still changes monthly
- Your time is cheaper than a build fee
/ 02 · GO IN-HOUSE
£5M+ with a 3-year roadmap — hire one
If you have £5M+ revenue, a senior product/marketing leader already in place, and a 3-year roadmap that includes apps, dashboards, internal tooling — hire a senior in-house developer. The compound returns over 36 months beat any external arrangement.
- Senior product or marketing lead in place
- 3-year roadmap with internal tools
- You can pay £80-120K all-in and want code control
/ 03 · GO TRADITIONAL AGENCY
Big-brand restage with regional comms — traditional agency wins
If you're doing a full brand restage, multi-region campaign, PR + creative + media integration, with budgets above £80K just for the strategy phase — hire a traditional agency with a senior strategist and an account team. They have the bandwidth and brand depth ATTOH doesn't carry.
- Full brand restage in a 12-month window
- Multi-region or international remit
- £80K+ before any build cost
/ 04 · GO ATTOH
£250K-£10M UK SME with a sharp 12-month need — that's us
If you're a UK SME between £250K-£10M revenue who needs a custom-coded website that converts, decision-support apps that sit beside it, and a revenue evidence loop that tells you what's actually working — that's the middle ATTOH was built for. 14-day delivery, fixed price, outcome-priced agents.
- You need the website live this month
- You want decision-support apps wired in
- You want to know what's earning, weekly
/ THE QUIET MATH · PRICE OVER 24 MONTHS
The two-year math most buyers don't run.
A like-for-like comparison over 24 months. Not the day-one sticker price — the price plus the hidden cost of speed, of the platform lock, of the rebuild.
The same scope, four routes, two years
Custom website + 3 decision-support apps + lead routing + competitor monitoring + quarterly evidence loop. DIY: £8-15K (mostly your time + bolt-on subscriptions you'll outgrow). In-house hire: £140-220K total (salary + on-costs + tooling — but you get the bandwidth on other work). Traditional agency: £60-180K (build + retainer + change requests). ATTOH: £18-45K (fixed build + outcome-priced agents + quarterly evidence reviews). The math holds because the agent fleet absorbs what used to be junior labour.
/ FAQ · BEFORE YOU PICK
The questions the four-way compare always raises.
01 When is DIY actually the right answer? +
When the business is under £100K revenue, the offer is still moving weekly, and a templated builder is enough to take a deposit. Below that scale, the time savings from a professional build don't recoup. Come back when the offer locks and the conversion rate matters more than the build fee.
02 When does in-house hire beat ATTOH? +
When you already have a senior product or marketing manager in place, a 3-year roadmap that includes internal tooling, and the budget for £55-90K salary + 25% on-costs. Most UK SMEs under £5M don't pass all three tests. If you do, hire one — the compound returns over 36 months beat any agency arrangement.
03 What does a traditional agency get right that ATTOH doesn't? +
Brand-strategy depth and account-team bandwidth. If you need a 12-month brand restage with senior strategists, regional comms support, PR integration and creative direction across multiple channels — hire a traditional agency. For revenue-ready websites + decision-support apps shipped fast, the AI-first studio model wins on speed and price.
04 What if I want to switch from a current agency to ATTOH mid-stream? +
Common. We've taken over from incumbent agencies six times in the last 12 months. The handover is: we read what's live, scope a 14-day rebuild on the parts that matter, leave the rest unchanged. Most clients run the old site for two weeks while we ship the new one, then switch DNS. No big-bang risk.
05 Is "AI-first studio" just an agency that uses ChatGPT? +
No. AI-first means the agent fleet handles assembly, source-freshness, lead routing, competitor watch and content cuts — work that used to need a 4-person junior team. The senior humans keep the strategy, the copy, the design judgment and the client conversation. The model is sharper because the labour leverage is bigger, not because we sprinkle prompts on top of a Webflow build.
Run the configurator. See the fixed price before you commit.
Three pages of inputs, one fixed-price brief at the end. No call needed unless you want one. Reply within one working day, every working day.