Why not just use a website template or builder?

Often you should. For a brochure site, a landing page or a quick demo, a template or website builder does the job for a fraction of £25k. LaunchPad Starter is for when people need to log in, pay, book or trust you with their data, and a template runs out.

That first sentence is meant. Plenty of businesses don’t need us, and we’d rather say so than sell them something they’ll never use.

When a template is the right answer

A template site, or one built with an AI tool, is often enough. It suits you if:

• you need a brochure site that says who you are and how to reach you
• you want a landing page to test whether anyone cares about an idea
• you need a quick demo for an early investor conversation, and you’ll say it’s a prototype
• nobody will log in, pay you or trust you with their data

For those jobs, spending £25k would be a waste. Use the template, and spend the difference on talking to customers.

Where a template runs out

Templates are built for pages. Once the site has to remember who someone is, they start to creak:

• Accounts and logins. People sign up, come back and see their own information.
• Journeys, not pages. Booking, ordering, applying or matching, with rules about what happens next.
• Data you’re responsible for. Personal or payment details need someone checking how they’re stored.
• Connections to other systems. Payments, CRMs or your own back office.
• Change over time. Adding a feature without breaking the last one.

That’s also where AI-built apps run out. Our guide to agencies, freelancers and AI app builders covers where each one fits.

What the £25k buys

Starter is a fixed price of £25k, excluding VAT, for a launch-ready app or website in two months. It runs our four steps: Discover, Design, Build, Launch.

The accounts, hosting and licences the build needs are inside that £25k, up to launch. What’s included in the price lists the rest. What will I actually have at launch? describes what you walk away with.

What you’re paying for, underneath

The real difference isn’t the screens. It’s who owns the decisions, and who answers for the product once people depend on it.

We use AI throughout our work, because it makes good engineers faster. What the price pays for is the senior judgement on top: what to build, how it fits together and what happens when it breaks.

LaunchPad is about launching a successful product, not a throwaway MVP. The analytics and launch plan are there so you learn what to change once real users arrive. A template rarely tells you why people left.

A template’s support also ends where its help forum does. With us, launch isn’t the goodbye: we can keep the product running, or hand it over cleanly. Our answer on ongoing maintenance and updates explains both.

Is there anything between the two?

Yes. If you already have a brand, we apply it rather than create one. If you’ve tested an AI-built prototype with users, bring it. Both let more of a fixed budget go into the product.

If you aren’t sure your idea is ready for £25k, it may not be yet. How much a LaunchPad build costs sets out all three tiers and the wider market. Our answer on cheaper freelancers or offshore teams covers the other common alternative.