Redesign vs Rebuild
These get used interchangeably and they are very different projects with different costs and different risks. The question is whether the platform underneath is actually the problem.
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Redesign
New design on the existing platform
Choose it when the platform works, the content is broadly right, and the site simply looks dated or converts poorly.
Strengths
- Far lower risk to rankings — URLs and structure survive
- Half to a third of the cost
- Five to nine weeks rather than three months plus
- Your team keeps the tools it knows
Trade-offs
- Existing technical problems remain
- Constrained by what the current platform allows
- Can be lipstick on a genuinely broken structure
Rebuild
New platform, new architecture
Choose it when the platform genuinely blocks you, the codebase is unmaintainable, or the site needs to become an application.
Strengths
- Technical debt cleared
- Free choice of architecture and tooling
- Performance ceiling reset
- Content model can be rethought properly
Trade-offs
- Real risk to rankings if redirects are handled badly
- Two to three times the cost
- Twelve to twenty weeks
- Your team relearns everything
Where each one actually wins
| Criterion | Redesign | Rebuild |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $8k–$25k typical | $25k–$80k typical |
| Timeline | 5–9 weeks | 12–20 weeks |
| SEO risk | Low | Moderate — redirects decide it |
| Fixes technical debt | No | Yes |
| Performance ceiling | Unchanged | Reset |
| Team disruption | Minimal | Significant |
Our recommendation
Start with the audit, not the assumption. Most sites brought to us for a rebuild need a redesign plus targeted technical work — the platform was never the problem, the templates and the page speed were. Rebuild when the codebase genuinely cannot be worked on, when the platform blocks a business requirement, or when the site has to become a product. "It feels old" is a redesign brief.
Any question in your mind?
The questions we get asked most, answered without the sales gloss. If yours is not here, ask us directly — you will get a straight answer either way.
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Read all FAQsWhat happens next
- Website RedesignA redesign that keeps the traffic you already have and fixes the reason the old site was not converting.Read
- WordPress DevelopmentCustom WordPress themes and plugins, built lean — no page builder bloat, no forty plugins doing one job each.Read
- Conversion Rate AuditWhere visitors leave and why, from recordings, form analytics and funnel data — ranked by revenue at stake.Read
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