You are going to read this knowing a studio wrote it, so here is the bias stated up front: we build sites from scratch and we sell them. That is exactly why this piece has a section on when a builder beats us — an answer that always comes out "hire a studio" is an advertisement, and you would be right to ignore it.
The question most people ask is "which is cheapest". It is the wrong first question, because all three can be cheap on day one. The three questions that actually separate them are:
- What does it cost over three years, not at launch?
- Who is on the hook when it breaks, and how do you reach them?
- What does leaving cost if the arrangement stops working?
The prices, sourced
All so'm figures below use the Central Bank of Uzbekistan rate of 11,825.40 so'm per US dollar on 26 September 2026 (CBU). The rate moves daily, so treat the conversions as approximate.
Website builders
Tilda has three plans: Free, Personal at $10 a month billed yearly ($15 month-to-month) for one site, and Business at $20 a month yearly ($25 monthly) for five sites, which adds code export (Tilda pricing). A year of Personal is $120, about 1.42 million so'm; a year of Business is $240, about 2.84 million so'm.
Wix lists Light at $17, Core at $29, Business at $39 and Business Elite at $159 a month, billed yearly and paid upfront; Core is the first plan that accepts payments (Wix plans, confirmed by tech.co's September 2026 review). Wix says prices vary by location. A year of Core is $348, about 4.12 million so'm.
The subscription is not the whole cost. Someone still has to build the site on the platform: you, a member of staff, or a designer you pay separately.
Freelancers in Uzbekistan
There is no reliable survey of freelance web rates in Uzbekistan, so we will not pretend there is. What exists are published price lists. One Tashkent studio's 2026 guide puts a template or freelance site at roughly 3–8 million so'm, and a studio landing page at 8–18 million (UZNEO). Another small studio lists a landing page at 5 million so'm, a corporate site at 9 million and a store at 12 million (MUVASAYT). Classified listings go far lower and far higher.
Take all of these as ranges with a caveat: the price tells you very little until you know what is included, which is the argument of the brief that gets you a real price.
A studio — us
Our published entry prices are $99 for a landing page (3–5 days), $299 for a corporate site (7–10 days) and $499 for a store (1–5 weeks), all on our pricing page, which converts to so'm at the Central Bank's daily rate. Source code is included on every plan. After the included support period, maintenance is optional from $39 a month. The other agencies' guides we read put a studio landing page well above that; being one of the cheapest credible options is a deliberate choice on our side, not an introductory offer.
Side by side
| Website builder (Tilda, Wix) | Freelancer | Studio (Odilient) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | $0 plus your time, or a designer's fee | Roughly 3–8 million so'm in published lists; varies widely | From $99 landing, $299 corporate, $499 store |
| Running cost per year | $120–$240 (Tilda), $204–$1,908 (Wix), every year | Hosting and domain, plus their rate for each change | Hosting and domain; maintenance optional from $39/month |
| Time to launch | Days, if you build it yourself | Depends on the person's queue | 3–5 days landing, 7–10 days corporate |
| Speed and SEO control | Platform decides what loads on every page | Depends entirely on the person | Built to a 90+ PageSpeed target, SEO-ready |
| Ownership and exit | Wix cannot be moved; Tilda export needs Business and leaves forms tied to Tilda | Depends on whether you got the code and accounts | Code in your Git organisation, no licence to renew |
| Who is on the hook when it breaks | The platform for uptime; you for everything you built | One person, if reachable | Written support period and response times |
| Local payments, integrations | Tilda has a Click connector; limited beyond that | Possible; quality varies | Payme, Click and custom integrations in scope |
Two rows deserve a closer look.
Exit. Wix states that a Wix site cannot be exported to another host, because it depends on Wix's own servers to run (Wix Help Center). Tilda does export code, but only on Business-tier plans, the export is static, form submissions still need an active Tilda subscription, and the store management, member areas and password protection are not exported (Tilda help). None of that is hidden; it is simply the business model. We made the full argument in the case against your page builder and will not repeat it here.
Who is on the hook. With a builder, the platform answers for the platform. The broken form, the page that looks wrong on a phone, the price nobody updated — that is yours. With a freelancer, it is one person, and the risk is not skill but availability. With us, it is a written support period — 14 days on a landing page, 60 days on a corporate site, six months on a store — with published response times of 48, 24 and 12 hours respectively.
The three-year arithmetic
Take the most common case: a five-page site for a local business, where the owner changes text and prices a few times a quarter.
- Tilda Personal: $360 of subscription over three years, plus whoever builds it. Business, if you want the option to export, is $720.
- Wix Light: $612 over three years; Core, if you want to take payments, $1,044.
- Freelancer: roughly 3–8 million so'm for the build — about $254–$677 at today's rate — plus hosting and every change at their rate.
- Odilient corporate site: $299 once, plus hosting and domain, which we price out line by line in what a website actually costs to run. You edit the content yourself in the admin panel included on that plan.
Now the part a studio usually leaves out. If you want someone else to make every change for you, our maintenance at $39 a month is $1,404 over three years — more than any builder subscription on this list. What that money buys is a person who knows your code, not software. If you are happy to make changes yourself, a builder and a studio cost about the same over three years in cash, and the difference moves to the two rows above: what you can change, and what leaving costs.
When a builder is the right answer
A builder beats us when:
- You are testing whether the business works at all. A Tilda page you build this weekend, with no contract and no waiting, is the correct tool for a question that might be answered "no" in three months.
- You, or someone on staff, genuinely want to build and rearrange it yourselves — not only edit text, but move sections around — and you enjoy doing it.
- The site is small and will stay small: a few pages, a contact form, no integrations.
- You sell a handful of catalog items and Click is enough. Tilda's built-in Click connector covers that, provided you add the tax catalog codes to each product (Tilda help).
If all of those are true, take the builder. We will tell you the same thing if you ask us — telling clients the truth, including when they need less than they asked for, is one of our five commitments.
When a freelancer is the right answer
A freelancer is the right call when you know a specific person whose previous sites you have seen working, the scope is small and clear, and you can check the result yourself. Rates vary so much that a good freelancer can be excellent value.
Protect yourself with the same rules you would apply to anyone: the domain, hosting and code repository in your name from day one, and a handover you can verify. The nine-account checklist in who owns your website is written for exactly this conversation.
When a studio is the right answer
Choose a studio when the site is a sales channel rather than a brochure: you take payments through Payme or Click (see accepting online payments in Uzbekistan), you need Russian, Uzbek and English done properly, the site connects to systems you run, or its speed affects revenue — the argument of speed is a pricing decision.
Choose one, too, when you need a fixed price and a named delivery date in writing, and someone still answerable after launch. For what a full price breakdown looks like locally, see how much a website costs in Tashkent.
Our websites service starts at $99 with the design, copy, analytics and a CMS you can edit included. Tell us what you need. You get a fixed price and a delivery date back — free, and with no obligation to proceed.
Frequently asked questions
Can I start on Tilda and move to a custom site later?
Yes, and it is a sensible path for a new business. Budget for the move honestly: Tilda's export is static, and forms, store and member areas do not come with it, so plan the content extraction first. On Wix, expect to rebuild, because the site cannot be exported.
Is a freelancer always cheaper than a studio?
No. Published freelance ranges in Tashkent start around 3 million so'm, and our landing page starts at $99. Compare what is included — revisions, support period, source code, who owns the accounts — before comparing the number.
Does a custom site rank better in Google than a Tilda site?
Not automatically, and anyone who promises rankings is guessing. What a custom build gives you is control over speed, structure and markup — the inputs — without a platform deciding what loads on every page.
What should I ask a freelancer before paying?
Whose name the domain and hosting will be in, where the code will live and whether you get access, what happens if they are unavailable for a month, and what a change costs after launch. If any answer is vague, fix it in writing before the first payment.
What about WordPress?
WordPress with a purpose-built theme is a legitimate content system. The costs we describe come from the visual builder and plugin stack usually sold with it, not from WordPress itself.
