Honest comparison
Cawley Digital vs Durable
The short version
Durable is a DIY AI website builder: type in your business, get a site in about a minute, then refine it yourself for $25–$99 a month, forever.
Cawley Digital is a done-for-you studio: we design your site, write the copy, do the local SEO and AI-search setup, and show you the finished thing live before you pay a penny. One-off £997 install, then a monthly system at £249 — reviews, missed-call text-back, reporting — you can cancel any time and keep the website.
They're different products. One is software you operate. The other is a result you receive.
At a glance
| Cawley Digital | Durable | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A done-for-you jobs system + website (UK) | A DIY AI website builder |
| Who does the work | We do — design, copy, SEO, hosting | You do, with AI assistance |
| Cost | £997 one-off install · system £249/mo (website-only care £49/mo) | $25–$99/mo, ongoing |
| See it before you pay | Yes — real live preview, no deposit | Free tier to try it yourself |
| Local SEO for your town | Done for you, incl. Google Business Profile | DIY tools and prompts |
| AI search (AEO) | llms.txt, markdown mirrors & schema as standard | Not a stated focus |
| Support | One person who knows your business | Software support |
Durable pricing quoted from durable.co public pricing, July 2026: Launch $25/mo, Grow $99/mo (less on annual billing), free tier available.
What Durable is genuinely good at
Durable deserves its reputation for speed. It really will generate a working website in about a minute, the free tier means you can try it with zero risk, and the paid plans bundle extras like invoicing and a simple CRM. If you enjoy tinkering, it's a satisfying tool.
If you're pre-revenue, testing an idea, or you actively want to build and run your own site on a budget, Durable is a perfectly sensible choice — and cheaper than us in year one if your time is free.
Where the maths turns
Durable is a subscription. The Grow plan is $99 a month — roughly £900 a year, every year, on top of your own hours writing copy, choosing images and figuring out SEO. Our £997 build is a one-off; two years in, the DIY option has quietly cost more and consumed your evenings.
The bigger gap isn't price, it's accountability. An AI builder gives you a website. It doesn't check that your Google Business Profile matches, that your pages answer the questions people in your town actually search, or that ChatGPT can read your opening hours. That's the work that turns a website into enquiries — and it's the work DIY tools leave on your plate.
The AI-search difference
More of your customers now ask ChatGPT or Google's AI who to call instead of scrolling ten blue links. Every site we ship includes the machine-readable layer those engines read: llms.txt, clean markdown mirrors of every page, and structured data for your services, reviews and hours. It's standard in every build, not an add-on you have to know to ask for.
Choose Durable if…
- You want to build and control the site yourself
- You're testing a brand-new idea on a tight budget
- You're comfortable writing your own copy and doing your own SEO
Choose Cawley Digital if…
- You're a trade or local business that wants calls, not a hobby
- You'd rather spend evenings quoting jobs than editing a website
- You want local SEO and AI-search visibility handled by a person accountable for it
Fair questions
Is Durable good for UK tradesmen?
It can be, if you're happy doing the work yourself. Durable generates a clean starting point fast, but the copy, local SEO, Google Business Profile and AI-search setup are still on you. Most trades we work with don't want a second job running a website — they want the phone to ring.
What does Durable cost compared to a done-for-you build?
Durable is $25–$99/month ongoing (checked July 2026). Our sites are £997 as a one-off install with website-only care from £49/mo, or the full system at £249/mo — either cancellable any time. Over two years, DIY on Durable's Grow plan costs more in cash — before you count your own hours.
Which gets found on Google and in AI answers?
Whichever site has the work done. Rankings come from local pages, reviews, a tuned Google Business Profile and machine-readable structure — not from which builder made the site. The difference is that with Durable you do that work; with us it's included in the build.
Can I see what I'd get before paying you?
Yes — that's the whole model. Tell us your trade and town and we build a real, live preview of your new site and send you the link before any money changes hands. If you don't love it, you've lost nothing.
Judge the work, not the pitch
Tell us your trade and town. We'll build a real, live preview of your new website and send you the link — before you pay a penny, whatever you decide.
More comparisons: vs GoHighLevel · vs Insites
Questions about anything here? will@cawleydigital.com