Build a website with AI

A professional website used to mean hiring a developer (expensive), using an agency (very expensive), or spending weeks wrestling with WordPress (painful). Now you can describe what you want in plain English and have a working website ready in an afternoon.

This is not a joke or an exaggeration. AI website builders have reached the point where they are genuinely good.

Which tool to use

Bolt (bolt.new)

Best for most businesses. Bolt builds functional, attractive websites from a text description. It is fast, the output looks professional, and you do not need any technical knowledge. Start here unless you need something complex.

Lovable (lovable.dev)

Better than Bolt for more complex builds. If you need user logins, a booking system, or custom functionality built in, Lovable handles that with more power. The interface is similar but it can handle more sophisticated requirements.

Base44 (base44.com)

Best for internal business tools and custom apps rather than standard websites. If you need a custom quoting system, a client portal, or an internal dashboard, Base44 is the right choice.

For a standard business website, start with Bolt.

Step-by-step: building a website in an afternoon

Step 1: Write your prompt

The quality of your website depends heavily on how clearly you describe what you want. Spend five minutes on this before you start. Here is a real example for a plumbing business:

Build me a professional website for Dave's Plumbing, a local plumbing business based in Sheffield covering South Yorkshire. We do boiler installations, bathroom fitting, emergency call-outs, and general plumbing repairs. Our main customers are homeowners and small landlords. I want: a homepage with a clear headline and a "Call Now" button, a services page listing our four main services, a contact page with a form and our phone number, and a small section with three or four fake customer reviews to start (I will replace these later). The design should be clean and professional, blue and white colours, and look trustworthy. Make it mobile-friendly.

That is a proper brief. The more detail you give, the better the result.

Step 2: Go to bolt.new

Visit bolt.new and paste your prompt into the text box. Hit enter. Watch it build.

Within a minute or two, you will have a working website preview in front of you.

Step 3: Review and refine

The first version will be close but probably not perfect. You can type further instructions to adjust it:

• "Make the headline bigger"
• "Change the colour scheme to dark green and white"
• "Add a section explaining why customers should choose us"
• "Make the contact form simpler, just name, phone, and message"

Keep refining until it looks right. This usually takes 20 to 40 minutes.

Step 4: Add your real content

Replace any placeholder text with your actual business details. Your real phone number, your real address, your actual services and pricing if you want to include it. If you have real customer reviews, add them in.

Step 5: Publish

Bolt, Lovable, and Base44 all offer built-in hosting. You can publish your site to a live URL directly from the builder. For a custom domain (like davesplumbing.co.uk), you will need to buy a domain from somewhere like Namecheap or 123-reg (usually around £10/year) and connect it via the settings.

What you end up with

A mobile-friendly, professional-looking website that you own and can update yourself whenever you need to. No ongoing developer fees, no agency relationship to manage. You write what you want and it happens.

The days of paying £3,000 for a basic business website are genuinely over. AI has made that unnecessary.