Updated
The short answer: use a website builder if your park rents one kind of site, takes bookings by phone or through a platform, and you will keep the pages current yourself. Hire a designer if you have several kinds of site or unit to explain, or if the photos and wording are the hard part. The same goes if you have already rebuilt the site once and it still is not answering the questions your phone keeps getting.
Want this handled instead of DIY'd? Get a fixed-price quote, or see the three prices.
I build campground websites for a living, so you should know which way I lean before you read further: I would rather tell you to use a builder than sell a build you do not need. A Starter site at $2,800 is a fair price for the right park. For a one-page park that rarely changes, it is more than the job calls for, and a plain builder page done well will serve you.
What you are actually choosing between
There are three paths, and what separates them is who does the work and who owns the result.
| Path | What you pay | What you do | Worth checking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do-it-yourself builder | Free to a monthly or yearly subscription, usually for as long as the site stays up | All of it: structure, writing, photos, upkeep | Whose name is on the domain, and whether you can export your pages |
| Template from your booking or hosting vendor | Check your contract, because some come bundled with the booking service | Fill in the template, mostly | Who owns the domain and the guest list if you ever leave |
| A designer | Usually a project fee, sometimes with a monthly plan. Mine is one fee, quoted in writing first: $2,800, $4,500 or $7,500 | Send photos and answer questions, then approve | Whether there is a monthly fee, and whose name the accounts are in |
The table says nothing about quality because each path can be done well or badly. What it shows is where your hours go. A builder costs the least in cash and the most in evenings, the same sum as painting the house yourself: cheaper in cash, paid for in weekends. A designer reverses that.
Four questions that sort most parks
How many different things do you rent? One kind of site, such as back-in sites with electric, fits on one page and a builder handles it comfortably. Tent sites, full hookups, cabins and a glamping unit each want their own page with their own photos and dimensions, because that is what a guest checks before choosing. Past about three kinds, the structure is the work, and structure is what a designer is for.
Who writes the words and takes the photos? The software is the easy part of any website. The hard part is a page that tells a stranger whether a forty-foot rig fits, and photos that show where they will actually be sleeping. If you enjoy that work, a builder gives you the room to do it. If it is the part you keep putting off, the builder will not make it any easier. The photo side is covered in how to photograph your campground, and it is worth reading before you choose either path.
What happens in March when the rates change? Picture opening the builder's editor and changing the rate table, the season dates and a burn-ban notice on a Saturday morning with a bad connection. If that feels fine, good. If it feels like a job for someone else, ask what the update process is for any option you consider, including mine.
Whose name is on the domain and the account? This one matters more than the other three and it applies to every path. The domain, the hosting or builder account and every file should be registered to your business. When they are, you can change course later without asking anyone. When they are not, the site can be held up at the worst moment, and that is how a park can end up unable to change its own opening date.
Where a builder is the better choice
A builder suits a park with one or two kinds of site, a short rate list, and an owner who is comfortable editing pages. It also suits the first year of a new park, when the offer may still change and a one-time build would be redone anyway. If most of your bookings come through a platform and the website only has to say who you are and where you are, a clean one-page site is enough. The website versus booking platform guide shows how little the website has to carry once the platform does the booking.
Where a builder tends to stop working
The trouble tends not to show up in year one. It shows up when the park grows. A second loop, a cabin, a seasonal-members program or a waitlist adds pages the builder was not laid out for, and each addition gets bolted on a little differently. Guests tend to notice before the owner does, because the new pages look like a different park.
The other common failure is quieter. The site is finished, so it stops being touched. Last fall's closing-weekend notice is still on the home page in April, the rates are from two seasons ago, and nobody opens the editor because it was a chore the first time. That is a habit problem, and no choice of software fixes it. If you know you will not maintain it, keep the site small.
If you choose a builder, start with these
- Register the domain yourself, in your business name, and keep the login. Do not let anyone else hold it, however helpful they are.
- Put rates, dates and site dimensions in plain text rather than an image or a PDF. Guests on a phone and search engines can both read text.
- Use your own photos of your own park, captioned by loop or site type. Stock photos of a generic campfire teach a guest nothing.
- Open the site on your phone, on mobile data, away from the Wi-Fi, and try to find your pet policy and your opening day. If it takes more than ninety seconds, fix that before anything else.
- Keep your own copy of every word and photo. The writing and pictures are the part that carries over if you ever switch tools.
If you hire a designer, ask these before you sign
- Is there a monthly fee, now or later?
- Whose name goes on the domain and the hosting account?
- Who writes the pages, and who takes or finishes the photos?
- What does it cost to change a rate or add a page after launch, and can I do it myself?
- If I move the site somewhere else in three years, what do I get?
A good answer to the last one is a list of files and logins handed over without a fee. Any designer, me included, should be able to answer all five in writing.
Counting the cost honestly
Do the arithmetic once, with your own numbers. Take the monthly price of the builder you are considering and multiply by thirty-six for three years. Add the evenings you expect to spend, valued at whatever an evening is worth to you in March. Set that against a designer's fee, and add the yearly domain and hosting renewals to the designer side, because with a builder those are often inside the subscription. Neither answer is always the cheaper one. Cash is lower with a builder, and the total depends on whether your evenings are spare or spoken for.
The three sizes I quote are on the pricing page, each as one fee with nothing monthly (the domain and hosting renew yearly, and they are small). If you want to see what a finished build looks like before deciding, the Emberwood demo is a fictional park built the way I would build a real one.
Not sure which group your park is in? Tell me what you rent and how guests book now through the quote form. I will tell you honestly whether a builder is enough.
Common questions
What is the best website builder for a campground?
There is no single best one. Choose on three tests: you can put rates in plain text, the photo galleries work on a phone, and you can take your domain and your content with you if you leave. Any builder that passes all three will do for a park with one kind of site.
Can I use a free website template for my RV park?
You can, and for a single-page park it may be enough. Many free plans add the provider's branding and do not let you use your own domain, so check both before you build on one, and check that the page loads quickly on a phone with weak signal.
How long does it take to build a campground website myself?
Longer than most people expect, mostly because of the writing and photos. List the pages you need and the photos each one wants, then count evenings. If the list runs past five or six pages, the structure is starting to be the work.
Do I still need my own website if my booking platform offers one?
Probably yes, because a platform page is built mainly to take the reservation, and a stranger deciding where to stay also wants the bathhouse, the loops and the drive in. The Campspot and RoverPass guide works through four situations.
Can I start with a builder and hire a designer later?
Yes. The writing and photos carry over, so keep your own copies, and register the domain in your business name from the first day. That makes the later move simple.
How much does a campground website cost if I hire someone?
It varies a lot by designer, and by whether there is a monthly plan on top. Mine is one fee, quoted in writing before any work starts: $2,800 for Starter, $4,500 for Grow or $7,500 for Complete, in US dollars. The details are on the pricing page.
Keep reading
- whether you need Campspot or RoverPass at all: the platform and the website do different jobs, with the fee arithmetic worked out.
- what belongs on the website and what belongs in the booking platform: a page-by-page split you can finish in an afternoon.
- how to photograph your campground with a phone: the shot list, and the two times of day worth shooting in.
Canadian? The same three sizes in Canadian dollars are on the CAD pricing page.