Comparison
Brandyland vs hiring a developer for your location websites
A developer on staff or on contract can build almost anything you can describe. Location websites mostly need the same few things changed every week, by the people who run each location. Here is how the two approaches compare.
Facts checked September 26, 2026
The short answer
Hire a developer for software only you need. Use Brandyland for location sites.
A good developer earns their keep when the work is unique to your business: a franchisee portal, an ordering tool, a connection to your own systems. Location websites are not unique. Every location needs hours, a schedule, notices, forms and on-brand pages, changed many times a month. Paying a person to build all of that, and then to make each change, puts your most flexible hire on your most repetitive work. Brandyland runs the location sites for a price per location and leaves the developer free for the rest.
| A developer on staff or contract | Brandyland | |
|---|---|---|
| How it's paid for | A salary or contract, plus hosting | $99 or $199 per location per month |
| Building the existing sites | The developer's time | Free for franchise networks, migration included |
| Who changes Saturday's hours | The developer, when the request reaches them | The franchisee, from a phone |
| A new location | Another site to build and maintain | Added on the same engine, with an opening-soon page until opening day |
| Brand control | Whatever the developer builds | Theme, fonts, colors and shared sections locked by corporate |
| Inquiries | Built to order | On-brand reply within sixty seconds, follow-ups, a leads inbox per location |
| Seeing the whole network | A report, if someone builds one | Network health dashboard, worst first |
| When the person is away or leaves | Changes wait, and the next hire learns the code | Franchisees keep editing, and the engine is maintained for you |
| Custom software beyond websites | Yes, anything you can spec | No. Location sites, the brand site and the tools around them |
| Code ownership | Yours | Ours. Your content and images export with one click, any time |
What the developer ends up building
Location websites look simple from the outside. The job grows once the first site is live, because a franchise network needs more than pages.
To match what franchisees and corporate use every week, a developer would build, and then keep running, the list below. Each item is a reasonable project on its own. Together they are a product, and a product needs someone to look after it long after launch.
- A theme every location shares, with fonts and colors corporate can lock
- A phone-friendly admin for hours, holidays and the weekly schedule
- Notices that come down on their own after an end date
- Inquiry forms with an automatic reply, and follow-ups that stop when a person answers
- A leads inbox for each location
- A way to publish one page to every location, with some sections locked
- A dashboard showing which locations have stale hours or leads waiting
- An opening-soon page for locations that have not opened yet
Who makes the Saturday change
With a developer, a franchisee who needs to change Saturday's hours sends a request, and the change goes live when the developer gets to it. With a handful of locations, that works. With dozens, requests arrive every day: a closure, a camp week, a new class time, a holiday.
The usual result is a queue. Franchisees who cannot wait post the change on Instagram instead, and the website falls behind.
Brandyland puts the change in the hands of the person who knows about it. The franchisee opens the admin on a phone, changes today's hours or the weekly schedule, and saves. Holidays come with a nudge ahead of each one, and a "still right" tap confirms regular hours are current. Corporate's theme and any locked sections stay as they are.
One person, and what happens when they are away
A developer is one person. Vacations, sick days and other priorities are normal, and the location sites wait while they happen. If the developer moves on, the next one inherits code they did not write and has to learn it before changing anything.
That is not a knock on developers. It is how any one-person setup works, and it is worth planning for: keep the code documented, keep hosting in the company's name, and make sure a second person can get in.
With Brandyland, franchisees edit their own sites, the engine is maintained for you, and every site's content and images export with one click at any time, with no exit fee.
How the costs are shaped
A developer costs a salary or a contract, plus hosting and whatever tools they choose. The cost is mostly fixed, whether a month brings two changes or two hundred. Growth adds work: every new location is another site to build and another source of requests.
Brandyland costs a price per location per month. Local is $99 and includes Google Business Profile sync and review requests. Insights is $199 and adds call tracking, attribution, benchmarking and layout tests. For franchise networks, the build and migration of existing sites are free. There is a $299 one-time launch fee per location, waived for pilot networks. The first term is 12 months, then month to month, and annual billing gets two months free.
Where a developer still fits
Plenty of franchise work needs custom software, and Brandyland does not try to be that. A developer is the right hire for a franchisee intranet, an ordering or quoting tool, reporting on your own data, or connections between internal systems.
The two can sit side by side. Brandyland runs the location sites and the brand site, with its find-a-location page and franchise inquiry form. Your developer builds what only your business needs, without a queue of hours changes in front of them.
Bookings stay where they are either way. Brandyland links to each location's existing system, such as Roller, Zenoti or Gingr, or shows it on a Book page where the system allows. It never rebuilds booking.
Hire a developer if
- You need custom software beyond websites, such as a franchisee portal or an ordering tool
- You want to own every line of code, and you have the budget to maintain it
- Your sites need deep connections to your own internal systems
- You have a handful of locations whose sites rarely change
Choose Brandyland if
- Franchisees need to change hours, schedules and notices themselves, from a phone
- Corporate wants the brand locked and every location on one dashboard
- You would rather pay per location than carry a salary for site upkeep
- You want your developer working on things only your business needs
Questions
Questions people ask
Is it cheaper to hire a developer than to pay per location?
It depends on the size of the network and what else the developer does. A salary is mostly fixed. Brandyland is $99 or $199 per location per month, with the build and migration of existing sites free for franchise networks. Compare the share of the developer's time spent on location sites with the per-location price for your count.
Can our developer work alongside Brandyland?
Yes. Brandyland runs the location websites and the brand site. Your developer keeps building the tools specific to your business, and can link to the location sites like any other website.
Do we own the sites if we use Brandyland?
You own the content. Every site's content and images export with one click, any time, with no exit fee. The engine's code stays ours, which is the trade for not having to maintain it.
Can franchisees break the brand if they edit their own sites?
Corporate sets the theme, fonts and colors and can lock them, along with any shared section. Franchisees edit hours, schedules, events, notices, photos and their own pages inside those rules.
Should our developer build a booking system for the sites?
That is a large project to build and keep running. Brandyland keeps bookings on each location's existing system, such as Roller, Zenoti or Gingr, linked from the site or shown on a Book page where the system allows.
See your own network on Brandyland before you decide.
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