Agency, flat fee or DIY: which website fits a new dietitian practice?

There are three common ways to get your first practice website: hire a design agency or studio, pay a flat fee to a specialist, or build it yourself. None of them is right for everyone. The best one is the one that fits where your practice is today.

The three options compared

Ranges are from prices published by designers in this niche, checked in November 2026. Ask each provider for their current price.

What a new practice needs first

When you're starting out, most clients come from referrals, your network, doctors you know and the people you already talk to. Your website's job in year one is to make those people trust you and book. For that, you need:

1. A clear first line. Who you help and how, in plain words.
2. Your credentials and licensed states, easy to find.
3. A booking button connected to Practice Better, Healthie, SimplePractice or your calendar.
4. A page or section for each specialty, written for the person who arrives with that problem.
5. Basic SEO: good titles and descriptions, schema, a sitemap and Search Console.
6. A site that works on a phone and loads fast.

That's the foundation. Every option above can give it to you, at very different costs.

What can wait

These are worth doing, but rarely in month one:

• A full brand identity project. A clean wordmark and a good colour palette are enough to start. A full brand can come when you know your audience better.
• Ongoing SEO campaigns. Search traffic builds over months, not weeks. Get the basics right now and add ongoing work later.
• Funnels, courses and memberships. Add them when you have an audience to sell them to.

None of this is a rule. If you have the budget and a clear brand vision now, a studio can be a great investment.

How to choose

• Choose an agency or studio if you have the budget, want help defining your brand and message, and are happy to wait several weeks.
• Choose a flat-fee specialist if you want a professional, custom site soon, at a price you know in advance. Ask the 7 flat-fee questions first.
• Do it yourself if you enjoy it and have the hours. Our checklist of what to put on a dietitian website will help.

Where Itersi fits

We're a flat-fee specialist for dietitians, nutritionists and health coaches. It's $497 once for a fully custom website of up to 5 pages, with booking setup, specialty sections, basic copy and basic SEO included. The site and domain are yours. Hosting and care is optional at $47 a month with no contract. We kept the price low on purpose: many new practices can't spend thousands before their first client, and we'd rather they launch well than wait.

If you'd like the foundation done properly so you can focus on clients, tell us about your practice.