The ongoing battle of website vs social media is a defining challenge for creators and brands, as both are primary channels used to reach and connect with their audience.
But they’re different—and sometimes complementary—in more ways than we think.
Website gives you full control over design, functionality and user experience but can feel static or invisible without the right strategy to bring in traffic.
Social media is a fast lane option, perfect for immediate connection and engagement with followers and promises instant visibility and engagement but what happens when an algorithm change slashes your reach overnight?
The question is where do each fit into your brand strategy.
How do you decide where to focus? Or better yet, how do you make them work together to maximize your impact?
These are questions creators and businesses alike struggle with.
Let’s get into the differences, strengths and limitations of social media and websites—and how to create a system that works for you.
Do I need a Website or just Social Media?
Throughout my life I’ve spoken to countless business owners. Some navigate the online world with ease, thriving in its fast lane. Others? Not so much. They’re hesitant, sometimes even resistant to the digital age.
Interestingly many of these individuals are Baby Boomers and Gen Xers—old-school entrepreneurs who built their reputation and network offline. They didn’t jump on the digital bandwagon early and missed out on a slice of the online pie. Yet their businesses thrived because they knew what worked for them: personal connections and traditional marketing.
But what about today?
The truth is you don’t need a website to sell your products. Many creators and businesses thrive on social media alone. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook have tools to reach massive audiences, monetize content and track performance through analytics.
But the benefits—freedom, scalability and long term value are unmatched.
If you don’t invest in a website you’re essentially depriving yourself of significant earning opportunities.
Why?
The answer is one word: diversification. With a website you’re not tied to the whims of a single platform. You can leverage SEO, ads, email marketing and more, creating multiple revenue streams and securing your brand’s future.
Ultimately it’s your business. Whether you go all in on social media, invest in a website or use both, success depends on your strategy and how you connect with your audience.
Let’s explore the biggest social media platforms and their potential for reaching your dream customers.
Biggest social media platforms in 2025
In 2023, Ecommerce Nation released a comprehensive report diving deep into the role of social media for eCommerce. They explored everything from active monthly users to gender distribution, platform goals, and more. The findings were eye-opening, and a few stats might completely shift your strategy:
- Pinterest: 76% of users are women—golden information if this is your target demographic.
- YouTube: 90% of users discover new brands here. Visual storytelling works wonders.
- Facebook: 30% of users are aged 25–34 (the biggest group), with 1.8 billion active participants in Facebook groups.
Why does this matter? Because the same effort can yield drastically different results depending on the platform. Each has its unique algorithms, audience behavior, and content priorities. What works on one may flop on another.
This is why content distribution matters. Tools like Buffer can streamline your social media publishing, saving time and frustration when managing multiple platforms (side note: no sponsorship here—just a personal recommendation).
Here’s the kicker: what sets social media apart from owning a website or store is how they complement each other. On social platforms, you gather an audience. On your website, you own it. With remarketing tools, you can capture audiences from platforms like Pinterest or Facebook and re-engage them through your site, ensuring you’re not at the mercy of algorithms.
Below, you’ll find a list of the Top 15 Social Media Platforms in 2025 (in Monthly Active Users – MAU)
- Facebook – 3.65 billion
- WhatsApp – 2.78 billion
- YouTube – 2.5 billion
- Instagram – 2.04 billion
- TikTok – 1.5 billion
- WeChat – 1.34 billion
- Telegram – 900 million
- Snapchat – 800 million
- Kuaishou – 700 million
- X (formerly Twitter) – 611 million
- Sina Weibo – 598 million
- QQ – 554 million
- Pinterest – 500 million
- Reddit – 430 million
- LinkedIn – 424 million
What are Trust Factors on a website and social media?
When building trust with your audience, both social media accounts and websites offer unique approaches, yet they often mirror each other in purpose.
“Experts who acknowledge the full extent of their ignorance may expect to be replaced by more confident competitors, who are better able to gain the trust of clients. An unbiased appreciation of uncertainty is a cornerstone of rationality—but it is not what people and organizations want.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
The brain has two main systems: the ancient croc brain and the neocortex. The croc brain, over 5 million years old, handles instinctual and emotional reactions. It’s fast, subconscious and all about survival – responds to emotions like trust or fear in an instant. This is where most of your audience’s decision making starts.
The neocortex, a more recent development, handles logic, analysis and conscious thought. But before it kicks in, the emotional croc brain has already influenced perceptions and decisions. As Daniel Kahneman says in “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, fast emotional responses often get us before rationality kicks in.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how trust factors align in both spaces:
| Social Media | Website |
|---|---|
| Authenticity in Content – Is your content genuine and aligned with your brand, avoiding anything overly staged or generic? | Professional Design and Usability– does your website feature a sleek, user-friendly design that makes navigation intuitive and enjoyable? |
| Social Proof – does your account showcase active engagement, such as likes, comments, and user testimonials? | Customer Reviews and Testimonials – have you displayed authentic reviews and testimonials to build credibility and trust? |
| Complete Profile Information – is your profile professional, with a clear bio and updated contact details? | Clear Contact Information – is your contact information easily accessible, showing visitors you’re reliable and approachable? |
| Verified Badge – have you secured verification to confirm authenticity and prevent impersonation? | SSL Certificate (HTTPS) – does your site have HTTPS encryption to ensure security and reassure users about their data privacy? |
| Active Community Engagement – do you regularly interact with comments and messages to show you value your audience? | Comment Sections or Forums – have you created spaces for visitor interaction to foster engagement and community? |
What’s the difference between website and social media?
Algorithms
Social media is for exposure. It connects you to your audience, lets you interact in real time, and through algorithms increases the chances of your content reaching a big audience. But it’s also unpredictable. One day’s viral post might go unnoticed the next.
Algorithms are the biggest downside of social media. One platform update and your visibility is gone, your main income stream is cut off, and you’re disconnected from your audience.
Your influence built over months or years can disappear overnight.
If you want to make money as a content creator while avoiding these unpredictable changes, consider diversifying your revenue streams and controlling your own platform.
Websites are algorithm-proof. The only dependency is traffic, but this can be diversified. With strategies like SEO, ads, email marketing, guest posts, and social media referrals, plus robust site protection, you get long-term stability.
You’re in control of your platform, not an algorithm.
Why Websites Are Algorithm Proof:
- Consistent Traffic: People can find you anytime by typing your website address.
- Content Longevity: A blog post or product page remains relevant for years.
- Your Rules: No one dictates how your content is shown or organized.
Pricing
Cost-wise social media and websites are different. Here’s a breakdown:
Social Media: Practically Free Creating, maintaining and posting on a social media account is free. Instagram, Facebook and TikTok allows you to have a presence, post regularly and interact with your audience for free. However, to expand your reach requires paid ads or boosted posts. The base is free but scaling visibility comes with recurring ad costs.
Website: A Small Investment with Ownership A website requires upfront costs but gives you long term control and independence.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Hosting: Plans start at $2.95/month on Bluehost. Domain: Often included for free in hosting plans for the first year. The result? A platform that’s all yours, algorithm proof, scalable. Social media is accessible but a website is a solid foundation for your brand. Both have their place but your choice depends on your goals and budget.
Social Media = Affordable
- Setup Costs: Free on most platforms.
- Operational Costs: Free to post but quality content creation might require hiring a designer, photographer or editor.
- Advertising Costs: Campaign budgets vary; $5-$50/day for small campaigns.
Website: Flexible with Customization Potential
- Basic Costs: Hosting starts at $2.95/month; domains $10-$20/year (often free in hosting packages).
- Personalization Costs: Custom design or e-commerce features $500-$10,000+ depending on scale.
- Marketing Tools: SEO tools, email marketing software and analytics $10-$200/month but many of them have free version or freemium options
Social media’s low entry cost is attractive but long term scalability and control often justify investing in a personalized website.
Ownership Freedom
Ownership is the cornerstone of a sustainable online presence, offering unparalleled control and security. Social media, by contrast, operates on a rental model. You don’t own the platform, the audience, or the data. Changes to algorithms, account suspensions, or policy updates can instantly jeopardize your efforts.
Benefits of Ownership on a Website:
- Complete control over your content and design.
- Direct access to customer data for personalized marketing.
- No middlemen taking a cut of your revenue
When you rely on social media, you often face “pay-to-play” scenarios. Algorithms dictate who sees your content unless you pay for ads. Additionally, platform fees or revenue splits reduce your overall earnings.
Your website, however, serves as a stable, independent hub. Proper security measures and traffic diversification ensure your site’s long-term stability. This means protecting it with SSL certificates, securing hosting, and using SEO, ads, and email campaigns to maintain diversified traffic.
Social media is great for visibility, but ownership freedom is about building a foundation immune to external control—a true asset for your business.
Competitors
On social media, competitors are just a click away. A user scrolling their feed can hop from your profile to a competitor’s in seconds.
Algorithms often make it worse by suggesting similar accounts or ads based on user behavior. It’s like being in a crowded market where dozens of vendors are shouting for attention—easy for customers to browse, but just as easy for them to walk away.
But this works both ways.
You’re also just a click away from your competitor’s audience. Good content, ads and smart positioning can grab their attention and pull them into your orbit.
Websites are like standalone stores. Imagine a shop on a street: its traffic is entirely up to you to drive visitors there. Without competitor ads or algorithmic suggestions, visitors are more focused. But this exclusivity is a double edged sword—your store could be on a busy street or an empty road, entirely dependent on how well you drive traffic through SEO, ads or other strategies.
The question is: do you thrive in the social media marketplace or excel at building your own audience with a well positioned website?
Traffic
Both social media and websites rely on traffic to turn your content into a business. Without an audience they become an expensive hobby, time and effort for no return. To sell products or services you need eyes on your offers – potential customers who can bring in revenue.
On social media traffic comes from built in audiences. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube have billions of users. Your job is to make your account visible through consistent posting, engaging content and paid promotions like social ads or influencer collaborations.
And yeah, building an audience isn’t easy. Social media has a million ways to grow a following – Instagram algorithms or creating content for your audience.
But the biggest advantage is your audience is probably already there. So what’s the point?
Choose your platform wisely! 😉#betdavid
Websites are different. Similar in some cases but different in general. Social media gives you instant access to your audience, websites require external traffic generation. Social media doesn’t naturally attract visitors to your website. You need to direct people to it through blog posts, SEO, paid ads, social media redirects, guest posts or affiliate links.
A detailed web analysis based on Ahrefs, one of the largest web monitoring platform in the world, shows that only 3.45% of websites get traffic from search engines. Having over 1,000 monthly visitors puts your website in the top 0.07% of 14 billion pages analyzed, which is how rare and valuable consistent organic traffic really is.
So that’s the contrast. Social media has built in audiences and visibility, a website’s performance is all about traffic generation. Only a small percentage of websites get significant search engine traffic, so the challenge is to stand out from billions of pages. By using multiple channels (SEO, social ads, partnerships) you can get the attention to your site and make it a long term audience and business growth tool.
How to get your customers to your website (traffic):
- Blog Posts – Create content to rank on search engines and get organic traffic from relevant searches.
- Social Media – Share links and redirect followers to your website (yep, I know… 😂)
- Search Ads – Run paid ads on search engines for instant traffic and visibility for specific keywords.
- Social Ads – Run targeted campaigns on social platforms to drive users to your site.
- Guest Posts – Publish on other websites with backlinks to get traffic and SEO boost.
- Affiliates – Partner with affiliates who drive traffic or sales for commissions.
In this chapter we looked at the metrics of success for both websites and social media. Websites require more effort in terms of traffic generation where metrics like conversion rates, bounce rates and keyword performance are key to growth.
But with the right strategy you can get traction and scale your business without relying on one algorithm.
Social media platforms focus on engagement, followers, reach and impressions. While both platforms want to convert visitors into customers, the approach and tools to measure success are very different.
Customization
Customization plays a critical role in both branding and user experience. While both social media platforms and websites offer customization options, the level of control and flexibility differs significantly between the two
“On social media you adjust to the platform, on a website you adjust the platform to you”
Social media has basic but effective customization tools.
- Want branding? Add a profile pic, a cover photo and a bio.”
- Posts, stories and videos can be branded.
But here’s the thing: the platform controls the layout. You can’t redesign a Facebook page or tweak an Instagram feed layout to stand out. Every update or rule change affects how you use the space. Yes, these tools make branding easy but the limited design freedom can water down your uniqueness.
Pros:
- Quick to set up.
- Built in features like analytics and scheduling tools make life easier.
Cons:
- Restrictive frameworks limit creative control.
- Changes to platform rules or algorithms can disrupt your branding.
Websites are blank slates. You can control everything, from layout to interactive elements. Want a custom colour palette, unique navigation or dynamic e-commerce tools? It’s all yours.
This level of control comes with challenges. Designing and maintaining a website takes time, skill and investment. But if you want to build a scalable digital presence then it’s worth it.
Pros:
- Full control.
- Features to suit your business.
- Full control and ownership—no risk of rules changing on you.
But:
- More expensive to build and maintain.
- You’re responsible for security, responsiveness and updates.
Conclusion & Summary
Here’s a clear comparison between websites and social media, highlighting the key differences in areas like pricing, ownership, traffic, and customization:
| Website | Social Media | |
|---|---|---|
| Algorithms | No algorithm dependency; traffic is driven by SEO, ads, and user referrals. | Highly dependent on algorithms for visibility and engagement. |
| Pricing | Requires investment in domain, hosting, and paid or organic traffic efforts. | Free to set up; ads are optional but can accelerate growth. |
| Ownership | Full ownership of content and platform. | No ownership; subject to platform policies and terms. |
| Competitors | Competitors require external effort to divert traffic. | Competitors are one click away from your profile. |
| Traffic | Requires effort to attract external traffic sources like search engines. | Built-in audience, primarily internal traffic from the platform. |
| Customization | Fully customizable to your specific needs and branding. | Limited customization based on platform capabilities. |
It’s not about choosing between a website and social media – it’s about what you want. Social media gives you instant reach and engagement but no ownership and no customization. Websites give you full control and long term stability but require effort to get and keep traffic. Ideally both should work together – social media gets the quick connections and your website is the foundation for your brand or business. Each has its strengths – it’s how you use them.
FAQ
What is social media?
Social media is online platforms and apps where you can create, share and interact with content and people in real time. It’s where you can connect, communicate and build communities by sharing posts, images, videos and messages.
Examples include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter which are for personal and professional networking. Social media is also for information, entertainment and marketing and how we interact and consume content globally.
Do I need a website if I have social media?
Do you need a website? That depends on your goals and business. If you’re just starting out, social media and free email marketing tools like Klaviyo or ConvertKit can help you connect with your audience and make initial sales through direct messages. But social media has limitations, like being at the mercy of the algorithm and lacking universal features like direct sales tools across all platforms (e.g. YouTube).
A website gives you more freedom and control. It’s a ‘central hub’ for all your online activities where you can showcase products, share content and collect visitor data. Unlike social media, a website allows you to build relationships with your audience without interference from competitors or platform changes. It requires external traffic to thrive but gives you deeper insights into visitor behaviour and supports long term growth by integrating social media, digital products and physical services. If you’re looking for more marketing tips for small business to grow your online presence, consider strategies that combine both website and social media.
Sources:
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-algorithm/
- https://www.ecommerce-nation.com/social-media-guide-ecommerce/
- https://buffer.com/resources/social-media-platforms/
- “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
- https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisBumstead/
- https://www.instagram.com/veronica.harwood/
