As a 10-year software engineer and active CodeStitch community member, I appreciate the innovation behind Site Crafter but have concerns about its alignment with CodeStitch's core value proposition. This feedback aims to constructively address how Site Crafter may inadvertently undermine what makes CodeStitch uniquely valuable to agencies and their clients.
- Framework-agnostic foundation: Pure HTML/CSS works with React, Django, Elixir, and other frameworks
- Platform independence: Developers own their code and aren't locked into proprietary systems
- Diverse business model support: Accommodates agencies offering translation services, API integrations, E-commerce, and many others.
- Guaranteed code quality: Human validation ensures high-quality output
- Client ownership: Agencies can guarantee code quality because they control it
- Competitive differentiation: Offers clear advantages over Squarespace, Wix, and other hosted builders
- Design limitations: Site Crafter controls fonts, headings, images, and overall design decisions
- Hosting dependency: Agencies lose the independence that differentiates them from traditional site builders
- Content generation: AI-written content removes human editorial judgment and local expertise
- Code reliability: AI's tendency toward confident but incorrect code modifications poses quality risks
- Creative limitations: Machine learning produces statistically average solutions rather than tailored, innovative designs
- Template integrity: Risk of AI modifying core HTML/CSS beyond simple text/color changes
Site Crafter appears to prioritize revenue capture over community empowerment, potentially creating a lower-quality product with less agency control.
Leverage CodeStitch's local SEO expertise by developing a specialized text-focused AI tool. LLMs excel at English generation compared to code generation, making this a natural fit for the existing knowledge base.
Unlock community innovation by providing Freelancer-tier users with API access to CodeStitch templates. This would:
- Create powerful incentives for tier upgrades
- Enable community-built tools and integrations
- Expand CodeStitch's reach without compromising core principles
- Generate sustainable revenue through API usage
Consider refocusing development efforts on solutions that enhance rather than replace the human element in web development. The CodeStitch community values control, quality, and flexibility—attributes that should be amplified, not automated away.
We believe CodeStitch's future lies in empowering agencies to deliver better results more efficiently, rather than replacing the human expertise that clients ultimately value and trust.
P.S. - In a delicious irony, this outline was created by having Claude AI reorganize my original stream-of-consciousness rambling about why AI shouldn't replace human expertise in web development. Apparently AI is great at making humans sound more coherent, just maybe not at building websites. 🤖
Response to Community Feedback on SiteCrafter.pro (from the team behind it)
Thank you for taking the time to write such thoughtful feedback! This is exactly the kind of deep, constructive dialogue we need as a community. Your perspective as a 10-year engineer and active CodeStitch member is invaluable, and I genuinely appreciate you sharing these concerns.
btw - I love the irony in your postscript about using Claude to organize your thoughts! It perfectly illustrates the point: AI as a tool to amplify human expertise, not replace it. That's exactly the relationship we envision between SiteCrafter and the incredible developers in our community. 🚀
Let me address your points, but more importantly, I want to understand what you and the community truly need to thrive in this evolving landscape.
Before addressing the specifics I believe it is important to put not only the vision into perspective but also what is the core thesis behind that vision.. We put it at the end for those interested to review it refer to the P.P.S section.
The AI Revolution: A Rising Tide That Lifts All Boats
You're absolutely right that AI presents challenges, but we see it differently - not as a threat, but as the next evolution in our toolkit. Just as C++ didn't replace programmers but gave them superpowers compared to assembly language, AI is our next abstraction layer.
The real question isn't whether to embrace AI (that ship has sailed), but how We embrace it to make the CodeStitch community even more competitive. Your competition isn't just within our community - it's every template builder, every developer, every agency out there. How do we ensure you win?
SiteCrafter: Your Supporting Cast, Not Your Replacement
Here's a principle from enterprise architecture that guides our thinking: Every business operates on three domains:
SiteCrafter positions itself firmly in the supporting/generic domains - by bringing all tools under one umbrella. We handle the plumbing / integrations so you can focus on what makes you irreplaceable - your expertise, creativity, and client relationships.
What This Means Practically:
You Still Get Everything CodeStitch Offers:
Plus New Superpowers:
Addressing Your Specific Concerns
"Reduced Agency Control"
I hear you, and there might be some misunderstanding here. Let me clarify:
"AI Quality Considerations"
Valid concern! That's why:
"Revenue Prioritization" - Let's Talk Economics
I appreciate you raising this because transparency about our business model matters. To be honest we are still evolving here and prices will likely continue get adjusted as we figure out what works - but they will always provide incredible value.
Let me share how we think about this.
The Reality of Our Costs:
We launched at ~$5/month per site for the public, we're essentially covering infrastructure costs now while creating tools that help you deliver $1,000+ websites in minutes instead of hours or even days. The math speaks for itself - this is about enabling your success, not extracting value from it. Our latest pricing for the community is here https://sitecrafter.pro/codestitch which gives you unlimited websites for$20/month with included hosting (we do limit monthly credit usage but with the given credits you can generate on average 5-7 websites per month!, so essentially you are getting an even less than 4$ /website one time cost per hosted website as long as you at least build 5 websites a month for your clients).
Now this is again while we are in beta pricing and specific discount for the community! We will do our best to respect grandfathered plans, but we can’t guarantee the prices will not change as we adopt them.
A Thought on Market Evolution:
You know what's fascinating? When Canva launched, many designers worried it would eliminate their jobs. Instead, it created millions of design-aware clients who eventually needed professional help for important projects. The same happened with Squarespace, WordPress, and every other democratizing tool.
These platforms don't replace experts - they expand the market and educate clients about what's possible. Then when it really matters, those clients seek professionals who can take them beyond the basics.
The Bigger Vision: "Shopify for Local Businesses"
Here's where it gets exciting. We're not building just another site builder. We're creating an ecosystem where:
Jeff Bezos asks a brilliant question: "What won't change?" For us, that's local businesses needing to be found and needing experts to help them stand out. We're building for that unchanging need.
The Future We're Building Together
Consider this: What happens when AI assistants start browsing websites for humans? When do websites need to serve both human eyes and AI comprehension? We're preparing for that future while ensuring you're not just surviving but thriving.
Instead of fewer opportunities at higher prices, imagine more opportunities with better margins because you're not bogged down in repetitive tasks. You're solving real business problems, building custom integrations, creating unique experiences.
Your Ideas Matter - Let's Build This Together
Now here's where I need your help. We've shared our vision, but visions are worthless without community input. What specific features would make SiteCrafter indispensable for your workflow? What concerns need addressing? What opportunities are we missing?
Some questions to consider:
The CodeStitch community has always been about empowering developers to build better websites faster. SiteCrafter is our attempt to take that mission to the next level, but we can only succeed with your active participation and honest feedback.
Let's hop on a community call to discuss this further. I'm genuinely excited to hear your thoughts and work together to ensure SiteCrafter serves the community's real needs, not just our assumptions about them.
P.S - we also used AI to polish our responses (in fact we tried a few of them to see which ones understood and helped us communicate our thoughts better :)
P.P.S.
The Core Thesis: The Assumptions Guiding Our Vision
Here are the fundamental assumptions that form our thesis for the future. This is the "why" behind what we're building.
AI is an Irreversible Shift, Not a Trend. The impact of AI is as fundamental as the invention of the compiler or the internet itself. The choice isn't whether to engage with it, but how to leverage it to become more creative and competitive.
AI Invalidates the "Code vs. Content" Separation. For decades, the entire web ecosystem—from WordPress to the most modern headless CMS—has been built on a core assumption: that you must separate code (HTML/CSS) from content (text). AI completely changes this. Because it can understand and generate both simultaneously, this old limitation is no longer necessary. This opens the door for an entirely new, more integrated, and efficient way of building for the web.
The Future of the Web is Consumption by AI. In the near future, the primary "visitor" to a website may not be a human, but an AI assistant working on a human's behalf. These assistants will parse data logically, not just visually. This means websites must be structured for machine consumption first, a shift as significant as the move to mobile-first design.
Focus on the Unchanging Need, Not the Evolving Product. While the nature of a "website" will change, the fundamental needs of our clients will not. Small businesses will always need to attract customers and market their services. Our strategy is anchored to this constant, allowing us to build an anti-fragile platform that can adapt to whatever the future holds.
The "Ecosystem" is the Ultimate Product. Our goal isn't just to build a tool, but to create an entire ecosystem we call the "Shopify for Local Businesses." By providing the common infrastructure (what we call the Supporting/Generic domains), we create a marketplace where developers, designers, and SEOs can thrive by focusing on their unique, high-value expertise (their Core domain). We handle the 80% of the plumbing so you can master the 20% that makes you irreplaceable.
These assumptions form the bedrock of our strategy and lead us to believe that the right path forward is to build a platform that empowers human experts to serve local business client needs with the force-multiplying power of AI.