- AI website production — what it means
- AI website production is a way of building websites in which humans handle the planning, judgment, and quality checks while AI (such as Claude Code) handles the coding and page generation.
Hi, I’m Masato, a Webflow specialist.
In July 2026 I rebuilt Webharu’s own website from scratch with AI (Claude Code). A company that has specialized in Webflow since 2020 deliberately ran the whole AI production process on its own site — and both the good parts and the genuinely painful parts came into view. This article is that honest review.
✓ In this article
- What was good about building a website with AI (cost, speed, measured data)
- Where I stumbled, and the honest downsides
- Which companies AI production suits, and which are better off with Webflow
The conclusion first: AI production for solo and small businesses, Webflow for large ones
For a sole trader or a small-to-midsize company, building the website with AI is the smart move. For large enterprises and organizations that put weight on governance and approval flows, a proven no-code platform like Webflow is the better fit.
I like Webflow, and I still use it on client projects. Even so, I switched our own site to AI production, because at our size the cost and speed advantages were overwhelming. Below is what I actually did, and what I honestly think of it.
What I did: a full rebuild of our own site in 7 days
First, some context. Here is everything that got done.
- Built 26 new static pages
- Migrated 62 articles from the old site (Webflow)
- Connected four form types, including contact and brochure requests
- Set up GA4, Search Console, structured data, and llms.txt
It took 3 days to build and 7 days including planning. The only human was me; the hands doing the work belonged to Claude Code. The detailed logs for each stage are all published in the full record of the 7-day rebuild, so this article focuses on the part people actually ask about: “so, how was it?”
What was good: three things that honestly mattered
1. Running costs went from just under ¥100,000/year to ¥1,500/year
The clearest change is money. The old site ran on a Webflow subscription and, with the localization feature included, cost just under ¥100,000 a year. After switching to the AI-built site, all we pay is the domain: ¥1,500 a year.
Being released from the feeling of subscriptions stacking up month after month is bigger than I expected. For a small company whose quiet pain is “website upkeep adds up,” this alone is almost the whole answer.
2. The wall of unfamiliar technology basically disappeared
This site is built on a framework called Astro. I chose Astro over Next.js because I had confirmed it performs best as an SEO medium, given its fit with Cloudflare and its rendering speed. With AI alongside you, that kind of technology decision stops being scary.
In fact, I carried that momentum far enough to ship several Swift apps to the App Store. As long as you can handle the planning, the strategy, and the design judgment, which language you build in is no longer a barrier.
3. SEO didn’t drop after the rebuild
The scariest part of a rebuild is losing search rankings. The result: as of the day after the rebuild, 24 of 30 old articles kept their index status. I confirmed it with Search Console measurements. If you migrate URL design, structured data, and the sitemap carefully alongside the AI, you can switch platforms while keeping your SEO assets.
Where I stumbled: I won’t hide this part
1. It took about a month of producing garbage before a decent design came out
I wrote “finished in 7 days,” but there is a prologue. Before I could reliably generate good design, I spent about a month mass-producing garbage with AI. Tuning prompts and phrasing is genuinely hard, and at one point I threw away a half-built site and started over from zero. “Anyone can make a beautiful site instantly with AI” is, at least for now, a lie.
2. Fine-grained tweaks are slower than no-code
This may surprise you, but small adjustments like “widen the gap between these sections a little” were faster back when I was brute-forcing them in Webflow. With no-code you click the element and widen the margin. With AI, “just widen that one spot” doesn’t land cleanly, and a small tweak escalates into a global one. If you ask me whether I saved time, honestly, I still don’t know.
3. Leave it 100% to AI and every site ends up with the same face
You can publish what the AI produced without touching it. But then the AI-ness gets strong, and everything starts to look like the same site. The end result can lower your brand value to the point where you think, “we should have stayed on no-code.”
On top of that, the pages the AI produced were full of wording and figures I had never intended. You cannot publish wrong company information, so I visually checked every page before launch. The AI does the hands-on work; the human makes the calls. Break that split and the quality collapses.
Fit and misfit: AI production or Webflow
Companies AI production suits
- Sole traders, startups, and small-to-midsize companies
- Anyone who wants to hold running costs down (and avoid carrying a subscription)
- Anyone who wants to grow around publishing — blogging and SEO
Companies better off with Webflow
- Large enterprises, and organizations that put weight on governance and approval flows
- Teams whose staff want to update the site from an editor, no-code
- Anyone who needs the reassurance of being managed on a proven platform
It may sound odd coming from a company that has specialized in Webflow, but this is my honest view after actually running both. I have worked on projects for JTB Americas and an event hosted by Nippon TV, yet the majority of our own clients were startups and small-to-midsize companies. For that segment, the cost structure of AI production is the better fit.
For those who want to build it themselves
I believe that if you pay around ¥30,000 a month for AI and practice for roughly a month, you can get to the point of producing a clean site. That said, in my case I already had the fundamentals of design, building, and SEO. For a company that wants to learn the basics and run its own site long term this is ideal, but keeping up with AI trends and the latest technology can be quite demanding depending on the person.
▶ For the big picture on Webflow itself: What is Webflow? A specialist explains what it does, how to use it, and who uses it [2026 edition]
In summary: the honest verdict on AI website production is “choose by size”
My honest take after building a website with AI is: “solo to small businesses are smart to use AI production; large and governance-focused organizations should use Webflow.” It is not magic, fine-tuning is slow, and if you hand it over wholesale you get a site with the same face as everyone else’s. Even so, running costs at ¥1,500 a year and a full rebuild in 7 days with SEO intact was more than enough return at our size.
We have productized this exact process as AI Website Production (from ¥1,000,000). The full picture on cost is in our article on AI website production costs. If you are unsure whether your company suits AI production or Webflow, tell us your situation in a free assessment. As a company that does both, we will honestly tell you which one fits.
FAQ
Can AI build a website on its own?
It can handle the implementation. But the author states that planning, aesthetic judgment, and fact-checking are human work. Abandon that and you end up with a site that looks like every other AI site, which lowers brand value.
How long does it take to build a website with AI?
The author’s own site took 3 days of building plus 4 days of planning, 7 in total. That said, it took about a month of practice to get designs generating well, and for client projects the author suggests allowing about a month including discovery.
How much cheaper is a website built with AI?
In the author’s case, a Webflow subscription of just under ¥100,000 a year became ¥1,500 a year for the domain alone. As a guide for commissioning the work, the article notes the AI Website Production service starts at ¥1,000,000.
Which companies is AI production not suited to?
Large enterprises and organizations that put weight on governance and approval flows, according to the author. If staff want to update the site from an editor without code, or management on a proven platform is required, Webflow is the better fit.
