Stack48 vs Claude Code: which should you use to build a website?

A lot of people now open a terminal, start Claude Code and type some version of "build me a website". It's a reasonable thing to ask. Claude Code is a brilliant general coding agent, and it really can produce the pages, the code and the wiring.

What happens next is the part the demo often skips. You still have to stand up a development environment, install packages, run a database, set environment variables and find somewhere to host the result. If you've ever sat through a loop of npm install, docker compose up and vercel env pull, you'll know the feeling. The site exists, but it isn't live, and getting it live is a project in its own right.

That's the gap this comparison is about. Claude Code is one of the best general-purpose coding agents around for this kind of work. Stack48 is what you get when that kind of agent is purpose-built for one job: building and running websites.

What Claude Code is great at

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It lives in your terminal and can work on almost any software project, in almost any language. If you already have a development environment, and you already know where the finished work will be hosted, it's an outstanding way to write and change code by talking to it.

It's aimed at developers, and it assumes a developer's setup. You bring the machine, the repositories, the keys and the hosting. Claude Code brings the agent that can work across all of that.

If your day job is building software of all kinds, that is exactly what you want. If what you want is a professional website, and you'd rather not assemble the stack yourself, it's more than you need to take on.

What Stack48 is

Stack48 is an agentic harness designed specifically for the website design industry. It primarily uses Claude models from Anthropic as its base models, so you get that same model quality, but the prompts, tools and checks are tuned for sites: layouts, copy, SEO, forms and the other things a business website has to get right.

You describe the business in a conversation, and Stack48 plans and builds a complete site. You can then change it in chat or by pointing and clicking, including with multi-agent editing when a request is big enough to split across several pages or sections. There's no template to wrestle with, and no need to learn a general coding tool first.

If you're choosing between kinds of website builder rather than coding agents, we also have a comparison of AI website builders, Wix and Squarespace, and a guide to what a small business website costs in the UK.

The big difference: Stack48 Cloud

The most practical difference is what happens after the site is built.

Every Stack48 site, including sites on the Free plan, comes with Stack48 Cloud. Hosting and the environment and database your site needs are already set up, in one place, with nothing for you to configure. You publish, and the site is live. You can connect a custom domain on every plan, including Free.

With Claude Code, that layer is yours to arrange. That's not a failing of the tool. It's a general coding agent, so it leaves infrastructure to you. If you already have a preferred host, a database and a way to deploy, you'll be comfortable with that. If you don't, it's a lot of extra work before a customer can visit the site.

Built for websites, open like a dev platform

The Claude models in Stack48 get first-class tools for working inside your site's environment. That is what makes it possible to build and edit a site without technical skills: you ask for a change, and the agent can actually make it, in the running site, rather than handing you a list of commands to run.

Under the hood, everything stays customisable, much as it would if you were working directly with Vercel or Supabase. You aren't locked into a rigid template, and you aren't cut off from the usual controls a developer would expect.

Every site also has an internal git engine, so there is a built-in version history of the work. That engine can auto-sync with an external git provider. You always have a copy of your code, which means you keep data sovereignty: the site isn't trapped inside Stack48 if you ever want to take it with you.

Who each is for

Claude Code suits you if you are a developer, you want a general coding agent for all sorts of projects, and you are happy to run your own environment and hosting.

Stack48 suits you if you want a live, professional website without assembling the infrastructure. That includes small business owners building a site for themselves, and freelancers and agencies building sites for clients. The multi-agent editor is there when you want to ask for something bigger in one go, such as several new pages at once.

The two can even sit side by side. Some people will use Claude Code on other software, and use Stack48 when the job is a website.

What it costs

This is the part where it's fair to be specific, and to say what each price actually buys.

Claude Code, as of November 2026, is included in Anthropic's paid Claude plans and is not included on the free Claude plan. The cheapest individual plan that includes it is Claude Pro, at $20 a month, or $17 a month if you pay $200 up front for the year. Heavier plans, Max and Ultra, cost $100 and $200 a month. You can also use Claude Code with pay-as-you-go API credits, which vary with how much you use.

Those prices cover the coding agent. They do not include hosting, a database or a domain. To put a site on the internet you still need to set up and pay for those separately.

Stack48 is free to start, with no credit card required. The Free plan includes one website, limited AI usage, a custom domain and hosting. Pro is £9.99 a month for five websites and higher AI usage. Agency is £55 a month for unlimited websites. Every plan, including Free, comes with Stack48 Cloud, so you aren't adding a hosting bill on top.

The comparison isn't perfect, because Claude Pro is a general work subscription, not just a website tool. Even so, if what you want is a live website, Stack48 is the cheaper way to get there: you can publish on the Free plan, and a paid Stack48 plan still includes the environment your site runs in.

Stack48 and Claude Code, side by side

• Base model: Claude Code: Claude models from Anthropic; Stack48: primarily Claude models from Anthropic
• Built for: Claude Code: general software projects, in your terminal; Stack48: websites, for small businesses and the people who build them
• Setup: Claude Code: your own development environment; Stack48: none. Describe the business and it builds the site
• Hosting and environment: Claude Code: you provide and pay for your own; Stack48: Stack48 Cloud is included on every plan, including Free
• Version control: Claude Code: you bring your own git; Stack48: a built-in git engine, with optional sync to an external git provider so you always have your own copy
• Environment control: Claude Code: you configure it yourself; Stack48: the models work inside your site's environment for you, and you can still customise everything as if you were working with Vercel or Supabase
• Free plan: Claude Code: not included on Claude's free plan; Stack48: one live website, with Cloud and a custom domain
• Starting price: Claude Code: $20 a month for Claude Pro, plus hosting; Stack48: £0, or £9.99 a month for Pro

Claude prices from claude.com/pricing, November 2026, in US dollars and excluding tax. Stack48 prices from the Stack48 UK pricing page. Always check the current price before you buy.

Which should you use?

If you want a general coding tool, use Claude Code. It's excellent at that job.

If you want a website that's live today, use Stack48. You get Claude-quality models, in a harness built for websites, with hosting and the environment your site needs included, even on the free plan.

You can compare the plans, or start a free site, on the Stack48 pricing page. No credit card required.