Where we stand
We build custom websites, so we have an obvious interest here. We have tried to write the version we would want to read if we were choosing, including the parts that argue against us.
The short version: if you have time and enjoy fiddling, Wix or Squarespace is a perfectly sensible choice. If your time is worth more than the difference in price, it usually is not.
The real cost comparison
Platform pricing looks cheaper than it is, because the advertised figure is rarely what you end up paying.
Price the hours honestly. If a site takes you 25 hours and you would otherwise be earning, or resting, that is the real number. At a tradesperson's hourly rate, 25 hours is well over a thousand pounds of time.
The build is not the hard part. Keeping it current is. A DIY site is only cheaper if you will still be updating it in eighteen months, and most people will not.
When DIY is genuinely the right answer
There are several situations where we would tell you to use Wix or Squarespace and keep your money.
- You are testing an idea. If you are not sure the business will exist in six months, do not commission anything. Put up a single page and see what happens
- You enjoy it. Some people find it genuinely satisfying. If that is you, you will do a better job than a bored agency would
- Your customers do not search. If all your work comes from one contract or word of mouth, a website is a formality and any site will do
- You need it this afternoon. Nobody builds a bespoke site in three hours. A template will be live before dinner
When a built site is worth it
- You are competing on search. If people find your trade by Googling it, the difference in structure and speed matters commercially
- You will not maintain it. Be honest. If the site will not be touched again once it is live, you want someone whose job is touching it
- Your time is billable. Thirty hours of your own labour is not free, it is just invisible
- You need it to convert, not just exist. Templates are designed to look good in a showcase, not to get a plumber phoned at eleven at night
- Writing makes you miserable. Half-finished DIY sites are almost always stuck on the copy, not the design
The SEO question, answered honestly
You will read that Wix is bad for SEO. That was fair years ago and is largely out of date now. A well set up Wix site can rank perfectly well, and plenty do.
The real differences are narrower than the marketing suggests:
- Speed. Platform sites carry more code than they need. It is usually a fraction of a second, which matters at the margins rather than deciding anything
- Structure. It is easier to build proper separate service and area pages on a custom site. Most DIY sites end up with one page trying to rank for everything, which is a decision rather than a platform limit
- Control. Schema, redirects and technical fixes are more fiddly on a platform
None of that beats the actual ranking factors for a local business, which are your Google Business Profile, your reviews and whether anyone links to you. A brilliant custom site with no Business Profile will lose to a basic Wix site with fifty reviews. That guide is here.
Platform choice is somewhere near the bottom of the list of things that decide whether you get found. Sort your Google Business Profile first, whatever your site is built on.
How to decide in five minutes
Answer these honestly and the answer usually presents itself.
- Will you realistically spend a weekend on this? No means do not choose DIY
- Do you dread writing the copy? Yes points away from DIY, because that is where these projects die
- Do customers find you by searching? Yes raises the value of proper structure
- Will it need changing more than twice a year? Yes means somebody has to own that, and it will not be you
- Is the business proven? No means spend nothing yet. Put up one page and validate first
If you land on DIY, genuinely good luck, and the checklist in what a website needs will make yours better than most. If you land on built, tell us what you do and we will give you a straight answer, including if we think you would be better off on a platform.