WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or Custom: How to Actually Choose
Every platform comparison is written by someone selling one of them. What each is genuinely good at, what it costs at year three, and how to decide.
Dollar figures in this article are US dollars. Our Australian prices are on the pricing page.
Nearly every platform comparison you will read is published by a company that sells one of the platforms. The conclusions are predictable and the omissions are the interesting part.
We build on several of these and have no reason to prefer one. What follows is what each is actually good at, what it costs once you include year three, and the handful of questions that decide it.
Short version. The right platform is decided by three things: who will edit the site, whether you need anything unusual, and how much it matters that you can leave. Almost nothing else.
WordPress
Runs a huge share of the web, and there is a plugin for nearly everything. Content editing is decent, hosting is portable, and you genuinely own the software.
Good at: content-heavy sites, blogs, anything needing an unusual integration, anything you might want to move later.
The honest cost: WordPress is not free, it is unpriced. Hosting, premium plugins, a theme license and — critically — somebody maintaining it. An unmaintained WordPress site is the most commonly compromised thing on the internet, because every unpatched plugin is a public advertisement. Budget for updates or buy a plan that includes them.
The trap: plugin sprawl. Twenty-eight plugins to achieve what three should, each one a dependency, a security surface and a performance cost. It is the single most common cause of the slow WordPress sites we are asked to fix — see why is my website slow.
Squarespace
Genuinely excellent at what it does. The templates are well designed, it is hard to make something ugly, and hosting, security and updates are simply not your problem.
Good at: visual businesses, small catalogs, anyone who wants one monthly bill and no maintenance conversation ever.
The honest cost: predictable and fair at the small end, and it stops being cheap as you add commerce and members.
The trap: the ceiling arrives suddenly. You are fine until the day you need one specific thing it does not do, and then there is no workaround at any price — you migrate. Exporting is possible but partial; you get content, not the site.
Wix
Much better than its reputation, which is a decade out of date. The editor is the most forgiving of any of these and the SEO limitations people still cite were largely fixed years ago.
Good at: getting a real, decent site live quickly with no technical help at all.
The trap: it is the least portable option here. There is no meaningful export — leaving means rebuilding. That is an acceptable trade if you go in knowing it, and a nasty surprise if you do not.
Shopify
If selling products is the main purpose, start here rather than bolting a shop onto something else. The checkout is excellent, and the checkout is where money is lost.
The honest cost: the subscription plus transaction fees plus the apps, which multiply quietly. Three apps at US$20 a month is another US$720 a year that never appeared in the comparison. We go into the trade-offs in Shopify versus custom e-commerce.
Custom
Hand-built, on whatever stack suits. Fastest, most flexible, no platform fees, and nothing to update that somebody else decided.
Good at: sites where speed genuinely matters, anything with unusual logic, and businesses whose site is a system rather than a brochure.
The trap: the developer. A custom site is only as maintainable as its handover. Ask directly: what happens if you are unavailable for a month, who else can work on this, and is it documented? A bespoke site nobody but its author can touch is worse than a template.
The Three-Year Cost, Honestly
Platform comparisons quote year one, which is the year that flatters subscriptions. Over three years the picture changes: a builder's subscription accumulates steadily, while a built site front-loads and then costs mainly hosting and maintenance. Where the lines cross depends entirely on how much the site changes.
The number nobody includes is your time. If a platform saves an agency eight hours but costs you two hours a month forever, it did not save anything. Work out who is going to be editing the site before you compare prices at all — what a website costs has the full breakdown.
The Questions That Actually Decide It
- Who edits it? If it is you, and you are not technical, weight the editor heavily. This matters more than every other factor combined.
- Does it need to do anything unusual? Bookings tied to staff rosters, trade pricing, a members' area, an integration with your job management software. Unusual pushes toward WordPress or custom.
- How much does leaving matter? If being able to take the site elsewhere is important, that rules some options out today rather than in three years.
- Is anyone maintaining it? If the honest answer is no, a hosted platform is safer than a self-hosted one you will not patch.
- Is speed commercially important? High-traffic or heavily transactional sites reward custom builds; a five-page brochure does not.
Our Actual Advice
For most small service businesses, WordPress with a hand-built theme and a maintenance arrangement, or a genuinely custom build if speed and control matter. For a visual business that wants no maintenance conversation ever, Squarespace, with eyes open about the ceiling. For a shop, Shopify. For anyone testing an idea this month, whichever builder you can get live by Friday — and change it later.
The wrong reason to choose any of them is that a supplier only builds on one. Ask what they would pick if the choice cost them nothing, and why.
If you are weighing whether to replace what you already have, read do you need a new website or just a better one first — the honest answer is often that the platform is fine.
Common Questions
Is WordPress Still the Best Choice for a Small Business Website?
For content-heavy sites, anything needing unusual integrations, and anything you may want to move later, it remains the strongest general-purpose option. Its real cost is maintenance: an unpatched WordPress site is among the most commonly compromised things online, so budget for updates or buy a plan that includes them.
Is Squarespace or Wix Good for SEO?
Both are fine for SEO in a way they were not a decade ago, and the limitations people still repeat were largely fixed years ago. Content, structure and authority decide rankings far more than the platform. The real differences are the ceiling on unusual functionality and how easily you can leave.
What Is the Cheapest Website Platform over Three Years?
It depends almost entirely on how much the site changes and who edits it. Subscriptions accumulate steadily; a built site front-loads then costs mainly hosting and maintenance. The figure nobody includes is your own time — a platform that saves an agency eight hours but costs you two hours a month forever has saved nothing.
Can I Move My Website Off Wix or Squarespace Later?
Only partially. Squarespace exports content but not the site. Wix has no meaningful export — leaving means rebuilding. That is an acceptable trade if you decide it deliberately at the start, and an unpleasant surprise if you discover it in year three.
When Is a Custom-Built Website Worth It?
When speed genuinely matters commercially, when the site has unusual logic, or when it is a system rather than a brochure. The risk is maintainability: ask who else can work on it, what happens if the developer is unavailable for a month, and whether it is documented.
