Wix vs a custom-coded website: which is right for you?

Wix has no build cost if you do it yourself, but it’s a subscription for as long as the site exists. You also pay in time: the hours spent building, fixing and updating it yourself.

A custom site has an upfront cost (mine start from $1,000 until 31 December 2026, then $1,250) and then only hosting and your domain. You can host it yourself, or have me manage everything for $95 a month. Over a few years the totals often end up closer than people expect; the difference is what you own at the end.

This is the biggest difference. A Wix site can’t be exported and moved to another host. If you leave Wix, you rebuild. A custom site is code you own outright; you can move it, change providers or hand it to another developer whenever you like.

Website builders load a lot of general-purpose code on every page, because every site on the platform shares it. A hand-coded site only includes what that one site needs, so it’s usually lighter on a phone.

Wix can rank on Google, and it has improved a lot. But a custom site gives full control over the things that matter for search: page structure, headings, titles, structured data and speed. That control matters more as you compete for specific searches.

Wix is flexible inside its own limits. Once you need something it doesn’t do (a quote form that routes by service type, an automated document, a particular layout), you’re into workarounds and paid add-ons. A custom site does whatever the business needs, because it’s built for it.

I’d genuinely recommend Wix (or Squarespace) if:

• You’re testing an idea and might not keep the business.
• You enjoy building and editing the site yourself, and have the time.
• Your budget for a website is close to zero right now.
• The site is a simple placeholder and isn’t how customers find you.

• Your website is how most new customers find or judge you.
• You want to own it outright and not pay a platform forever.
• Speed on phones and showing up on Google matter to your business.
• You need features a builder can’t do cleanly.
• You’d rather spend your time on the business than on the website.

Moving doesn’t mean losing anything. Your content comes across and every old page is redirected so your rankings carry over. And because I build a working preview first, you can compare your current Wix site with its custom version side by side before paying anything.