Squarespace, Wix or a built site: which one's right for you?

There are two ways most small businesses end up with a website. You make it yourself on a builder like Squarespace or Wix, or you pay someone to design and build it for you. Both are fine, and they suit different businesses. The trick is working out which one you are before you spend the money or the evenings.

The short answer

If a builder covers what you need, I think you should use one. If people mainly need to find you, see what you do and get in touch, and you're happy to spend some time setting it up, a builder will do that well and it's the cheapest way to start.

A built site earns its keep when customers need to do something on it, like book a chair or look through a menu, when you want it to look like your business and not like a template, or when you'd rather not be the one building it.

Who does the work

On a builder, you do. You pick a template, write the words, add your photos, set up the pages and keep it up to date. The builder handles the hosting and the platform underneath, which is a lot of work you never have to think about.

With a built site, I do the design and the build, and you do the bits only you can do, like the words, the photos and saying yes or no to the design. You deal with me from the first call to the handover. Hosting and your domain are set up in your own accounts, so the site's yours to run once it's live.

How long it takes

A builder can be quick if you know what you want. Pick a template, swap in your details and it's live. How long it really takes depends on how much you want to change, and it's your time it takes.

A Starter site from me usually takes 1 to 3 weeks and a Business site 2 to 4, from the day you say yes. That's my time rather than yours, though. Your part is mostly getting your text and photos together, which I've written about in what to have ready before you get a website built.

How much control you get over the design

Both builders let you change colours, fonts, photos and layout in their editors, and for a lot of businesses that's enough. The limits are the template and what the editor lets you change. On Wix, for example, once you pick a template and start editing it, you can't swap to a different one. Their help pages suggest starting a new site with the new template instead.

A built site has no template to work around. I design it around your brand and what the site has to do, and on a Business site every page is designed for its own job. That's where most of the cost goes, so it's only worth it if the design matters to you.

How the costs work

I'm not going to quote their prices, because they change and they're easy to check. How the costs are shaped matters more anyway.

Squarespace and Wix charge a subscription for as long as the site is up. Squarespace offers monthly or annual billing on every plan. Both have tiers, and the higher ones unlock more. On Squarespace, higher plans have lower fees and more features, and on Wix, selling and taking bookings with payments sit on the plans that support payments. Booking on Squarespace is Acuity Scheduling, which is its own subscription on top of the website plan. Apps and extensions from other companies can carry their own subscriptions too.

A built site is a one-off cost for the build, starting at $999 for Starter and $1,999 for Business. After that you pay for hosting and your domain, direct to the providers, in your own accounts. The care plan is optional at $99 a month. The cost guide goes through all of it, including what it costs once it's live.

So a builder costs less up front, and a built site costs more at the start and less after. Which is cheaper over a few years depends on the plan and add-ons you'd need, so it's worth doing that sum first.

Booking and the tools you already use

If you already take bookings through something like Fresha or Square, any of these options can link to it with a Book button. That part's easy everywhere.

If you want booking built in, both builders have their own. Squarespace has Acuity Scheduling, billed separately from the website plan. Wix has Wix Bookings, and taking payments online needs a plan that supports payments. Both also have a marketplace of apps from other companies (Wix calls it the App Market, Squarespace calls them Extensions), and for anything beyond connecting them, those apps are supported by the companies that make them, not by Wix or Squarespace.

On a Business site from me, online booking is set up as part of the package, with Cal.com, Fresha, Square or similar. If you already use one of those, I'll point the site's Book button straight at it. Anything deeper, like the site and your booking system talking to each other, comes under integrations, which I quote once I know what you use.

If you ever want to leave

This is the one I'd check most carefully, because it's easy to skip at the start and it decides how stuck you are later.

Squarespace lets you export your content as a file in WordPress's format. It includes your layout pages, one blog, and your text and image blocks. It doesn't include other page types like store and portfolio pages, product or video blocks, your style settings or your custom CSS, so the design doesn't come with you. Images don't always come across, so you may need to download them by hand, and you can't export from a trial site.

Wix says in its help pages that Wix sites can't be transferred to other platforms, and templates can't be exported. Some data can come out, like CMS collections and store products as spreadsheet files, but moving away means rebuilding the site.

On both, a domain you bought through them can be transferred to another provider.

A built site is yours once it's paid for in full, including the code I wrote for it. It's hosted in your own account, and I hand over the access and the notes another developer would need to keep it going. A few things are licensed rather than owned, like fonts and stock photos, and those are listed in your agreement.

None of that makes a builder a bad choice. If you never need to move, it never matters. It's just worth knowing before you put the work in.

When I'd tell you to use a builder

• People mainly need to find you, see what you do and get in touch.
• You're happy spending some evenings on it, and keeping it updated yourself.
• A template close to what you want already exists, and you're fine with it looking a bit like one.
• You're just starting out and want something live while you work out what you need.

If that's you, I think a builder is the right call, and you can always come back later.

When a built site makes more sense

• Customers need to do something on it, like book, browse a menu or price list, or compare services.
• You want it to look like your business, not a template with your logo on it.
• You'd rather hand it to someone and get back to running the business.
• You want the site in your own accounts, with no platform you have to stay on.

Barbers, cafés and electricians

For a barber, it usually comes down to booking. If you already use Fresha or Square and you're happy with a Book button, a builder can do that. A café with a menu people browse is where design starts to matter more, because I think a menu is a lot to lay out well in a template. An electrician mostly needs to be found and take quote requests, and a builder can cover that well, unless you want a proper page for every service.

• Websites for barbersBooking and a price list
• Websites for cafésA menu and opening hours
• Websites for electriciansServices, areas and quote requests

If you're still not sure, have a look at Pricing and tell me what the site needs to do. If a builder would suit you better, I'll say so.