Almost every small business owner I speak to has either tried Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy, or wondered whether they should. It is a fair question. Why pay a web designer when you can drag and drop a site yourself for £20 a month?

Here is an honest comparison from a Surrey web designer who has rebuilt plenty of DIY sites, and who also tells some people to stick with Wix.

What Wix does well

Let us be fair to website builders:

  • Low upfront cost. You can have something live this weekend.
  • No technical skills needed. Templates, drag and drop, built-in hosting.
  • Fine for testing an idea. If you are not sure the business will last, a cheap site makes sense.

If you are a brand new sole trader with no budget, a clean Wix site is far better than no site at all.

Where Wix sites usually fall down

The problems are not with the platform so much as with how most DIY sites end up.

1. Speed

Website builders load a lot of code to support every possible feature, whether you use it or not. Many DIY sites score poorly on Google's Core Web Vitals, especially on mobile. Slow sites lose visitors and rank lower. Read more in our guide to page speed and Core Web Vitals.

2. Generic design

Templates are used by thousands of businesses. Customers may not consciously notice, but a site that looks like everyone else's does nothing to make you memorable.

3. SEO set up badly

Wix can rank, but most DIY sites miss the basics: unique page titles, proper headings, local pages for the towns you cover, structured data and fast images. The platform allows it; most owners just do not know it matters.

4. The ongoing cost adds up

A premium Wix plan plus apps, domain and email can easily reach £300 to £400 a year, forever. Over five years, that is often more than a custom site.

5. You do not fully own it

You cannot move a Wix site to another host. If you leave, you start again.

What a custom website gives you

A custom-built website is designed around your business, not squeezed into a template:

  • Faster loading, because it only includes what you need.
  • Design that fits your brand and your customers.
  • SEO built in from day one: titles, headings, local pages, schema, fast images.
  • Conversion-focused layout: calls to action, trust signals and forms in the right places.
  • Ownership: your domain and your site, portable if you ever move on.

Cost comparison over three years

A rough, realistic comparison for a small UK business:

| | DIY Wix | Custom (PWS) | |---|---|---| | Upfront | £0 plus your time | From £350 | | Yearly platform/hosting | £200 to £400 | Low hosting, optional maintenance | | Your time | 20 to 40 hours | A short call and a few photos | | Speed and SEO | Usually average | Built for both |

The gap is much smaller than most people assume, especially once you value your own time.

How to decide

Stick with Wix (or similar) if:

  • You are just starting and cash is very tight.
  • You enjoy building and updating it yourself.
  • The website is not a significant source of enquiries.

Go custom if:

  • You want to rank locally for your services.
  • Your website is (or should be) a main source of new customers.
  • Your current DIY site looks dated or loads slowly.
  • You would rather spend your evenings on your business than on a website.

Moving from Wix to a custom site

If you already have a Wix site with some Google visibility, you do not have to lose it. A careful website redesign maps your existing pages, keeps or redirects valuable URLs and carries over good content, so the new site starts strong.

The honest summary

Wix is a good tool for getting started. A custom website is a better tool for growing. If your website needs to bring in customers, speed, SEO and design stop being nice extras and become the whole point.

Not sure which you need? Request a free demo and compare it to your current site side by side. Custom small business websites start from £350. See pricing for details.