Wix vs custom website: what's best for your local business

Before hiring us, many clients ask the same question: “Why wouldn’t I just use Wix? It seems easy and cheap.”

It’s a fair question. And it deserves a straight answer — not the one that’s convenient for us as a web design studio.

Here it is.

Wix and Squarespace are valid options. Seriously.

If you’re just starting out, your budget is zero, and you need something online today, Wix or Squarespace are reasonable choices. Much better than having nothing at all.

If your business is entirely online and you rely on selling through platforms where SEO doesn’t matter (Etsy, Instagram, marketplaces), you don’t need a custom website either.

If you have a business with no competition, long-standing loyal clients, and enough word of mouth, a Wix site can do its job as a basic online business card.

That said, for most local businesses that depend on new clients finding them on Google, it’s a different story.

The real limitations of Wix for local SEO

Speed

Wix has improved a lot in recent years, but its websites still carry heavy proprietary code from the visual builder. On PageSpeed, an optimised Wix site can reach 65-75 on mobile. A website built with custom code and a static framework scores above 95 out of the box.

That 20-30 point difference translates into Google rankings and users who leave before the page even loads.

Technical structure

Wix’s technical SEO has limitations you can’t resolve from the editor:

• Less control over URLs (although it’s improved)
• Restrictions on HTML and metadata
• Schema markup limited to what Wix decides to offer
• Cache and CDN you can’t fully configure

For a local business that needs properly implemented Schema LocalBusiness, service listings with specific structured data, or area-optimised landing pages, those limitations matter.

Ownership of your data

This is what surprises our clients the most: on Wix, your website lives on Wix’s servers. If tomorrow Wix raises its prices, changes its terms, or shuts down (unlikely but possible), you have a problem.

With a custom website on any standard hosting, the code is yours, the domain is yours, and you can switch providers whenever you want.

The real cost

Wix seems cheap until you add it up:

• Business plan (needed to remove ads and get more features): 17-28 euros/month
• Custom domain: 10-15 euros/year
• Third-party apps for specific features: 5-15 euros/month each

Per year, you could be spending 300-400 euros on a website that still has all the limitations mentioned above.

A custom website has a higher upfront cost, but no monthly fees and superior performance.

When does each option make sense

Use Wix or Squarespace if:

• You’re just starting out and budget is a real constraint
• You don’t depend on Google to get clients
• Your website is mainly informational (you don’t need to rank)
• You want to manage everything yourself without touching code

Invest in a custom website if:

• You need Google to find you when people search in your city
• You have local competition and want to stand out visually
• The volume of clients coming from the internet is or aims to be significant
• You want a website that improves over time, not one that stays static

The question you should be asking

It’s not “how much does the website cost?” It’s “how much is a new client worth to my business?”

If a new client is worth 200 euros and you get 2 more clients per month thanks to showing up on Google, the website pays for itself in the first month. If a client is worth 2,000 euros (a dental clinic, a training academy, a law firm), you only need one more per year to justify the investment.

The cost of a website that doesn’t bring you clients isn’t the price you paid. It’s the opportunity cost of all the clients who went to your competitors because they were the ones who showed up.

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Not sure what you need? Tell us about your situation and we’ll tell you what makes the most sense for your business, even if it’s not hiring us.