Wix and Squarespace are brilliant marketing machines. “Build a website for free!” “No coding needed!” And honestly? For a personal blog or a hobby project, they're fine. But if you're running a business that depends on being found on Google and converting visitors into paying customers, the maths starts to look very different.
Let's break it down honestly — no sales pitch, just facts.
The appeal of Wix and Squarespace
They're cheap to start. You can drag and drop. You don't need to know a line of code. For someone testing a business idea or setting up a simple portfolio, that's genuinely useful. Wix plans start at £13/month. Squarespace from £13/month. Compared to a custom website, it feels like a bargain.
What they don't tell you
Monthly fees — forever
That £13/month sounds small until you multiply it by 36 months. Wix Business: £936 over 3 years. Squarespace Business: £1,188. And that's before premium templates, app store plugins, and custom domain fees. The “cheap” option adds up.
You don't own your website
Try exporting your Wix site. You can't. Your content, your design, your pages — they live on Wix's servers, in Wix's format. If you stop paying, it disappears. With a custom website, you own every line of code. You can host it anywhere, move it anywhere, modify it however you want.
SEO limitations
Template builders load 300KB+ of unused CSS and JavaScript on every page. You can't control crawl paths, clean up code bloat, or implement advanced schema markup. Average Wix site load time: 3.5–5 seconds. A custom Next.js site: under 1.5 seconds. Speed is a Google ranking factor — and it directly affects conversions.
The 3-year cost comparison
| Wix Business | Squarespace | Simple Day | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | £312 | £396 | £2,995 |
| Year 2 | £312 | £396 | £0 |
| Year 3 | £312 | £396 | £0 |
| 3-Year Total | £936+ | £1,188+ | £2,995 |
| SEO included | Basic | Basic | Full |
| Quiz funnel | No | No | Yes |
| You own code | No | No | Yes |
Yes, Wix is cheaper in the short term. But over 3 years, you've paid nearly £1,000 for a website you don't own, can't export, and can't properly optimise. A custom website from Simple Day costs £2,995 once — and it's yours forever.
When Wix is the right choice
We're not going to pretend Wix is always wrong. It makes sense when:
- You're testing a business idea and don't want to invest yet
- It's a personal blog or hobby site
- You genuinely have zero budget (£0, not £2,995)
- You need something live in the next 2 hours for a specific event
When custom wins
A custom website wins every time when:
- Your business depends on being found on Google
- You need to convert visitors into enquiries (not just look pretty)
- You want to own your website and not pay monthly forever
- Speed and SEO matter (they always do for business sites)
- You want something that looks like your brand, not a template with your logo swapped in
We built bbqpods.uk in 12 hours. It hit #1 on Google in 8 weeks. No Wix site has ever done that — because it can't.
If you're ready to see what a bespoke website could do for your business, try our quiz funnel — it takes 60 seconds and there's no obligation. Or read our complete UK website pricing guide to understand all your options.
