Wix or Squarespace, or a custom website: the two-year math and the trade-offs.
A builder plan looks like $29 a month. A custom site looks like hundreds up front. Neither number is the full cost. Here are both over two years at today's published prices, with the parts the price tag leaves out and an honest list of when DIY is the better call.
The short answer
At published yearly prices, two years of Squarespace Core costs $696 and Wix Business $936, plus the hours you spend building and updating it. A custom site from us costs $1,675 over the same two years ($499 plus $49 a month) with building, changes and hosting done for you. DIY wins on cash and suits a simple site you enjoy editing; custom earns its cost when your time, phone speed and owning the code matter more.
The two-year cost, plan by plan
Published prices as of September 2026. Builder prices exclude tax and apply after any first-term discount ends.
| Option | Monthly price | Two years | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix Light | $17 billed yearly | $408 | 2 GB storage, no online payments |
| Wix Core | $29 billed yearly | $696 | Accepts payments; first-year discounts are sometimes offered |
| Wix Business | $39 billed yearly, $46 monthly | $936 | Wix's recommended plan; monthly billing per Tooltester's May 2026 price check |
| Squarespace Basic | $19 billed yearly, $25 monthly | $456 | 2% fee on online store sales |
| Squarespace Core | $29 billed yearly, $39 monthly | $696 | No store transaction fee |
| Squarespace Plus | $49 billed yearly, $65 monthly | $1,176 | Lower card processing rates |
| Point It Here, monthly care | $499 build, then $49 | $1,675 | Built, hosted and changed for you; three-year contract, cancel anytime after 24 payments |
| Point It Here, yearly care | $499 build, then $500 a year | $1,499 | On a three-year contract, $1,999 over the full term |
| Point It Here, paid once | $1,449 | $1,449 plus year-two hosting | One year of hosting included, no ongoing care |
Both builders include a free domain for the first year on yearly plans. After that, budget roughly $10 to $19 a year for a .com, the renewal range TLDPrice listed in August 2026 across Cloudflare, Porkbun and Namecheap.
Your time is the cost the plan price leaves out
A builder gives you the tools. You still choose a template, write every page, shoot or find photos, set up forms and bookings, learn the settings for search, and come back each time your hours, prices or staff change. Some owners enjoy that and do it well. Others start, stall and leave a half-finished site up for a year.
To compare honestly, estimate the hours you would spend in the first month and in a typical month after, then multiply by what an hour of your own work earns the business. If that number is small, a builder is a bargain. If it is large, paying someone to build and change the site is the cheaper option even though the invoice is bigger.
Speed and search
Builder sites load the platform's own code on every page, and how fast that feels on a phone depends on the template and what you add. Test any site yourself with Google's free PageSpeed Insights at pagespeed.web.dev, on the mobile tab. Run it on your current site, a competitor's and any designer's portfolio.
For search, the platform matters less than the basics. Google's guidance for its AI Overviews says there are no special requirements beyond normal search practice: pages Google can crawl, important content written as text, structured data that matches what visitors see, and a current Business Profile. A tidy Squarespace site with a complete Google listing can rank well for a small town search.
Our sites load in under a second on a phone, and a change that breaks that does not ship. Your hours, prices, services and area are written so search engines and AI assistants can read them.
Owning it, and leaving
On Wix and Squarespace, you rent the design and the hosting together. Wix's help center says sites built in its editor cannot be exported or hosted anywhere else. Squarespace can export pages, one blog and basic content blocks, but not the design, the store or event pages.
If you go the builder route, register your domain with an independent registrar in your own name and point it at the builder. Then leaving costs you a rebuild, not your address. On a custom site from us, the code, design, content, domain and hosting account are yours from day one. See who owns a website you pay for monthly.
When DIY is the right call, and when custom earns its cost
Use Wix or Squarespace when
- You are just starting and need something online this week for under $500 a year.
- The site is a simple brochure: what you do, where, hours and a contact form.
- You like editing it yourself and have the hours to keep it current.
- You sell a modest catalog of products and a builder's store covers your needs.
- You are testing an idea and may change direction in six months.
Pay for a custom site when
- Your time is worth more running the business than building a website.
- You want the site to look like your business and nobody else's.
- Phone speed matters because most of your customers find you on a phone.
- You need a booking flow, an order queue or a menu editor shaped to how you work.
- You want to own the code and move it if you ever choose to.
Questions owners ask us
Is Squarespace good enough for a small local business?
For many, yes. A clean Squarespace site with accurate hours, prices and a complete Google Business Profile does the job for a simple business. It gets harder when you need custom booking or ordering, top phone speed, or want to own the code.
Can I start on Wix and move to a custom site later?
Yes, and it is a common path. Register the domain in your own name from the start, keep copies of your text and photos, and when you move, have every old page address redirected to the new one so your search standing carries over.
Does using Wix hurt my Google ranking?
Google does not publish any rule against builder sites. Rankings depend on relevance, content written as text, page experience and, for local searches, your Business Profile, distance and reviews. Speed varies by template, so test yours in PageSpeed Insights.
Why does my builder bill go up after the first year?
First-year offers end. Wix's current discounts apply only to the first yearly term, and the free domain on Wix and Squarespace yearly plans lasts one year, after which the domain renews at the builder's price.
How much of my time does a DIY website take?
It depends on how many pages you need, whether your words and photos are ready, and how comfortable you are with the tools. Count setup plus the monthly upkeep, and price those hours at what your time earns the business.
Would you ever tell an owner to use Squarespace instead of hiring you?
Yes. If you are just starting, the site is a simple brochure, and you enjoy editing it, a builder costs less and will serve you well. We would rather say so than sell you a site you do not need.
Related
Want to see what a custom site would look like?
Every project starts with a signed contract and a working demo: $200 for a website, or a website and apps, and a quoted demo price for everything else.