Should a small business use Wix or hire a web designer?
A website builder like Wix or Squarespace is enough if your needs are simple, your budget is tight, and you have time to write the copy, choose the photos and learn the basics yourself. A web designer earns their fee through structure, SEO, speed and a site built to turn visitors into enquiries, not just something that looks tidy. Many small businesses do well with a middle path: a designer builds it properly, then you maintain it.
When a website builder is genuinely enough
If you need a simple site, a handful of pages, your services, some photos, a contact form, and you're comfortable spending a weekend learning the tool, a builder like Wix or Squarespace will do the job. It's also the right call when the budget genuinely isn't there yet, a builder gets you online for the cost of a monthly subscription rather than a project fee. The trade-off is time: you're the one writing the copy, choosing and editing the photos, and working out the basics of structure and SEO, usually without having done it before.
What you're really paying with your time
A builder makes the technical side easy, dragging boxes onto a page, but it doesn't write your copy or take your photos for you, and those are usually what decide whether a website converts visitors into enquiries. Business owners often spend far more evenings than expected getting a DIY site to a standard they're happy with, and the result is frequently a site that looks fine but doesn't say anything specific about the business or make it easy to get in touch. That gap, generic copy and no clear next step, is the most common reason a website gets visitors but no enquiries, which I go into in why your website might be getting visitors but no enquiries.
Where a designer adds real value
A few things a website builder alone rarely gets right:
- Structure: pages built around what a visitor actually needs to see, in the right order, rather than a template's default layout
- Copy: written to answer the questions a potential customer actually has, not generic descriptions
- SEO: the site built from the start to be found for the searches that matter to your business
- Speed: a site that loads quickly, which affects both how visitors behave and how Google ranks it
- Conversion: a clear next step on every page, so interest turns into an enquiry rather than a visitor who leaves
A quick way to decide
If you can answer yes to most of these, a builder is a reasonable starting point: you have a few free evenings over the next month, your business has three or four things to say and no more, you're comfortable writing your own copy, and you don't yet rely on the website for most of your enquiries. If most of your answers are no, especially if the website is meant to be doing real work bringing in bookings or enquiries, it's usually worth paying for a designer from the start rather than paying twice.
Ownership and moving your site later
Check this before you commit to either route. A builder like Wix keeps your site inside its own platform, moving away later usually means rebuilding rather than exporting it cleanly elsewhere. A custom-built site is generally more flexible to move, but ask any designer directly who owns the finished files, whether you can take them to another host, and what happens if you want to change developer later. Get the answer in writing rather than assuming.
A middle path: built properly, maintained by you
A good compromise for many small businesses is having a designer build the site properly, get the structure, copy and SEO right from the start, and then handle small updates yourself once it's live: new photos, updated prices, a seasonal offer. It costs more upfront than a builder subscription but avoids paying a designer's rate for every small change afterwards. This is roughly how I work: I build the full site, including copy, photos and video where it's needed, and then hand it over rather than keeping you locked into ongoing changes you could easily do yourself.
What I'd actually suggest
If your needs are genuinely simple and you have time to spend on it, a builder is a sensible place to start, you can always move to something more built out later once the business grows. If your website needs to be doing real work, bringing in enquiries, ranking in Google, representing the business properly, it's usually worth paying for that from the start rather than rebuilding a DIY site a year in. My own one-page sites start from €490 for straightforward needs, with full business websites from €1,200 when there's more to say. Details are on the marketing page, and what a small business website actually needs is a good next read if you're planning what to include.
Questions people also ask
Is Wix bad for SEO?
Not inherently, but a template used out of the box, with generic copy and no attention to page structure, tends to perform worse than a site built with SEO in mind from the start. The platform isn't usually the limiting factor, the content and structure are.
How much time does a DIY website actually take?
More than most people expect, often several evenings to write copy, choose photos and learn the builder, then ongoing time for updates. It's worth being honest about whether you have that time before committing to it.
Can I start with a builder and move to a designer later?
Yes, and plenty of businesses do exactly this. Just know that moving off a builder platform usually means rebuilding the site rather than transferring it, so budget time for that when the switch makes sense.
What should I definitely not compromise on?
A clear next step on every page, a way to contact you that's easy to find, and copy that's actually specific to your business rather than generic. These affect whether visitors enquire far more than how polished the design looks.
Want the marketing handled too?
Websites, Google, social media and ads, made by the same person as the video.