Wix vs WordPress vs a Custom Website for Irish Small Businesses

Quick comparison

Here's the summary. The detail follows below.

Wix and Squarespace: quick to start, yours to rent

Website builders like Wix and Squarespace let you drag and drop a site together in a weekend. Plans that let you use your own domain and remove the platform's ads cost roughly €15 to €40 a month.

The upside is simple: no upfront cost and nothing to install. The downside is that you're renting. If you stop paying, the site goes. You can't easily move it to another host, and over three years the fees add up to €540 to €1,440.

Speed can be an issue. Builder sites carry a lot of code they don't need, which can slow them down on mobile signal. You can still rank on Google with them, but it takes more care.

They suit people who enjoy doing it themselves, have a few evenings free, and want to test an idea before spending money.

WordPress: flexible, but it needs looking after

WordPress powers a large share of the web. The software is free, but you pay for hosting (about €5 to €30 a month), a theme, and often plugins for forms, SEO, backups and security.

It's very flexible. Almost anything can be added with a plugin. That's also the problem: each plugin needs updating, and out-of-date plugins are a common way sites get hacked. Someone has to log in and update it every few weeks.

A WordPress site built by a good developer can be fast and well set up for Google. A cheap one stacked with plugins can be slow and fragile. Ask who will do the updates and what it costs.

It suits businesses that want lots of pages, a blog, or a specific plugin, and have someone to maintain it.

A custom-built site: fast and simple to run

A custom site is built for your business, without a builder platform or a pile of plugins. That usually means it loads faster, has fewer moving parts to break, and doesn't need regular updates.

The trade-off used to be cost. Custom builds from agencies often run into thousands. We use a proven design system to keep the price at small business level, so a custom site starts at the same price as many WordPress builds.

You own the domain and the site. If you ever leave, we hand over everything.

Which one does better on Google?

Google doesn't rank a site higher because of the platform. It looks at whether the page answers the search, loads fast, works on phones and comes from a business that looks trustworthy.

Any of the three can do well if it's set up properly: a clear title and description on every page, your town and services named, a sitemap, fast images and a linked Google Business Profile. The platform makes some of that easier or harder, but the work still has to be done.

The three-year cost, side by side

Looking at a single month hides the real cost. Here's a rough three-year comparison for a five-page site, not counting your own time.

• ✓Wix or Squarespace, DIY: €540–€1,440 in plan fees, plus domain.
• ✓WordPress, built by a freelancer: €800–€2,000 build, plus €180–€1,080 hosting, plus updates.
• ✓Custom with us: €599 build with year one hosting, then domain and hosting for years two and three, or a €29 a month care plan.

Moving later is harder than starting right

Switching platforms after a few years is possible, but it takes work. Pages have to be rebuilt, images moved, and every old page address redirected to the new one so you don't lose your place on Google.

On Wix and Squarespace there's no simple export of the whole site. On WordPress you can move the site, but plugins and themes don't always come with it cleanly. A custom site built on standard code is the easiest to hand over.

If you think you'll outgrow a DIY builder within a year or two, it can save time and money to start on something you'll keep.

What about Shopify for online shops?

If selling online is the main point of the site, Shopify is worth a look. It's built for shops and handles payments, stock and delivery well. Plans start at around €30 a month, and there are transaction fees and paid apps on top.

Like Wix, you're renting the platform. For a small shop with a few dozen products, a custom shop with card payments can cost less over three years. For hundreds of products and lots of daily orders, Shopify is often the better tool.

How to choose

Pick a website builder if you have time, a small budget and enjoy doing it yourself. Pick WordPress if you need lots of plugins or a big blog and have someone to look after it. Pick a custom build if you want a fast site that someone else builds and you don't want to think about updates.

Whatever you choose, make sure the domain is in your name. That one step protects you more than any other choice here.

Frequently asked questions