Wix and Squarespace Web Design in Colorado
An honest comparison of Wix, Squarespace and a custom build for a Colorado service business, including what each actually costs to run.
48 hours, no call required.
$200 to $400 a year for a business plan, plus apps. A custom build is $1,500 to $6,500 once, with no platform fee after it.
Most comparisons of these platforms are written by somebody who sells the alternative. Worth saying up front: my own site ran on Wix.
They Are Good Products With a Specific Ceiling
Wix and Squarespace are genuinely well built, and for a simple brochure site either is fine. Millions of businesses are served perfectly well by them, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
The ceiling shows up in two places: how fast pages load on a phone, and how much control you have over what the page actually contains.
At the brochure level the choice between them barely matters. At the level of needing to rank in a competitive local market, both start to cost you.
Which One, If You Are Choosing
Squarespace: better looking with no effort.
More restrictive, which prevents mess, and it produces cleaner output than Wix. The cost of that restriction is that it gets harder to extend the moment you need something specific.
Wix: more flexible, more apps.
Much easier to make a mess with, and heavier pages by default. The editor is friendlier for people who are not designers, which is a real advantage if you are the one maintaining it.
What they cost to run.
Around $200 to $400 a year for a business plan, plus whatever apps you add. That is genuine value if you build it yourself, and the awkward case is paying an agency several thousand to build you one on top of it.
Where the ranking problem comes from.
Both ship a lot of code you did not ask for. That is the price of a drag-and-drop editor: it has to support anything, so it loads machinery for things your page does not use.
What I build instead.
Plain fast pages, no database, no plugins, nothing to update and no monthly platform fee. The trade-off is real: you call me to change a page rather than editing it yourself.
I Moved My Own Site Off Wix, and Two of the Three Common Reasons Would Not Have Been Enough
Almost everybody selling you a migration has the same financial interest in your answer. So here is mine, with the working shown.
Reason one to move: the site is not the bottleneck, the traffic is. That is not a reason. If nobody is arriving, a faster page for the same nobody changes nothing, and the money belongs in pages and profile work instead.
Reason two: you edit it yourself regularly and that matters to you. Also not a reason to leave. If you are in the editor every month changing services and photos, the last few points of load time are worth less to you than the ability to do that without calling anyone.
Reason three: you are competing in a crowded market and losing on speed and structure. That is the one. That is why I moved, and I would not have bothered for the first two.
The test is whether the platform is genuinely the constraint or just the most visible thing. Core Web Vitals are a floor rather than a lever. Passing does not rank you, but failing sinks you against a competitor whose site is clean.
And remember where your customer is standing. On a phone, in a driveway, on a truck-grade signal, not on office wifi in the room where the site got signed off.
There is one thing worth knowing whichever way you go. You own the content and the domain if it is registered in your name. You do not own the platform, which means you cannot take the site itself anywhere. That is worth understanding before you invest heavily in it.
I can work on your Wix site, up to a point. The head tags, the structure, the profile and the content are usually most of the available gain. What I cannot do is make the platform lighter than it is, and I would rather say that than quote you a migration you do not need.
How It Works
The teardown.
$47. How fast your current pages load on a real signal, what the structure is costing you, and whether the platform is genuinely the constraint or just the visible thing.
Fix what is fixable.
Head tags, page structure, the Google profile and the content. Usually most of the available gain, at a fraction of a rebuild, and it is what I will recommend when it is true.
Build and migrate.
Two to three weeks, with every old URL redirected to its new home so the rankings come with you. The old site stays live the whole time.
No platform fee.
No database, no plugins, nothing to update. The annual cost drops to hosting, and the pages stop getting slower every time the platform ships a feature you do not use.
What It Costs
$1,500 to $6,500One time, for a custom build, against $200 to $400 a year plus apps to stay where you are. For a business whose pages change twice a year the custom build usually wins on both speed and total cost within a few years.
For a business editing the site every month, it often does not, and that is a legitimate reason to stay. I would rather you spent the money on pages and profile work than on a migration that buys you a second and a half.
Pricing either way is published, and local web design covers how a build runs end to end. The same question for WordPress is on the WordPress page.
Questions I Get Asked
Is Wix or Squarespace good enough for a service business?
For a simple brochure site, often yes. They are genuinely good products. Where they struggle is speed on mobile and the level of control you need to compete for local search, because you cannot change what loads on the page.
Which is better, Wix or Squarespace?
Squarespace is better looking out of the box and more restrictive. Wix is more flexible and easier to make a mess with. For a service business either is fine at the brochure level.
What do they actually cost?
Around $200 to $400 a year for a business plan, plus apps. That is real value if you build it yourself. If you are paying somebody to build it for you on top, you are paying for a platform and a builder.
Why do these sites struggle to rank?
Mostly page speed and structure. Both platforms ship a lot of code you did not ask for, and Core Web Vitals are a floor rather than a lever. Failing them sinks you against a clean competitor.
Can you work on my Wix site?
Yes, up to a point. I can fix the head tags, the structure, the profile and the content, which is often most of the gain. What I cannot do is make the platform lighter than it is.
Should I move off Wix?
Only when the platform is genuinely the bottleneck. Often it is not, and the money is better spent on pages and profile work. I ran this exact decision on my own site, so I have a view on it.
What do you build instead?
Hand-built sites that produce plain fast pages, with no database and no plugins. The trade-off is you call me to change a page rather than editing it yourself.
Do I own a Wix site?
You own the content and the domain if it is registered in your name. You do not own the platform, which means you cannot take the site itself anywhere. That is worth knowing before you invest heavily in it.
Where I Work
Based in Parker, Colorado. The platform question gets answered the same honest way wherever you are, and the answer is stay more often than a page like this is supposed to admit.
Start With the $47 Teardown
I'll tell you whether your platform is actually the problem, or whether the money belongs somewhere else entirely. Forty-eight hours. Yours to keep either way.
$47, free if you go ahead with any service. If you do not see an increase in calls by month three, I work for free until you do.
Your Local Site Design LLC
1394 Deertrack Ln
Parker, CO 80134
(303) 981-0908