We build on all of these, which means we have no reason to talk up one over another. What we do have is a clear view of where each one stops working — usually about eighteen months in, when a business has outgrown the platform it started on and has to pay to rebuild.
The platform matters less than most comparison articles suggest. What matters is picking one that still fits when your business is twice the size it is now.
The comparison
| Platform | Real cost/yr | Best for | Where it hurts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | $300–500 | Visual businesses, simple brochure sites | Limited SEO control, rigid structure |
| Wix | $200–500 | Fastest DIY setup | Hard to migrate away from later |
| WordPress | $500–2,000 | Content-heavy sites, blogs, flexibility | Maintenance, security, plugin sprawl |
| Shopify | $400–3,000+ | Anyone genuinely selling products | Transaction fees, weak for content |
| Custom | $4,000–25,000 once | Integrations, unusual workflows, scale | Upfront cost, needs a developer |
Annual costs include hosting, domain, and typical add-ons. Custom is a one-time build plus hosting.
Choose by situation, not by platform
A website builder fits if…
You need a presence rather than a lead engine, your site is under about ten pages, and you have no integrations. Worth knowing before you commit: builders are where most businesses hit a ceiling, usually when they add a second service line or want to take bookings. If you expect either within two years, starting on something you can grow into costs less than starting over.
Use WordPress if…
You will publish regularly, need fine control over SEO, and either have someone technical or will pay for maintenance. WordPress rewards attention and punishes neglect — an unmaintained WordPress site is a security liability, not just a stale one.
Use Shopify if…
You sell physical products. Trying to bolt e-commerce onto a platform that was not built for it is a false economy, and Shopify handles tax, shipping, and payment complexity you do not want to own.
Go custom if…
You need something the builders cannot express — booking flows, member portals, calculators, integrations with software you already run — or your site is central enough to revenue that speed and structure are worth engineering. Custom also makes sense when per-user or per-transaction SaaS fees start exceeding what a build would cost.
The question that settles it
What will your website need to do in two years? Not today — two years. Take bookings against live availability, calculate quotes, run a members area, support a second location. If any of that is on the horizon, build for it now. Rebuilding later costs more than building right, and you lose the search history you accumulated in the meantime.
What actually determines whether a site works
None of these platforms will rank you on their own, and none will stop you ranking either. What determines outcomes is the same regardless of what you build on: does it load fast on a phone, does it say clearly what you do and where, does it make the next step obvious, is there content answering real questions, and is your Google Business Profile sorted.
Platform sets your ceiling; the work determines whether you reach it. We handle both — which is the actual reason our clients rank, not the technology underneath.
One thing to check before committing
Whatever you pick, confirm you can export your content and point your own domain at it. The expensive mistake is not picking the wrong platform — it is picking one you cannot leave when you outgrow it.