The short answer
For most small UK businesses, Squarespace or Wix suit a simple brochure site you'll mostly leave alone, WordPress suits a site that needs to grow, add features, or be handed between different developers over time, and a custom-built site suits a business with specific functionality, like a booking system or a customer portal, that off-the-shelf platforms don't do well. The right choice depends less on which platform is "best" and more on how much the site needs to do, and how much you expect it to change.
What each platform is actually good at
Squarespace
Squarespace is a hosted, all-in-one platform built around clean, template-driven design. You pick a template, drop in your content, and it looks professional with very little effort. It's a strong fit for service businesses, photographers, and anyone who wants a good-looking site without fiddling with design decisions.
Good for: straightforward brochure sites, businesses that want design handled for them, anyone who wants hosting and security bundled in.
Watch out for: customisation beyond the templates is limited, and moving away from Squarespace later means rebuilding from scratch, since it doesn't export cleanly to other platforms.
Wix
Wix is similar in spirit to Squarespace: hosted, drag-and-drop, with an even larger template library and an app marketplace for adding features like booking or basic online shops. It's slightly more flexible for layout tinkering than Squarespace but can end up messier if you're not careful with the drag-and-drop editor.
Good for: businesses that want to tweak layout themselves without touching code, simple online shops, add-on features via its app store.
Watch out for: sites built by dragging elements around can become inconsistent over time, and like Squarespace, you're tied into the platform.
WordPress
WordPress (specifically self-hosted WordPress, not the separate WordPress.com) runs a large share of the small business websites online, because it's flexible, has a vast ecosystem of themes and plugins, and isn't tied to one company's hosting. It can be as simple or as complex as the business needs, which is both its strength and its risk: a badly maintained WordPress site is one of the most common things we're asked to fix.
Good for: sites that need to grow over time, specific plugins (booking, membership, multilingual content), businesses that want the option to move developer or hosting provider later.
Watch out for: it needs ongoing maintenance: updates, backups and security need looking after, which is why a care plan matters more here than on a fully hosted platform. See our guide on professional email and domain setup for a related piece of groundwork that often gets missed alongside a new WordPress site.
Custom-built
A custom site is built from scratch around exactly what your business needs, rather than adapted from a template or theme. It makes sense when you need functionality that off-the-shelf platforms handle badly or not at all: a booking system with specific rules, a customer portal, or a tool that needs to connect deeply with other software you use.
Good for: booking systems, customer portals, anything with real custom functionality, businesses that have outgrown what templates can do.
Watch out for: higher upfront cost and longer build time than a templated site, so it's worth confirming a template genuinely can't do the job first, rather than defaulting to custom out of habit.
Comparing the options
| Platform | Typical cost | Best for | Flexibility | Who maintains it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | Monthly subscription, low setup cost | Simple brochure sites | Low to medium | Mostly handled by the platform |
| Wix | Monthly subscription, low setup cost | Simple sites, basic shops | Medium | Mostly handled by the platform |
| WordPress | One-off build, plus hosting and a care plan | Growing sites, specific plugins | High | Needs active maintenance |
| Custom-built | Higher one-off build cost | Booking systems, portals, specific functionality | Highest | Depends on the build, usually a support agreement |
Subscription and hosting prices for these platforms change regularly, so check current pricing directly with each provider rather than relying on figures you've seen elsewhere.
How to actually decide
Ask these questions in order:
- Do you need functionality a template genuinely can't do well, like complex booking rules, a customer login area, or deep integration with another system? If yes, look at custom. If no, move on.
- Will the site need to grow significantly, adding pages, features or plugins over the next few years? If yes, lean WordPress. If it'll stay roughly the same size, a hosted platform is simpler to live with.
- Do you want to make small changes yourself, or would you rather it was looked after for you? Hosted platforms are easier for a non-technical owner to edit directly; WordPress is more capable but benefits from a care plan.
- What's your budget and timeline? A Squarespace or Wix site can be live in a week or two. A WordPress build typically takes a few weeks longer. A custom build is a bigger project, usually measured in months rather than weeks.
A note on cost
Guide prices for a business website with us start from around £1,500 for five to eight pages, regardless of platform, with a simple one-page site from £650 and an online shop from £3,000. Custom functionality like booking systems or customer portals is priced separately once we understand what it needs to do, because the range is genuinely too wide to guess. Our guide on how much a small business website costs in the UK breaks this down further, and see pricing for the full range.
If you're not sure where you fit
Most small businesses don't need a custom build, and most would outgrow Wix within a few years if they're growing at all. If in doubt, WordPress with a proper care plan is the platform that keeps the most doors open, without the cost of a fully custom build. If your business idea is still at the concept stage and you're wondering whether you need a website or an app, our example of an app idea becoming a working prototype shows how that kind of project tends to run. And if the platform isn't really the problem but your current site simply isn't converting visitors, our solution for a website that isn't converting looks at the fix from there instead.
If you'd rather not do this yourself
We can tell you honestly which platform actually fits your business, rather than steering you toward whatever we happen to build most often, and we'll build and look after it once you've decided. Have a look at our website service, or tell us what you need the site to do and we'll recommend a platform on a free call.
Frequently asked questions
Is WordPress harder to use than Squarespace or Wix?
For day-to-day editing, not especially, once it's set up. The complexity in WordPress comes from maintenance (updates, backups, security) rather than daily content editing, which is why a care plan matters more for WordPress sites than hosted platforms.
Can I move my website from Wix or Squarespace to WordPress later?
Yes, but it usually means rebuilding rather than a straightforward export, since hosted platforms don't let content out cleanly. It's worth choosing with half an eye on the future to avoid that cost later.
Is a custom-built website always better?
No. A custom build only earns its extra cost when a template genuinely can't do what the business needs. For a straightforward brochure site, a custom build is usually more expensive and slower for no real benefit.
Which platform is best for an online shop?
Wix and Squarespace both handle simple shops reasonably well. For a larger or more specific shop, a dedicated platform like Shopify, or WooCommerce on WordPress, usually gives more control over products, stock and checkout.
Do I need to know how to code to use any of these?
No, not for day-to-day use. Squarespace and Wix are built for non-technical editing. WordPress is also editable without code for content, though changes to design or functionality usually need a developer.
How do I know if my current website is on the wrong platform?
Signs include needing a developer for every small change, outgrowing what plugins or apps can offer, or paying significant hosting and maintenance costs for a site that's actually quite simple. If any of that sounds familiar, our guide on why your website isn't getting enquiries is a useful next read.