One of the most common decisions NZ business owners face when getting a website is this: do you build it yourself on Wix or Squarespace, buy a pre-made WordPress theme, or invest in a custom-built site?
There's no single right answer - but there are clear situations where one choice is clearly better than another. This guide will help you decide.
What We Mean by "Template" vs "Custom"
Template websites are built on platforms or themes where the structure is pre-designed. You customise colours, images, and text within a fixed layout. Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and pre-built WordPress themes are all template-based.
Custom websites are designed and built from scratch (or from a flexible foundation) specifically for your business. The layout, functionality, and design decisions are made to suit your brand, your customers, and your goals - not the constraints of a template.
The difference isn't just visual. It affects performance, SEO capability, scalability, and what you can change when your business grows.
When a Template Website Makes Sense
Templates are not inherently bad. For some businesses, they're genuinely the right choice:
You're testing a business idea. If you're not yet sure your business model will stick, a low-cost Squarespace site is a reasonable way to have something online while you validate the concept. Once you're committed, you upgrade.
Your needs are very simple. One service, a contact form, a few photos. If that's genuinely all you need, a template can deliver it at a low cost.
You have limited budget and time is flexible. A DIY template site takes effort to build well, but it can be done without spending much money.
You're not relying on Google traffic. If all your work comes through referrals and word of mouth, the SEO limitations of templates matter less.
If none of these describe your situation - a template is probably the wrong tool.
The Real Limitations of Template Websites
Template websites look polished in their demo versions. The reality of using them for a real business is more complicated.
Speed and performance
Template platforms carry code for hundreds of features you'll never use - sliders, galleries, shop functions, booking systems - whether or not you've turned them on. This makes them heavier and slower than they need to be.
Google uses page speed as a ranking factor and as a metric for user experience. A slow site ranks lower and converts fewer visitors into customers. Most Wix and Squarespace sites score in the 40–70 range on Google's PageSpeed tests for mobile. A well-built custom site typically scores 90+.
SEO limitations
Templates vary in how much SEO control they give you. Basic settings (page titles, meta descriptions) are usually accessible. Advanced settings - structured data markup, canonical tags, custom server-side rendering, fine-grained control over how Google crawls the site - are often locked, absent, or require workarounds.
For a local NZ business trying to rank on Google, these limitations matter. They're not insurmountable, but they handicap you from the start.
You look like everyone else
Every template has thousands or tens of thousands of users. If you're in a category where trust and first impression matter - trades, professional services, hospitality - looking like a Squarespace template signals "small operator" rather than "professional business."
Your brand is a meaningful business asset. A template limits how distinctively you can express it.
Platform risk
Wix and Squarespace are companies with shareholders, and their pricing changes over time. If they raise prices significantly, change features you rely on, or (in an extreme scenario) go through financial difficulty, your website is affected. Moving off these platforms is also a significant project - they don't export cleanly.
Ownership
With some template platforms, you're renting rather than owning. You're renting the platform, and your site lives on their servers under their terms. A custom website, built on an open-source foundation, is something you genuinely own.
What Custom Gets You
A custom-built website is designed from scratch around your business. That creates advantages that compound over time:
Speed. A custom site carries only the code it needs. Built on modern frameworks like Next.js (what this website is built on), it can load in under a second on mobile - a significant advantage for SEO and user experience.
Full SEO control. Every technical SEO element is configurable: structured data, sitemaps, canonical tags, meta tags, image optimisation, Core Web Vitals. Nothing is locked behind a platform paywall.
Brand differentiation. Your website looks like your business, not a template. For local businesses competing on trust and professionalism, this matters.
Scalability. As your business grows, a custom website can grow with it. New pages, new features, new integrations - without being constrained by a platform's capabilities.
Long-term value. A custom website is an asset. Once built, it doesn't have a recurring monthly platform fee. Hosting costs are low. The investment is front-loaded.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Factor | Template (Wix/Squarespace) | Custom Website | |--------|---------------------------|----------------| | Upfront cost | Low | Higher | | Ongoing cost | Monthly platform fee | Low (hosting only) | | Mobile speed | Often 40–70 PageSpeed score | Typically 85–100 | | SEO capability | Limited | Full control | | Design uniqueness | Template constraints | Fully custom | | Time to build | Days (DIY) | 1–4 weeks | | Ownership | Renting platform | Fully owned | | Scalability | Limited | Unlimited | | Best for | Testing, simple needs | Established businesses, growth focus |
What About WordPress?
WordPress sits in the middle. It's the most widely used website platform in the world, and it powers both simple template sites and highly customised websites.
A WordPress site built on a cheap pre-made theme behaves much like a Squarespace site - template constraints, performance issues, SEO limitations. A WordPress site built properly by a developer, with a custom theme or a carefully configured page builder, is closer to a custom build.
WordPress also requires ongoing maintenance - plugin updates, security patches, backups. This isn't a dealbreaker, but it's a running cost that's sometimes overlooked.
For most local NZ businesses, a well-built custom WordPress site or a modern custom build on Next.js or similar technology are both solid choices. The quality of the build matters more than the platform.
The Cost Question
The upfront cost of a custom website is higher. The question is whether that difference pays back - and the answer depends entirely on your business, which is why we discuss pricing individually with every client rather than quoting general figures.
Consider the 5-year view:
Template route (Squarespace Business plan): Lower upfront cost, but an ongoing monthly platform fee for as long as you use it, with no equity in an asset at the end.
Custom website: Higher upfront cost, but low ongoing hosting only, and full ownership of an asset at the end.
The gap is smaller than it first appears once you account for years of platform fees. And the custom site is faster, more capable, better for SEO, and genuinely yours.
Our Recommendation for NZ Local Businesses
If you're an established local business in New Zealand - a tradie, a service provider, a retailer, a professional services firm - a custom-built website is the right long-term choice.
If you're in early-stage testing mode, a template can get you online quickly and cheaply while you figure out your direction.
Still weighing up whether to build it yourself or bring in a professional either way? See our related guide: DIY Website or Hire a Pro?
The businesses that see the best return from their websites are the ones who treat it as an investment in a proper asset - not a monthly subscription to a platform they'll outgrow.
What We Do
At Local Site Growth, we build custom websites for NZ local businesses. Every site is designed specifically for your business, built for speed and SEO, and delivered with full ownership.
We start by designing you a free first page demo - you see the first page of your actual website before you spend anything. If it's not right, there's no cost. Request your free first page demo here.