"Wix looks pretty good these days - should I just build it myself?"
It's a fair question, and the honest answer is: it depends. This guide will help you figure out which side of that line your business falls on.
The DIY Case: When Building Your Own Site Makes Sense
Modern website builders have become genuinely good. Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify have templates that look professional, drag-and-drop editors that don't require any technical knowledge, and they handle hosting and security for you.
DIY makes sense if:
You're testing a new business idea. Before investing significantly in a proper website, having a low-cost placeholder up on Squarespace is sensible. Once you've validated the idea, you upgrade.
You have very simple requirements. One service, a contact form, a few photos. If that genuinely covers everything you need, a template can deliver it cheaply.
You have the time and enjoy this kind of work. Building a website properly - even on a template platform - takes 20–40 hours to do well. If you're willing to invest that time and you find it satisfying, the DIY option has merit.
Your website is not a primary source of revenue. Some businesses generate all their work through referrals, and the website is a legitimacy signal rather than a lead generator. A clean Squarespace site might be perfectly sufficient.
The Hidden Costs of DIY
The appeal of DIY is the upfront cost savings. But there are costs most people don't account for:
Your time
At your professional hourly rate, 30 hours building a website adds up to a significant opportunity cost - often comparable to, or more than, having it built professionally.
This calculation assumes you build it once. Reality: most business owners who DIY their website spend ongoing time tweaking, updating, and trying to figure out why something isn't working. That time compounds.
Learning curve on things that matter
The technical aspects that most affect your results - page speed, SEO structure, meta tags, image optimisation, structured data, Core Web Vitals - are not accessible through standard drag-and-drop interfaces. You'd need to learn these separately, and many template platforms limit what you can do even if you do learn.
The performance gap
A well-built custom website on a modern framework typically scores 90–100 on Google's PageSpeed tests. Most Wix and Squarespace sites score 40–70. This affects both your Google rankings and how many visitors stay on your site long enough to contact you.
For a business where the website is a significant source of leads, this performance gap translates directly to lost revenue.
Platform lock-in
When you build on Wix, you can't easily move your content elsewhere if Wix raises its prices, changes its features, or gets acquired. You're renting, not owning. Starting over on a different platform means rebuilding from scratch.
The Professional Build Case
A professionally built website is a bigger upfront number than a DIY platform, and that's usually what causes hesitation. What it costs for your specific business is something we're happy to discuss individually.
Here's what the investment buys:
A site that's built for your specific goals. A professional can look at your business, your competitors, your target customers, and your conversion goals, and design something that addresses all of those. A template is built for no one in particular.
Speed and performance from the start. A properly built custom site on a modern framework loads fast, scores well on Google's tools, and keeps visitors engaged. This is hard to achieve on template platforms regardless of skill level.
Full SEO foundations. Technical SEO - structured data, proper heading hierarchy, canonical tags, meta tags, Core Web Vitals compliance, Google Maps integration - is built in from the start, not an afterthought.
Your time back. Once the site is built, you don't need to think about it (beyond occasional content updates). You run your business while the website does its job.
Scalability. As your business grows, the site can grow with it. New service pages, new features, blog content, booking systems - without being constrained by what a template platform allows.
The Real Comparison (5-Year View)
Let's be concrete about what each option actually costs over five years - not just in money, but in time.
DIY Squarespace Business:
- No build fee, but an ongoing subscription for as long as you use it
- Real time to build it properly: around 30 hours
- Real ongoing time: a couple of hours a month, every month, for as long as the site exists
- Once you count that time at what your hour is actually worth, the "cheap" option is often the more expensive one over five years
Professionally built custom site:
- Higher upfront cost, low ongoing hosting only
- Minimal ongoing time (maybe a couple of hours a year reviewing and updating content)
- Once built, it mostly runs itself
Plus: the custom site performs better, ranks better, and converts better. Even a modest increase in monthly enquiries compounds into meaningful extra revenue over five years.
The maths favour the professional build for any business where the website is a meaningful lead source - though the exact numbers are different for every business, which is why we work them out individually rather than quoting generic figures here.
The Questions to Ask Yourself
Is my website meant to generate new customers, or is it mainly a credibility signal?
If leads from the website matter to you, the performance difference between DIY and custom justifies the investment. If you just need a presence that customers can check when referred to you, a template might be fine.
How competitive is my category online?
Search "web designer Christchurch" or "plumber Christchurch" and look at the first-page results. If your competitors have well-built, fast-loading custom sites, you won't outrank them with a Squarespace template.
How much is my time worth?
If you're billing a healthy hourly rate, spending 30 hours building your own website adds up to real professional time - often enough to have commissioned a very good custom site instead.
Am I actually going to do it well?
Be honest with yourself. A half-finished or poorly executed DIY website is worse than no website. If you know you'll lose motivation partway through or won't invest the time to do it properly, hiring someone is the better choice.
A Middle Path: Guided DIY
Some agencies and designers offer a "done-with-you" model - they set up the technical foundation, provide a design system, and guide you through filling in the content. You get a custom-level result with more involvement in the process.
This can work well for business owners who want hands-on involvement and have genuine time to invest, but want the technical architecture handled properly.
If you're still deciding between a template platform and a fully custom build, see our related comparison: Custom Website vs Template: What's Right for You?
What We Do
At Local Site Growth, we build custom websites for NZ local businesses. We don't believe in one-size-fits-all templates because one-size-fits-all doesn't perform as well as something built specifically for your business, your location, and your customers.
We start by designing you a free first page demo - the first page of your new website, designed specifically for your business before you spend anything. You see exactly what it would look like, for free, before making any commitment. Request your free first page demo here.
If after seeing the demo you decide to DIY it instead, that's completely fine. But most people find that seeing a professional result built for their specific business makes the decision straightforward.