Two real options. Two very different bets on where your business will be in three years. Most agencies answering this question have a conflict of interest, they sell one and not the other. We build custom sites, so we should probably say "always custom." That would be a lie. Here's the honest cut.
What Wix actually gives you
Modern Wix (the 2026 version, not the one you remember from 2015) is a credible product.
- Speed to launch. You can have a decent-looking site live by dinner. Templates are mostly good now.
- Predictable monthly cost. Wix Core is around £14/mo, Business is £23/mo. Under £300/year for a working site.
- You control it yourself. No waiting on a developer for small changes. Edit a page, publish, done.
- Built-in hosting, SSL, backups. You don't need to think about it.
- E-commerce included. Business plan upwards supports a full store with checkout, inventory, shipping rules.
For an idea that might not work out, this is the right math. A year of Wix costs less than a single decent freelancer quote, and if the idea dies you haven't lost much.
Where Wix quietly limits you
- SEO ceiling. Wix sites can rank, but competitive keywords get harder. Core Web Vitals on Wix are consistently slower than hand-coded equivalents, the platform JS overhead is baked in and you can't strip it out. If search traffic is the product, you'll hit a wall that custom sites don't.
- Template constraints. You can customise a Wix template, but you can't rebuild its structure. Which means the 200,000 other businesses using the same template look broadly similar to you.
- Migration is a rebuild. "Start on Wix, upgrade later" sounds reasonable. In practice, there's no clean export, you'd be starting over, losing URLs, losing SEO equity.
- Third-party integrations are limited. Wix has an app store. It's smaller and less mature than WordPress's or the custom-code equivalent. Niche integrations (your local booking system, a specific CRM) may not exist.
- You don't own the code. If Wix changes terms, raises prices, or goes under, your site goes with them.
What a custom site gives you
- Built for your specific goal, not forced into a generic template. The hero answers your audience's exact question. The CTA is phrased for your specific offer.
- SEO architecture from day one. Clean URL structure, schema markup tuned to your business type, Core Web Vitals at 95+. The ceiling is Google's own page-quality algorithm, not your platform.
- Faster load times. A modern stack (Astro, Next.js) serves static HTML in under 1 second on 4G. Wix Business typically lands at 3–5s on the same connection.
- You own everything. Source code, content, hosting account, domain. No lock-in to a platform that could change terms tomorrow.
- Extensible. Want a custom quote calculator next year? Possible. A booking system with bespoke rules? Possible. On Wix, you're bound to what the template supports.
The SEO difference (the most important section)
If your business depends on Google organic traffic, this is the one that decides the argument.
Wix has genuinely improved SEO tooling since 2022. You can edit meta tags, set 301 redirects, add schema markup manually. For simple local-business SEO (plumber in Nottingham), a well-optimised Wix site can compete.
The limitation shows up in two places:
- Core Web Vitals — Wix sites typically score 50–70 on mobile PageSpeed. Custom sites on Astro or Next.js routinely hit 90+. That 20–40 point gap is the difference between ranking on page 1 and page 3 for competitive terms.
- Technical SEO ceiling — schema granularity, JSON-LD completeness, semantic HTML structure. Wix handles the basics. For anything past "a local shop that wants to rank for its town," you'll want custom control.
Real-world pattern across 100+ sites we've built and audited since 2018: clients who move from Wix to custom routinely see organic traffic 3–5× over 6–12 months on the same content and the same keywords. Nothing else changed.
Cost comparison over 3 years
The "Wix is cheaper" argument needs a time horizon to be honest.
Wix route:
- Wix Core: £14/mo × 36 = £504
- Plus your time (10–20 hrs building, 2–4 hrs/month maintaining = 60–100 hrs total)
- Total: £504 + your time
Custom route (our Marketing tier as reference):
- Build: £6,500 once
- Care Plan (Standard): £249/mo × 36 = £8,964
- Total: ~£15,000 over 3 years
That looks like a lot more money for the custom route. Two things to add to the comparison though:
- The Wix route still has costs at the end. The subscription continues forever; the Wix site is never "done and paid off." The custom site is a business asset you own at month 1.
- The ROI question. If the custom site brings in even 1–2 extra clients per year at a typical UK service price (£500–£5,000 per engagement), it has already paid for itself. Wix sites convert at historically lower rates because of slower speed and template constraint.
For a service business with an average client value over £1,000, custom almost always pays back. For a product business under £50 AOV with 100K+ sessions/year, the math works differently.
Who should use Wix
- Pre-revenue businesses testing an idea
- Pop-up or time-limited projects (event pages, launch campaigns, promotional microsites)
- Very small catalogs where the site is incidental (Instagram is the real store)
- Businesses where Google traffic isn't the acquisition channel (walk-ins, word-of-mouth, paid ads)
Who should use custom
- Established businesses where Google traffic matters
- Service businesses with average client values over £500
- Any business selling to UK SMEs that have grown past the "cheap-is-fine" mindset
- Businesses that need a specific integration Wix doesn't support
- Businesses that plan to hire a marketing team in the next 2 years who'll want to iterate rapidly
Middle path, MVP Web
If you're genuinely unsure, our MVP Web package (£1,800 / $2,300 / LKR 155,000) is built on the same stack as our full Marketing tier. One homepage + contact page, mobile-responsive, SEO basics, ships in 10–14 days.
If the business validates: upgrade to the Marketing tier later adds pages and a CMS, no rebuild. The investment carries forward.
If the business doesn't validate: you're £1,800 down on a site you own, not £504/year forever on a platform you rent.
For most founders sitting on the Wix-vs-custom fence, this is the honest middle option.
Want to talk through which fits your specific business?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We'll look at where your business is now, what you're trying to do next, and recommend honestly. Wix, custom, or MVP, based on your situation. No pitch, no pressure.
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