The True Cost of DIY Websites: What Wix, Squarespace & GoDaddy Don't Tell You

The Promise vs. The Reality

The ads make it look so easy. Drag, drop, publish. Your beautiful website is ready in an afternoon. Starting at just $16/month.

Millions of small business owners have believed this promise. Many of them are now paying to have their sites rebuilt professionally.

I'm not saying DIY builders are always wrong. For some use cases, they're fine. But for most small businesses trying to generate leads and revenue, the hidden costs make them a poor investment.

Let me show you what those costs actually look like.

The Advertised Cost vs. Actual Cost

What They Advertise

Wix: "Get started for free" / Premium from $16/month Squarespace: Starting at $16/month GoDaddy: Websites from $9.99/month

Sounds affordable, right? Let's dig deeper.

What You Actually Pay

Year 1 costs for a "basic" business website:

| Item | Wix | Squarespace | GoDaddy | |------|-----|-------------|---------| | Plan (annual) | $192-396 | $192-576 | $120-264 | | Custom domain | $15-50 | Included | $15-20 | | Remove ads/branding | Requires paid plan | Requires paid plan | Requires paid plan | | Email (professional) | $72/year | Extra | $72/year | | Premium templates | $50-150 | Included | $50-100 | | Apps/plugins needed | $50-300/year | $50-200/year | $50-200/year | | SSL certificate | Included | Included | Included | | Year 1 Total | $379-968 | $242-776 | $307-656 |

And that's before you add e-commerce, booking systems, or advanced features.

3-year cost for DIY: $1,000-2,500+

3-year cost for professional site: $2,500-5,000 (with no monthly platform fees)

The gap isn't as big as the ads suggest.

Hidden Cost #1: Your Time

This is the cost most people ignore—and it's usually the biggest.

How Long Does It Really Take?

DIY builder companies suggest you can build a website in an afternoon. Here's reality:

Actual time for a small business website:

| Task | Estimated Time | |------|---------------| | Learning the platform | 5-10 hours | | Choosing/customizing template | 3-5 hours | | Writing all content | 10-20 hours | | Gathering/editing images | 3-5 hours | | Building pages | 8-15 hours | | Setting up forms/integrations | 2-5 hours | | Mobile optimization (fixing issues) | 3-5 hours | | Testing and fixing problems | 3-5 hours | | Total | 37-70 hours |

What's Your Time Worth?

If you value your time at $50/hour (conservative for a business owner):

• 50 hours × $50 = $2,500 in time

If you value it at $100/hour:

• 50 hours × $100 = $5,000 in time

Add that to your subscription costs, and suddenly DIY isn't cheap.

The Ongoing Time Cost

It doesn't stop after launch. DIY sites require constant tinkering:

• Platform updates break things
• You need to add new content
• Something stops working
• You want to change something
• Security patches need attention

Budget 2-5 hours per month for maintenance. That's 24-60 hours per year—another $1,200-6,000 in time.

Hidden Cost #2: Opportunity Cost

Every hour you spend on your website is an hour not spent on:

• Serving customers
• Sales calls
• Business development
• Family
• Things you're actually good at

If one sales call is worth $500 to your business, and you're missing calls to fight with Wix, you're losing real money.

Question to ask yourself: Would I pay someone $50/hour to do this task? If yes, and you're doing it yourself, you're paying yourself to do something below your pay grade.

Hidden Cost #3: Lost Business From Poor Performance

This is where DIY sites really hurt you.

Speed Problems

DIY builders are notoriously slow. They load:

• Unnecessary code for features you don't use
• Generic scripts that can't be removed
• Unoptimized images
• Heavy templates

Google data shows:

• 53% of visitors leave if a page takes >3 seconds to load
• Each additional second costs 7% in conversions

If your DIY site loads in 5 seconds instead of 2 seconds, you're losing roughly 20% of potential customers before they even see your content.

SEO Limitations

DIY builders restrict your SEO capabilities:

What you can't do (or can't do well):

• Full control over technical SEO
• Custom schema markup
• Proper heading structures
• Fast page speeds
• Clean URL structures
• Server-level optimizations

Real impact: I've seen businesses move from Wix to custom sites and triple their organic traffic within 6 months—same content, better technical foundation.

Mobile Experience Issues

DIY builders claim to be "mobile-responsive." Reality:

• Text often too small
• Buttons too close together
• Images not optimized for mobile
• Layouts break on certain devices
• Mobile speed even worse than desktop

With 60%+ of web traffic on mobile, a poor mobile experience costs you more than half your potential customers.

Conversion Rate Problems

Professional websites convert visitors to leads at 2-5%. DIY sites often convert at 0.5-1%.

Math on 1,000 monthly visitors:

• Professional site at 3%: 30 leads/month
• DIY site at 1%: 10 leads/month

If 10% of leads become customers worth $500 each:

• Professional: 3 customers × $500 = $1,500/month
• DIY: 1 customer × $500 = $500/month

Difference: $1,000/month in lost revenue

Over a year, that's $12,000 in lost business—far more than a professional site costs.

Hidden Cost #4: Platform Lock-In

You Don't Own Your Website

With DIY builders, you're renting space on their platform. You don't own:

• The underlying code
• Your design (in a portable format)
• Full access to your data
• The ability to move easily

What Happens When You Want to Leave?

Let's say you outgrow Wix and want a professional site. Your options:

1. Start from scratch - Your design, content structure, and SEO history don't transfer
2. Pay for migration services - $500-2,000 to extract and rebuild
3. Stay stuck - Keep paying for a platform that doesn't serve you

Compare to a custom site: You own everything. Host it anywhere. Change developers anytime. Full control forever.

Platform Changes You Can't Control

DIY builders change their platforms constantly:

• Features get removed
• Pricing increases (Wix has raised prices multiple times)
• Templates get discontinued
• Interfaces change
• Terms of service update

You have no say in these changes. You adapt or leave.

Hidden Cost #5: Limitations That Hurt Growth

Feature Ceilings

DIY builders work until they don't. Common breaking points:

• E-commerce: Limited product variants, shipping options, payment gateways
• Booking systems: Basic functionality, limited customization
• Membership sites: Restricted access controls
• Custom functionality: Can't build what you actually need
• Integrations: Limited API access, restricted connections

The Rebuild Inevitability

Most businesses outgrow DIY builders within 2-3 years. Then they face:

• Complete rebuild cost
• Lost SEO rankings during transition
• Business disruption
• Learning new systems

Many business owners tell me: "I wish I'd just done it right the first time."

Hidden Cost #6: Security and Reliability Risks

Security Issues

DIY builders handle security for you—which sounds good until you realize:

• You can't implement additional security measures
• You're trusting their security practices completely
• If they get breached, you get breached
• Limited backup and recovery options

Uptime Concerns

When Wix or Squarespace has an outage, your site goes down. You can't:

• Switch to a backup server
• Use a CDN for redundancy
• Control when maintenance happens

In 2021, Squarespace had a major outage affecting millions of sites. Every business on their platform lost revenue during that window.

When DIY Actually Makes Sense

I'm not saying DIY is always wrong. It works for:

Personal Projects

• Hobby blogs
• Portfolio sites (for non-designers)
• Family event pages
• Simple informational sites

Testing Ideas

• MVP for a business concept
• Temporary landing pages
• Event registration pages

Extremely Tight Budgets

• Brand new businesses with $0 to invest
• Side projects
• Non-profits with no funding

Simple Requirements

• Under 5 pages
• No lead generation goals
• No SEO requirements
• No e-commerce

If your website is a business tool meant to generate revenue, DIY is usually penny-wise and pound-foolish.

The Professional Alternative

What Professional Development Costs

For a small business website:

• Freelancer: $1,500-5,000
• Small agency: $3,000-10,000
• Large agency: $10,000-50,000+

Yes, higher upfront. But:

• No monthly platform fees (just hosting, ~$10-30/month)
• You own everything
• Built for your specific needs
• Proper SEO foundation
• Fast, optimized performance
• Professional design that converts
• Lasts 5-10 years with maintenance

5-Year Cost Comparison

| | DIY (Wix/Squarespace) | Professional Site | |---|----------------------|-------------------| | Year 1 | $500 + 50hrs time | $3,500 | | Year 2 | $400 + 30hrs time | $300 hosting + updates | | Year 3 | $400 + 30hrs time | $300 hosting + updates | | Year 4 | $400 + 30hrs time | $300 hosting + updates | | Year 5 | $400 + 30hrs time | $300 hosting + updates | | Total money | $2,100 | $4,700 | | Total time | 170 hours | 10 hours | | Time value ($50/hr) | $8,500 | $500 | | True total | $10,600 | $5,200 |

And that's without accounting for lost business from poor performance.

Making the Right Choice

Choose DIY If:

• Your website isn't critical to revenue
• You genuinely enjoy building websites
• Your needs are very simple
• Budget is truly $0
• You're testing a business idea

Choose Professional If:

• Your website should generate leads/sales
• Your time is valuable
• You want to rank in search
• You need custom functionality
• Your business depends on online presence
• You want it done right once

Red Flags You've Outgrown DIY

Time to upgrade if:

• You're embarrassed to share your website
• Competitors' sites look much better
• You're not getting leads from your site
• You spend hours maintaining it monthly
• You've hit platform limitations
• Your site is slow and you can't fix it
• You want features the platform doesn't support

The Bottom Line

DIY website builders aren't "cheap." They just hide the real costs:

• Your time (the biggest expense)
• Lost business from poor performance
• Platform fees that add up
• Future migration costs
• Opportunity costs

For a business website meant to generate revenue, professional development almost always costs less over time—and performs significantly better.

The question isn't "Can I save money with DIY?" It's "What's the total cost of ownership, and what's the ROI?"

When you run those numbers honestly, professional usually wins.

Ready to Do It Right?

At StephensCode, we build websites that:

• Load fast and rank well
• Convert visitors to leads
• You own completely
• Last for years
• Don't require constant tinkering

Starting at $1,500 for plug-and-play sites, $2,500 for custom builds.

No monthly platform fees. No lock-in. No surprises.

Call (936) 323-4527 or visit stephenscode.dev/contact to get a quote.

We'll also give you an honest assessment of whether professional development makes sense for your specific situation.

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Kyle Stephens is the founder of StephensCode, a veteran-owned web development company serving Houston and Conroe, TX. Kyle has rebuilt dozens of DIY websites that weren't meeting business goals—and helped those businesses start generating real results online.