Compare

Us, or do it yourself? The honest version.

Most comparison pages are written so the company publishing them wins every row. This one is not. On pure cash over three years, a cheap builder plan beats us — so that is the first thing on the page, not the last.

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The money

Three years, like for like.

A small brochure site, kept online for three years. Ours is the entry package once, plus hosting to keep it live. Theirs is a subscription that never stops. Builder prices are their own published annual rates, checked on 29 October 2026.

Option	Up front	Every year	Three years
IMDGFX — entry package	$349	$290	$1,219
Wix Light	$0	$213	$640
Wix Core	$0	$357	$1,072
Squarespace Basic	$0	$228	$684
Squarespace Core	$0	$348	$1,044

Sources, checked 29 October 2026: Wix plans (prices shown are for yearly subscriptions paid in full) and Squarespace pricing (annual billing). GoDaddy advertises its Website Builder from roughly $10 to $21 a month on an annual plan, but those are introductory rates and its pricing page blocks automated checking, so we have left it out of the table rather than print a figure we cannot verify. Builder pricing changes often — check before you decide, and watch the renewal rate rather than the first-year one. Our figures come straight from our own price list.

So on cash, the cheapest builder plan wins. Wix Light at about $640 over three years against $1,219 with us. If the only question is which costs fewer dollars, you now have your answer and you do not need to read on.

The rest of this page is about the two things that table does not price: the hours you spend building and maintaining it yourself, and what you are left holding if you ever want to leave.

The part the price list leaves out

Everything else, side by side.

	With us	Building it yourself
Who builds it	We do. You send the words, photos and prices, and review it twice.	You do, in evenings and weekends, learning the editor as you go.
Who fixes it at 9pm	Us. The people who built it are the people who answer.	You, or a support queue that does not know your business.
Do you own the site	Yes — once paid in full, the design, pages and content are yours.	You own your content. The site itself lives inside their platform.
Can you move it elsewhere	Yes. You have the files; they move to any host, and your domain goes with them.	Not on Wix. Their own support says a Wix site cannot be transferred to another platform and must be rebuilt by hand.
If you stop paying	The site is still yours. If we host it, it stays up 14 days after the charge stops, so there is time to move it.	The site goes offline. The subscription is what keeps it on the internet.
Your domain	Registered in your name, with your email as the contact. You can take it anywhere.	You can keep a domain you already own and point it at them — worth doing.
Getting found locally	Built in, and we will audit any site free so you can see where you stand.	Possible, but it is another thing on your list to learn and keep doing.
What it costs to change	A care plan change, or a quote first if it is new work. Never a surprise invoice.	Free, in your own time — which is the whole point, if you have the time.

The Wix row is from Wix's own support documentation, which states a Wix site needs to be hosted on Wix's servers and that sites cannot be transferred to other platforms because of their proprietary technology. You can still download media you uploaded and export store products to a spreadsheet; what you cannot take is the working site.

Being straight

When each one is the right answer.

Pick a builder if…

Money up front is the binding constraint. Nothing here beats $0 to start.
You have the evenings, and you do not mind spending them on this.
The site is a placeholder — a few pages so people can find your phone number.
You actually enjoy tinkering with it. Plenty of people do, and they get a perfectly good site out of it.
You are testing whether the business works at all. Prove it first, build properly later.

Come to us if…

Your time is worth more doing the actual work of your business.
The site needs to do something — take bookings, take orders, handle a real price list.
You want to own it, and be able to leave without rebuilding from scratch.
You have already tried a builder and it is sitting there half-finished. This is the most common reason people call us.
You want one number to ring when something is wrong.

The case we would actually make. Over three years the gap between a cheap builder plan and us is in the hundreds, not the thousands — and that gap buys you not doing it. If building a website sounds like a project you would enjoy, do it yourself and spend the difference on something else. If the thought of it has been on your list for eight months untouched, that is the real cost, and it is not on anybody's pricing page.

Questions

Ownership, leaving, and the small print

Plain-English guides →

Do I own my website?

Yes. Once the project fee is paid in full, the design, the pages and the content are yours. We keep the right to reuse the underlying code and techniques on other projects, which is normal, but your site is your site.

Who should own my domain name?

You, or your company — never the person who built the site, in their own name. If we register it for you it goes in your name with your email as the contact. More on domains.

Can I move my website somewhere else later?

Yes. You own the files, so they can move to another host and your domain goes with them. We will unlock the domain and hand over the transfer code. This is the main practical difference between a site we build and one locked inside a platform like Wix.

What happens if I stop paying the monthly care plan?

The recurring work and the hosting stop. If we host the site, it stays up for 14 days after the charge stops and then comes down — so there is time to move it rather than losing it. The site files are still yours either way.

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