Wix vs Squarespace vs a Custom Website for Contractors

The short answer

If you're brand new, money is tight and you have some evenings free, Wix or Squarespace can get you online. If your website is supposed to bring in calls and quote requests, and you'd rather spend your time on jobs, a custom site built for your trade is usually the better buy over a few years.

Both answers can be right. It comes down to what you need the site to do and how much of your own time you want to put into it.

What Wix and Squarespace do well

They're quick to start. Wix lets you build on a free plan and pick a paid plan when you're ready. Squarespace has no free plan, but every site starts with a 14-day free trial. Both handle hosting and security for you, and both have hundreds of templates.

For a solo operator who just needs to show up online this week, that's a fair deal. Unifictional, a contractor marketing company, says a DIY builder is often the right call for a brand-new solo operator.

What a contractor site has to do

A homeowner with a leaking roof or a dead furnace isn't browsing. They pull up a few sites on their phone, look for a sign you do the job they need, and call whoever makes it easiest. So the site has to do a few plain things well:

• Let them call you in one tap from any page.
• Show what you do, with a page for each service, and real photos of your work.
• Give them a short quote form that asks for the job details you actually need.
• Load fast on a phone.

You can do most of that on Wix or Squarespace. The catch is that the template doesn't do it for you. You set it up, and some of it depends on your plan. On Squarespace, the mobile information bar, a banner with your business info at the bottom of the phone view, isn't included on the Basic plan. You need Core or higher.

Speed matters too. Google says it highly recommends site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals, its measures of how fast and stable a page feels to real visitors. You can test any site for free at PageSpeed Insights. A builder site can score well, but heavy templates, big photos and add-ons pull it down, and you're the one who has to fix it.

What each option costs over three years

Monthly prices look small, so add them up over three years before you compare.

Squarespace prices are from its pricing page on Nov 2, 2026, before tax and before your domain renews. Wix shows prices based on where you are, so check its plans page for your own numbers.

On paper the builders win on price, until you count the hours.

How much of your time it takes

Unifictional puts the DIY trade-off at 20 to 40 hours of your time, and a site that looks like a site builder made it. Xiobo cites an estimate of 40 to 80 hours to build a five-page site on a builder for most people who aren't designers.

Put your own hourly rate against those hours. If you bill $60 an hour, 20 to 40 hours is $1,200 to $2,400 of time you could have spent on paying work, before the site brings in a single call. And the work doesn't stop at launch. New photos, a new service, a price change: on a builder, that's all you.

What happens if you want to leave

Wix says the content you build belongs to you, but your site must run on Wix's servers, so you can't take it to another host. Squarespace lets you export some of your content, but things like store pages, custom CSS and style settings don't come with it.

So if you outgrow either one, plan on a rebuild. The domain can usually come with you if it's registered in your name. For the full breakdown on who owns what, see renting vs owning your contractor website.

How to pick

Go with Wix or Squarespace if:

• You're just starting and need something online now with no money up front.
• You like building things on a screen and have the evenings to do it.
• You'll keep the site simple and update it yourself.

Go with a custom site if:

• You want the site to bring in calls and quote requests, and you'd rather not learn web design to get there.
• You want to own the site files and not depend on one platform forever.
• You've already tried a builder and the site sits there doing nothing.

If you're not sure what a custom build should cost, start with how much a contractor website costs in 2026.

How Spartan Lead Sites handles it

I'm Andrew Nicholls. I've worked construction on and off since high school, mostly as a laborer doing framing, structural concrete, a lot of other concrete work, and roofing. Now I build websites for contractors.

A Spartan Lead Sites build is $1,500 USD, one time. Every site has tap-to-call, a quote form and a page for each service, and it's built to load fast on a phone. The domain is in your name, you can have the source files, and your leads can be exported. Upkeep is optional, and the site stays up either way.

You can see a real client site in the Legacy & Grain build, or see how a site works for roofers, HVAC companies, plumbers, electricians and general contractors.

Book a quick call and we'll talk about what your business needs. No pressure, and if Wix or Squarespace is the better fit for you right now, I'll tell you that.