Wix vs Squarespace vs a Custom Website: What Edmonton Small Businesses Should Pick (2026)

If you have more time than money and you’re comfortable doing it yourself, Wix or Squarespace is a reasonable start. If you want to show up on Google, load fast on phones and never think about it again, a custom-built site usually wins, and over three years it often costs about the same.

Here’s the honest breakdown.

The real cost over 3 years

Website builders look cheap because the cost is spread out. Add it up:

	Wix / Squarespace	Custom-built (one-time)
Upfront	$0	$800 to $2,500 (freelancer)
Monthly	About $25 to $60 for a business plan	$0 if hosting is included
Over 3 years	About $900 to $2,200	The upfront price
Your time	10 to 40 hours to build and write it	About an hour of calls and approvals

Your time is the line people skip. If your hour is worth $50, a 30-hour DIY build costs $1,500 before you’ve paid a cent in fees.

Speed on phones

This is where builders struggle. Wix and Squarespace load a lot of code that every site carries whether it needs it or not. On a mid-range phone, many builder sites take 4 to 8 seconds to show the main content. A hand-built site can do it in 1 to 3 seconds.

Speed matters twice: Google uses it when ranking local results, and people on phones leave slow sites before they load.

Want to see your own numbers? Run the free website health check. It includes a real Google Lighthouse phone test.

Showing up on Google

All three options can rank. The difference is how much control you get:

• Wix and Squarespace handle the basics, but you’re limited in how pages are structured and how much extra code loads.
• A custom site can be built around how people actually search in Edmonton: a page for each service, pages for the areas you serve (St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove), and business details in Google’s own format so Google Maps and AI tools like ChatGPT understand who you are.

Who owns it

With Wix and Squarespace, you rent the site. If you stop paying, it goes offline, and you can’t move it to another host. You keep your domain, but you start over on the website.

With a custom site, you should own the files outright. Make sure that’s in writing.

Effort after launch

Builders win here for one thing: you can change text and photos yourself, any time. A custom site needs someone to make bigger changes, though many designers (me included) can set you up to edit simple things yourself, or handle small edits for you.

So which should you pick?

Pick Wix or Squarespace if:

• You’re just testing an idea and the budget is close to zero
• You enjoy building it yourself and have the time
• You mostly need an online brochure, not Google traffic

Pick a custom site if:

• You want calls and quote requests from Google
• Most of your customers are on phones
• You’d rather pay once than forever
• You want it done, written and live without spending your evenings on it

Already on Wix or Squarespace?

Moving is easier than it sounds. Your domain comes with you, the content can be rewritten and improved along the way, and old page addresses can be redirected so you don’t lose what Google already knows about you.

I’m an independent web designer in Edmonton. My packages start at $799 one-time, with free hosting, no monthly fees, and a first draft in 48 hours. See the packages or ask me anything.