Wix, WordPress, or custom website: what does your business need?
Wix, WordPress, AI builders, custom websites... There are so many options it's easy to get lost. We explain the real pros and cons of each option so you can choose what your business actually needs.
Key Points
If you’re looking at how to build a website for your business, you’ve probably come across dozens of options: Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Durable, 10Web, Framer… And now AI builders that promise a website in 30 seconds.
With so many options, the important question isn’t “which platform is best” but “what does my business actually need”.
Option 1: Wix and Squarespace (DIY)
Price: €14–39/month Time required: 20-40 hours to build + weekly maintenance hours Best for: people with spare time who enjoy creating digital content
Real advantages
- Low entry price
- Intuitive visual editor
- Templates to get started quickly
Downsides they don’t tell you about
- You do everything. Design, copy, images, SEO, maintenance. If you don’t have the time, the website dies within a month.
- Mediocre speed. Average Wix website load time exceeds 4 seconds. Google recommends under 2.5.
- Limited SEO. While Wix has improved, SEO performance still lags behind custom websites. And you have to configure everything yourself.
- Generic design. Templates make your business look like thousands of others.
- You can’t export. If you want to switch platforms, you start from scratch. Wix doesn’t make it easy to leave.
Verdict: Wix gives you the tools. But if you don’t have 10 hours a week to dedicate to it, the website will end up abandoned. And an abandoned website is worse than no website at all. It gives a bad impression.
Option 2: WordPress (the “standard”)
Price: €5–50/month for hosting + €0-5,000 if you hire someone Time required: varies wildly, from hours to weeks Best for: businesses with a tech team or budget to hire a developer
Real advantages
- Extreme flexibility
- Huge plugin ecosystem
- Full control over code
Downsides they don’t tell you about
- Security. WordPress is responsible for 90% of all CMS hacks. Every plugin is a door for attackers.
- Speed. Without expert optimisation, WordPress websites are slow. Plugins, themes and databases bloat the site.
- Constant maintenance. WordPress core updates, theme updates, plugin updates… Skip them and the site breaks or becomes vulnerable.
- Agency dependency. If the agency that built your website disappears, you’re stuck with a site you can’t maintain. This happens a lot.
- High real cost. A professional WordPress website costs €2,000-10,000 to build + €50-200/month for maintenance. SEO is extra.
Verdict: WordPress is powerful, but it’s a tool for developers, not business owners. Without someone dedicated to maintaining it, it’s a ticking time bomb.
Option 3: AI builders (the shiny new thing)
Price: €0–30/month Time required: 5 minutes to create, 0 minutes to maintain (because you won’t) Best for: anyone who wants to see a website fast without worrying about quality
Real advantages
- Blazing fast creation
- Very simple interface
- Low or free price
Downsides they don’t tell you about
- Low quality. A website generated in 30 seconds can’t compete with a design built for your specific business.
- Zero differentiation. Your website looks AI-generated because it is. Your customers notice.
- Non-existent SEO. They generate pages, not strategies. Without regular content and optimisation, Google ignores you.
- No integrations. They don’t connect to your CRM, billing, or business tools.
- Content doesn’t write itself. The builder makes the website. Who writes articles every week? Who answers customer questions? Who updates the services?
Verdict: you can buy a piano for €500. That doesn’t make you a pianist. An AI-generated website is a starting point, not a solution.
Option 4: Managed custom website (what we do at serpixel)
Price: Monthly subscription (contact us for pricing) Time required: 15 minutes for a call. That’s it. Best for: business owners who want results without doing anything
How it works
- A professional team creates a unique website for your business
- Optimised content is published every week
- The website ranks on Google automatically
- It connects to your tools (CRM, billing, payments)
- You don’t touch a thing
Why it’s different
- 100/100 speed on Google PageSpeed (vs. 30-50 from Wix/WordPress)
- Weekly content without you lifting a finger
- SEO included. It’s not an add-on, it’s the core of the service
- Multilingual. Up to 4 languages, with content adapted to each market
- No lock-in. The website is yours, cancel anytime
- You own the website. Unlike Wix, everything is exportable
The honest comparison
| Wix | WordPress | AI Builder | serpixel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | €14-39 | €50-200 | €0-30 | Monthly subscription |
| Who does the work | You | You/agency | You | Us |
| Speed | Slow (4s+) | Variable | Variable | 100/100 |
| SEO | Manual | Manual/extra | No | Included |
| Weekly content | You | You/extra | No | Included |
| Security | Platform | You | Platform | Us |
| Multilingual | Basic | Plugins | No | Up to 4 |
| Ownership | Limited | Full | Limited | Full |
The question that matters
It’s not “which platform is best?” but “who’s going to keep my website alive?”
If you have 10 hours a week to dedicate to creating content, optimising SEO, updating plugins, and managing website security, any platform can work.
If you’re like most business owners, with a 12-hour day spent working, serving clients, and running the company, you need someone to handle the website for you.
That’s what we do at serpixel. We don’t give you tools. We give you results. Talk to us and see the difference.
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Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on your needs and resources. If you have time, technical knowledge and want to do everything yourself, Wix can work. If you want a professional website that ranks on Google without you lifting a finger, a managed service like serpixel is the best option. The key isn't the platform. It's who keeps it alive.
Wix has improved its SEO capabilities, but it still falls behind custom websites. The main issue isn't the platform. It's that with Wix you have to do all the SEO yourself. If you don't have the time or expertise, SEO simply doesn't happen. At serpixel, SEO comes included and runs automatically every week.
WordPress is powerful but complex. It needs constant updates, plugin management, active security measures, and technical knowledge to maintain. For a small business without a tech team, WordPress ends up being a source of problems: slow, hacked, or outdated websites. Modern alternatives offer better performance with zero maintenance.
The Wix Business plan costs €14/month, but the real costs are your time: 20-40 hours to set it up, plus the weekly hours you should be spending creating content, doing SEO, and keeping it updated. Most business owners don't have that time, and the website ends up abandoned within months.