When a website builder is the right call
Wix and Squarespace are good products. They are well designed, reliable and cheap to start. For some trades they are the correct choice, and paying someone to build a custom site would be wasted money.
- You are just starting out. If you are not sure yet which services you will offer or where, a builder lets you get something online for the cost of a monthly plan and change it as you learn.
- Work comes almost entirely from referrals. If the site only needs to confirm you are real, show some photos and give a phone number, a builder does that well.
- You enjoy doing it. Some owners like tinkering with their site on a Sunday. If that is you, the cost of your time is a pleasure rather than a burden.
- You are booked out. If the calendar is full for months, a better website is not your bottleneck. A complete Google Business Profile and a phone that gets answered matter more.
A builder starts to struggle when the site has to work as a sales tool: ranking for every town you serve, qualifying leads before you drive out, and catching the calls you miss while you are on a roof.
Speed on a phone, where your customers are
Most people looking for a trade are on a phone, often in a hurry because something is leaking or not working. A page that takes several seconds to show a phone number loses some of them.
Builder sites load the platform's own scripts on every page, for the editor features, apps and animations the platform supports, whether or not your page uses them. They have improved a lot, and a lean builder site can be perfectly quick. A heavy template with sliders, video backgrounds and several apps usually is not.
A custom site carries only the code that page needs, which makes it easier to keep fast. It still depends on who builds it, because a custom site stuffed with large images is slow too.
The test is the same for all three. Open Google's free PageSpeed Insights, enter your address, and look at the mobile result. Then load your own site on your phone, on cellular data, and count how long until you can tap the phone number.
Ownership, and what happens if you leave
This is the biggest practical difference between the three, and it is the one owners find out about last.
- Wix. Wix's own help centre says a Wix site cannot be hosted anywhere else, because it runs on Wix's technology. You can export some data, such as form collections and store products, but if you leave, you rebuild the site.
- Squarespace. Squarespace can export some content to a file meant for importing into WordPress, including layout pages and one blog. Its help centre lists many things that do not export, including several page types, styles and custom code. Expect to rebuild the design.
- Custom. It depends entirely on your agreement. You should own the domain and the files, and be able to move the site to any host. Get that in writing before the build starts.
With all three, register the domain in your own name at a registrar where you have your own login. Then whatever happens to the site, people who type your address can still find you.
Quote forms, estimators and missed calls
For most trades the website's real job is to turn a visitor into a quote request you can act on. That is where the gap between the options is widest.
Both builders include a contact form, and you can add fields for the job type, address and photos. That covers a lot. What they do not offer out of the box is a quote estimator built around how your trade prices work: a homeowner picks the job, enters the size and a few details, and gets a price range before they call. Getting that on a builder usually means a third-party app, custom code, or both, each with its own monthly fee and its own limits.
The other piece is what happens when you cannot answer. A missed call from a mobile number is often a customer who will ring the next company within minutes. An automatic text back that says you are on a job and will call shortly keeps some of those people. Builders do not do this on their own, and wiring it up yourself means another service to pay for and maintain.
This is the job the Lead Machine plan is built for. It adds a quote estimator set up for your trade, missed-call text-back, and an owner dashboard that shows where each enquiry came from. The speed-to-lead guide explains why the first few minutes after a call matter so much.
Local search across the towns you serve
All three options can handle the basics of search. Page titles, descriptions, a sitemap and secure hosting are available on Wix and Squarespace, and any competent custom build includes them. The tools are not what holds most trade sites back.
What wins local searches is substance. A page for each main service, a page or section for each area you cover, real photos of your own work, reviews, a fast site on phones, and a Google Business Profile that matches the website. A roofer serving Dartmouth, Bedford and Sackville needs pages that say so and show it, whatever the site is built on.
The practical difference is effort. On a builder, you write and lay out those pages yourself. On a custom site, the person who builds it should plan the service and area pages with you and make sure the structure underneath is clean. Neither option can promise a ranking. Anyone who does is guessing.
Total cost over three years
Here is how the numbers compare for a typical small trade site. Squarespace prices below are from its official pricing page in Canadian dollars, checked on 2 October 2026, and before tax. Wix's plan page shows prices in US dollars for reference and states that prices and currency vary by location, with the final price shown at checkout, so check it for your own Canadian figure.
- Squarespace Basic: CA$21 a month billed annually, or CA$30 a month billed monthly. Over three years on annual billing, about CA$756.
- Squarespace Core: CA$32 a month billed annually, or CA$45 monthly. Over three years on annual billing, about CA$1,152.
- Squarespace Plus and Advanced: CA$46 and CA$109 a month billed annually, or CA$59 and CA$139 monthly. Most trades will not need these tiers.
- Alp Starter: $800 to build and $99 a month, which covers hosting, security, backups and changes on up to five pages. That is $1,988 in the first year and $4,364 over three years.
- Alp Lead Machine: $800 to build and $399 a month, adding the quote estimator, missed-call text-back and owner dashboard. That is $5,588 in the first year and $15,164 over three years.
On cash alone, a builder is clearly cheaper. The fair comparison adds what each number leaves out. On a builder, add any apps you need for forms or scheduling, your domain after any introductory period, and your own hours building and maintaining it. On a custom site, the monthly includes someone else doing the changes.
Take your average job value. If a better site wins you one extra job a month, does that cover the difference in cost? For a roofer or an HVAC company, a single job often covers a year of the difference. For a trade with small average tickets and plenty of work, the builder may well be the better deal.
If you want to see what a custom trade site includes, the contractor websites page covers the structure, and the custom websites page explains how a build works. Full plan details are on the pricing page. Monthly plans are month to month, and you keep your files and domain if you leave.
Sources
Vendor details were checked on the official sites on 2 October 2026. Prices change, so confirm them before you buy.
- Squarespace pricing, displayed in Canadian dollars.
- Wix plans, displayed in US dollars for reference.
- Exporting or Embedding Your Wix Site Elsewhere, Wix Help Center.
- Exporting your site, Squarespace Help Center.