DIY Versus Pro Site Building – Which is Best for Your Business?

First published in 2014, rewritten in 2026 so the advice holds today.

Every business with a website eventually asks the same question: do we build it ourselves on a platform like Wix or Squarespace, or do we bring in professionals? Both routes can work well. The right answer depends on what your website needs to do, not just how much it costs to set up.

DIY platforms have matured, and so has the competition

Wix and Squarespace are still the two big names in do-it-yourself website building, and both have improved considerably. Wix now offers an AI-assisted setup that generates a starting layout from a short brief, and its drag-and-drop editor remains the most flexible on the market. Squarespace has kept its reputation for polished, design-led templates and, since acquiring Google Domains in 2023, now also handles domain registration directly.

One thing has changed since this article was first written: if e-commerce is central to your business, Shopify has become the default choice for a huge number of UK online retailers, rather than Squarespace's built-in shop tools. Squarespace's commerce features are fine for a small shop selling a limited range, but Shopify's app ecosystem, payment options and scalability are built specifically for selling online.

Choosing between these depends on what your site needs to achieve. A business selling a handful of products alongside a service offering might be perfectly served by Squarespace. A retailer planning to scale, add multiple sales channels, or integrate with stock systems will outgrow it quickly.

When DIY genuinely isn't enough

DIY platforms are built for common needs. The moment your requirements sit outside that common ground, the limitations show. Reasons to move to a professional build include:

• Custom design and functionality: a developer can build features, integrations and layouts that no template will offer, matched precisely to your brand and workflow.
• Scalability: a site built properly from the start can grow with the business, adding new features or product ranges without hitting a platform ceiling.
• Performance and security: professional builds follow current best practice on speed, accessibility and security, which matters more than ever now that page experience affects both conversion rates and search visibility.
• Ongoing support: a development partner can maintain, update and troubleshoot the site rather than leaving you to work through platform help centres alone.

This costs more upfront than a DIY subscription, but for a business relying on its website for a meaningful share of revenue, the difference in reliability and flexibility usually pays for itself.

A note on platform risk

One thing worth factoring in now that wasn't as relevant in 2014: platforms change their pricing, features and policies on their own schedule, and you have limited control over that. Businesses building on Wix, Squarespace or Shopify are, to some extent, renting space on someone else's system. A custom build, by contrast, gives you ownership of the code and more control over how and when things change. Neither approach is wrong, but it's a factor worth weighing alongside cost.

How to decide

A few honest questions will point you in the right direction:

1. Is your website mainly a brochure, or does it need to run complex sales, bookings or integrations?
2. Do you have the time and inclination to manage updates yourself, or do you need someone else to own that?
3. How fast do you expect the business, and the site's requirements, to grow over the next two to three years?
4. What happens if the platform you choose changes its pricing or features significantly?

If the answers point to simple needs, a modest budget and comfort with managing things yourself, Wix or Squarespace remain sensible starting points, with Shopify the better choice specifically for selling products online. If the answers point to complexity, growth or reliance on the site for core revenue, professional development is worth the investment.

There's no single correct answer here, only the right fit for where your business is now and where it's heading. Be honest about your budget, your technical appetite and how much your website has to carry, and choose the option that matches those realities rather than the one that simply looks cheapest today.