Wix vs hiring a developer: the real math

The subscription is not the cost

Wix, Squarespace, and friends charge roughly $17 to $35 a month for a business plan, so $200 to $400 a year, every year. That is the visible price. The invisible price is your time: owners report 20 to 40 hours to get a first version they are not embarrassed by. At any reasonable value of your working hour, the "free" builder is the most expensive option on the table.

What the template cannot do

Builders are genuinely good at generic pages. They are weak exactly where local businesses win: conversion structure (what goes above the fold, where the booking button lives), local SEO schema, page speed on mobile, and a design that does not look like the other 40,000 sites on the same template.

When DIY is right, and when it is not

If you enjoy tinkering and your business is young, a builder is a fine start. If your calendar is already full of actual work, the math flips: a done-for-you page at $99, delivered in 48 hours with hosting and domain included, costs less than the builder subscription alone in year one, and none of your weekends.

The model I run makes the comparison easy: I build the page first, you see it on a preview link, and you pay only if you approve it. If the draft is not clearly better than what you would build yourself, you walk away and it cost you nothing.