Guide · Australia · 2026

Wix vs Custom Website Australia (2026) — The Honest Comparison

The honest answer is: it depends on your stage. This guide breaks down the real AUD cost over five years, SEO performance, and long-term trade-offs of Wix vs a custom-built website — so you can decide without a sales pitch.

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Wix locked template compared with an open custom website build

The short answer

Use Wix if: you are testing an idea with no confirmed customers yet, your site is purely informational with no SEO goals, you genuinely enjoy building and maintaining it yourself, or you have under $800 to spend on anything digital right now.

Use a custom website if: you want to rank on Google and get organic traffic, you are running a business that depends on your website, you want to own your code rather than rent a platform, or you have been on Wix for 6+ months and it has not grown.

The real cost over 5 years

Wix looks cheap until you do the maths. Here is a straight comparison.

	Wix Business Plan	Squarespace Business	Custom (Build First Site)
Upfront cost	$0	$0	$1,900 AUD
Monthly fee	~$28 AUD/mo	~$35 AUD/mo	$0/mo (Vercel free)
Cost at 1 year	$336	$420	$1,900
Cost at 3 years	$1,008	$1,260	$1,900
Cost at 5 years	$1,680	$2,100	$1,900 ← cheaper than Squarespace
E-commerce transaction fee	Up to 2.9% + $0.30	Up to 3% platform fee	Stripe only: ~1.7% + $0.30
Code ownership	None — Wix owns it	None — Squarespace owns it	Full GitHub repo

The bottom line: a custom website from $1,900 AUD breaks even with Squarespace by year 5. But a landing page from $800 AUD is cheaper than Wix within 2 years — and you own the code. If you are on Wix right now and you have been paying for 18+ months, you have probably already spent enough to have a better custom site.

SEO: where Wix really falls behind

Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor. Here is how the platforms compare on real speed tests.

	Wix	Squarespace	Custom (Next.js)
Mobile speed score	40–65	55–70	90–100
JavaScript rendering	Client-side only — Google struggles	Mixed	Server-side rendered — Google indexes it directly
Schema markup	Limited, no custom JSON-LD	Limited	Full custom schema — FAQPage, LocalBusiness, Article etc.
Sitemap control	Auto-generated, limited control	Auto-generated	Full control
URL structure	Often messy — hard to customise	Decent	Fully controlled

Google confirmed in 2021 that page speed is a ranking factor (Core Web Vitals). A site scoring 40 on mobile is penalised in rankings compared to a site scoring 95. Wix has improved over the years, but it is still significantly behind well-built custom sites.

When Wix actually makes sense

Wix is not always the wrong choice. Here is when it genuinely works.

You are validating a business idea. If you have not confirmed anyone will pay you yet, spend $0 on Wix's free tier and test your idea. Don't invest in a custom site until you have customers. Once you do — upgrade.
You need something live in 48 hours. Custom websites take 2–6 weeks. If you need something before an event or media appearance and you are comfortable maintaining it, Wix is fine short-term. Plan the migration to custom within 3–6 months.
You are a hobbyist or personal project. For personal portfolios, hobby blogs, and non-commercial projects where SEO doesn't matter much, Wix or Squarespace are totally fine. Custom websites are built for businesses that depend on their site to get clients.

Design, flexibility and features

	Wix / Squarespace	Custom website
Design	Template-based. You can modify within limits.	Fully custom — built for your brand, not a template
Custom features	Limited to what the platform offers (or expensive apps)	Anything — AI features, custom databases, integrations
Third-party integrations	App marketplace — but some cost extra monthly	Direct API integrations — Stripe, OpenAI, Zapier, CRMs
Scalability	Hit the ceiling fast — you will outgrow it	Grows with your business — add features anytime
If you leave the platform	Start over — no export, no code	Take your code anywhere — no rebuild needed

The real question to ask yourself

Not "Wix or custom?" — but this: what is my website supposed to do for my business?

If the answer is "rank on Google and get me customers" — a custom website will do this significantly better than Wix. If the answer is "I just need something so people can look me up" — Wix is fine.

Most businesses that have been on Wix for 12+ months have a website that ranks for nothing, converts few visitors, and costs them more per year than a Build First Site landing page. The honest move is to switch — and we can do it from $800 AUD fixed price.

Common questions

Is Wix good enough for a small business website?

For a new business testing an idea? Possibly. For an established business that wants Google traffic and customers from their website? No — Wix's slow speed and limited SEO control will hold you back. A custom website built with Next.js will outrank a Wix site on the same keywords almost every time.

Is Wix cheaper than a custom website?

Short term, yes. Wix starts at around $20–30 AUD/month. But over 5 years, that is $1,200–$1,800 — plus the cost of any apps or upgrades. A custom website from Build First Site starts at $800 AUD (landing page) or $1,900 AUD (business site) with zero ongoing monthly fees. After 2–3 years, a custom site is typically cheaper.

Does Wix rank on Google as well as a custom website?

No. Wix sites typically score 40–65 on Google's mobile speed test (PageSpeed Insights). A custom-built Next.js website typically scores 90–100. Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor. Wix has also historically had issues with JavaScript rendering that makes pages harder for Google to index fully.

Is Squarespace better than Wix for SEO?

Squarespace has slightly better mobile speed scores than Wix, but both trail well-built custom websites significantly. Neither gives you full control over schema markup, URL structure, or server-side rendering — all of which matter for ranking.

Can I switch from Wix to a custom website later?

Yes, but you can't export your Wix content easily — Wix locks your content to their platform. You'll need to rebuild the pages from scratch. The sooner you move, the less content there is to migrate. We help businesses migrate from Wix to custom websites regularly.

Get a fixed price

Tell us what the business needs to do and we will send back a written scope with a fixed AUD price within one business day.