Building it yourself on Squarespace or Wix costs $16 to $40 a month and 20 to 60 hours of your time. Hiring someone for a starter site costs $349 to $1,290 once. If your time is worth more than about $15 an hour, hiring is usually cheaper — but DIY gives you full control and is genuinely fine for many businesses.
DIY builders are good products and we tell people to use them regularly. The question is only whether you have the hours, and whether you will actually finish.
Realistic DIY time
Your time, hired
Builder cost
DIY sites never finished
Change anything, any time, without asking anyone. The genuine advantage of doing it yourself.
20 to 60 hours for a result you are happy with. More if you are particular.
About two hours of your involvement — send photos and information, review once.
Speed, mobile, structured data and Google setup handled without you learning any of it.
$16 to $40 a month, forever, to the platform.
Pay once, host cheaply, maintain it yourself if you want to.
The subscription is trivial. The time is not, and it is the part nobody budgets for.
| Task | Realistic time |
|---|---|
| Choosing and setting up a template | 3–8 hours |
| Writing the content | 5–15 hours |
| Sorting and editing photos | 3–8 hours |
| Making it work on mobile | 3–10 hours |
| Setting up domain and email | 2–4 hours |
| Google Business Profile and basic SEO | 3–6 hours |
| Fixing what you broke | 2–10 hours |
| Total | 21–61 hours |
If two or more of those are true, use Squarespace. We would rather tell you that than take $500 for something you could have done yourself.
The first three are worth checking on any DIY site right now — they are common, they are costly, and all three are fixable in an afternoon.
Squarespace generally produces a better-looking result with less effort and is harder to break. Wix gives more layout freedom, which is also more rope to hang yourself with. For most small businesses, Squarespace is the easier route.
Often, yes, and it is usually cheaper. Photo optimisation, mobile fixes and Google setup on an existing site is a few hundred dollars and frequently the highest-value thing you can do.
That is very common and it is not wasted — the content and photos you gathered carry across. Send us what you have and we will build from it.
For some local businesses, a well-run Google Business Profile plus an active Instagram genuinely covers it for a while. If you are fully booked and not chasing growth, spend the money elsewhere for now.
Comparison
A 30-minute call, then a written proposal with scope, price and timeline within two to three working days. No retainer required to get a real number, and no obligation if the answer is that we are not the right fit.