The three real options
Ignore the 47-item Google list. For a small business in LA in 2026 there are really three paths, and the right one depends on what you actually need the site to do:
- Template builders — Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Weebly. Monthly subscription, drag-and-drop editor, you build it yourself.
- WordPress — Open-source platform, self-hosted or on managed hosts like Kinsta or WP Engine. Lots of plugins. Needs a developer unless you want to learn.
- Custom build — Hand-coded HTML/CSS or a modern framework (Astro, Next.js). You own the code, you host anywhere. Usually built by a studio or freelancer.
Each has a lane. The mistake is picking the wrong lane for your business, usually by picking the cheapest-looking one and discovering the real cost 18 months later.
When Wix or Squarespace is enough
Pick a template builder if all of these are true:
- You're doing it yourself. Nobody is being paid, including on the family rate. If you factor in your own time at $30/hour, Wix is no longer cheap.
- One-page or very simple multi-page. Hero image, about, services, contact. No complex booking, no 100-product shop, no multi-location logic.
- Budget is really under $300. A real $300 ceiling that includes year one. If you can swing $600-$800, custom beats Wix on everything that matters.
- You don't need bilingual. English only, or Spanish only — not both. Wix's multilingual mode is clunky and SEO-hostile.
- You won't be running ads to the site. Google Ads Quality Score punishes slow sites, and templated Wix sites are slower.
If all five are true, pick a template, pay $15-$17/month, and get on with your life. We'll be the first to tell you.
When WordPress makes sense
WordPress is a legitimate pick when:
- You publish a lot. If you're writing 2+ blog posts a week, the WordPress editor is still the best in the industry.
- You already have a developer. A cousin, a friend, an in-house hire. WordPress without a developer is a security and update nightmare.
- You need a specific plugin. Membership site, LMS, forum, directory — WordPress has mature plugins for these that would cost $20K+ custom.
- You want a mid-sized site (10-50 pages) with real editorial workflow. News sites, resource centers, documentation hubs.
WordPress is not cheap just because the software is free. Real cost: managed hosting $30-$100/month, premium theme $60-$200/year, essential plugins $200-$500/year, developer hours for updates and fixes $500-$2,000/year. Three-year total for a small business WordPress site: $3,000-$10,000, before you count your time.
When custom is worth it
A hand-coded custom site is worth it when:
- Brand matters. You compete on how the site looks and feels, not just what it says. A template limits you to what the drag-and-drop allows.
- Growth matters. You're adding features over time — booking, shop, more locations, a quote calculator, lead-gen funnels. Custom scales. Templates get rebuilt.
- Bilingual (EN/ES) is required. This is the one that catches LA businesses most often. Real bilingual with correct hreflang and native Spanish copy is a nightmare on Wix. It's standard on custom.
- SEO is a serious channel. Core Web Vitals, schema markup, clean HTML, correct canonicals — hand-coded sites win on every one of these.
- You're spending $200-$500/month on Google Ads. Quality Score depends on page speed, and templated builders consistently lose that battle.
- You want to own the asset. Code is yours. Domain is yours. Hosting is yours. You can leave your developer and take everything with you.
Comparison table — the honest version
| Factor | Wix / Squarespace | WordPress | Custom (TopWebLA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $17-36/month | $30-100/month hosting + build cost | $797-$7,997 one-time |
| Real 3-year total | $612-$2,160 + your time | $3,000-$10,000 | $797-$8,500 incl. maintenance |
| Build time | Your weekend | 2-6 weeks with a developer | 5-30 days |
| Page speed (Core Web Vitals) | Mediocre | Varies — mostly OK | Excellent (sub-2s on 4G) |
| SEO flexibility | Limited to built-in options | Good with Yoast or RankMath | Full control, native schema |
| Bilingual EN/ES | Clunky, SEO-hostile | WPML plugin ($100+/yr), fragile | Native hreflang, proper setup |
| Who owns the site | Platform (locked in) | You own code; platform owns hosting | You own code, hosting, domain |
| Support | Platform chat | Your developer or community | The people who built it |
| If you stop paying | Site goes offline | Site goes offline if hosting lapses | Site stays live — you have the code |
| Add features later | Pay more each month | Add plugins, pay developer | Add modules on same stack |
The "cheap" trap
The sales math everyone falls for: "Wix is $15/month, custom is $797. Custom costs 53 months of Wix. Wix wins."
The actual math nobody runs: Wix $15/month is the starter plan, which forces wix.com in your URL and shows their ads on your site. You cannot run a real business on it. To remove ads and use your own domain, you need the $17/month Light plan at minimum. To add e-commerce, $29/month. To add booking, add $29/month more. To add bilingual, add another plugin. Over 3 years:
- Wix basic ($17 × 36) = $612
- Wix with shop ($29 × 36) = $1,044
- Wix with shop + booking ($36 × 36) = $1,296
- Plus your time: 20-40 hours building and maintaining it. At $30/hour, that's $600-$1,200 of your labor.
True 3-year cost of a Wix site for an LA small business: $1,200-$2,500. And at the end, you own nothing. The site cannot be ported, the domain lives in Wix's control panel, and if you stop paying, the site goes offline.
True 3-year cost of our $797 Essential site: $797 one-time + $0 for year 1 hosting + ~$360 for years 2 and 3 hosting = $1,157 total. And you own everything.
Including a $100 copywriting add-on if you don't have the content, we're still cheaper than Wix at the 36-month mark, and you walk away with the HTML, the domain registrar login, and a site that renders twice as fast.
Our take as a studio
We built TopWebLA to be custom-only on purpose. Not because templates are bad — they're fine for the right use case — but because small businesses in LA kept coming to us with the same story:
"I built a site on Wix in 2022. It looked fine. In 2024 I needed to add bilingual and online booking, and the migration was impossible. I started paying $89/month in Wix plans and it still didn't do what I needed. By the time I added it up, I'd spent $3,500 on Wix and had to rebuild anyway."
Our bet: a hand-coded site at $797-$7,997 is cheaper over 3 years, faster, SEO-wins against anything on a template platform, and you own the asset. That's it. If your situation is different (truly simple, DIY, English-only, zero budget), we'll tell you to use Wix.
Pricing — what you get at $797
Our Essential tier is the direct comparison to a $15/month Wix setup:
- 1-page site, hand-coded, mobile-first
- Hosting + .com domain year 1 included in your name
- Contact form, phone, hours, map
- SEO basics: title, meta, schema (LocalBusiness), sitemap, canonical
- Google Analytics 4 installed
- SSL set up
- Google Business Profile check
- 5-day delivery
- 2 revision rounds included
- 90-day bug warranty
Compare feature-by-feature on our pricing page, or jump into live client sites.
Frequently asked
Can we migrate from Wix to a custom site?
Yes. About a third of our new builds are Wix migrations. The content moves cleanly — text, images, basic structure. What doesn't move: Wix-specific widgets (Wix Bookings, Wix Stores, Wix forms) have to be rebuilt on something standard. We handle the migration and set up 301 redirects so you don't lose any SEO.
Do we need to pay monthly with a custom site?
No. Our packages are one-time flat prices. Hosting + domain year 1 is included. Year 2 onward, you pay for hosting directly ($15-30/month) or stay on our $97/month maintenance plan that bundles hosting, backups, SSL and minor edits.
Is SEO good on Wix in 2026?
Better than it used to be. Wix fixed its page-speed issues, added schema and sitemap controls, and most small-business sites rank fine on Wix now. Where it still falls short: custom bilingual (hreflang) setup, Core Web Vitals under heavy load, advanced schema for restaurants/clinics, and ultimate control over everything on the page.
Can you do bilingual on Wix or Squarespace?
Technically yes — Wix has Multilingual, Squarespace needs a third-party plugin. In practice, hreflang often breaks, URL structure gets ugly, and Google treats the Spanish version as a weak duplicate. For a bilingual business in LA, a hand-coded site with proper hreflang almost always outranks a Wix bilingual setup.
What if we grow and need more features later?
On Wix/Squarespace, you pay more each month for apps that unlock features. On a custom site, you own the code and can bolt on whatever you need. Our clients typically expand on the same stack — adding booking, a shop, or more locations — without rebuilding.
Is the $15/month 'free' Wix plan actually free?
No. The free plan shows Wix ads on your site and uses a wix.com subdomain, which kills every local-SEO signal. To remove the ads and use your own domain, you need at minimum the $17/month Light plan. For e-commerce or booking it jumps to $29-$36/month.
Related reading: Agency vs freelancer · Website designer near me · Deeper Wix vs WordPress vs custom analysis · Pricing