Should I build my own website on Wix or pay a web designer?
Written by Carl, the person who builds every site. Updated 14 October 2026.
Build it yourself if you have more time than money, enjoy fiddling, and need a simple site. Pay someone if your time is worth more spent on your business, if you want to be found on Google, or if the site has to do more than show information. Either way, check two things: who owns the domain, and what it costs every month to keep the site running.
When doing it yourself makes sense
- You are just starting out and every rand counts.
- You need one or two simple pages and nothing more.
- You genuinely enjoy this kind of thing and have the evenings for it.
Builders like Wix and Squarespace are good products. Plenty of businesses start on one, and that is a reasonable choice.
What the builder price leaves out
- Your time. Most people spend far more evenings on a DIY site than they expected, and the words still need writing.
- The monthly fee. Builders charge every month for as long as the site exists. Stop paying and the site goes away.
- Leaving. A site built on a builder generally cannot be moved elsewhere. If you outgrow it, you start again.
- Being found. A template does not make a site rank. Speed, structure and the words on the page do.
Build it yourself
- Low cost to start
- Monthly fee for as long as the site exists
- Your evenings
- Usually stuck on that platform
Pay a person
- A once-off build price
- Little or no monthly cost
- Your time back
- Yours to take anywhere
What to check if you pay someone
- The domain is registered in your name.
- You get every login, and the site is not held on their account with no way out.
- The price is fixed and in writing before you pay anything.
- You know who will answer when something breaks.
That is how I work. A 4 to 5 page site is R5,500, the price is fixed in writing before you pay, and the domain, the site and every login are yours.
Common questions
- Is WordPress free?
- The software is free. Hosting, a theme, plugins and someone to keep it updated and secure are not. An out-of-date WordPress site is one of the most common ways small business sites get hacked.
- Can you take over a site I started on Wix?
- I can rebuild it and carry your content across, so nothing is lost and your Google ranking survives the move. Moving content from an old site is R2,500.
Work out your own number
Nine questions, two minutes, and a PDF breakdown in your inbox. No call needed.