Pagebuilder or Pro: Which is best for a Middlesbrough Business?

Wix, Squarespace or a proper web designer: which is best for a Middlesbrough business?

For most Middlesbrough small businesses, hiring a professional web designer delivers significantly better results than Wix or Squarespace. DIY builders are cheap to start but carry ongoing monthly costs, rank poorly in local Google searches, and produce generic results that do not reflect well on your business. A professionally built site costs more upfront but generates more enquiries and costs less over time.

When you are thinking about getting a website for your Middlesbrough business, Wix and Squarespace are usually the first options that come up. They are easy to find, heavily advertised, and make building a website sound effortless.

The reality is more complicated. Here is an honest comparison of all three options so you can make the right call for your business.

The options side by side

	Wix	Squarespace	Web Design Middlesbrough
Upfront cost	Free to start	Free trial	From £495
Monthly cost	£13 to £22+/month	£13 to £23+/month	£0 (or £25/year hosting)
5-year total cost	£780 to £1,320+	£780 to £1,380+	From £620 (inc. hosting)
Local SEO performance	Poor to average	Average	Strong if built correctly
Mobile speed	Often slow	Moderate	Fast if built correctly
Copywriting included	No	No	Yes (with us)
You own the site	No	No	Yes
Time to build	Days to weeks (yourself)	Days to weeks (yourself)	72 hours (done for you)

Wix

Best for: absolute beginners with no budget and no immediate need to rank on Google

Easy to get started. Difficult to rank well with. Costs more over five years than a professionally built site.

Wix is the most well-known DIY website builder and for good reason. It is genuinely easy to use, with drag-and-drop editing and hundreds of templates. If you have never built a website before and just want something live quickly, you can get there with Wix.

The problems start when you want your website to actually do something for your business. Wix sites are notoriously difficult to rank well in Google, particularly for local search terms. The platform generates bloated code that loads slowly on mobile, which as we covered in our guide to mobile speed for Middlesbrough businesses, directly damages both your visitor experience and your Google rankings.

There is also the ownership issue. Your Wix site lives on Wix’s servers, built with Wix’s tools. If you ever want to move away, you cannot export your site. You start again from scratch. Everything you built stays on their platform.

And despite the “free” starting point, a usable Wix plan with your own domain costs around £13 to £22 per month. Over five years that is between £780 and £1,320 before you factor in any time spent building or maintaining it yourself.

Squarespace

Best for: creative businesses where visual presentation matters more than local search

Better looking templates than Wix. Similar SEO limitations. Same ownership problem.

Squarespace produces better-looking results than Wix out of the box. The templates are cleaner and more professional, and the platform is better suited to image-heavy businesses like photographers, designers, and makers.

For a trade business or local service company in Middlesbrough though, the SEO limitations are a real problem. Squarespace has improved its SEO capabilities in recent years but still lags behind a properly built WordPress site in terms of technical flexibility and local search performance.

The monthly cost is similar to Wix, and the same ownership problem applies. Your site is hosted on Squarespace’s infrastructure and built with their tools. Moving away means rebuilding.

A professional web designer

Professional web designer

Best for: businesses that want their website to generate actual enquiries

Higher upfront cost, lower long-term cost, and significantly better results for local search visibility and conversion.

A professionally built website costs more to start than a Wix or Squarespace subscription. But the comparison looks very different over time.

Our standard package at web design Middlesbrough starts from £495 with optional hosting at £25 per year. Over five years that is around £620. Compare that to £780 to £1,300 for a Wix or Squarespace plan, plus the significant time you spend building and maintaining it yourself, and the economics shift considerably.

Beyond cost, the performance difference is more important. A professionally built, SEO-optimised site built specifically for a Middlesbrough business will consistently outrank a Wix or Squarespace site for local search terms. For a trade business or local service company, that difference in visibility translates directly into enquiries.

You also own everything. Your domain, your hosting account, your files. If you ever want to move to a different designer or manage the site yourself, you can. There is no lock-in.

The most common pattern we see is a business that started on Wix or Squarespace, spent months trying to make it rank, gave up, and then came to us for a proper build. The money spent on the DIY route was not wasted exactly, but it delayed results by a year or more.

When DIY builders do make sense

To be fair, there are situations where Wix or Squarespace is a reasonable choice:

You are testing a business idea and not ready to invest in a proper site yet
You are a sole trader with no competition and no need to rank on Google
You genuinely enjoy building websites and have the time to do it properly
You need a portfolio site for a creative business where design matters more than SEO

For most Middlesbrough businesses competing for local customers though, none of those situations apply. You need enquiries, and for that you need a site that ranks.

What about the cost of a professional site?

If price is the main hesitation, our full guide to website costs in Middlesbrough breaks down exactly what is reasonable at each budget level. The short version is that a professional 5-page site for a local business should cost between £400 and £800, with copywriting and SEO included.

For more on what to look for when choosing a designer, see our guide to choosing a web designer in Middlesbrough.

Ready to move on from Wix or Squarespace?

We build professional 5-page websites for Middlesbrough businesses from £495, with copywriting, SEO, and 72-hour delivery included. You own everything. No monthly platform fees.

Get a free quote

Frequently asked questions

Is Wix good enough for a small business website in Middlesbrough?

For a very simple online presence with no need to rank on Google, Wix can work. For a business that wants to generate enquiries from local search, Wix consistently underperforms compared to a professionally built site. The mobile speed issues and SEO limitations make it a poor choice for trade businesses and local services competing in Middlesbrough.

Is Squarespace better than Wix for SEO?

Marginally, but neither comes close to a well-built WordPress site for local SEO performance. If ranking in Middlesbrough search results is important to your business, both platforms have significant limitations compared to a professionally built site.

Can I move my Wix or Squarespace site to a proper website?

You cannot directly export a Wix or Squarespace site to another platform. The content, text, and images can be migrated but the site itself needs to be rebuilt. This is one of the main downsides of starting on a platform you do not own.

How much does a professional website cost compared to Wix over 5 years?

A Wix plan with a custom domain costs roughly £780 to £1,320 over five years. A professionally built site from us starts at £495 with hosting at £25 per year, coming to around £620 over five years. The professional option costs less long term and delivers significantly better results. See our full website cost guide for Middlesbrough businesses for more detail.

How long does it take to get a professional website built?

We deliver professional 5-page sites in 72 hours. See our full guide on how long a website takes to build in Middlesbrough for more on what affects the timeline.