Wix, WordPress or a Custom-Built Site: Which to Choose

For a small business that wants its website to bring in customers without having to maintain it, the best option is usually a custom-built site, like the ones we build at Byte and Brand. Wix works when you need to launch fast and accept staying on that platform; WordPress works when someone you trust will take charge of the upkeep. We are an agency that sells custom-built sites, so you have every right to doubt this conclusion. That is why every claim below comes with its source, and why we say what the other options do well.

What each option does well

Wix

Wix is an online builder: you put the site together in its editor, and the platform hosts and runs it. Launching quickly is its real strength. It has also become considerably faster. In HTTP Archive’s Web Almanac 2025, which measures millions of sites, 74% of Wix sites passed Core Web Vitals (Google’s indicators of speed and stability) on mobile, up from 55% the year before.

WordPress

WordPress is open source software, licensed under the GPL. To use it you need hosting that meets its requirements: according to its documentation, a current PHP version, a MySQL or MariaDB database and HTTPS support. It is the most widespread platform: according to the same Web Almanac, WordPress accounts for 64.3% of mobile CMS usage. Its advantage is flexibility, with a large ecosystem of themes and plugins, and the fact that you can take a WordPress site to another provider.

A custom-built site

This is a site built for your business, with its own code, rather than assembled in a platform’s editor or with third-party plugins. At Byte and Brand it is published as ready-made files: there is no admin panel to update and no plugins to break. In exchange, we make the changes ourselves, within what your monthly fee includes.

Squarespace and Shopify appear in the same study with their own share (Shopify, 7.3% of mobile CMS usage; Squarespace, roughly 3%). Shopify is aimed at online stores, and we come back to it in the section on cases where another option wins.

Four differences that matter to a small business

1. Who owns it, and what happens if you want to leave

This is the biggest difference. Wix’s own help center explains that its architecture is software as a service and does not support external hosting: the site has to be hosted and operated on Wix’s servers, and if you embed it somewhere else, Wix cannot provide support. If you ever want to change platforms, the site has to be rebuilt. Evarian Dev, a Mexican web studio, says the same from the buyer’s side: on closed platforms like Wix the site is not fully yours and migrating it is hard.

On a Byte and Brand site the domain stays in your name and, if you stop paying the monthly fee, we hand over the complete files so you can take them wherever you want. With WordPress you can also move the site, although it takes a carefully done migration.

2. How much upkeep it demands

On Wix the platform does the upkeep. On WordPress it is yours, or that of whoever you hire. Its own documentation says you should always update to the latest version, that it is a good idea to back up the site first, and that if something goes wrong you can restore that backup. Minor and security releases of the core can apply themselves in the background, but themes and plugins come from third parties, so someone has to keep an eye on those too.

The Web Almanac says page weight on WordPress sites is shaped by the accumulation of themes, plugins, page builders and third-party tools, and it also says WordPress performance varies more with configuration than with limits of the core software. A custom-built site has none of those pieces, so there is nothing on your side to update.

3. Speed

The data do not favor WordPress on average. On mobile, according to the Web Almanac 2025, 74% of Wix sites pass Core Web Vitals against 45% of WordPress sites, one of the lowest rates among the platforms in the study. That does not mean a custom-built site is automatically faster: it is fast if it is built light, and that can be checked.

Google defines a “good” site like this: main content visible in 2.5 seconds or less, a response to a tap in 200 milliseconds or less, and a layout shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of visits. Run PageSpeed Insights, which reports both lab and field data, on any site you are considering and compare. If a provider will not show you that measurement for an already published site, that is information.

4. Cost and commitment

On Wix you pay for a premium plan. Its help center lists connecting your own domain as a feature of the paid plans, and says yearly plans include a free domain voucher that can only buy a new domain from Wix and cannot be used for renewals or plan upgrades. On WordPress you pay for hosting and whatever you decide to buy for the site, and you add the time it takes to maintain it.

At Byte and Brand you pay once to build the site and a monthly fee to maintain it. The monthly fee includes hosting, email on your domain, the annual domain renewal, backups and a number of changes each month, and it is paid month to month with no minimum term. Current amounts are on the packages page, not here, so they do not go out of date.

The speed row compares platforms using HTTP Archive data.

When another option wins

• A large catalog with inventory and shipping. A platform built for e-commerce, such as Shopify, is designed for that job and is probably your best route.
• Testing an idea on a minimal budget. If you are only checking whether there is a market, an online builder lets you launch in days. When the idea works, you move to something of your own.
• You already have someone to maintain your WordPress. If someone you trust updates it, backs it up and measures it, there is no urgent reason to move.

How to decide in four questions

• Do I want to be able to take my site to another provider without rebuilding it?
• Who will update and back up the site, and what happens if that person leaves?
• Do I have a speed measurement of a similar published site, rather than a promise?
• Do I know what I will pay in the second year, not just the first?

If you answered yes to the first two and want clear answers to the other two, a custom-built site fits you. If your priority is to launch today and you do not mind depending on the platform, Wix is a reasonable option. And if there is a trusted technical owner, WordPress can work.

In short

Wix is quick to launch, but the site lives on its platform. WordPress is flexible and movable, but demands upkeep. A custom-built site costs money to build, has no plugins to maintain, sits on your domain and you can take it with you. For a small business that wants the site to work without having to look after it, it is the option we recommend, and you can check it by asking for the measurement.