Squarespace vs WordPress vs a custom website: which suits a small business?

The short version

Squarespace: easiest to start, least to maintain

Squarespace is a hosted builder: you pay a subscription and the platform handles hosting, security and updates. Its templates look polished and its editor is approachable, which makes it a genuinely good option for an owner who wants to build a simple site themselves.

The trade-offs are control and flexibility. You work within the platform’s templates, features and performance, and you are renting rather than owning: if you stop paying, the site stops. Check current Squarespace pricing directly, as plans change. One Australian cost guide puts DIY website builders at roughly $30–$60 a month.

Choose it if: you want to do it yourself, your needs are simple, and you value low maintenance over a distinctive design.

WordPress: flexible, popular, and needs looking after

WordPress is open-source software licensed under the GPL, which WordPress.org describes as the platform of choice for millions of sites. You (or your developer) install it on hosting you choose, then extend it with themes and plugins for almost anything: bookings, forms, memberships, shops.

That flexibility is its strength and its main cost. Every theme and plugin is code that needs updating, and WordPress’s own documentation stresses keeping WordPress up to date. Sites built from heavy page builders and many plugins are often slow. A well-built, well-maintained WordPress site can be excellent; a neglected one becomes a liability.

Choose it if: you publish a lot of content, need a specific plugin, or want a widely supported platform many developers know, and you will pay for or do the maintenance.

A custom build: designed for the job

A custom website is built from code for your business, typically on a modern framework such as Next.js. Pages can be generated ahead of time as plain HTML, which makes them fast and easy for search engines to read, and there is no plugin stack to keep patching.

The trade-offs are upfront cost and dependence on a developer for structural changes. The published Australian range for custom-designed sites is $6,000–$15,000, against $2,000–$6,000 for a typical small business site. Editing needs to be planned, too: a custom site should be set up so you can change the things you actually change, such as photos, prices and opening hours, without calling anyone. For LC Events, that meant a phone-first studio for swapping photos.

Choose it if: your business depends on people finding you, trusting you and getting in touch, and you want speed, a distinctive design and low upkeep.

What about Shopify, Wix and others?

If your main goal is selling products online, a dedicated e-commerce platform such as Shopify usually beats bolting a shop onto a brochure site: payments, stock, shipping and tax are handled for you. Wix and similar builders sit in the same space as Squarespace, with the same trade-offs.

Does the platform affect SEO?

Less than people think. Any of these platforms can rank if the site has useful content, clear titles and headings, and is fast and easy to crawl. Google’s guidance says Core Web Vitals are used in ranking but that relevant content wins even when page experience is weaker. Where the platform matters is in how easy it makes the fundamentals: whether pages load fast, whether content is in the HTML, and whether you can control titles, redirects and structured data.

Questions to decide

1. Who will build and update the site, and how much time do they have?
2. How much does the site need to persuade strangers, rather than just confirm you exist?
3. Do you need features a builder can’t do, or that need a particular plugin?
4. What will it cost over three years, not just to launch? Our cost guide has a calculator.
5. If you outgrow it or change provider, can you take the site with you?

If you are still unsure, describe what the site has to do to a designer and ask which platform they would choose and why. A good one will sometimes recommend something they don’t sell.