Wix vs Squarespace vs Web Designer: Which Is Best?
Wix vs Squarespace vs web designer - honest comparison with real costs, time investment, and when each option makes sense for your business.
DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace) cost £150-400/year but require 20-40 hours of your time. Professionals cost £1,500-5,000 or £100-200/month but handle everything. For busy restaurant owners, the time savings of hiring usually outweigh the extra cost.
“Should I just use Wix?”
The Wix vs Squarespace vs web designer debate is one I hear constantly from restaurant owners. And it’s a fair question — DIY website builders promise professional-looking websites without the professional price tag.
But here’s what the adverts don’t show you: the 30 hours you’ll spend figuring it out, the limitations you’ll hit, and the rebuild you’ll need when your business grows.
Let me give you the honest comparison.
Table of Contents
- The Options at a Glance
- DIY Builders: Wix and Squarespace
- Hiring a Professional
- The Time Investment Nobody Talks About
- Restaurant-Specific Challenges
- Real Cost Comparison
- Decision Framework
- The Middle Ground Options
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Options at a Glance
| Factor | Wix/Squarespace | Professional (One-Off) | Professional (Monthly) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | £0-30 | £1,500-£5,000 | £0-500 |
| Ongoing cost | £150-400/year | £200-600/year | £1,200-2,400/year |
| Time required | 20-40 hours | 2-3 hours (briefing) | 2-3 hours (briefing) |
| Design quality | Template-based | Custom/tailored | Custom/tailored |
| Booking integration | Limited/clunky | Seamless | Seamless |
| Updates | You do them | Pay per change | Included |
| Support | Help docs/forums | Limited after launch | Ongoing |
| Flexibility | Platform limits | Full control | Provider dependent |
DIY Builders: Wix and Squarespace
What They Promise
Both Wix and Squarespace market themselves as the “easy way” to get a website. Choose a template, drag and drop content, publish.
Wix offers more features and flexibility. You can move elements anywhere, add apps, customise heavily.
Squarespace offers cleaner templates and simpler editing. Less flexibility, but harder to make it look bad.
Together, they’re among the most popular website builders available.
What They Actually Deliver
For simple brochure sites — an about page, contact details, some photos — they work fine.
For restaurants with booking systems, online menus, delivery ordering, and regular updates… they get complicated fast.
Wix Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Huge template selection (2,600+)
- Lots of apps and integrations
- Flexible drag-and-drop editor
- AI tools for quick setup
Cons:
- No site export — you can’t take your site elsewhere
- Slower loading than custom sites
- Booking integrations are clunky (OpenTable embeds poorly)
- Gets expensive with required add-ons
- Easy to make a mess — flexibility can mean inconsistency
Squarespace Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Beautiful, polished templates
- Simpler editor (harder to break)
- Better out-of-the-box design
- Decent built-in e-commerce
Cons:
- Limited customisation compared to Wix
- No site export (same lock-in problem)
- Restaurant features are basic (no serious booking integration)
- Slower performance than custom sites
- Fewer third-party integrations
The Hidden Reality
The biggest issue with both: they’re designed for people to spend time learning them.
As a restaurant owner working 60+ hour weeks, you probably don’t have 30 hours to learn a website builder. And even after you build it, you’ll spend ongoing hours making updates, troubleshooting issues, and figuring out limitations.
Hiring a Professional
What You Get
A professional web designer or developer handles everything:
- Understanding your business needs
- Designing a site that matches your brand
- Building it on appropriate technology
- Setting up booking/ordering integrations properly
- Making it fast and mobile-friendly
- Basic SEO setup
- Training you on updates (if needed)
- Support when things go wrong
The Two Professional Models
One-off payment (£1,500-5,000+): You pay once, get a website, own it outright. Maintenance and updates are your responsibility (or paid separately).
Monthly subscription (£100-200/month): You pay monthly, get a website plus ongoing support, updates included. Lower upfront cost, predictable ongoing expense.
See our detailed comparison of monthly vs one-off pricing for more.
Professional Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Save 20-40 hours of your time
- Custom design tailored to your business
- Proper booking integration (ResDiary, OpenTable work seamlessly)
- Fast, optimised performance
- No platform lock-in (usually)
- Someone to call when it breaks
- SEO done properly from the start
Cons:
- Higher cost than DIY platforms
- Dependent on provider for changes (unless trained)
- Need to find the right person/agency
- Communication required to get what you want
The Time Investment Nobody Talks About
This is where DIY comparisons fall apart.
Your Time Has Value
Wix and Squarespace might cost £200/year. But building a proper site takes 20-40 hours.
| Task | Hours |
|---|---|
| Learning the platform | 5-10 |
| Choosing and customising a template | 5-10 |
| Creating/sourcing content and images | 5-10 |
| Setting up menu and booking | 3-5 |
| Testing and fixing issues | 2-5 |
| Total | 20-40 hours |
If your time is worth £20/hour (and as a business owner, it’s worth more), that’s £400-800 of hidden labour.
Your “£200 website” actually cost £600-1,000.
Ongoing Time Costs
It doesn’t stop after launch:
- Menu updates take you 30 minutes (vs 5 minutes for a pro)
- Something breaks and you spend 2 hours troubleshooting
- You want to add a feature and spend hours researching how
A restaurant owner I know described it perfectly: “Building my website on Wix was like learning to cut my own hair during the pandemic — it worked in a pinch, but there’s a reason professionals exist.”
The Opportunity Cost
What could you do with those 30+ hours?
- Improve your kitchen systems
- Train staff
- Build supplier relationships
- Actually rest
Your time is finite. Building websites is probably not the best use of it.
Restaurant-Specific Challenges
Generic website builders struggle with restaurant requirements. Here’s where:
Booking Systems
Wix and Squarespace don’t natively integrate with ResDiary, OpenTable, or SevenRooms. You embed a widget — which:
- Looks out of place (different styling)
- Loads slowly
- Doesn’t sync properly with your calendar
- Provides a clunky user experience
Professional builds integrate these systems seamlessly, matching your site’s design.
Menu Management
DIY platforms make menus tedious:
- Updating prices means editing each item individually
- Adding seasonal specials requires template knowledge
- Dietary/allergen info is hard to display properly
- PDF uploads are common (and terrible for users)
Custom sites can have simple admin interfaces where you update a spreadsheet or simple form, and the menu updates automatically.
Performance
DIY sites are typically slower than custom builds:
- Bloated code from trying to do everything
- Shared servers with thousands of other sites
- Template features you don’t need still loading
This matters: 53% of mobile visitors abandon slow sites.
Local SEO
For restaurants, local search is everything. DIY platforms offer basic SEO tools, but:
- Schema markup is limited or missing
- Page speed issues hurt rankings
- Mobile experience varies by template
- Local business features are generic
Professionals set up proper local SEO from day one, including Google Business Profile integration and schema markup.
Real Cost Comparison
Let’s compare total cost of ownership over 3 years.
DIY (Squarespace Business Plan)
| Cost | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform (£23/mo) | £276 | £276 | £276 | £828 |
| Domain (included first year) | £0 | £20 | £20 | £40 |
| Your time (initial build, 30hrs @ £20) | £600 | - | - | £600 |
| Your time (updates, 2hrs/mo @ £20) | £480 | £480 | £480 | £1,440 |
| Total | £1,356 | £776 | £776 | £2,908 |
Professional (Monthly Subscription £150/mo)
| Cost | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £1,800 | £1,800 | £1,800 | £5,400 |
| Your time (initial brief, 3hrs @ £20) | £60 | - | - | £60 |
| Your time (monthly requests, 15min/mo @ £20) | £60 | £60 | £60 | £180 |
| Total | £1,920 | £1,860 | £1,860 | £5,640 |
The Real Difference
| Model | 3-Year Total | Your Time Spent | Stress Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY | £2,908 | 102 hours | High |
| Professional | £5,640 | 12 hours | Low |
The professional option costs ~£2,700 more over 3 years but saves you 90 hours.
That’s £30/hour for the time you get back — plus a better website, proper support, and no stress.
For a busy restaurant owner, 90 hours is worth far more than £2,700. For a detailed look at what drives these numbers, see our 2026 guide to website costs in the UK.
Decision Framework
Choose DIY (Wix/Squarespace) If:
- You genuinely enjoy building websites
- Your budget is extremely tight (under £1,000 total)
- Your site is very simple (no booking, no ordering)
- You have significant free time
- You’re tech-comfortable and patient
- You’re okay with limitations and lock-in
Choose a Professional If:
- You’re time-poor (most restaurant owners)
- You need booking or ordering integration
- You want a site that reflects your brand quality
- SEO and local visibility matter to you
- You’d rather pay someone than learn a new platform
- You want support when things go wrong
The Restaurant Reality
Running a restaurant is already a 60+ hour week job. Adding “learn website builder” and “maintain website” to your responsibilities rarely makes sense.
The maths is simple: if hiring a professional saves you 90 hours over 3 years, and your time is worth more than £30/hour to your business, it’s the better investment.
The Middle Ground Options
Not everything is binary. Here are hybrid approaches:
Option 1: Designer-Built Squarespace
Hire a designer to build your site on Squarespace, then manage updates yourself.
Cost: £500-1,500 one-off + £200-300/year platform Pros: Better design than DIY, you control updates Cons: Still platform limitations, still your time for updates
Option 2: WordPress with Managed Hosting
Get a WordPress site built, use managed hosting that handles security and updates.
Cost: £1,500-3,000 build + £150-300/year hosting Pros: More flexibility, can export content, huge ecosystem Cons: WordPress requires more maintenance, updates can break things
Option 3: Starter Package Then Upgrade
Start with a basic professional build (£1,000-1,500), upgrade later as business grows.
Cost: Lower initial, scale as needed Pros: Fits tight budgets, professional foundation Cons: May need redesign later if needs change significantly
What Happens When You Outgrow DIY
Many small businesses who built DIY websites later paid professionals to redo them.
Common triggers for outgrowing DIY:
- “I need proper booking integration”
- “The site is too slow”
- “I can’t rank on Google”
- “I want to add online ordering”
- “It doesn’t look professional anymore”
When this happens, you have to start from scratch. Wix and Squarespace don’t export — your site, your hours of work, can’t transfer anywhere.
Factor potential rebuild costs into your comparison.
Key Takeaways
- DIY platforms cost £150-400/year but require 20-40 hours to build and ongoing time to maintain
- Professional websites cost more money but save significant time and deliver better results
- For restaurants specifically, booking integration, menu management, and local SEO are major pain points with DIY
- Calculate your time cost — if 90 hours over 3 years is worth more than £2,700, hiring makes sense
- Many DIY builders end up paying professionals anyway
- Platform lock-in means you can’t easily leave Wix or Squarespace
The best website isn’t the cheapest one. It’s the one that works for your business without consuming your limited time and energy.
For most restaurant owners, that means hiring a professional.
Wondering what a professional site actually costs? See our UK restaurant website pricing guide or view our packages to see what’s included.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
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