Wix, WordPress or a custom website?

The three options are usually presented as a quality ladder: Wix for beginners, WordPress for serious people, custom for professionals.

That is the wrong way to think about it. They are not three tiers of the same thing — they are three different bargains over how much control you get and how much work you take on.

What each one actually is

Wix (and Squarespace, or Shopify for a shop). You rent a finished system. You build it yourself in a few days with no developer. It never breaks. In exchange, you reach a ceiling and then you stop.

WordPress. Software you install on hosting you control. Enormous flexibility through plugins — but that flexibility is also the problem: every plugin is third-party code that has to be updated and can collide with another.

Custom. Written from scratch for you. It does exactly what you need and nothing else. It costs more up front and depends on who built it.

Choose Wix if

• You need a presence, not functionality: who you are, what you do, how to reach you
• You are on your own or a very small team, and your time is worth more than the money
• You do not plan to add content often
• You want it finished this week

If that describes you, stop there. People will tell you it is “not professional”. For an accountant, a garage or a local shop, it is perfectly fine.

Choose WordPress if

• Content is part of the plan: articles, guides, news
• You want an online store with Greek integrations — invoicing, couriers, payment methods
• Someone will maintain it, in-house or outside
• You need flexibility now without knowing exactly where you will end up

Choose custom if

• The site does something rather than describing something: calculations, bookings, customer accounts
• It connects to systems you already run — ERP, stock, CRM
• Speed or security are critical to the business
• You have a specific workflow no off-the-shelf tool covers

The mistake that costs

It is not picking the “cheap” tool. It is one of these two:

Going custom too early. You pay for flexibility you will not use, before you even know what customers ask for. If you cannot describe specifically what the site must do, and no existing tool does it, you are not ready for custom yet.

Staying on an off-the-shelf tool too long. The symptom is clear: you are paying for three plugins to achieve something that would be one line in your own build, and every update makes you nervous.

Both cost more than choosing “wrong” at the start.

What to ask before you sign

Whichever you pick, four questions:

1. Who owns what? The domain, the hosting, the code, the content. Get it in writing.
2. What happens if we leave? Do you get the files and the database? Can someone else work on them?
3. What does maintenance include, and what does it cost after the first year?
4. Can I change text myself? If every edit needs a developer, you will stop making edits.

The fourth is the one people forget and resent most later.

What about search?

None of the three “ranks better” on its own. What matters is speed, clean structure and content that answers real questions.

One thing has changed, though: AI search tools do not run JavaScript — they read the raw HTML. Pages assembled entirely in the browser often look empty to them. If being found through ChatGPT or AI Overviews matters to you, ask how the page is delivered. More in what GEO is.

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Not sure which category you are in? Book a free 30-minute call — if Wix will do, we will say so. See also what we build.