If you have a few free evenings, a business that gets most of its work from referrals, and no need to rank on Google, build it yourself on Squarespace or Wix and keep the money. If you need the site to bring in customers who have never heard of you, or you have tried the builder and it is still not live three months later, pay someone. In Northampton that is roughly £1,000 to £2,500 from a local designer, or £850 from us.
That is the honest answer. Here is the reasoning so you can check it against your own situation rather than take our word for it.
What the builders actually cost
Squarespace publishes UK prices. The Basic plan is £12 a month and Core is £17 a month, both billed annually, or £16 and £24 if you pay monthly. Wix does not show UK prices on its pricing page. Its reference prices are $17 to $39 a month for the Light to Business plans, paid for a year upfront, with the pound figure only shown at checkout.
Call it £150 to £300 a year for the plan. Add a domain, and usually a template or two you end up buying. The real cost is not the subscription though. It is the evenings.
When the builder is the right call
We would rather tell you this than sell you a site you do not need.
Your work comes from people who already know you. If most customers arrive by referral or walk past your door, the website's job is to confirm you are real and show a phone number. A tidy Squarespace site does that perfectly well.
You genuinely enjoy this sort of thing. Some people do. If you are happy picking fonts on a Sunday and you will actually finish it, the builder is a good tool and you will learn a lot about your own business writing the pages.
You are testing an idea. A new venture, a side project, a service you are not sure will stick. Spend £12 a month, not £850, until you know.
Money is tight. A live builder site beats no site. It also beats an unpaid invoice.
When it stops being the right call
The builder itself is not the problem. These are the situations where it quietly costs you more than paying someone.
You need strangers to find you. Ranking for "physio Northampton" or "accountant Kettering" takes properly structured service pages, area pages, fast loading, and content written for the search, not just a nice homepage. It can be done on a builder. It almost never is, because the person building it is also running the business.
It is still not live. This is the most common one. You bought the plan in January. It is September. There is always one more page to sort. Meanwhile customers are Googling you and finding a competitor. Nothing about the tool is stopping you. The gap is that nobody else is holding the date. We wrote about this in how long a website takes to build.
Nobody has written the words. A builder gives you boxes. It does not tell you what to put in them, and a site full of "Welcome to our website, we pride ourselves on quality" does not turn a visitor into a phone call. The copy is most of the value, and it is the part the builder cannot do for you.
You need it to do something. Online booking with real rules, a members' area, payments that connect to how you actually work. The builder's plug-ins get you halfway and then you are working around them forever. Stalkers Studio needed rehearsal room booking with accounts, recurring slots and a 48-hour cancellation policy. That is not a widget.
You have hit the ceiling. Plenty of businesses come to us having outgrown their builder. The site works, it just does not do what the business now needs, and moving off is harder than starting fresh. A rebuild is often cheaper than you expect.
What changes when you pay someone
Whether it is us or another Northampton designer, this is what the money buys that the builder does not.
Someone else owns the deadline. Someone writes the copy from a conversation with you rather than you staring at an empty box. The site is structured to be found, not just to look nice. The technical bits, speed, mobile, SEO basics, tracking, redirects from the old site, are done because they are part of the job, not because you remembered.
With a Northampton designer you are typically looking at £1,000 to £2,500 and three to ten weeks. We have laid the local market out in how much a website costs in Northampton. At Juno it is £850, live in 14 days from payment, and you own everything, the same as you would with a builder but without the monthly plan.
The comparison in one table
| Squarespace or Wix | Northampton designer | Juno | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | £12 to £24 a month, ongoing | £1,000 to £2,500 one-off, often plus maintenance | £850 one-off |
| Who writes the copy | You | Sometimes you, sometimes them | Us, from your call |
| Time to live | Whenever you finish | 3 to 10 weeks | 14 days from payment |
| Built to rank | Only if you know how | Usually the basics | Yes, with optional SEO from £200 a month |
| Booking, payments, members | Plug-ins | Usually extra | Quoted as an add-on |
| Ownership | The plan, while you pay | Usually yours | Yours outright |
The short version
Builder if the site just needs to exist and you will actually finish it. Designer if the site needs to bring in customers or do something real. If you are not sure which you are, book a free call. We will look at what you have and tell you straight, and if the answer is "stay on Squarespace", that is what we will say.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wix or Squarespace good enough for a small business?
Yes, if most of your customers already know you and the site just needs to confirm you are real. It is not enough if you need strangers to find you on Google or need booking, payments or a members' area that fits how you work.
How much do Wix and Squarespace cost in the UK?
Squarespace Basic is £12 a month and Core is £17 a month billed annually, or £16 and £24 billed monthly. Wix shows $17 to $39 a month as reference prices, paid yearly upfront, with the UK price only shown at checkout.
Can a Wix or Squarespace site rank on Google?
It can, but it needs proper service pages, fast loading and content written for the searches people make. Most DIY sites never get that far because the owner is busy running the business.
How much does a web designer in Northampton cost compared to a builder?
Local designers typically charge £1,000 to £2,500 one-off, often with a monthly maintenance fee on top. Juno is £850 one-off. A builder is £150 to £300 a year but you do the work.
Do I own my website on Wix or Squarespace?
You own your content and domain, but the site only exists while you pay for the plan and it cannot be moved to another platform. A designer-built site is normally yours to host anywhere.
Can I move from Wix or Squarespace to a bespoke website later?
Yes. Rebuilding from a builder site is common, and because the content already exists it is often quicker than a first build. Juno rebuilds go live in 14 days.