I hear this a lot: "I was thinking about just making one on Wix." And I get it. Wix is easy, it's cheap, and you can have something live in a day. For a lot of use cases, it's completely fine.
But if you're a contractor or local service business who needs your phone to ring from Google - and you're asking whether to use Wix or pay someone to build you a custom site - that's a different question. Let me give you the honest answer.
Where Wix Actually Wins
I'm going to give Wix a fair shake here, because it deserves it for some use cases:
Speed to launch. If you have zero website and need something up this week, Wix wins. You can pick a template, drag things around, and have a live site in a few hours. That's genuinely useful if you need a presence fast.
No technical knowledge required. You don't need to know what HTML is. You don't need a developer. If something breaks, there's a support team. For someone who just wants a site to exist and point people to their phone number, Wix solves that problem.
Low upfront cost. $17–$50/month depending on the plan. If budget is the primary constraint and you just need something live, it's hard to argue with the price.
"A Wix site is better than no site. But for a business trying to rank on Google and generate calls from local search, it has real performance limitations that show up in how you rank."
The Performance Gap - With Real Numbers
Here's where the comparison gets concrete. Google measures site performance using a tool called Lighthouse, which scores pages from 0–100 on speed, accessibility, best practices, and SEO. These scores are inputs into how Google ranks your site.
Wix sites typically score 40–60/100 on performance. The sites I build score 85–90+. Here's what that gap looks like on the actual metrics that matter:
Why is Wix slow? It's not that Wix is poorly built - it's just the nature of what it is. Wix loads a JavaScript framework, your template, fonts, widgets, apps, and tracking scripts on every page load. There's overhead that can't be avoided when you're running a platform that lets anyone drag and drop anything. A hand-coded site only loads exactly what it needs.
That difference in load time matters more than most people realize. Studies consistently show that a one-second delay in page load time reduces conversions by 7%. For a mobile user searching "plumber near me" at 9pm, a site that takes 6 seconds to load loses that customer before they even read your phone number.
What This Means for Local Search Rankings
Google uses page speed as a ranking signal. It also uses Core Web Vitals - a set of specific load-time measurements - as part of the Page Experience ranking factor. A Wix site with a 50/100 performance score is at a structural disadvantage compared to a fast custom site in the same market.
For most local service businesses, the search market is competitive enough that this matters. You're not just competing against other Wix sites - you're competing against anyone in your market who has a fast, well-structured site. If a competitor's site loads in 1.4 seconds and yours loads in 6, that's a real ranking factor, all else being equal.
Wix has been improving its SEO capabilities over the years, and it's genuinely better than it was in 2020. But it's still working against a structural disadvantage in performance that custom code doesn't have.
You can test your own site right now. Go to pagespeed.web.dev, paste in your URL, and run the test on mobile. Whatever number comes back - that's what Google sees. Under 50 is a problem. Under 70 is leaving calls on the table. 85+ is where you want to be.
Ownership and Portability
This is the part that doesn't get talked about enough. With Wix, your site lives on Wix's servers in Wix's format. You can't export it. If you ever want to move to a different platform - or if Wix raises prices, changes their terms, or goes away - you're starting over.
A hand-coded HTML site is a folder of files that you own completely. You can host it anywhere, move it, hand it to someone else, or keep it running for free on platforms like Cloudflare Pages. It's not tied to any platform's continued existence or pricing decisions.
When I build a site for a client, they get all the files at the end of the engagement. Whether they stay on at $350/month for ongoing management or not, the site is theirs. That's different from a Wix site, which is more like a rental than an asset.
The Honest Head-to-Head
| Factor | Wix | Hand-Coded Custom Site |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | Same day possible | ~1 week |
| Technical skill needed | None | None (I build it) |
| Performance score (Lighthouse) | 40–60/100 | 85–90+/100 |
| SEO score (Lighthouse) | 70–85/100 | 100/100 |
| Typical page load time | 4–8 seconds | ~1.4 seconds |
| You own the files | No - Wix owns them | Yes, always |
| Can move to any host | No | Yes |
| Monthly cost | $17–$50/mo | $550/mo · 6 mo, then $350 |
| Actively managed after launch | Only if you do it | Yes - 6 months included |
Who Should Actually Use Wix
I'm not going to tell you Wix is never the right choice. It is, for some situations:
You're a brand new business with literally no budget and you need something to exist right now. A Wix site is better than no site - it gets you a presence, a place to collect reviews, somewhere to send people. Once you have cash flow, you can upgrade.
Your website isn't your primary source of leads. If most of your business comes from referrals, repeat customers, or a strong personal network and your site is just a place to exist, Wix is probably fine. The performance penalty matters less if you're not depending on search rankings.
You're not in a competitive local market. If you're the only electrician in a small town and nobody else has a website at all, even a Wix site will get you ranked. The performance gap matters most when you're competing against other sites.
The Wix trap: A lot of contractors build a Wix site early on, then stick with it years longer than they should because switching feels like a big project. Meanwhile their competitors build faster sites and slowly take over the local search rankings. If you've had a Wix site for more than 2 years and your phone isn't ringing consistently, it's worth testing your site speed to see if it's part of the problem.
The Real Question to Ask
The decision isn't really "Wix vs custom site." It's "what job does my website need to do, and which option gets that job done?"
If the job is "exist and look okay so people who already know me can find my phone number" - Wix is fine.
If the job is "show up when someone in my area searches for what I do and convert them into a call" - a fast, custom-coded site will significantly outperform Wix over time. The performance gap is real, it affects rankings, and rankings affect calls.
Roland at SS Drywall Repair had an old WordPress site - not Wix, but similar performance problems - that scored 37/100 and ranked for nothing. After switching to a hand-coded site, he had his first Google rankings in 3 weeks and hit #1 for his main search term at 3 months. Not a Wix site. Not a WordPress site. Plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Fast, clean, built to rank.
I'll look at it on a free call and tell you honestly if it's costing you calls.
The Bottom Line
Wix is a legitimate tool. It's not a scam, it's not terrible, and it works for plenty of use cases. But if you're a contractor or local service business that depends on Google for leads, the performance gap between Wix and a well-built custom site is real and it shows up in your rankings over time.
The good news is you don't have to choose between "Wix myself" and "pay an agency $10,000." There's a middle path: a hand-coded site built by someone who specializes in local service businesses, actively managed for 6 months, at a price point that makes sense for a small business. That's what I do at Get Found Guy.
If you want to know whether your current site is working for you - or whether switching would make a difference - book a free 15-minute call. I'll look at your site and give you a straight answer.
