Neither is better. Squarespace is a good fit if you will maintain the site yourself, your budget is tight right now, and you need it live this week. A custom-built site is worth it when the website is a real sales channel: you want it fast and findable, you do not want a monthly bill, and you want it to do exactly what your business needs rather than what a template allows.
The rest of this is the detail behind that, so you can tell which trade you are making before you commit.
What you are actually choosing between
These are two different things. Squarespace is a platform you rent: the site lives inside their system, and it works for as long as you keep paying. A custom-built site is a set of files on hosting you control. You can move it, hand it to another developer, or leave it running untouched for years. That ownership difference matters more than any single feature.
Cost over three years
Roughly, for a small brochure site:
- Squarespace. Around £16 to £30 a month depending on the plan, so £576 to £1,080 over three years, plus the hours you spend building and maintaining it. Hosting, security certificate and backups are included.
- Custom-built. £500 to £1,500 once, plus roughly £50 a year for a domain and hosting. Call it £650 to £1,650 over three years, and most of that is paid up front.
The totals are closer than people expect. The real difference is not the money, it is what you get for it and what you own at the end. If you want the full picture on the one-off figure, I have written up what a small business website costs.
What Squarespace does well
- You can have something presentable online in a day or two.
- You can edit text and swap images yourself without calling anyone.
- Hosting, SSL, backups and updates are handled for you.
- The templates are competent, so a simple site looks tidy out of the box.
- It is a reasonable way to run a small shop you will manage yourself.
Where a custom site pulls ahead
- Speed. Template platforms load a lot of code to stay flexible. A site built for your content is lighter, and page speed is something Google measures.
- Fit. You get the layout and features your business needs, not the nearest template match.
- No monthly fee. You pay once. Ongoing cost is a few pounds a month for hosting, or sometimes nothing.
- Ownership. The site is yours to move or change. You are not locked to one company's roadmap or pricing.
- Accessibility. It can be built properly for screen readers and keyboard use, which templates often only half-manage.
When Squarespace is the right call
You will maintain the site yourself and want to. Money is tight this month and a spread cost suits you better. You need it live in days, not weeks. The design does not need to stand out, and you are not relying on the site to be found in search.
When to go custom
The website is how customers find you and decide to call. You would rather pay once than carry a monthly bill for years. You want it genuinely fast and built to rank. Or you need something the templates simply do not do. If you are still deciding whether you need a site at all, that is a separate question worth answering first.
Common questions
Is Squarespace bad for SEO?
Not inherently. You can rank fine on Squarespace for a local business. It tends to be slower than a lean custom build, and you have less control over the technical details, but content and a complete Google Business Profile matter more than the platform for most local searches.
Can I move my site off Squarespace later?
You can export your text and images, and take your domain. You cannot take the design or the setup, so a move means rebuilding. That is the cost of renting the platform, and it is worth knowing before you invest years of content into it.
Is Wix the same choice as Squarespace here?
Broadly yes. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and similar are all rented platforms with the same core trade: quick and self-service, but you do not own the site and you pay every month. The decision in this post applies to all of them.