Should I Use Wix or Hire a Web Designer? A 3-Year Cost Analysis
Most business owners look at Wix's $17/month price tag and compare it to a web designer's $3,000-$10,000 quote, and the math seems obvious. Why would you spend thousands when you can spend hundreds?
But that comparison is incomplete. It ignores the cost of your time, the revenue impact of a better-performing site, and the compounding effect of SEO advantages over multiple years.
This isn't an argument against Wix. It's a realistic accounting of what both options actually cost when you look at the full picture over three years. Some businesses should absolutely use Wix. But the decision should be based on real numbers, not sticker prices.
What Wix Actually Costs Over 3 Years
The subscription fee is just the starting point. Here's what you actually pay.
Direct Costs
Wix Business plan: $17/month ($612 over 3 years). This is the minimum plan for a business site without Wix branding. The cheaper plans show Wix ads on your site, which hurts credibility.
Domain name: ~$45 over 3 years. Free the first year, then $12-$15/year after that. Or you can use your own domain from another registrar.
Premium apps: $10-$40/month ($360-$1,440 over 3 years). This is where costs creep. Basic Wix covers the basics, but most businesses end up needing premium apps for things like:
- Advanced contact forms or booking widgets
- Email marketing integration
- Live chat
- Advanced analytics
- SEO tools beyond the built-in basics
- Social media tools
- Customer reviews display
The average small business on Wix uses 3-5 premium apps, typically adding $20-$30/month.
Email marketing: $10-$25/month ($360-$900 over 3 years). Wix's built-in email marketing is limited. Most businesses either upgrade to Wix's paid email tiers or use a third-party tool like Mailchimp.
Stock photos and content: $100-$300. Unless you have your own photography (which you should invest in eventually), you'll need some stock imagery.
The Cost of Your Time
This is the number everyone ignores, and it's usually the biggest cost.
Initial build: 40-80 hours. Learning the platform, choosing a template, customizing it, writing content, setting up pages, configuring apps, testing on mobile. If you've never built a website, expect the higher end.
Ongoing management: 5-10 hours/month. Content updates, troubleshooting issues, responding to form problems, making design adjustments, keeping apps updated, and the general maintenance that comes with managing your own site.
Over 3 years at 5-10 hours/month, that's 180-360 additional hours.
Total time investment over 3 years: 220-440 hours.
Now, what's your time worth? If you're a business owner billing $75/hour for your services, those 220-440 hours represent $16,500-$33,000 in opportunity cost. Even at a conservative $50/hour, it's $11,000-$22,000.
Your time spent fighting with a website builder is time not spent serving clients, growing your business, or doing the work that actually makes you money.
Total 3-Year Wix Cost
| Cost Item | Low Estimate | High Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Wix subscription (3 years) | $612 | $612 |
| Domain name | $45 | $45 |
| Premium apps | $360 | $1,440 |
| Email marketing | $360 | $900 |
| Stock photos/content | $100 | $300 |
| Your time (at $50/hr) | $11,000 | $22,000 |
| Total | $12,477 | $25,297 |
Without the time cost, it's $1,477-$3,297. With time, the real number is dramatically higher.
What a Professional Website Costs Over 3 Years
Professional web design has a higher upfront cost but a different ongoing cost structure.
Direct Costs
Design and development: $3,000-$10,000. This is the upfront investment for a professionally designed, custom-built business website. The range depends on complexity, number of pages, custom features, and the designer's experience level. A typical small business site (8-15 pages) falls in the $4,000-$7,000 range.
For a full breakdown of what influences this number, see how much does a website cost.
Hosting: $25-$50/month ($900-$1,800 over 3 years). Professional WordPress hosting (like WP Engine, Kinsta, or Cloudways) costs more than Wix but delivers noticeably better performance.
Domain name: ~$36 over 3 years. Same as with Wix -- $12/year.
Maintenance: $50-$150/month ($1,800-$5,400 over 3 years). WordPress sites need regular updates, security monitoring, backups, and performance checks. You can do this yourself (adding time cost) or hire a maintenance service. Most professionals include basic maintenance or offer it as an add-on.
Content updates (if outsourced): $50-$100/hour as needed. Most businesses make a few content changes per month. Some maintenance plans include a set number of update hours.
Your Time Investment
Initial build: 5-15 hours. Your involvement in a professional project is providing information, reviewing designs, giving feedback, and supplying content. Not building pages or fighting with software.
Ongoing management: 1-3 hours/month. Adding blog posts, reviewing analytics, requesting changes from your designer. The bulk of technical work is handled by your professional or their maintenance plan.
Total time over 3 years: 41-123 hours. That's roughly 80-320 fewer hours than managing Wix yourself.
Total 3-Year Professional Cost
| Cost Item | Low Estimate | High Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Design and development | $3,000 | $10,000 |
| Hosting (3 years) | $900 | $1,800 |
| Domain name | $36 | $36 |
| Maintenance (3 years) | $1,800 | $5,400 |
| Content updates | $500 | $2,000 |
| Your time (at $50/hr) | $2,050 | $6,150 |
| Total | $8,286 | $25,386 |
Side-by-Side 3-Year Comparison
| Wix (DIY) | Professional Website | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct costs | $1,477-$3,297 | $6,236-$19,236 |
| Time investment (hours) | 220-440 hrs | 41-123 hrs |
| Time cost (at $50/hr) | $11,000-$22,000 | $2,050-$6,150 |
| Total real cost | $12,477-$25,297 | $8,286-$25,386 |
| Hours freed for business | -- | 179-317 hrs |
The surprising takeaway: when you account for time, the total cost is often comparable. The difference is where the money goes. With Wix, you're paying primarily with your time. With a professional, you're paying with money and getting your time back.
What You Get With Each That You Don't Get With the Other
What Wix gives you that a professional doesn't:
- Immediate control. You can make changes yourself, right now, without asking anyone.
- Lower cash outlay. Easier on cash flow, especially in year one.
- Built-in tools. Scheduling, basic CRM, email marketing, and social tools are included.
- No dependency on another person. You're not waiting for a designer's availability.
What a professional gives you that Wix doesn't:
- Strategic design. Every layout decision is made to support your business goals, not your design preferences.
- Conversion optimization. Page layouts, call-to-action placement, form design, and user flows engineered to convert visitors into leads.
- Performance. Faster load times, better Core Web Vitals scores, and optimized code.
- Advanced SEO. Proper schema markup, internal linking architecture, site speed optimization, and technical SEO setup that compounds in value over years.
- Custom functionality. Anything your business specifically needs, built to work exactly the way you need it to work.
- Professional copywriting guidance. Most designers help you structure and refine your content for better results.
The Hidden Cost of Your Time
This deserves its own section because it's the factor most people undervalue.
When you spend 10 hours per month managing your Wix site, those are 10 hours you're not:
- Serving clients. At $75/hour, that's $750/month in unbilled potential revenue.
- Marketing your business. Networking, following up on leads, creating content for social media.
- Improving your skills. Taking courses, attending events, getting certifications.
- Resting. Burnout is real, and the hours you spend on website headaches come from somewhere.
We see this pattern constantly: a business owner spends their Saturday afternoon wrestling with their Wix site, gets frustrated, makes compromises on design and functionality, and ends up with a site that doesn't perform as well as it should. They've spent the time and still don't love the result.
The question isn't just "can I build this myself?" It's "is building this myself the best use of my limited time?"
For more on costs that aren't immediately obvious, read about the hidden costs of a cheap website.
Real Results Comparison
Numbers we've observed across client projects and industry data:
Conversion rates. Professionally designed sites typically convert visitors to leads at 2-5x the rate of DIY builder sites. If your site gets 500 visitors per month and a professional site converts at 4% vs 1.5% on Wix, that's 20 leads vs 7.5 leads per month. Over three years, that gap is enormous.
Page speed. Professional sites on optimized hosting load in 1.5-2.5 seconds. Wix sites typically load in 3-5 seconds. Google's data shows that 53% of mobile visitors leave a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
SEO rankings. Professional sites with proper technical SEO consistently outperform builder sites for competitive keywords. The gap compounds over time as a well-structured site builds authority. This is where the ROI gets hard to ignore.
Bounce rate. Professional sites typically see 15-25% lower bounce rates thanks to better design, faster loading, and more intentional user experience.
For a framework on measuring these differences for your own business, check our guide on measuring website ROI.
When to Start With Wix and Graduate Later
Starting with Wix isn't always a compromise. Sometimes it's the strategically smart move.
Start with Wix when:
- Your business is less than a year old and you're still refining your offering
- You have under $1,000 to invest in a website right now
- You need something live this week (not this month)
- You're testing a new market or service line
- Your current revenue doesn't justify a professional investment yet
Graduate to professional when:
- Your website is a primary lead source and you're leaving money on the table
- You're consistently getting 500+ monthly visitors and want better conversion
- You've validated your business model and are ready to invest in growth
- You're frustrated by Wix's limitations and spending too much time on workarounds
- Your competitors have professional sites and you're losing deals on credibility
The key is being honest about when that transition point arrives. Many business owners stay on Wix 1-2 years longer than they should because the upfront cost of upgrading feels painful, even though they're losing more in missed leads.
Making the Decision
Before deciding, ask yourself these questions:
What's your hourly rate? If you bill more than $50/hour for your time, the time cost of DIY Wix management is significant. Do the math with your actual rate.
How important is your website to revenue? If your website is how clients find you and decide to contact you, a professionally built site's conversion advantages directly translate to revenue. If your site is a formality and all your business comes from referrals, DIY is fine.
How comfortable are you with technology? Be honest. If building a website sounds fun and you're good at picking up new tools, Wix can work well. If you dread it, you'll procrastinate, and your site will suffer.
Where do you want to be in 3 years? If you're planning to grow significantly, a professional site built on a scalable platform is an investment in that future. If you're happy at your current size, Wix may serve you indefinitely.
The right answer is the one that makes your business more money over time. For some businesses, that's Wix. For most businesses generating over $100K in annual revenue, the math favors hiring a professional.
Before you talk to designers, prepare yourself with our list of questions to ask a web designer and learn about the WordPress vs Wix decision from a platform perspective.