A common question from tradies is some version of “my mate said just use Wix, why would I pay more?” Sometimes that’s the right call. This guide is the plain comparison: when a builder is enough, where it gets hard for a trade business and what each option costs.
Kovus sells professional website builds, so it has a commercial interest in the professional option. Builder prices below come from each company’s public pages, as listed in September 2026.
When DIY genuinely is enough
If you’re running a side gig, working one suburb with no real competition, or you just need something to point people to when they ask “have you got a website?”, a DIY builder does the job. Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy Website Builder all produce a clean, mobile-friendly page you can publish without a developer. If growth isn’t the goal and the phone already rings enough, don’t overspend on infrastructure you don’t need yet.
A builder is also the right choice when the owner needs to change the site every week: hours, this week’s photos, a special, a closed-for-the-long-weekend notice. A greengrocer updating produce shots, or a tiler posting a finished bathroom the same afternoon, can do that inside the builder without booking a developer. It is also a sensible first site while you test whether a new ABN, a second trade or a new suburb is even going to stick. Paying for a custom build before the offer is stable wastes money.
Booking and payments are another honest fit. If the product you need this year is “customers pick a slot and pay a deposit”, and the builder’s native scheduling or payments feature covers that, buy that feature. A hand-coded site can do the same work, but only if the written scope includes it.
A builder also wins on time-to-publish. You can have a live URL the same week you register the domain, with hosting, SSL and a template included in the subscription. A custom build has a discovery and writing phase before anything is public. If the business needs a link on a Google Business Profile this month, and the alternative is no website at all, ship the builder site. You can still replace it later.
The same logic applies to a second-language landing page, a one-off event page, or a page that will be taken down after a season. Paying a developer to hand-code a page you will delete in eight weeks is usually the wrong spend. Use the builder, keep the URL list short, and put the durable service pages on a stack you intend to keep.
What the builders charge, as at 21 September 2026
Prices change, so check the current page before you sign up. None of these is a quote.
Wix. The Wix plans page lists Light at $17.77 a month including GST, Core at $29.77, Business at $39.77 and Business Elite at $159.77. Those figures are for yearly subscriptions paid in full. The same page says prices and currency vary by location, and that USD amounts are shown for reference. A free plan exists. A typical tradie brochure site is Light or Core, not Business Elite.
Squarespace. The Squarespace pricing page bills Australian customers in Australian dollars. Basic is A$24 a month, or A$17 a month when billed annually (A$204 a year). Core is A$40 a month, or A$28 a month billed annually (A$336 a year). Advanced is A$75 a month, or A$52 a month billed annually (A$624 a year). Basic is the usual fit for a simple trade brochure.
GoDaddy Website Builder. GoDaddy’s own Australian article on website cost, dated 1 May 2026, lists Website Builder at $14.95 to $22.69 a month on an annual plan. The checkout page shows the current price for your plan.
A purpose-built Kovus site is quoted per business as a one-off build, with optional month-to-month services. Builds cost A$500 to A$1,000, and optional monthly plans are A$97 a month for hosting and edits or from A$197 a month with SEO added; see pricing.
Where DIY hits a wall for trades specifically
Google’s map results. The map and business listings at the top of a local search are often called the Map Pack. In Backlinko’s search behaviour study, 42% of searchers given a local-search task clicked a result there (Backlinko, updated April 2025). What shows in those results depends mostly on the Google Business Profile, how close the business is to the searcher and how well known it is, and a website with real local content backs the profile up. A single “service areas” list on a template site doesn’t do that work. A dedicated, properly written page per suburb does, and that’s harder to build well inside a page-builder’s block editor.
Suburb-level depth. New customers search for the job and the place, such as “[suburb] electrician” or “re-roof [suburb]”, because they don’t know your business name yet. A template site with one generic services page has nothing to match those searches. A real page per suburb, with the local work named, gives each of them somewhere to land. You can add extra pages in Wix or Squarespace. The limit is editorial: if each page only swaps the suburb name, Google’s spam policies treat it as thin or doorway content (near-identical pages made only to catch searches), on any platform.
Load speed. DIY builders carry platform overhead: third-party apps, generic JavaScript bundles, image handling that isn’t tuned to your photos. A hand-built site can have a mobile speed target written into the quote. A builder site can also be fast if you keep the template light and compress images. Measure the live page rather than assuming either stack is slow or fast.
Structured data and AI search. Google’s AI Overviews and tools such as ChatGPT describe a business from pages they can read. Clear service and area pages, business details that match everywhere, and structured data that labels the business, its services and its questions all make that easier. Builders vary in how much structured data they let you add, and some need a paid app or pasted code for it. A site that keeps its details in images and widgets gives those tools little to work from.
Comparison, side by side
| DIY builder | Purpose-built trade site | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Wix Light $17.77/mo yearly inc. GST; Squarespace Basic A$17/mo billed annually; GoDaddy Website Builder $14.95 to $22.69/mo annual (September 2026 prices) | Quoted per business, one-off |
| Suburb pages | Possible, but easy to ship as thin templates | Written per suburb, around real local work |
| Mobile load speed | Variable, depends on template, apps and images | Performance checks listed in the quote |
| Structured data | Limited or app-dependent | Built in on every page |
| AI search | Not addressed by default | Consistent business details and structured data |
| Ownership | Platform subscription | Code and domain owned outright |
| Growth ceiling | Rebuild often needed to change the page structure | Built to add pages without a redesign |
Total cost of ownership over three years
Using only the sourced annual figures above, Squarespace Basic billed annually is A$204 a year, or A$612 over three years, before domain renewal after the first free year. Wix Light at $17.77 a month billed yearly is $213.24 a year, or $639.72 over three years, on the amount shown on the plans page. GoDaddy’s published Australian range of $14.95 to $22.69 a month on an annual plan is $538.20 to $816.84 over three years if those rates hold.
That still looks cheap next to a custom build until you count what the subscription does not include: three years of suburb pages, structured data and written content that a search engine can use, written for the real services. Some owners on a DIY site later commission a full rebuild, once the business has outgrown what the template can do. At that point they have paid the subscription and are now also paying for the build. That is not an argument against starting on a builder. It is an argument for noticing when the site has become the bottleneck.
The migration reality
Moving off a DIY builder later isn’t free. Copy and photos usually transfer fine. URL structure often doesn’t, which can reset whatever rankings you did earn. Platform-specific booking widgets and review embeds usually need rebuilding. The earlier you move to a structure built to last, the less you’re rebuilding from scratch. If the builder is still the right tool, stay. There is no prize for migrating early.
Where this actually lands
If you’re genuinely early-stage or deliberately small, a DIY builder is a legitimate choice, not a mistake. If the site is meant to bring in the next twelve months of jobs, the gaps tend to show in Google’s map results, in suburb searches and in AI search answers. For the full picture of what a properly built trade site includes, see websites for tradies, or check the real cost range across the market before deciding which tier you actually need.
Not sure which one you need?
Tell me what you’re running now and what you’re trying to grow into. I’ll tell you honestly whether you need a rebuild yet or not.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wix actually bad for a tradie website?
No, not inherently. Wix and Squarespace are fine tools for what they're built for: a fast, cheap, self-managed page. The problem isn't the tool. A trade business that wants to be found for more jobs and more suburbs can outgrow what a template does well, and some platforms make that hard to fix without a rebuild.
When is a DIY builder genuinely the right call?
Side-gig or part-time work with no ambition to grow past word-of-mouth, a single suburb with no real competition, or a business that just needs a digital business card to point people to, not a site meant to bring in new work. If any of that describes you, don't overspend on a custom build you don't need yet.
What does 'hitting a wall' with a DIY site actually look like?
The site shows up when someone searches the business name, but not for the job and the suburb. Competitors with a real page for each suburb appear above you for '[suburb] electrician' searches. Your listing in Google's map results doesn't move even though the Business Profile is complete. Pages slow down on mobile as apps are added. And the platform makes it hard to add the structured data that tells search engines what the business does.
How much does a DIY site really cost over three years?
As at 21 September 2026, Squarespace Basic billed annually is A$17 a month (A$204 a year, A$612 over three years) on Squarespace's public pricing table. Wix Light is shown as $17.77 a month including GST when billed yearly on Wix's plans page. GoDaddy's Australian resources page lists Website Builder at $14.95-22.69 a month on an annual plan. Add your own time, and any later migration if you outgrow the template.
Can I migrate my content from a DIY builder to a custom site later?
The written content and photos, yes, generally. What doesn't always carry over is the search history: page addresses often change, so old rankings can reset, and platform-specific plugins (booking widgets, review embeds) usually need rebuilding on the new site. Moving earlier causes less disruption than moving after years of links and rankings have built up around the old page addresses.
Do DIY builders support things like suburb pages and schema at all?
Some, in a limited way. You can add a page per suburb in Wix, but the same layout repeated with only the suburb name swapped is the kind of thin, near-identical content Google's spam policies warn against. Structured data support varies by platform and plan, and often means a paid app or pasting code into a settings panel.