Short version: if you need one simple page and you don’t mind building it yourself, Squarespace is fine and you don’t need me. If the website’s job is to win you work — it’s what stands between a Google search and a phone call — that’s when custom pays for itself, and the math is further down.
I build custom websites for a living, so you’d expect me to trash the DIY builders. I’m not going to. For a decent chunk of businesses they’re the right call, and if I pretended otherwise you’d have no reason to believe anything else on this page.
When Squarespace is the right call
Three situations where I’d tell you to skip me:
- You need a business card, not a website. Customers already know you; the site just confirms your hours, address, and phone number. A template does that job.
- You’ll actually build and maintain it yourself. That’s the whole Squarespace deal. Some people enjoy it. If that’s you, it works.
- The budget is under $750. Then the comparison is over — custom isn’t on the menu, and a clean Squarespace page beats no site or a dead Facebook page every time.
Hobby business, side project, “we just need to exist online” — use the builder, pick a plain template, keep it to one page, and put your energy into the business.
Where it stops being fine
Nobody’s Squarespace site fails on day one. The problems show up a year or two in, and they’re the reason people end up emailing someone like me.
You look like everyone else. The same templates are running hundreds of thousands of sites. Your site and a dentist’s in Ohio share the same bones, and visitors can tell even when they can’t say why. If your work sells on craftsmanship — builders, clinics, artists — a template is the wrong outfit to show up in.
The subscription never ends. Squarespace runs about $300 to $600 a year, forever. My builds start at $750, once, and I host them for free. Around year two the math flips, and every year after that the gap gets wider. I covered the full numbers in what a website costs in Victoria, BC.
The platform starts fighting you. Every builder has a box. Sooner or later you want a layout that doesn’t exist, a feature that’s on a pricier plan, or a page that loads faster than the template allows — and there’s nothing you can do about any of it. Daves’ Bakery in Campbell River ran a self-built platform site for thirteen years. It did the job for a long time, and then updates stopped being worth the fight and the site sat untouched until I replaced it.
You’re renting. Cancel the subscription and the site is gone. A custom site is yours — code, content, domain. If I got hit by a ferry tomorrow, any developer could pick mine up and carry on.
”But can I still update it myself?”
This is usually the real question. Nobody wants to email a developer and wait three days to fix a typo, and the builders have done a great job convincing people that’s the alternative.
It isn’t. Every site I build comes with an editor: log in with your email, click the text, change it, drag in new photos, done. The bakery updates their menu, the construction company adds project photos, the clinic posts news — nobody touches code and nobody waits on me. You keep the control. You lose the template.
The math side by side
| Squarespace | Custom (my builds) | |
|---|---|---|
| Year one | ~$300–$600 | from $750, one-time |
| Every year after | ~$300–$600 | $0 — hosting’s on me |
| Design | Template | Designed for your business |
| Updates | You, in their editor | You, in your editor |
| Ownership | Rented | Yours |
What I actually tell people
When someone emails me and their situation fits the Squarespace profile, I say so. A few have gone off and built their own site with my blessing; some came back a year later when the business outgrew it. Both outcomes are fine. And if you want a platform site but not the template look, I’ll build on Squarespace or Wix for you — not my usual recommendation, but it’s your website.
The only thing I’d argue with either way is staying invisible. On Vancouver Island, the first thing anyone does with a recommendation is search for it. Whether the site is a template you built on a Sunday or custom with your name on the trucks to match, be findable.
Not sure which side of the line you’re on? Send me a note with what your business does and what you’ve got now. I’ll give you a straight answer, including “you don’t need me.”