Wix, WordPress or a custom website? Explained like houses
All three options work, but for different things. We explain them without jargon — like renting a room, buying a used house or building your own — so you can choose with confidence.
When a business decides to build its website, it almost always lands on these three options: Wix (or Squarespace, GoDaddy), WordPress, or a custom-built site. All three work. The right question isn't "which is best?" but "which one fits ME, today?". Let's explain them with a comparison anyone gets: houses.
Wix is like renting a furnished room
You move in, pay monthly, and it comes with a bed, kitchen and furniture. Fast and easy. But you can't knock down walls, the landlord can raise the rent anytime, and if you ever leave, you take nothing with you — the house was never yours. Wix works the same: you pay monthly (about $200–$600 MXN), build with templates, but the site lives on their platform. Stop paying and it disappears. Moving elsewhere means starting from scratch.
WordPress is like buying a used house
It's yours and you can remodel it, but it needs constant upkeep: pipes clog (plugins that clash with each other), it needs painting (monthly updates), and if you neglect it, intruders get in (it's the most hacked platform in the world, precisely because it's the most used). It works well if someone takes care of it. If nobody does, it ages fast and gets slow.
A custom site is like building your own house
It costs more upfront and takes longer, but it ends up exactly how you need it: every room has a purpose, you don't pay for space you won't use, and it's built with today's materials, not 20-year-old ones. A custom site loads fast (Google loves that), doesn't depend on third-party plugins, and grows with you: today it's a catalog, tomorrow it takes payments, next month it connects to WhatsApp.
The comparison in one table
| Wix | WordPress | Custom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Almost none | $8,000–$25,000 | $18,000–$70,000 |
| Monthly payment | $200–$600 | Hosting + maintenance | Just hosting (cheap) |
| Do you own the site? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Speed | Average | Depends on upkeep | Fast |
| Who maintains it? | The platform | You or someone paid | Whoever built it |
| Best for | Testing an idea | Blogs and editor-driven sites | Businesses that live off their site |
How to decide in 30 seconds
- Just want to test if your business idea has legs? → Wix is fine to start.
- Your business already sells and you want to publish content often? → WordPress with someone maintaining it.
- Your website brings you customers (or you want it to)? → Custom. It's an investment, not an expense.
If you're in the third case, see how we approach web development and what it really costs in our article on website prices in México.