There is a strange thing happening in web design.
The tools we use to make websites have become incredibly sophisticated. Wix and Squarespace can create layouts, generate starting content and provide business tools without requiring you to write code. WordPress can become almost anything imaginable through themes and plugins.
Meanwhile, the technologies underneath the web are still there:
HTML. CSS. JavaScript.
And when a project needs more application-like behavior, you can build on the same foundation with tools such as React.
For many small-business websites, that approach can be simpler. But simplicity is only part of the story.
A custom-built site can also give you something that is harder to measure on a feature list: freedom to make the site behave exactly the way you want.
That does not mean we should go back to building websites like it is 1998. Quite the opposite.
Modern browsers, modern CSS, GitHub, cloud hosting, APIs, frameworks and AI-assisted development have made custom websites much more practical than they used to be.
So when should you use Wix, Squarespace or WordPress — and when might a custom-built website actually be the better solution?
First: website builders are not the enemy
There is a reason Wix and Squarespace are popular.
They solve an important problem.
Someone who knows almost nothing about web development can choose a template or AI-generated starting point, move elements around on the screen, upload pictures and publish a professional-looking website.
Hosting is taken care of. Much of the technical infrastructure is handled by the platform. There is a visual editor, and many business functions can be activated without programming.
Wix currently combines AI site generation with drag-and-drop editing and built-in business tools. Squarespace's Blueprint AI similarly generates a starting website that can then be edited and published.
That is valuable.
Imagine a photographer who changes galleries every week. Or a restaurant owner who regularly changes menus and events and wants to do it personally.
Giving that person a visual content-management system can make much more sense than asking them to edit an HTML file.
The question therefore should not be:
"Is Wix or Squarespace good or bad?"
The better question is:
"What does this website actually need?"
The website that changes twice a year
Consider a local accountant, therapist, consultant, dog-care company or computer-support business.
The website may contain:
- Home
- About
- Services
- Pricing
- Contact
Perhaps there are a few testimonials and ten or twenty photographs.
Once the website is finished, very little changes.
Maybe the price changes next year.
Maybe somebody joins the team.
Maybe a photograph gets replaced.
Yet underneath those five pages can be an entire website-building platform, account system, editor, template system and collection of additional services.
It works.
But it can be a little like buying a delivery truck because you occasionally need to bring home groceries.
And then there is WordPress
WordPress is different because it is not simply one commercial website-builder service.
It is an enormous open-source publishing platform and ecosystem.
That makes WordPress incredibly powerful.
A basic website can grow into a magazine, membership site, shop, booking system, learning platform or something completely custom.
WordPress.org currently lists more than 74,000 free plugins.
That enormous ecosystem is one of WordPress's biggest strengths.
It can also be where things become complicated.
A WordPress website might have one plugin for forms, another for SEO, another for security, another for caching, another for galleries, another for backups and perhaps a large page builder on top of all of that.
Each additional component is another piece of software.
Software needs maintenance.
Software changes.
Sometimes one component stops cooperating with another component.
And sometimes adding one seemingly simple plugin has an unexpected effect on the design. A plugin may introduce its own CSS, markup, scripts or assumptions about how a page is structured. The result can be a button that suddenly looks different, spacing that changes, a mobile layout that breaks, or a new element that requires additional tweaking just to make it look as though it belongs on the site.
That does not mean plugins are bad. It means they are separate pieces being fitted into an existing system.
For websites that genuinely need WordPress, that maintenance is worthwhile.
But I have encountered plenty of websites where an enormous WordPress installation exists primarily to display a handful of fairly static pages.
That is when I start asking whether we are solving the wrong problem.
What happens if we remove the machinery?
Suppose we build that same five-page website directly.
HTML defines the information.
CSS handles the design.
JavaScript adds the interactive parts.
If the project needs more complex state, reusable components or application-style behavior, something such as React can sit on top of that foundation.
There is no database required just to display an About page.
There does not have to be a plugin just to show a navigation menu.
And there is not necessarily a content-management system running behind every visitor who opens the home page.
The result can be remarkably small.
And small has advantages.
Freedom to build exactly what you want
This is one of the biggest reasons I like custom websites, and it is easy to underestimate.
In Wix, Squarespace or a page builder, you are working inside somebody else's system.
Most of the time that is convenient.
But eventually you may want something that the system was not really designed to do.
Perhaps you want an unusual gallery that behaves differently on desktop and mobile.
Maybe you want a portfolio where clicking an image opens a very specific visual sequence.
Perhaps a customer should be able to reorganize a series, create subseries, drag images into a custom layout, preview the result and publish it.
Maybe a service website needs a small calculator, custom booking flow, customer dashboard, interactive map, animation, product configurator or an interface that simply does not resemble a standard website template.
A website builder can often do some version of these things.
But getting from "almost what I want" to "exactly what I want" can involve a surprising amount of tweaking.
With HTML, CSS and JavaScript — or React when the project calls for it — you are not trying to persuade a template to behave differently.
You build the behavior directly.
That can actually make a highly customized site simpler, because you are not constantly working around rules imposed by the platform.
Speed
A browser understands HTML, CSS and JavaScript directly.
A well-built static site can therefore be extremely quick.
Obviously, it is possible to create terrible HTML and an extremely fast WordPress site. The technology alone does not determine performance.
But starting with less machinery certainly helps.
Security
A static website can have a much smaller application surface than a content-management system containing an administration area, database, plugins and login system.
That does not make a custom website magically immune to every security problem.
The moment you add forms, authentication, databases or an admin system, those parts still need to be designed securely.
But you can add only the pieces the project actually needs rather than operating a large general-purpose platform by default.
Backups and version history
This is one of my favorite parts of the modern approach.
I increasingly keep website source code in GitHub.
Every meaningful change can be recorded.
If something goes wrong, an earlier version still exists.
I can see what changed.
I can work on an experimental version without immediately changing the live website.
And after the change has been tested, it can be deployed.
GitHub was designed for software development, but this workflow is remarkably useful for websites as well.
Modern hosting changes the equation
Years ago, having a website usually meant buying a traditional hosting account and uploading files to a server.
That still works perfectly well.
But modern platforms have created another interesting model.
Cloudflare Pages, for example, can host static site assets globally, and Cloudflare currently states that requests to static assets are free and unlimited on both its free and paid Pages plans.
If the site later needs something dynamic — perhaps a form, small API, database or customer feature — that functionality can be added separately.
So "HTML website" no longer has to mean "primitive website."
It can be a very modern architecture.
A custom website can still have an admin page
There is another misconception worth clearing up.
Choosing HTML/CSS/JavaScript does not mean the customer must call the developer every time a picture or sentence needs to change.
A custom website does not come with an admin system automatically — but you can build one.
And for many projects, that is not especially complicated.
Instead of giving the customer a giant general-purpose CMS with hundreds of options they will never use, you can create an admin page specifically for the things they actually need to manage.
For example:
- change titles and text;
- upload, replace or delete images;
- add or remove portfolio items;
- create series and subseries;
- reorder content;
- change prices;
- publish news or blog entries;
- preview changes before they go live.
That can be a much cleaner experience for the customer.
The admin interface does not need to expose the entire website. It can expose only the parts that should be editable.
In other words, the choice is not necessarily:
website builder with admin access versus custom website with no admin access.
A third option is:
custom website + custom admin interface designed around the customer's actual workflow.
That is a very different proposition.
What about AI?
This is where things become particularly interesting.
One historic disadvantage of a custom-built site was obvious:
You needed somebody who could write code.
AI has changed that equation considerably.
It does not eliminate the need to understand what you are doing. AI can produce bad code just as easily as a human can.
But it can make development much faster.
A developer can describe a layout or feature, generate a starting point, inspect it, modify it, test it and continue from there.
Tasks that once required hours of repetitive coding can sometimes be completed far more quickly.
For me, AI does not replace HTML, CSS, JavaScript or React.
It makes custom development more accessible and more economical.
And that creates an interesting alternative to the traditional website-builder model.
What a custom site does not give you automatically
Wix, Squarespace and WordPress start with a ready-made editing ecosystem.
A custom site starts with a blank page.
That is both its strength and its responsibility.
If the customer needs an admin system, someone has to build it.
If the site needs authentication, that has to be implemented properly.
If the site needs a store, bookings, payments or hundreds of editorial users, it may make more sense to use an established platform rather than rebuilding mature functionality from scratch.
The point is not that custom development wins every time.
The point is that not having a built-in CMS is not automatically a disadvantage. Sometimes building a smaller, purpose-designed admin system gives the customer a much better experience.
A developer should never put a customer into a technical system simply because the developer likes working with it.
The customer has to live with the result.
So which should you choose?
I would roughly think about it this way.
Wix or Squarespace
Great when the owner wants a ready-made visual editor, needs an integrated collection of business tools and does not want to deal with the technical infrastructure.
WordPress
Excellent when content management is central to the website and the project benefits from the enormous WordPress ecosystem.
Custom HTML/CSS/JavaScript or React
Very attractive for company websites, portfolios, landing pages and custom web experiences where speed, design freedom, precise behavior and a tailored workflow matter.
It becomes especially interesting when the site needs something unusual enough that implementing it inside a website builder would require a collection of workarounds, plugins or compromises.
And sometimes the best answer is a combination.
A custom frontend can still connect to external booking systems, payment providers, newsletters, databases, APIs and other services.
It does not have to be all or nothing.
My own thinking has changed
For years the industry moved toward increasingly large platforms.
Lately I have been moving in the opposite direction for certain projects.
Not because I dislike WordPress.
Not because Wix or Squarespace suddenly stopped being useful.
But because modern development tools have made custom development practical again.
I increasingly ask:
What is the smallest, cleanest system that will do everything this customer actually needs — including the things that make this particular website different?
Sometimes the answer will be WordPress.
Sometimes it will be Wix or Squarespace.
And sometimes it will be a carefully built HTML/CSS/JavaScript or React site with its own small admin interface.
That is not going backwards.
In many cases, it is a very modern way forward.
The Red @ helps small businesses choose and build the technology that fits the job — without adding complexity just because the complexity is available.