Wix, WordPress or custom: what a small business really pays over three years

Most owners compare websites by the first number they see. Wix says "from a few hundred rand a month". A freelancer says "a few thousand and it's done". A studio says "R10,000 and a monthly fee". The cheapest-looking one wins.

The better question is what each route costs you over three years, including your own time and what happens when something breaks. This post walks through the three common routes for a South African trade or small business: a DIY builder like Wix, a WordPress site from a template reseller or freelancer, and a custom build. We build the third kind, so we will tell you plainly where the other two are the right call.

For the wider price ranges, see our website cost guide. This post is only about the three-year total.

Route 1: a DIY builder like Wix

You pick a template, drag things around and publish. You can be live in a weekend.

Upfront cost: close to nothing. You pay for the plan you need and a domain.

Monthly cost: Wix prices its premium plans in US dollars. At the time of writing, the plans for a business site run from roughly $17 to $39 a month when billed yearly, which is about R300 to R700 a month at recent exchange rates. Check the current price, because the dollar moves. The domain is usually free for the first year and paid after that. Add-ons such as booking tools or extra storage cost more.

Three-year sum: at about R300 to R700 a month, 36 months comes to about R10,800 to R25,200, before the domain and add-ons. One South African agency estimates R6,300 to R15,200 a year all-in once domain, plan and add-ons are counted. Over three years, that is about R18,900 to R45,600.

Your time: this is the hidden part. You build it, you write it, you fix it when the phone layout looks odd. Ten hours of tinkering is ten hours you were not quoting or on a job.

What goes stale: nothing breaks on its own, which is a real advantage. But the site is only as good as what you put in, and most owners stop after the first month.

Who you call: support chat, usually generic. They will not know that your page about geyser repairs in Centurion is missing a phone number.

Does Google find it? It can. Wix sites can rank for a small local search. They are harder to make fast on a phone, and you are limited in how you structure pages. You also cannot take the site with you. If you leave Wix, you rebuild.

When it is the right choice: you are just starting, you have no budget, you enjoy this sort of thing, and you need something on Google this month. A tidy Wix site beats no site. Be honest about whether you will maintain it.

Route 2: WordPress from a template reseller or freelancer

This is the most common route in South Africa. Someone installs WordPress, picks a theme, swaps in your logo and photos, and hands it over.

Upfront cost: R2,000 to R8,000 is the common range for template reseller or freelancer builds (this comes from our own cost guide). A lower price usually means a template with your name pasted in. A higher price usually means some real customisation.

Monthly cost: hosting for a small-business site is roughly R80 to R250 a month for typical plans in South Africa, with entry plans from around R60 to R130. Premium themes and plugins are extra, and they are often charged yearly in dollars. Check what your site actually needs before you sign.

Three-year sum: take the build range and add 36 months of hosting. At the low end that is R2,000 plus about R2,880 of hosting, roughly R4,880. At the high end it is R8,000 plus about R9,000, roughly R17,000. Theme and plugin renewals and the domain sit on top.

That is the cheapest on paper. The catch is what is not on the invoice.

What breaks: WordPress needs updates. Plugins stop being maintained. An old plugin is the usual way a small-business site gets hacked. If nobody is updating it, it is a slow-moving risk, not a finished product.

Who you call: whoever built it, if they still answer. Freelancers move on, change numbers and take other jobs. "My web guy has gone quiet" is something we hear a lot. The hosting company will help with the server, but not with the design or the plugin that broke your contact form. If you are comparing providers, read our guide to choosing a web design company in Pretoria.

Does Google find it? It can, if the build is clean. Many template sites are slow because of heavy themes and too many plugins, and speed on a phone matters. A cheap build also tends to look like a hundred other sites, so there is nothing to make it stand out.

When it is the right choice: you have a freelancer you trust, you want something cheap and decent, and you accept that you may need to replace it in two or three years. It is a fair option when the person doing it will stay in touch. Ask who will do the updates, in writing.

Route 3: a custom build

A custom site is designed for your business and written from scratch, not assembled from a template. Ours are built in Next.js, which is fast on a phone, and they come with an editing panel so you can change text and photos yourself.

Upfront cost: our Launch package is R10,000 for up to five pages, built in two to three weeks. The deposit is 50%, and the other 50% is paid on launch.

Monthly cost: R850 a month on Launch. That covers hosting, your domain, security updates, backups, 30 minutes of changes a month and the editing panel. Changes beyond that are R650 an hour.

Three-year sum: R10,000 plus 36 months at R850 is R40,600. Nothing else is added on top: hosting, domain and backups are already inside the monthly fee.

Your time: close to none. You send changes, we make them.

What goes stale: the content, like any site. The monthly fee covers the technical side, so updates, backups and security do not depend on you remembering.

Who you call: the person who built it. We are a one-person studio, so there is one number and one name. That is a strength and a limit, and we will talk about both on a call.

Does Google find it? A custom site gives you the best chance, because it is fast, structured properly and gives each service a page of its own. Nobody can promise a ranking, and we do not. Local SEO is a separate add-on if you want us to work on it.

When it is the right choice: the website brings you work, the jobs are worth a few thousand rand each, and you want to stop thinking about it.

Putting the three side by side

Here are the rough three-year totals, with the competitor side hedged:

• DIY builder: about R10,800 to R25,200 for the plan alone, or about R18,900 to R45,600 if that agency's all-in estimate holds, plus your time.
• WordPress freelancer: roughly R4,880 to R17,000, plus theme and plugin renewals, plus the risk that the freelancer disappears.
• Custom (Launch): R40,600, with hosting, domain, backups and changes included.

On the plan price alone, custom is the most expensive. Count the domain and add-ons, and a DIY builder can land in the same range. Custom is also the only route where the price is fixed, the technical side is looked after and the site is yours outright.

The right question is whether the site earns more than it costs. Say one extra job a month brings you R2,000. Over 36 months that is R72,000. If your website will not produce even one job a month, buy the cheapest route that works and do not feel bad about it. If it will, the gap between the routes is smaller than the work you lose to a slow or half-broken site. You can run your own numbers in our payback calculator, and our free site audit checks your current site.

What we charge, and why

Our website prices are public and do not change depending on who is asking.

• Launch: R10,000 plus R850 a month. Up to 5 pages, 30 minutes of changes a month, 2 to 3 weeks.
• Growth: R16,500 plus R1,250 a month. Up to 8 pages, 1 hour of changes a month, a blog, Google Search Console set up, 3 to 4 weeks.
• Authority: R24,000 plus R1,750 a month. Up to 12 pages, 2 hours of changes a month, 4 to 6 weeks.
• Bespoke: from R38,000 plus from R2,000 a month, for custom features like booking or quoting.

The monthly fee covers hosting, domain, security updates, backups, change time and the editing panel. You own your website outright. Every project starts with a free call, and there is no scoping fee. You can see the packages on our websites page, or read how a build runs on the process page. If you would like to talk it through, send us a message.