Wix vs WordPress vs Custom Website: Real 3-Year Cost Compared
Wix, WordPress or a custom website? We compare the real 3-year cost, speed, SEO, security and who owns the site, with platform prices checked in October 2026.
Legacies is a software and web studio from Romania, founded by Horia Stan and Alexandru Talnaci, that builds websites, landing pages and web apps for businesses worldwide, plus its own products. This is the comparison we walk clients through most often.
Short version: Wix is good for starting fast and cheap, WordPress is good when you publish a lot and have someone to maintain it, and a custom website pays off when the site has to bring in clients from Google and AI assistants for years, with no monthly platform rent. The real difference is not the starting price. It is the 3-year cost and who is responsible when something breaks.
Quick answer
- Wix: easiest to start, you can build it yourself in a weekend. You pay a subscription for as long as the site exists and you cannot move it to another host.
- WordPress: very flexible, with over 60,000 plugins. You pay for hosting, themes, premium plugins and above all maintenance, because plugins are the main source of security problems.
- Custom website: costs more up front, but it is fast, clean for SEO and fully yours. No platform subscription.
- Simple rule: if the site is just an online business card, use Wix. If it has to bring in clients, compare the 3-year cost, not the first month.
Why "Wix or WordPress" is the wrong question
In practice, a business owner picks between three paths: build it yourself on a builder like Wix, pay someone to build it on WordPress, or pay someone to write it from scratch. With Wix you pay in time and subscription. With WordPress you pay in maintenance and security risk. With custom you pay more at the start.
Wix: fast to start, rent for life
Wix is a SaaS platform. You do not buy the site, you rent it. Hosting, security and updates are included, and that is a real advantage if you never want to touch anything technical.
According to the official Wix plans page, at the time of writing the USD reference prices with yearly billing are:
| Wix plan | Price per month, yearly billing | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Testing, with a Wix subdomain and Wix ads |
| Light | $17.77 | Simple business site |
| Core | $29.77 | Forms, basic payments |
| Business | $39.77 | Small online store |
| Business Elite | $159.77 | Higher volumes |
Wix notes that prices and currency vary by location. Either way, expect roughly $210 to $480 a year for a business site on a paid plan. Squarespace is similar: Style Factory's Squarespace pricing review, updated in September 2026, lists yearly-billing prices from $19 to $99 a month.
Where it gets in the way:
- You cannot export the site to another host. Wix's own support article says the site must run on Wix servers. You can move your domain, but if you switch platforms, you start over.
- You pay the subscription as long as the site exists. After three years you may have paid close to the cost of a custom site, and it is still not yours.
- Control over the code is limited. When you want to tune speed or structured data for Google and AI search, you hit what the platform allows.
WordPress: flexible, but someone has to maintain it
Here is the first source of confusion. There is WordPress.com, which is also a subscription platform, and self-hosted WordPress from WordPress.org, which is free software you install on your own hosting.
On WordPress.com, at the time of writing, yearly plans start at $9 a month (Personal) and go up to $40 (Business) or $70 (Commerce). Every paid plan now allows plugins.
Most businesses use the self-hosted version on a shared host. For example, Hostinger's Premium web hosting costs $2.99 a month at the time of writing, but only on a 48-month term, and it renews at $10.99 a month. Watch that gap between promo and renewal pricing. Many offers put it in small print.
On top of hosting, you add a domain (Verisign raises the .com wholesale price to about $10.97 from November 1, 2026, according to Openprovider), premium theme and plugin licenses, someone to build it and someone to maintain it.
The real WordPress problem: plugins
WordPress itself is solid. The risk comes from plugins. According to Patchstack's State of WordPress Security in 2026 report, 11,334 new vulnerabilities were found in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, 42% more than in 2024. 91% were in plugins and 9% in themes. The weighted median time to first exploit was 5 hours, and 46% of vulnerabilities had no developer patch before public disclosure.
A WordPress site left alone for six months is not "a site that works". It is a site at risk. That is a reason to budget for maintenance from day one, not to avoid WordPress.
WordPress also gets slow when a site is a theme plus 20 plugins, because it loads a lot of code you never use. And the real cost is recurring. It does not stop at launch.
Custom website: more at the start, cheaper to keep
A custom website is written from scratch for your business. It is not an adapted template and it does not sit on a builder with a subscription. We use Next.js, the same technology we use for our own products. We explain the reasons in why we choose the Next.js App Router.
What you get:
- Speed: the site loads only the code it needs. No plugins adding scripts to every page. Hosting can be close to your visitors too, as we cover in edge computing for small sites.
- SEO and AI search: full control over titles, meta tags, structured data and content structure. This matters more every year, because assistants read your site, not only Google. More on that in how AI crawlers are changing what a business website is for.
- Ownership: you get the code and every access. If you want to work with someone else later, you can.
- No platform rent: you pay for hosting and a domain, not a builder subscription.
What you give up: the drag and drop editor, and a lower starting cost. Frameworks still need security updates, just with far fewer moving parts.
The 3-year cost, side by side
This is where the difference shows. Here are the numbers above in one table, for a 4-6 page business site. Platform prices are from the time of writing and can change.
| Wix (Core plan) | WordPress self-hosted | Custom site (Legacies) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Your time | Build by a freelancer or agency, varies | From 2,199 lei (about EUR 415), fixed price |
| Platform or hosting, 3 years | About $1,072 | About $396 at Hostinger's $10.99 renewal rate, less on a long intro term | Hosting, set in the quote |
| Domain | Free first year with a yearly plan, then yearly fee | Yearly fee | Yearly fee |
| Theme and plugin licenses | Included or paid apps | Often yearly | None |
| Maintenance | Platform side included | Needed, or the risk grows | Optional |
| Who owns the site | The platform | You | You |
| Can you leave anytime | Only with the domain | Yes | Yes |
Over three years, Wix is not "the cheap option". It is the cheap option in month one. The gap to a custom site is smaller than it looks, and only one of them belongs to you at the end.
For the wider market picture, see how much a business website costs in 2026.
How to choose in 5 minutes
Answer these honestly.
- Does the site need to bring in clients?If not, Wix is enough. If yes, speed, SEO and trust matter, so compare seriously.
- Who updates it?Weekly edits and nobody technical point to a builder. A few changes a year fit a custom site with edits included.
- How much do you publish?Dozens of articles a month and several authors point to WordPress or another CMS.
- What is your horizon?For six months, pick the fastest option. For three years, add up the total cost and ask who owns the site.
- How much risk do you accept?If nobody will update WordPress, choose something else. Unmaintained WordPress is the most expensive option, the bill just arrives later.
What we do
We build custom websites with a fixed price. A landing page starts at 1,499 lei (about EUR 285) and takes 7-10 days. A 4-6 page business website with a contact form, basic SEO and visitor analytics starts at 2,199 lei (about EUR 415) and takes 14-21 days. You get all the access, the code and 30 days of support. Maintenance is optional, at 499 lei a month (about EUR 95). If you only want an existing site brought up to standard, web optimization starts at 699 lei (about EUR 130). Euro amounts are approximate, at the October 2026 exchange rate. Details are on the services page, and our work is on the projects page.
Do it yourself or hire someone
Build it yourself on Wix if you are just starting, your first-year budget is a few hundred dollars and the site is not how clients find you. Choose WordPress if you publish a lot and already have someone reliable handling updates. Hire a studio for a custom site if clients look you up on Google or ask an AI assistant before they get in touch, and you want a fast site that is yours without thinking about plugins. Want a neutral read on what you have now? Run the free audit. Want a fixed price for a new site? Check our services and send us a message. And if you are comparing providers, us or anyone else, our guide on how to choose a web design agency will help you ask the right questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wix or WordPress better for a small business?
For a small business that only needs an online presence and has nobody technical, Wix is simpler, because hosting, security and updates are included in the subscription. WordPress is better when you publish a lot of content or need specific features, but it needs regular maintenance, since plugins are the main source of vulnerabilities. If the site has to bring in clients long term, compare both with a custom site on 3-year cost.
How much does a WordPress website cost per year?
At the time of writing, shared hosting for a self-hosted WordPress site costs around $3 to $11 a month at a host like Hostinger, depending on whether you are on the intro rate or the renewal rate. Add a domain, yearly licenses for premium themes and plugins, and maintenance if someone else handles it. The build itself is a one-off cost that varies a lot depending on who does it.
Can I move my Wix site to another platform?
You can move your domain, but you cannot export the site itself to run on another host. Wix's support documentation says Wix sites must run on Wix servers because of its proprietary technology. In practice, leaving Wix means rebuilding the site on the new platform and moving the content by hand.
Is a custom website better for SEO than Wix or WordPress?
Not automatically, but it gives you full control over what matters for SEO: loading speed, page structure, meta tags and structured data. On Wix you are limited by what the platform allows, and on WordPress the result depends heavily on the theme and plugins. A well-built custom site starts from a clean base, without extra code that slows pages down.
Do I really need to pay for website maintenance?
For WordPress, almost always yes, because Patchstack found that the weighted median time to first exploit of a new vulnerability was about 5 hours in 2025. For a custom site without plugins, maintenance is optional and worth it mainly if you want monitoring, backups and monthly edits handled for you. On Wix, technical maintenance is included in the subscription.
How much does a custom website cost compared to Wix?
At Legacies, a custom 4-6 page business website starts at 2,199 lei, about EUR 415, with a fixed price, while a landing page starts at 1,499 lei. Wix's Core plan costs $29.77 a month with yearly billing at the time of writing, which adds up to about $1,072 over three years. The custom site costs more on day one but has no platform rent and belongs to you.