Hall Web Design vs Wix
Verdictvs Wix
Wix is genuinely good for getting a shop-window online in one weekend with zero developer involvement. Past that weekend, everything that makes it easy is also what holds you back - and there's no migration path off it that doesn't mean a rebuild.
Wix is a drag-and-drop site builder that doesn't produce code you can take with you. That's fine for a lot of businesses - especially ones that just need a brochure-ware splash while they work out what their business actually is. Once the business starts asking more of the site, the same trade-offs start to hurt.
Time to first page live
Week 1 - preview URL you can share. Week 2-4 - polished, launched. A weekend if you know what you want. Under a day with one of Wix's AI builders. Performance
Lighthouse 95+ across the site. Sub-second LCP on a good connection. Wix sites ship ~3MB of JavaScript for a brochure page. Mobile Lighthouse routinely lands in the 30s-50s. Hard to fix because the runtime is Wix's, not yours. SEO
Clean HTML, proper JSON-LD, Core Web Vitals in the green. Everything Google asks for. Has improved a lot but still lags. The JavaScript-heavy render delays first paint, and custom <meta> / schema tags are possible but fiddly. Cost
One-time build fee, then £20/mo hosting on Vercel Pro (or £0 on hobby for small sites). No feature tiers. £13-£39/mo for the site plan, then transaction fees on Wix Payments, premium plugin charges, and the "upgrade to unlock" squeeze on most features you'd actually use. Design
Bespoke design in Figma, built to match. No template other people also use. Large template library. Templates look decent out of the box but every Wix site eventually reads as 'a Wix site'. Editor experience
Decap CMS or similar for content-only edits. A developer (me or any Next.js dev) for structural changes. Anyone can edit anything, drag-and-drop. This is Wix's killer feature - no developer dependency. Ownership
Code in a git repo, content in markdown/JSON. Everything portable to another Vercel account or any other host. You can't export a Wix site. You own the content in theory; you don't own the site. Stop paying and it goes offline. Lock-in
None. If you outgrow me, any competent Next.js developer can pick it up. Total. No migration path off Wix exists except rebuilding somewhere else. When Wix is actually the right call
Before I recommend anyone spend money with me, I want to name the cases where Wix is the right answer.
You need a splash page fast, you're not technical, and the cost of a developer is not in budget. Wix's free tier gets you a weekend-and-done site for zero upfront cost. If the business is still figuring out whether it'll exist in six months, spending four figures on a bespoke site is premature.
The site is genuinely informational and conversion isn't a priority. If your customers find you through word-of-mouth or Google Business Profile and just need somewhere to confirm you exist, opening hours, and a phone number - Wix is sufficient. The perf and SEO penalty doesn't cost you revenue you were going to make.
Your brand has no design requirements beyond "professional". Wix templates are fine. Not distinctive, not embarrassing. If you don't need to stand out visually, that's enough.
Where I come in
Once any of these change, the economics shift fast.
The day you start competing on Google. Local search is a Core Web Vitals game. Wix sites losing 30-40 Lighthouse points vs the top results is a direct ranking penalty. The £200/month you're spending on Wix Premium + an SEO consultant is a rebuild's worth of fees every year.
The day the site needs to integrate with something. Booking calendars, CRM pipelines, payment webhooks, inventory systems. Wix has apps for most of these, at a premium, with limited customisation. A bespoke site wires them in cleanly.
The day the brand matters. For a regional business competing on craft (Bram Racing tuning a car, Fairways servicing a vehicle, Gecko running enduro tours), looking like every other Wix site is a silent cost. A distinctive site converts better because it signals "this business cares".
Common questions
Can you rebuild my Wix site?+
Yes. The rebuild is genuinely a rebuild though - there's no export from Wix that converts cleanly. I start with a content inventory (pages, images, copy, forms), a URL map if you care about SEO continuity, and a fresh Figma design. Typical timeline is 3-4 weeks.
Will I lose my Wix email / domain / shop when I move?+
Domain you keep - just point it at the new host. Email depends where it's sitting (Wix-hosted mailboxes need migrating to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365; I handle that for clients on managed-services). Shop: if it's Wix Stores, I rebuild the product catalogue with the same data exported to CSV. Order history doesn't come across.
What does a bespoke site actually cost versus Wix?+
A small-business Next.js site is typically £1-2k one-off and £20-40/month running. Wix Premium is £13-£39/month forever, plus transaction fees. Over three years, the bespoke site is usually the cheaper option even before you count the value of better SEO + conversion.
I'm not technical. Won't a bespoke site be harder to edit?+
Depends how much you edit. If you want to change your phone number or add a news post, Decap CMS gives you an in-browser editor that looks like Wix or any other block editor - just without the performance penalty. If you want to redesign your site every six months, honestly, Wix might be what you want.
Isn't Wix's AI builder enough for most small businesses?+
For a site that exists because every business needs a site, yes. For a site that's actually a sales channel - driving calls, bookings, orders - the output of an AI builder on top of Wix's already-heavy runtime is measurably worse than a purpose-built page. The difference shows up in conversion rate, not in how the site looks in a screenshot.
Can I try Wix first and move to you later if it doesn't work?+
You can, and a lot of my clients did exactly that. The downside is you'll rebuild from scratch rather than port across, which is time and money you'd rather have spent once. If you already know the business will be around in two years, starting with a bespoke site is cheaper over that horizon.
Done with Wix?
Tell me what your current site is costing you - in page-load time, plugin headaches, or conversions - and I'll tell you whether a rebuild is worth it.