Website Builders vs. HTML: Why We Don't Use Them (And You Probably Shouldn't Either)
Website builders like Wix and Squarespace are easy to start with. But they cost more long-term, lock you in, and give you a site you don't actually own. Here's why plain HTML is the better choice for most small businesses.
I get asked this a lot: “Why don’t you just use Squarespace?” Or Wix. Or Webflow. Or whatever the builder of the month is.
Fair question. Those tools exist for a reason. They make it easy to get something online fast. But “easy to start” and “good long-term” are two different things. For most small businesses, a website builder is the more expensive, less flexible, riskier option. Here’s why.
You don’t own your site
This is the big one. When you build on Wix or Squarespace, your website lives on their servers, in their system, using their proprietary format. You’re renting space in someone else’s building.
If you stop paying, the site disappears. If they change their pricing, you pay more or lose everything. If they shut down a feature you depend on, tough luck.
With a plain HTML site, the files live on your computer. You can upload them anywhere. You can hand them to any developer. You can switch hosts in an afternoon. The site is yours, permanently, no matter what happens to any company.
The subscription never ends
Website builders charge monthly. That’s their whole business model. And the costs add up faster than people realize.
Let’s do the math on a typical Squarespace plan:
- Year 1: $192 ($16/month on the annual plan)
- Year 3: $576
- Year 5: $960
- Year 10: $1,920
And that’s the basic plan. Need e-commerce features? Scheduling? Custom forms? You’re looking at $27-49/month, which puts you at $2,880-$5,880 over ten years.
Meanwhile, a static HTML site costs $0/month to host on Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or GitHub Pages. Your only recurring cost is your domain name: about $12/year.
Over ten years, that’s $120 total vs. $1,920+ on a builder. You could pay someone to build you a custom site and still come out ahead.
Platform lock-in is real
Try exporting a Squarespace site. You’ll get a partial XML file that’s useful to almost nobody. Wix doesn’t even offer a real export. You’re stuck.
This means:
- You can’t easily hire a developer to improve your site outside the platform
- You can’t move to a different host without rebuilding from scratch
- You can’t take your site with you if you outgrow the builder
- Your content is trapped in a format only that platform understands
With HTML files, there’s nothing to export. The files are the site. Any developer on earth can work with them. Any host on earth can serve them. Zero lock-in.
Performance is worse
Website builders add a lot of overhead. They load their own JavaScript frameworks, tracking scripts, and platform code before your content even starts rendering. The result: slower sites.
This matters for two reasons. First, visitors leave slow sites. Google’s own data shows 53% of mobile users abandon a page that takes over 3 seconds to load. Second, Google uses page speed as a ranking factor. A faster site ranks better.
A well-built HTML site loads in under a second. A typical Squarespace or Wix site takes 3-5 seconds. That’s not a minor difference. It’s the gap between someone seeing your site and someone hitting the back button.
SEO control is limited
Builders give you basic SEO fields: page title, meta description, maybe alt text for images. That covers maybe 20% of what actually matters for search rankings.
What you can’t easily do on most builders:
- Add structured data (schema markup) for rich search results
- Control your HTML structure and heading hierarchy precisely
- Optimize for Core Web Vitals at the code level
- Add custom meta tags for social sharing
- Implement technical redirects
- Build a proper internal linking structure
- Minify and optimize assets exactly how you want
With HTML, you control every line of code. Every meta tag, every schema block, every performance optimization is yours to set up exactly right.
”But I’m not technical”
I hear this, and it’s a valid concern. But here’s the thing: you don’t need to be technical to use an HTML template.
An HTML file is just text with some tags around it. If you can write an email, you can change the text on a webpage. Open the file, find the text you want to change, type the new text, save the file. That’s it.
You don’t need to understand CSS layouts or JavaScript. You don’t need to learn programming. You just need to be comfortable editing text in a file. Our templates come with clear comments showing you exactly what to change and where.
And if you truly don’t want to touch any code, that’s fine too. Our done-for-you service handles everything for a one-time fee. No monthly subscription, and you still own the result.
When a website builder IS fine
I’ll be honest. There are situations where a builder makes sense:
- You need e-commerce with inventory management. Shopify is genuinely good at this. Running an online store with hundreds of products is a different problem than having a business website.
- You update content daily. If you’re publishing new content every day and you’re the only person doing it, a visual editor saves real time.
- It’s temporary. If you need something online for a two-week event, a builder’s speed matters more than its long-term costs.
But for a typical small business that needs a professional site with their services, location, hours, and contact info? A builder is overkill and overpriced. A static HTML site does the job better, faster, and cheaper.
The bottom line
Website builders sell convenience. And in the short term, they deliver on that promise. But the tradeoff is ownership, flexibility, performance, and money. Lots of money, paid monthly, forever.
A plain HTML site gives you:
- Full ownership. The files are yours. No company can take them away.
- Zero lock-in. Host anywhere. Move anytime. Hire anyone to work on it.
- Better performance. Static HTML is the fastest thing on the web.
- Better SEO control. Every line of code is yours to optimize.
- Lower cost. Free hosting, no subscriptions, one-time investment.
We build every one of our templates as pure HTML and CSS for exactly these reasons. No JavaScript frameworks, no build tools, no dependencies. Just clean files that work everywhere and belong to you.
If you’re starting from scratch, browse our free templates and pick one that fits your industry. If you want someone to handle the setup, our done-for-you packages start at $397. One payment, and you own the site forever.
Stop renting your web presence. Own it.