Let's get the obvious out of the way first: we build custom websites for a living. So you'd expect us to tell you Squarespace is terrible and you need to hire a designer immediately.
We're not going to do that. Because it isn't true, and because the business owners we work with in Peoria and Central Illinois can smell a sales pitch from a mile away. So here's the honest version.
What Squarespace Does Well
Squarespace, Wix, and the other builders are genuinely good at one thing: getting something online fast. If you started a business last month and need a page with your hours, your phone number, and a few photos by Friday, a builder will do that for about $25 a month. No designer, no waiting.
The templates are clean. The editor mostly works. For a brand new business testing whether an idea has legs, that's a reasonable place to start, and we'll tell you that on a discovery call for free.
Where It Starts Costing You
The problems don't show up on day one. They show up around month six, when you start wondering why the website isn't bringing in customers.
- Every template site looks like a template site. Your customers have seen that same layout a hundred times. Nothing about it says anything about your business, and people can feel that even when they can't name it.
- Speed. Builders ship a lot of code your site doesn't use, because the platform has to support every feature for everyone. Slower load times mean more people leave before the page appears, and Google notices too.
- An SEO ceiling. You can do basic SEO on Squarespace, and you should. But you can't control everything Google reads, and when you're competing for "your trade + your town" against businesses that can, that ceiling is real.
- You're renting. Stop paying, and the site is gone. The platform raises prices, you pay. You never own the thing your business depends on.
- Your time isn't free. The "cheap" option usually includes twenty hours of you fighting an editor at 11pm instead of running your business. Price that honestly.
What "Custom" Actually Means
Fair is fair, so let's define our side of it too, because "custom" gets thrown around a lot. Plenty of designers sell "custom websites" that are templates with your logo dropped in.
When we say custom, we mean the site is designed from scratch around your business and then hand coded. No WordPress, no page builders, no theme underneath. The result is a site that looks like your business and nobody else's, loads fast because it carries nothing it doesn't need, gives Google exactly what it wants to see, and belongs to you. The files are yours.
Every build also includes a photo shoot to capture your vision for the site. Real photos of your business, your team, and your work, because a beautiful site built on stock photos is a suit with someone else's name stitched inside.
The Real Question: What's Your Website's Job?
Here's how we'd tell a friend to decide.
A builder is probably enough if your website is a business card. People already know you, they just need your hours and your number. You're brand new and money is genuinely tight. Or you're testing an idea you might drop in six months.
Custom is the right call if your website's job is to win customers. If someone in Morton or Washington searches for what you do and picks from the results, your site is competing every single day. It either looks like the obvious choice or it doesn't. That's the job we build for.
The math is the same one we use for pricing. Think about what one new customer is worth to you, then ask how many customers a year your website would need to win to pay for itself. For most service businesses around Peoria, the answer is a handful. A good site clears that bar without breaking a sweat.
The Bottom Line
Squarespace is a fine tool for a website that just needs to exist. A custom site is an investment for a website that needs to work. Neither answer is wrong. What's wrong is paying custom prices for a template, or expecting builder prices to deliver custom results.
And if you're not sure which one you are, ask someone who'll tell you straight.
Not sure which side you're on?
Book a free 15 minute discovery call. If a builder is genuinely all you need right now, we'll tell you that too.
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