The Temptation of DIY
Wix and Squarespace make it look easy. Pick a template, drag and drop some content, publish. Done. For $16-$33/month, you've got a website. So why would anyone pay more?
Because a template website for a contractor is like a generic business card — it exists, but it doesn't work. Let's break down why.
Performance and Speed
Wix and Squarespace sites are built on bloated platforms designed to do everything for everyone. That flexibility comes at a cost: speed. The average Wix site loads in 4-6 seconds. Squarespace is slightly better at 3-5 seconds. Google recommends under 2.5 seconds for optimal performance. A hand-coded website built specifically for your business loads in under 1 second. Speed affects both your search rankings and your conversion rates.
SEO Limitations
DIY builders give you basic SEO tools — meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tags. That's table stakes. Real SEO for contractors requires schema markup for local business, optimized heading structures, internal linking strategies, location-specific pages, service-specific pages, and technical optimizations that template builders simply don't support. You can't out-SEO a hand-coded website with a Squarespace template.
Design Limitations
Every Wix and Squarespace site looks like a Wix or Squarespace site. Experienced web users can spot them instantly. For a contractor trying to communicate professionalism and trust, looking like every other template site on the internet doesn't help. Your website should look like it was built for your business, because it should be.
The Real Cost of DIY
The subscription is $16-$33/month, but the real cost is your time. Contractors who build their own sites spend 20-40 hours on the initial build and 2-5 hours per month maintaining it. If your billable rate is $75/hour, that initial build costs you $1,500-$3,000 in lost revenue. And you still end up with a template site that underperforms a professionally built one in every measurable way.
The Professional Alternative
At Forge Software, $100/month gets you a hand-coded website that loads faster, ranks better, converts more, and requires zero effort on your part. We build it, host it, maintain it, and update it. You do what you do best — run your trade business.