BetterLocalSites vs Wix vs Squarespace vs Shopify

BetterLocalSites builds custom websites for contractors and local service businesses: roofers, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, concrete contractors, HVAC companies, and similar trades. The site is planned, written, designed, built, and launched for you.

It's usually a good fit if:

• You don't want to learn a site builder, edit layouts, install plugins, or manage a website dashboard.
• Your business information, services, and photos don't change often.
• When something does need changing, you'd rather send it to someone than do it yourself.
• You mainly need the website to earn trust and get people to call or request an estimate.

It's not a good fit if you want to edit the site yourself or you need an online store. Both are covered below, honestly.

Wix is a DIY website builder. You pick a template, drag elements around, and make changes whenever you want. If you like hands-on control and don't mind learning the editor, it's a reasonable choice for a small business website.

Wix has a free plan, but it shows Wix branding and uses a generic wixsite.com address instead of your own domain, which isn't ideal for a business that wants to look established. Paid plans that let you use your own domain start around $17/month, and higher plans cost more.

Choose Wix if editing the site yourself is important and you're comfortable doing the work.

Squarespace is also a DIY platform, known for polished templates and a visual editor. It suits people who want to manage their own site and care about a clean design out of the box.

Plans start around $19/month for Basic, with Core around $29/month, Plus around $49/month, and Advanced around $99/month. Ecommerce features are available too.

Choose Squarespace if you want a good-looking template and plan to maintain the site yourself.

Shopify is built for ecommerce. If selling products online is a core part of your business, it's usually the right place to start. It handles:

• Product catalogs
• Checkout and ecommerce payments
• Inventory
• Order management
• Shipping

Regular pricing starts around $29/month for Basic, around $79/month for Grow, and around $299/month for Advanced, with Shopify Plus priced much higher for large businesses. Shopify sometimes offers introductory promotions, like a free trial or a reduced price for the first few months, before regular pricing begins. The comparison uses regular pricing.

For a typical contractor website, where the goal is phone calls and estimate requests rather than product sales, Shopify usually isn't the main comparison.

After your website is built, there's $0/month paid to BetterLocalSites after launch if you don't need ongoing changes. Hosting is included, and your site stays online.

You'll still pay for your domain name, usually around $10–$30 per year. You own it and pay the registrar directly — that fee doesn't go to me.

Website builders work differently. Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify charge an ongoing platform fee for as long as the site is live, and that fee is separate from what it costs to keep your domain.

Your domain is your business's address online, so it should belong to you. With BetterLocalSites, it's registered in your own account. Domain registration is usually around $10–$30/year and is paid directly to your registrar.

• The domain belongs to you.
• You pay the registrar directly.
• BetterLocalSites doesn't collect or mark up that fee.

If you already own a domain, I connect it to your new site. If you don't, I can help you register one in your name.

This is the biggest difference between BetterLocalSites and a website builder.

With Wix or Squarespace, you pay for access to the platform and you make the changes yourself. That works well if you enjoy it, change your site often, or want to do it on your own schedule.

BetterLocalSites sites don't come with a DIY drag-and-drop editor. They're built for businesses that either rarely need changes or would rather have someone else make them. When you need something changed, you send it over and a person handles it.

Neither approach is better for everyone. If you'd genuinely prefer to log in and edit things yourself, a website builder is the better fit, and that's completely fine.

Website Care is optional and costs $50/month. You send the changes you need, and an actual person makes them.

You're not paying $50/month for access to a website builder. You're paying to have an actual person handle small website changes for you. It costs more than the cheapest DIY plans. What the difference buys you is not having to do the work yourself.

Every build also includes 30 days of small updates after launch, so you can decide afterward whether Website Care makes sense for you.

BetterLocalSites does not build ecommerce websites. That's a deliberate choice, not a gap I'm trying to hide.

A serious online store needs checkout, payments, inventory, order management, and shipping tools that are maintained and improved constantly. Shopify does that well, and a small custom build shouldn't pretend to compete with it. If you need to sell products online, use Shopify.

If you run a service business that just needs customers to call, text, or request an estimate, you don't need ecommerce. That's exactly what BetterLocalSites is built for.