Wix, Squarespace and WordPress: When DIY Builders Fall Short

Picking a template on a Sunday evening and having a site live within a few hours is tempting. That speed is what site builders highlight, and in many cases it really is possible. The difficulties tend to show up not at the start but a year or two later: when the site grows, when you want to take card payments in Türkiye, or when you decide to leave the platform.

The WordPress in the title needs a distinction. WordPress.com is a hosted service that works much like a site builder. WordPress.org is the open-source software you install on your own hosting. They share a name, but their flexibility is very different.

What follows is a general picture; platforms' features, plans and prices change often. Before deciding, check the current situation on each platform's own site.

Who are site builders good for?

To be fair, these platforms are the right choice in many cases:

• A personal portfolio, a one-page introduction or an event page
• Small businesses whose content rarely changes and that don't take online payments
• Founders who want to test an idea quickly
• People who can't budget for technical support but enjoy doing it themselves

The one caveat is that DIY has a cost too. Hours spent editing templates, adjusting images and searching forums for fixes are hours not spent on your business.

The platforms side by side

Wix: High drag-and-drop flexibility; you can place elements anywhere on the page. A wide choice of templates and a large app market. On the other hand, there can be limits on moving the site to another platform and on changing the template of a live site; check Wix's help pages for the current situation. Free placement can also mean the mobile view needs separate attention.

Squarespace: Consistent templates; even someone with no design background can get a tidy result. Layout freedom is relatively more limited. Export can be partial; some content can be exported, but the design and some page types may not transfer.

WordPress.com: Hosted WordPress. Whether you can install plugins depends on the plan. Content can be exported, so portability is relatively better.

WordPress.org: Full control, a large number of plugins, any hosting company you like. In return, updates, security and backups are your responsibility. We compared WordPress with custom code in detail in a separate article.

Limits specific to Türkiye: payments, invoicing, language

This is where the main question marks can appear for a business in Türkiye using a foreign site builder.

Start with payments. At the time of writing, Stripe and PayPal did not offer payment services to businesses based in Türkiye; check the current situation on the providers' own sites. If a platform's built-in payment options rely largely on such providers, taking card payments through it can be difficult for a business in Türkiye. Supported payment providers vary by country; direct integration with payment institutions in Türkiye may be limited or depend on third-party apps. Before subscribing, check which providers are actually available in your account.

Instalments are part of how people in Türkiye shop. Without a local virtual POS or payment provider, selling in instalments is usually difficult.

On invoicing, ready connections to e-invoice and e-archive integrators can be limited. Entering orders into your accounting system by hand is bearable at five orders a day, not at fifty.

Shipping is similar. Ready integration with the common carriers in Türkiye isn't always available; in that case you have to create shipment codes and send them to customers manually.

Legal texts matter too. In distance sales, the preliminary information and agreement texts need to be presented to and accepted by the customer at checkout. Check in advance whether the platform's checkout can be set up to do this, and work out the content of the texts with a lawyer.

Finally, language and currency. Some system text in templates may be only partly translated into Turkish, and multilingual features may cost extra. Subscription prices may be in foreign currency or move with the exchange rate.

If you plan to sell online in Türkiye, a local e-commerce platform or a site you own can be a more practical starting point.

Portability and platform lock-in

Site builders generally work on a rental model. When you cancel the subscription the site goes too, and in most cases what you can take with you is your text and images.

Leaving a site builder often means largely rebuilding the site elsewhere; on some platforms part of the content transfers and the rest is moved by hand. Either way, page addresses change, so old URLs need redirecting to the new ones; otherwise part of the visibility you've built on Google can be lost.

There's a simple way to reduce this risk: buy your domain from an independent registrar, not from the platform. When you switch platforms, the domain stays with you and you just change where it points.

There's also price risk. When a platform changes its subscription prices or plan contents, your options can be limited.

When should you move to a professional site?

If you see several of these signs, the time may have come:

• You need to take card and instalment payments in Türkiye.
• Working on the site eats into the hours you should spend on your business each week.
• Your mobile speed scores are low and you can't improve them within the platform.
• Competitors are ahead on Google and you've hit the platform's limits in SEO settings.
• The annual total of subscription, app and plugin fees is close to the yearly cost of a professional site.
• You need a feature the platform can't provide, such as booking, a quote calculator or an integration.

At this point, custom software from scratch isn't the only option. In Kodyva's ready-to-brand model, we adapt a site that has already been built and tested with your logo, colours, content and domain. For corporate sites, delivery usually takes 7 to 10 business days; the scope, whose name the accounts are opened in and the handover terms are settled in the quote and contract. We explained what the ready-to-brand model is, and who it doesn't suit, in a separate article.