Webstallion Co vs Wix
Wix rents you a website. We build you one you own.
Wix is a drag-and-drop builder with a monthly subscription. Stop paying and your website is gone. We build hand-coded sites that live on your own hosting, under your own domain, with no ongoing platform fee. You own every file.
$0
Monthly platform fee after launch
90+
PageSpeed guaranteed on every build
You own it outright.
Code, domain, hosting - all yours.
Side by side
What you actually get - hand-coded vs Wix.
An honest comparison. Wix is a capable tool for businesses that want to get online quickly without writing any code. But for a business that wants to own their site and avoid paying a platform fee indefinitely, hand-coded is better value over time.
| Feature | Webstallion Co | Wix |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | You own every file | Wix hosts and controls your site |
| Monthly fee | None after build | ~$17-55 AUD/month, every month |
| PageSpeed score | 90+ guaranteed | Typically 50-75, depends on content |
| Design flexibility | Unlimited - built to spec | Drag-and-drop within template system |
| Code access | Full - hosted on GitHub | No direct code access |
| Content editing | PagesCMS - free, browser-based | Wix Editor (requires active subscription) |
| What happens if you stop paying | Nothing - site stays live | Site goes offline. Data export limited. |
| Local SEO control | Full - custom schema, meta, structure | Built-in SEO tools, limited structured data |
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages or Netlify (free tier) | Wix-managed, included in subscription |
| Build time | 10-25 business days, fixed | Hours to weeks, depends on customisation |
The real cost of Wix
What a Wix subscription actually costs over time - and what you get for it.
The monthly fee isn't the only issue. Here's what the Wix model means in practice for a small business.
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You're renting, not buying
At around $17/month (basic plan, AUD), that's $204/year. Over five years that's over $1,000 - for a site you don't own. Stop paying and the site goes dark. Export options are limited and don't preserve your design. A custom site built once at $1,500 costs less over two years than ongoing Wix fees, and you own it outright.
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Speed that can't be fixed
Wix loads significant JavaScript overhead for its editor and builder system on every page visit - regardless of whether the visitor is editing anything. This creates a performance floor you can't break through. Wix sites commonly score between 50-70 on PageSpeed mobile, with some well below that. For Australian businesses competing locally, that's a meaningful disadvantage.
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Design walls you'll hit
Wix's drag-and-drop flexibility has limits. Layout options, font pairings, and section types are all controlled by the platform. As your business evolves, you'll find things you want to do that Wix simply doesn't support without hacks. Moving to a different template means rebuilding from scratch.
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SEO you can't fully control
Wix has improved its SEO tools significantly, but custom schema markup, structured data, and technical SEO are constrained by what the platform exposes in its interface. For local businesses targeting industry and suburb keywords, being able to write precise JSON-LD schema and structure page architecture correctly becomes important as competition increases.
What a hand-coded rebuild looks like
Serene Family Dental - rebuilt from 45 to 91 PageSpeed.
Serene Family Dental came to us with a slow, hard-to-maintain website. It was scoring 45/100 on PageSpeed, wasn't optimised for mobile, and had no clear online booking flow. Their team had no time to manage it and weren't getting value from it.
We rebuilt the site from scratch in hand-coded HTML, CSS, and JavaScript - no platform, no subscription. The result scored 91/100 on PageSpeed. They edit content via PagesCMS when needed. No ongoing platform fee. The site will stay live as long as they pay their $10/month hosting and $20/year domain.
Read the full case study"We had been putting up with our old website for too long — it was slow, hard to update, and we weren't happy with how it represented our practice. Param rebuilt it from scratch and it's been a completely different experience. Faster, cleaner, and our patients comment on it."
What we build instead
Hand-coded HTML with PagesCMS - fast, owned, and editable.
You still get a content management system - it just doesn't come with a subscription. PagesCMS is free, open-source, and connects to your GitHub repository.
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Hand-coded, built to spec
Every page is written from scratch for your business. No template constraints, no builder overhead. The design is exactly what your business needs - not what a template lets you get close to.
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Free hosting on Cloudflare/Netlify
Static HTML sites can be hosted for free on Cloudflare Pages or Netlify. Both are production-grade platforms. You pay for your domain (~$15-20/year) and nothing else. No platform subscription required.
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PagesCMS for editing
We set up PagesCMS connected to your GitHub repo. Edit text, update images, publish blog posts - through a clean browser interface. Free, open-source, and no subscription required ever.
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90+ PageSpeed - guaranteed
Every site hits 90+ on PageSpeed Insights before handover. No caching plugins required. No CDN configuration needed. The code is lean because we only write what the site actually needs.
Pricing
Pay once. Own it forever.
No subscription. No renewal invoice. No platform fee. Full package details →
Starter
$1,500
10-15 pages · 10 business days
- ✓ No monthly platform fee
- ✓ 90+ PageSpeed guaranteed
- ✓ PagesCMS setup
- ✓ Mobile responsive
Growth - Most popular
$2,000
30-35 pages · 15 business days
- ✓ Everything in Starter
- ✓ Blog with PagesCMS
- ✓ Industry-specific pages
- ✓ Local SEO structure
Scale
$4,000
Up to 100 pages · 25 business days
- ✓ Everything in Growth
- ✓ Large content sites
- ✓ Multiple location pages
- ✓ Full SEO content structure
Questions
What people ask when they're thinking about moving off Wix.
Why not use Wix for a small business website?
Wix is a capable drag-and-drop tool for businesses that want to build their own site without any code knowledge. The tradeoffs are a monthly subscription indefinitely, PageSpeed scores typically in the 50-70 range, and design constraints as the platform evolves. If you're comfortable managing those tradeoffs, Wix is a valid starting point. If you want to own your site outright without paying platform fees forever, a hand-coded site makes more sense over time.
How does a custom site compare to Wix on PageSpeed?
Wix sites typically score between 50-75 on PageSpeed Insights, depending on content and how the site is built. Our hand-coded sites are guaranteed to hit 90+. The Serene Family Dental rebuild went from 45 to 91. The difference comes from writing only the code that's needed - no platform overhead, no builder scripts, no editor JavaScript loading on every visit.
Do I keep paying after the website is built?
No ongoing fees to us. You pay hosting separately - Cloudflare Pages or Netlify free tier for static sites. You own the domain separately (usually $15-20/year). There's no Wix subscription, no platform fee, no renewal you might forget about.
Can I edit the site myself after it's built?
Yes. We set up PagesCMS (pagescms.org) - a free, open-source CMS that connects to your GitHub repo. Edit text, update images, publish blog posts through a browser interface. No code knowledge needed.
I already have a Wix site - can you migrate it?
Yes. We rebuild your site from scratch, migrating your content across. You'll end the project with a faster, fully owned site. We handle the migration as part of the project scope.
Can I migrate from Wix to a hand-coded site?
Yes — we handle the migration as part of the project. Same packages apply. Wix does not allow direct code export, so we rebuild with your content — transferring copy, images, and setting up redirects from your old URLs. It's also an opportunity to restructure for better SEO and performance.
Is Wix ever the right choice over a hand-coded site?
Yes — if you need a site today with minimal budget and don't plan to invest in SEO, Wix gets you live fast. The trade-offs are ongoing subscription fees, a PageSpeed ceiling around 50–60 on mobile, and no code ownership. For any business where the website is a lead source, those trade-offs compound over time.
Related reading
- → Dental website design in Australia — what practices need to know
- → Why your PageSpeed score matters (and what's killing it)
- → How much does a dental website cost in Australia?
- → Case study: Serene Family Dental — PageSpeed 45 to 91
- → All articles and guides
- → Why cheap websites cost more in the long run — 3-year total cost breakdown
Own your website
Ready to stop paying rent on your website?
Tell us about your business and your current site. We'll scope the project, give you a fixed price, and have it live in 10-25 business days. You own every file from day one.