Best Website Builder for Tradies: Wix vs Squarespace vs an Agency

The best website builder for a tradie depends on what you have more of: time or money. If you are starting out with no budget, Wix or Squarespace will get a decent five-page site online for under $40 a month. If you need a page for every service and every suburb you work in, a quote form on every page, and you would rather be on the tools, paying someone to build it is usually the better deal.

This is an honest breakdown. We build tradie websites for a living, so we have a side. But DIY is the right call for plenty of tradies, and we will say exactly when.

Which website builder is best for tradies?

For a DIY site, Wix and Squarespace are the two most tradies end up choosing. Wix gives you more layout freedom and more add-ons. Squarespace gives you cleaner templates with less fiddling. Both handle a basic trade site well. Neither one builds your suburb pages, writes your copy or sets up your quote forms. That part is still your job.

"Which website builder is best for tradesmen?" came up in Google's People Also Ask box on five different searches we ran in October 2026, so you are not the only one asking. The trouble is that most answers online compare drag and drop editors and template counts. A tradie does not care about template counts. You care about three things:

• Does the phone ring and does the quote form get filled in?
• How long does it take to build and keep up to date?
• What does it cost over a year, not just in month one?

So that is how we will compare them.

What Wix and Squarespace cost in Australia

Squarespace starts at A$17 a month paid yearly, or A$24 paid monthly, on its Basic plan. Wix's Australian pricing page lists its Light plan at $17 a month including GST, with Core at $29 and Business at $39. We checked both prices on each company's own pricing page on 7 October 2026. Discounts come and go.

Both companies show a lower monthly number when you pay for the year upfront, so check the live page before you sign up. Wix's plans page includes a free domain for the first year on paid plans. After that, you pay for the domain separately.

Over a year, a basic DIY site costs roughly $200 to $470 in plan fees, from Squarespace Basic paid yearly up to Wix Business paid monthly. That is the real appeal. It is cheap, and you can start tonight.

When a DIY builder is the right call

DIY is fine when you are just starting out, your budget is close to zero, you work one or two suburbs, and you are comfortable at a laptop on a Sunday night. A clean five-page Wix or Squarespace site with your phone number, your services, real job photos and a contact form beats having no website at all.

Here is when we would honestly tell a tradie to build it themselves:

• You have just gone out on your own. You have no reviews, no photos of finished jobs and no idea yet which suburbs your work will come from. Spending hundreds on a big site now is premature.
• Word of mouth already fills your diary. If you are booked months out from referrals, the website is just there so people can check you are real. A simple page does that job.
• You enjoy it. Some tradies like building things on a screen as much as on site. If you will actually keep it updated, DIY works.
• You only do one service in one area. A single-page site for "tiling in Torquay" does not need 30 pages behind it.

A thread on r/tradies in August 2026 asked "Are websites worth it for tradies?" One reply summed up why even a basic site matters: "Nothing flash but the older clients (the ones with money) want to see a website." Another said a site makes it "easier to justify your quotes too when the other guys just have a mobile number on their ute." A DIY site clears that bar.

Where DIY falls short for a trade business

DIY builders fall short on four things tradies need most: one page per suburb, the groundwork for local search visibility, a fast mobile layout, and quote forms that reach you properly. The builder gives you the tools for all four. It does not do any of them for you, and most tradies never get much past the homepage.

None of this is a fault in Wix or Squarespace. They are general tools built for florists, photographers and cafes as much as for plumbers. The gap is between what the tool can do and what actually gets done by a tradie at 9pm after a long day on site. Each of the four is worth a closer look.

Suburb pages: the job a builder will not do for you

Homeowners search by trade and suburb, like "painter Geelong West" or "electrician Point Cook". A site with one Services page has nothing specific to show for those searches. A page for each suburb you work in fixes that. Wix and Squarespace let you add those pages, but writing 15 or 20 of them properly is days of work.

And they have to be written properly. Copying one page 20 times and swapping the suburb name is thin content, and Google's spam policies call out pages made mainly for search engines with little unique value. Each suburb page needs something real: the jobs you do there, the type of homes, how far you travel, a photo from a job nearby.

This is the single biggest gap between a DIY site and a done-for-you Build. We explain it in more detail in why your website needs suburb pages. On an Ampliia Build, a tradie ends up with 20 to 30+ pages: one for every service and one for every suburb, each with its own quote form.

Local search visibility: what the builder gives you and what it does not

Wix and Squarespace both give you the basics: page titles, descriptions, a sitemap and mobile layouts. That is the toolbox. Local search visibility also needs structure around it: service pages, suburb pages, your Google Business Profile linked to the right page, and the same business details everywhere. The builder does not plan that structure for you.

Be wary of anyone who promises a ranking, whether it is a builder's marketing page or an agency. Nobody controls where Google puts you. What you can control is whether the site is structured to improve local search visibility: a clear page for each thing you do and each place you do it, with your name, phone number and area the same everywhere.

One reply in that r/tradies thread put it bluntly: "A basic site with zero GBP work often sits there getting no traffic at all." The site and the Google Business Profile have to work together. A DIY builder will not set up either side of that for you.

Mobile: where the homeowner actually finds you

Most homeowners look for a tradie on their phone, often standing in the room that needs fixing. Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing, according to its Search Central documentation on mobile-first indexing. Wix and Squarespace templates are mobile friendly, but heavy images, sliders and video backgrounds can still make a DIY site slow on a phone.

The fix is boring and it matters: compress your photos, keep one clear button to call at the top of every page, and test the site on your own phone over mobile data, not the office wifi. If you build it yourself, do that test before you share the link with anyone.

On a phone, the tap-to-call button does most of the work. If a homeowner has to scroll to find your number, plenty of them will hit the back button and ring the next result instead.

Quote forms: where the enquiry goes

A quote form is only as good as where it lands. On a DIY site, form entries usually go to an email inbox or the builder's dashboard, and they are easy to miss. A trade site needs the form on every page, asking for the suburb and the job type, and landing somewhere you actually check between jobs.

Check three things before you call your form done:

• Send a test enquiry from your phone and see how long it takes to reach you.
• Make sure the notification goes to an inbox you actually check, not an old Hotmail address.
• Ask for the suburb and the type of job in the form, so you can tell a real job from a tyre kicker before you ring back.

The speed of your reply matters more than the form itself. We wrote about this in why tradies lose jobs to slow replies.

Your time is the real cost

The plan fee is the small part of a DIY site. The big part is your hours: choosing a template, writing every page, sorting photos, setting up the domain and fixing whatever breaks. If a proper 20-page site takes you 25 hours, that is three full days of billable work you did not do on site.

Do the sum with your own numbers. Take your hourly rate and multiply it by the hours you think a full site will take, then double the hours, because everybody underestimates it. For most tradies, the real cost of a full DIY site is the lost work, not the monthly plan.

That is not a reason to avoid DIY. It is a reason to be honest about it. If you would only build the homepage and a contact page anyway, DIY costs you a weekend and you are done.

Can you move a Wix or Squarespace site later?

Not easily. Wix's own support page on exporting your site says Wix sites cannot be moved to another host. Squarespace lets you export some content, but not the design. In practice, leaving either builder usually means rebuilding the site from scratch. Your domain can move. The site itself mostly cannot.

This matters if you think you might hand the site to someone else later. If you start on a builder and then hire someone, expect them to rebuild rather than pick up where you left off. That is normal, and it is not a disaster, but it is worth knowing before you spend 30 hours on it.

Whatever you choose, keep the domain in your own name and your own account. That is the one thing that stays yours no matter which builder, freelancer or agency you use. We cover this properly in who owns your website.

What an agency or done-for-you service costs

A traditional agency build in Australia usually costs $3,000 to $15,000, often with 50% upfront. Tradie-focused web services we checked in October 2026 publish prices from about $500 to $3,000 upfront, or monthly plans from $99. You pay more than DIY in month one, but you get your evenings back.

The middle of the market has plenty of options, and the price alone does not tell you much. What matters is what you get for it and what happens if you are not happy. Before you pay anyone, find out:

• How many pages you get, and whether suburb pages are included.
• Who writes the words. "Send us your content" means you are still doing the hard part.
• Whether you see the finished site before you pay in full.
• What the monthly fee covers, and what happens to the site if you stop paying.
• Whether the domain is registered in your name.

We go through agency price ranges in more detail in what a tradie website costs in Australia.

Wix vs Squarespace vs a done-for-you Build, side by side

Wix and Squarespace win on upfront cost and control. A done-for-you Build wins on time, suburb pages and getting the structure right the first time. Neither is wrong for everyone. The table below shows where each one lands for a typical tradie who works across 10 to 20 suburbs and wants a quote form on every page.

Wix and Squarespace prices are from their own pricing pages, checked 7 October 2026. Ampliia prices are from our pricing page.

What to do this week, whichever way you go

Pick based on your situation, not on the advertising. If you are new and broke, build a simple DIY site this weekend. If you are busy, working lots of suburbs and losing jobs to the bloke with the better website, get it built for you. Either way, sort out your domain and your Google Business Profile first.

Here is a short list that works for both paths:

• Register your domain in your own name, with your own email address on the account.
• Claim and fill in your Google Business Profile, then link it to your website.
• Put your mobile number in the top corner of every page, as a tap-to-call button.
• Use real photos of your own jobs. No stock photos of smiling models in clean hard hats.
• Add one page per service you actually want more of.
• Test the quote form from your phone, over mobile data.

If you are a painter, an electrician or a concreter, our trade pages show what a full Build looks like for your trade: websites for painters, websites for electricians and websites for concreters. For live examples, see the ZN Painting Services Build and the Handy Hands Electrical Build.

Frequently asked questions

Which website builder is best for tradesmen?

For DIY, Wix and Squarespace are the usual picks. Wix gives you more layout freedom, Squarespace gives you tidier templates. Both start at about $17 a month. If you want suburb pages and quote forms set up without doing the work yourself, a done-for-you Build is usually better value once you count your time.

What are some good websites for tradies in Australia?

Good tradie websites share the same shape: your phone number at the top, a page for each service, a page for each suburb, real job photos, reviews, and a quote form on every page. Look at the live Builds on our Work page for examples across painters, electricians, fencers, concreters and car detailers.

Is Wix or Squarespace better for a tradie?

Wix suits tradies who want to move things around and add booking or chat apps. Squarespace suits tradies who want a clean look with less fiddling, and it works well for visual trades like landscaping and painting. Neither one writes your suburb pages or your copy, so choose on how you like to work.

How much does a website builder cost per year?

Squarespace Basic costs A$204 a year paid upfront, according to its pricing page in October 2026. Wix lists plans from $17 a month including GST. Add a domain after the first year. A DIY site usually costs $200 to $470 a year in plan fees, plus the hours you spend building and updating it.

Can I start on Wix and switch to a professional later?

Yes, and plenty of tradies do. Expect the new site to be rebuilt rather than moved, because Wix says its sites cannot be exported to another host. Keep your domain in your own name from day one, so switching only means pointing the domain at the new site.

Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?

The profile gets you onto Google Maps. The website gives people a reason to choose you once they find you, with your services, your suburbs and your work in one place. They work best together, and Google lets you link your profile to your site. We cover this in do tradies need a website.

Sources

Every price and fact in this article comes from one of these. Prices were checked on 7 October 2026 and change often, so check the live page before you buy.

• Squarespace pricing: Basic A$17 a month paid yearly or A$24 monthly, Core A$28 yearly or A$39 monthly.
• Wix plans: Light $17, Core $29 and Business $39 a month, price includes GST, free domain for one year.
• Wix Help Center: exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere: Wix sites cannot be moved to another host.
• Google Search Central: mobile-first indexing: Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing.
• Google Search Central: spam policies: pages made mainly for search engines with little unique value.
• r/tradies, "Are websites worth it for tradies", August 2026: the quotes on older clients, the mobile number on the ute, and GBP work.
• Agency and done-for-you price ranges: the agency range in our cost guide, plus prices published on Australian tradie web service sites, checked by Ampliia AI in October 2026.

Related reading

• What a tradie website costs in Australia
• Why your website needs suburb pages
• Who owns your website?
• Google Business Profile for tradies
• Websites for tradies, by trade

What Ampliia charges

$500 setup, then $100 a month. The $100 Deposit starts the Build. You see the finished 20 to 30+ page site within 3 business days of the Deposit and your details, and the $400 Balance is only due on Approval. The Care Plan is month to month, and your domain, logo, photos and words are always yours.

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How the process works

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