Wix, Squarespace or done-for-you? What it really takes to build your own website

Nov 9, 2026 · Taylor

Website builders like Wix and Squarespace are popular because they let you make a website without writing code. That's a real strength. This post isn't about which builder is best. It's about what the job actually involves, so you can decide whether it's how you want to spend your time.

Full disclosure: Yes Boss Websites is our own done-for-you service, so we're not neutral. We've kept this to what building a site involves in general, and we haven't made claims about any particular builder's features or prices. Check those on their own websites.

What building your own website involves

Builders give you the tools. The work of using them is still yours. Here are the steps most people go through.

1. Choose a template. Builders offer a lot of templates, which is good for choice and slower for deciding. You often pick a look before you know what you'll put in it.
2. Lay it out. Most builders let you drag boxes, pictures and text around. Getting things to line up, with even spacing, takes patience and a good eye.
3. Check the phone version. Business.gov.au says mobile devices are responsible for over half of the world's internet traffic, and tells owners to design their website to work on mobiles as well as desktop computers. Many builders let you look at the phone view separately, so plan to check both and fix each one.
4. Prepare your photos. Photos usually need cropping and resizing. Google's web.dev guidance says the main content of a page should appear within 2.5 seconds of it starting to load, and large photos can slow a page down.
5. Write every word. The headline, the about section, your services, your hours. A blank page is harder than it sounds, and the words are what customers actually read.
6. Sort out the Google basics. That means page titles and descriptions, and thinking about how your business shows up in search. Google says it uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking. We can't promise any result from any of this, and nobody honestly can. See our post on what to use now that Google Business Profile websites are gone.
7. Connect your own web address. Business.gov.au says you can register a .com.au address through a registrar listed on the .auDA website. After you've bought it, you connect it to your website, which usually means changing settings with both the registrar and the builder.
8. Check what your plan includes. Plans differ, and a feature you need may sit in a higher plan. Read the pricing page for your country before you commit, and check what the price is after the first year.

None of these steps is hard on its own. Together they add up, and many people find it takes longer than they expected. How long depends on how much you want to customise and how comfortable you are with this kind of thing.

When doing it yourself makes sense

Building it yourself is a good choice if:

• You enjoy design and tinkering. If you'd happily spend an evening on spacing and colours, a builder is a fun tool.
• You want full control. You decide every detail, and you can change anything any time you like.
• You have a more complex job. A large shop, memberships or logins are bigger jobs than a simple business website, and a builder with the right plan may suit them better than we do.
• You have the time. If you've got the evenings to spare and the patience, the money you save is real.

When done-for-you makes more sense

Having it done for you suits you better if:

• You're a busy owner. If an hour on your website is an hour you're not spending on customers, your time may be worth more elsewhere.
• You want it finished, not turned into a project. You'd rather have a working website this week than learn a new tool.
• You'd rather ask than do. You want to type "change my Saturday hours to 9 to 2" and have someone else do the fiddly part.

The trade-off is control. With a done-for-you service you're working through someone else's process, and bigger jobs usually cost extra or aren't included.

A simple way to decide

Ask yourself three questions:

1. Do I want to learn this? If yes, a builder is a good fit.
2. How many evenings can I give it? Be honest, and add some for the things you didn't expect.
3. What would I do with that time otherwise? If the answer is "get customers", that's worth weighing.

There's no wrong answer. Plenty of people build a good website themselves, and plenty are happier handing it over.

How Yes Boss works

If you decide you'd rather have it done for you, this is what we do. You describe your business in a sentence or two, and we build and write your website in about a minute. It's set up to look right on phones, and you change things by typing what you want into a chat box. You see your website before you pay. It's A$9 a month or A$89 a year, with no setup fee, hosting, a free web address and up to two changes a month included. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

For prices and renewals side by side, with the date we checked, see our comparison of Yes Boss, Wix, Squarespace and Hostinger. If you'd like to compare the costs side by side first, our post on website builder vs web designer vs done-for-you has a simple table, and our list of the 10 best free website builders covers the DIY options in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

Can I build my own website without technical skills?

Website builders are made for people who don't write code. The skills involved are mostly design and writing, plus patience with settings.

How long does it take to build my own website?

It depends on how much content you have and how much you want to customise. Add time for photos, writing, checking the phone view and connecting a web address.

When is a done-for-you website a better fit?

When your time is better spent on customers, and you'd rather ask for changes than make them. If you want full control or have a complex job, a builder may suit you better.

Sources

Facts quoted from the pages below, checked 9 November 2026.

• Set up a business website, business.gov.au
• Register a domain name, business.gov.au
• Mobile-first indexing best practices, Google Search Central
• Web Vitals, web.dev
• Yes Boss Websites pricing (our own site)