The DIY Website Trap: Why "Cheap" Website Builders Cost More Than You Think
Every week I talk to business owners who tell me the same story. They signed up for Wix or Squarespace because it looked cheap and easy, and three weekends later they're still fiddling with fonts, googling "how to connect my domain," and their site still isn't live.
Here's the thing nobody tells you: the monthly price on a website builder's pricing page isn't the real cost. The real cost is the price plus your time, plus all the extras they don't mention upfront. And if you're in New Zealand, there's a currency catch too.
Let me show you what I mean.
What the DIY builders actually cost in NZ
Let's look at the three biggest names in DIY website building and what a Kiwi business would realistically pay for a small business site.
Wix advertises its Light plan at US$17/month, but here's the catch for NZ businesses: Wix bills in US dollars. That means you pay a converted NZD amount that moves with the exchange rate, GST gets added on top, and your bank may charge currency conversion fees as well. In practice, that "cheap" entry plan lands around NZ$30 to $34 per month, and it doesn't include ecommerce, bookings, or a professional email address (that's another ~NZ$10/month through Google Workspace). Your domain is free for the first year only, and Wix has a well-documented habit of raising plan prices, with users reporting renewal jumps of 25 to 50 percent.
Squarespace at least bills in NZD with GST included, which makes the bookkeeping easier. Plans for a typical small business site run around NZ$27 to $45 per month billed annually, with monthly billing pushing that 20 to 30 percent higher. Same domain deal: free for year one, then roughly NZ$30+ per year after that. And most designers will tell you that to make a Squarespace site look genuinely custom rather than "template-y," you need at least their mid-tier plan.
GoDaddy is the budget option, with builder plans landing around NZ$17 to $35 per month depending on the tier. But GoDaddy is famous for the renewal trap: cheap first-year pricing, then domain renewals of NZ$35+ per year, and builder renewal pricing that isn't even published upfront.
So realistically, you're looking at NZ$27 to $45 per month, plus domain renewals, plus email, plus add-ons, for any of the big three.
That doesn't sound too bad, right?
Except you haven't built anything yet.
The cost nobody puts on the pricing page: your time
Here's what "easy drag-and-drop website builder" actually means in practice:
You'll spend an evening choosing a template, then realise it doesn't quite work for your business. You'll spend a weekend writing your own copy, resizing images, and wondering why everything looks different on mobile. You'll google how to set up your domain's DNS records. You'll troubleshoot why your contact form emails are going to spam. You'll squint at your homepage wondering why it doesn't look like the polished example sites they showed you when you signed up.
Conservatively, a first-timer spends 15 to 30 hours getting a DIY site to a standard they're actually happy with. Many never get there. They launch something they're quietly embarrassed by, or worse, they give up with a half-finished site and keep paying the subscription anyway.
What's your time worth per hour? If you're a tradie, a consultant, or a salon owner, every hour you spend fighting a website editor is an hour you're not earning, quoting, or serving customers. At even $60/hour, that's $900 to $1,800 of your time spent doing a job that isn't yours.
That's the real price of "cheap."
The alternative: hands-free, for a similar price
Here's what I offer instead: NZ$199 setup + NZ$49/month, and you never touch a website editor.
That includes:
- A professionally designed landing page site, built for you
- Hosting, included
- Your domain, included
- Ongoing management, included
No figuring out DNS. No fighting with templates. No USD billing surprises when the exchange rate moves. No hidden add-ons at checkout. You tell me about your business, and your site gets built, launched, and looked after.
Let's do the actual maths
Here's a realistic first-year comparison, in New Zealand dollars:
| Wix | Squarespace | GoDaddy | Done-for-you | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan (NZD) | ~$30 to $34* | ~$27 to $45 | ~$17 to $35 | $49 |
| Setup cost | $0 | $0 | $0 | $199 |
| Billed in NZD? | No (USD + fees) | Yes | Varies | Yes |
| Domain after year 1 | ~$30+/yr | ~$30+/yr | ~$35+/yr | Included |
| Your hours to build | 15 to 30+ | 15 to 30+ | 15 to 30+ | Zero |
| Who fixes it when something breaks | You | You | You | Me |
*Wix bills in USD, so your actual NZD cost moves with the exchange rate.
Look at that gap. We're talking about roughly $10 to $20 a month between doing everything yourself and having everything done for you. That's a couple of coffees a week. Add in your time at even a modest hourly rate, the add-ons, and the renewal increases, and the DIY option often ends up more expensive, and that's before you factor in the quality difference between a professionally built site and a first-timer's template job.
You're not really choosing between $30/month and $49/month. You're choosing between a part-time job you didn't ask for and a finished website that just works.
Who this is for
If you genuinely enjoy tinkering with websites and have the hours to spare, the DIY builders are fine tools, honestly. Wix and Squarespace are good at what they do.
But if you're running a business and your website is just something that needs to exist and work, professionally, reliably, without eating your weekends, then paying a similar all-in price to have it completely handled is the obvious move.
NZ$199 to get started. NZ$49/month, everything included. Zero hours of your time.
Get in touch admin@mclwebsolutions.com / Get started mclwebsolutions.com
Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy pricing accurate as of July 2026, based on annual billing rates converted to approximate NZD where applicable. Monthly billing rates are higher. Exchange rates vary.
Sources
- Wix official pricing: https://www.wix.com/plans
- Squarespace official pricing: https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
- GoDaddy website builder pricing: https://www.godaddy.com/pricing
- Wix vs Web Designer: NZ Small Business Guide 2026, Fairweb (USD billing, GST, and NZD conversion for NZ customers): https://fairweb.co.nz/blog/wix-vs-web-designer-nz/
- Wix or Squarespace? The Honest Truth for NZ Businesses, Back9 Digital (Wix USD billing vs Squarespace NZD billing): https://www.back9.co.nz/wix-or-squarespace-the-honest-truth-for-nz-businesses/
- How Much Does a Squarespace Website Cost in 2026?, Onyxarro (NZD annual cost estimates): https://onyxarro.com/blog/how-much-does-a-squarespace-website-cost
- Wix: Price Rises and Locking You In, MyHost NZ (Wix price increase history): https://myhost.nz/blog/wix-history-price-rises
- GoDaddy Pricing 2026: Total Cost & Competitors, CheckThat (plan tiers and renewal costs): https://checkthat.ai/brands/godaddy/pricing
Build-time and hourly-rate examples are the author's illustrative estimates.
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