Wix, Squarespace, Shopify or a custom site: which do you need?
Wrong question first, platform second, and you end up paying monthly for software your business never needed. Route by what the business does, and the answer mostly picks itself.
The short answer: selling products online, use Shopify, from about CAD $51 a month, or Squarespace commerce. Determined to build it yourself, Wix and Squarespace run $16 to $36 a month and are real software. Running a local business that needs to be found, show its prices and get the call, a custom informational site does that job with no platform fee at all: built once, owned outright.
Route by job, not by brand
| Custom site (what we build) | Shopify | Wix / Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Local businesses being found and contacted | Selling products online | DIY anything, small scale |
| What it costs | $499 – $999 onceabout $20 a year for the domain | From about CAD $51 a month, plus ~2.8% + 30¢ per online sale | $16 – $36 a month, forever |
| Who does the work | We dophotos included from $699 | You, or a Shopify developer | You, on your evenings |
| Who owns it | You | The platform runs it while you subscribe | The platform. Stop paying, site down |
If you sell products online, the monthly fee is honest
A store needs payments, inventory, taxes, shipping and a checkout that never breaks. Shopify’s roughly $51 a month, plus around 2.8 percent and 30 cents per online sale, is buying exactly that, and pretending a store can run without something like it is how people end up with broken checkouts. If your business is a store, pick the store software, budget for apps on top, and treat it as a cost of goods. That is the honest version, and it is also why we do not build stores: our promise is no monthly fees, and a real store cannot keep it.
If you love DIY, the builders are real tools
Wix from about $17 a month, $29 to sell things, and Squarespace from about $16 US: for a hobby, a test, or an owner who genuinely enjoys the tinkering, they work. The two honest costs are the evenings, because the builder hands you the whole job, and the maths of forever, which we added up in the three year comparison.
If you run a local business, the job is smaller than a platform
A barber, a café, a plumber, a realtor: the website’s whole job is to be found, answer the price question, show real photos and get the call or booking. No inventory, no checkout, no platform. That job does not need software with a monthly fee, which means paying one forever for it is pure waste. It needs a handful of fast pages, done properly, owned outright. That is the lane we build in: $499 to $999 once, live in about a week, photos included from $699, and the site, domain and photos are yours.
Common questions about platforms
Store: Shopify or Squarespace commerce. DIY hobbyist: Wix or Squarespace. Local business wanting to be found: a custom site, built once.
Basic is about CAD $51 a month on annual billing, $68 monthly, plus roughly 2.8% + 30¢ per online sale, and apps usually add more.
For a real store, yes. It is the cost of payments, inventory and checkout working every day.
When the site’s job is information and contact, which is most local businesses. No platform fee needed, so none paid.
No, on purpose. Stores need monthly software and we promise no monthly fees. Everything else a local business needs, that is us.
Sources
- Shopify pricing in Canada, 2026
- Shopify Canada pricing and associated costs
- Wix vs Squarespace pricing, 2026
Keep reading: builder vs designer, the three year math · what a website costs in Vancouver
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