Should a small business use Wix, WordPress, or a custom built site?

None of the three always wins. A builder is cheaper on day one and fine until the phone test fails, WordPress is a toolkit you then have to keep, and a custom site is the right answer only when you need one specific thing done well.

A dental clinic in Green Park and a gym in Dwarka both need a page that opens on a mid range phone over patchy mobile data. The tool that gets you there is the right tool. The tool that looks busy in a demo and then sits at a wait longer than they will sit is the wrong one.

Builder is cheaper on day one

Wix is a builder. You pick a skin, you type the hours, you publish. For a shop that has no page at all, that can be a sane first move. I will not invent their prices. I will not tell you a Delhi package that undercuts them. Cheaper on day one is real.

The cost shows up the first time you need one specific thing done well. A booking that writes into the diary you already use. Hours that match the door and the listing. A page that still opens when the photos are yours, not the theme’s. Builders will do a version of those jobs. They will also drop a heavy theme, uncompressed photos and tracking scripts on a phone that already wants to leave.

I will not invent a new speed story for this page. The nine clinic pages I measured: 8.8s, 2.4 MB, 54 on PageSpeed mobile. The sample clinic page: 1.7s, 89 KB, a 100. People leave after three seconds. Heavy themes are why the 8.8s median exists. Why speed matters is the public version of that, not a sales line I wrote.

WordPress is a toolkit, not a finished shop

WordPress is software you then have to keep. It can be a simple page. It can also be a stack of plugins, a theme from three years ago, and a login nobody in the shop remembers. I will not invent their prices either. The product is free to download. The week you spend keeping it is not.

A coaching centre in Rohini that only needs batch timings and a fee table can live on a plain WordPress page if someone in the building will update it. A restaurant in Khan Market whose menu changes twice a week will hate a setup that needs a developer for every dal. The toolkit is not the job. The job is the page staying true.

Ownership is the question people skip. On a builder you are inside their account until you leave. On WordPress you own more of the files if they are on hosting in your name, and you still depend on whoever holds the login. On a custom build I do, the domain, the hosting and the code go in your name. Ask who you call when the hours are wrong. That call matters more than the logo on the invoice.

Custom is not always right

The websites page is a working site, not a theme. It has to open on a mid range phone, name the work, and let someone book before the spinner is the visit. NexBuilt websites start at Rs 30,000. Floor on pricing, not a quote. Usually under two weeks for a site.

Custom is not a personality. It is the right next step when the phone test has already failed, or when the builder will not do the one thing the week needs. It is the wrong next step when Instagram is the only place people write and the listing still has last year’s hours. Fix the listing first. Add or claim your Business Profile and edit the profile are the public steps for that. A custom site will not save a Maps pin that still says you close at six.

What a good website actually costs is the other side of the same number. How much a website costs in Delhi is the floor in plain rupees. I will not replace those pages with a typical Delhi package.

How to pick without a pitch

Do the phone test. Open the page on a mid range Android over mobile data, not office wifi. If it is still loading after three seconds, the tool already failed, whatever the name on it.

Then write the one job the page has to do after dark. Who has to find it. What they do next. If the list is find the shop, read tonight’s hours, tap WhatsApp, a builder can still be enough. If the list is sync three chairs and the walk in list, you are not shopping for a skin.

Freelancer, agency, or a website builder is the people version of this choice. I am one person in New Delhi, not an agency. That is a fact and a limit.

Then get in touch. Name the tool you already pay for, if any. I will say stay on the builder, or I will say the phone test already failed and a custom page is the next step..