This is why I choose WordPress installed on your own hosting when you build a website rather than choosing “special offers” from places that claim AI can build your whole website or places like Squarespace and Wix.

Through Vista Print I got this “special offer”.

——————————————————————————

Let’s get your business website up and running.

The professional website you asked for is just a few steps away.

Get Your Free Website Now!

——————————————————————————

Sounds great right? So I thought why not. Maybe it’s changed and worth checking it out. I went in and chose the AI to build my website. Gave it all the info and the domain name I wanted to use for it.

Luckily I chose connecting my domain name before spending too much time building the website. In order to connect my domain name to the “free website” you have to choose a monthly plan from $14.50/month for the smallest plan up to $79.00 for the Business Elite plan.

——————————————————————————

So much for a free website. And this is what I find from previous Wix customers..

Wix prices often increase significantly upon renewal, with users reporting hikes of 20% to over 50% as initial promotional discounts expire. While first-year rates are heavily discounted, renewal rates revert to standard pricing, which can sometimes result in costs nearly doubling for premium plans.

• Renewal Hikes: Users have reported substantial, sometimes unexpected, increases, such as a two-year plan rising from $440 to $680 (roughly 54% increase).

• Promotional Expiration: Initial, lower rates are usually temporary, with costs jumping after the first year when discounts end.

• Short-Notice Changes: Some users report receiving only two weeks' notice regarding renewal price increases.

Users on Reddit in the r/Wix subreddit are saying…

“As part of the update to your plan, your 2 year price for your subscription will increase from 336.72EUR to 585.60EUR. Wix You are a joke!”

Mine is going to jump from $149 to $348. I’m going to cancel it. Bye Wix!

“As part of the update to your plan, your 2 year price for your subscription will increase from 264.0USD to 576.00USD on Oct 23, 2024.”

“Every year the price jumps with Wix get more and more excessive. They reeled people in for years then began to introduce their “in order to provide you with the best tech changes…” emails towards renewal dates along with their sky high increases.”

“I have come to the decision that I’ll just have to start over with a new site builder/provider. I may lose some content but I am okay with that at this point. The price increases are so brazen and reckless that I’m surprised you don’t hear more about how bad Wix is on the internet.”

This is why I’m writing this post. Please do not fall for these hyped up offers of AI building your website, free or not, free 3rd party offers, or build your website on any proprietary platform.

——————————————————————————

Proprietary website builders create "vendor lock-in," meaning you cannot export your design, layout, or backend functionality to another host, requiring a full rebuild to move. Major examples include Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly, and GoDaddy.

• Wix: Uses proprietary code; you can export text/images, but the design must be rebuilt elsewhere.

• Shopify: A closed, proprietary system for ecommerce, making moving to a new platform nearly impossible without starting over.

• Squarespace: A fully hosted platform where you do not own the underlying code or infrastructure.

• Weebly: Proprietary drag-and-drop builder, with no option to migrate to another host.

• Webflow: While it offers code export, its CMS features are proprietary, creating significant migration difficulties.

• GoDaddy & HostGator Website Builders: Bundled solutions that tie your site to their specific servers.

• BigCommerce: A closed platform that often requires expensive manual migration to move away from.

——————————————————————————

These platforms are generally designed as all-in-one solutions (hosting + builder) rather than open-source tools like WordPress, which allow for easy migration. The future of your online business depends on making the right choices from the very beginning.

Don’t confuse the WordPress Dot Com website with self-hosted WordPress Software. Even the Do Com Version of WordPress restricts direct file access. You know, the files that YOU created and that YOU own? Yeah, they restrict access to those. However you can migrate a website from there to self-hosted WordPress.

The best method for starting a new website is to choose a good hosting account at a place like SiteGround. And yes the following is my affiliate link. If you decide to sign up, I appreciate the support. siteground.comI don’t charge for subscriptions here, so affiliate links are how I support the time it takes to test and write posts like this.

That frames the link as patronage, not persuasion.

This post isn’t a sales page. It’s

It doesn’t change the advice in this post. Get your own hosting. Siteground includes a free CDN, Free SSL, Daily Backups, Unlimited email addresses, NGINX lightning fast server, dynamic caching and memcache. Plus an easier dashboard to use. So much better than CPanel.

Install Wordpress in 1 click. Yo0u get 2 plugins, Security Optimizer and Speed Optimizer so you don’t need more security, speed or caching plugins and don’t need to buy another CDN or SSL.

——————————————————————————

Regardless of which hosting company you choose, doing it this way means no one controls your content, no one can just raise prices on you whenever they want. If your hosting company does that, you can easily migrate your whole website to another host with a few clicks. Your content is not being held hostage by a proprietary system.

You get to write your own terms of service rather than living under someone else’s idea of what you can and can’t do. Protect the future of your business.

If you do need help, message me here, contact me here chrismcelroyseo.com/con… or just email me at chris@chrismcelroyseo.com We can migrate, build or rebuild your entire website and turn something over to you that you have full control over.

——————————————————————————

Anyone else have experience with Wix, GoDaddy, Squarespace, Weebly, Webflow, etc. Want to share your story? Do you disagree with me?

——————————————————————————