Website builders are faster than their reputation. Leaving them is harder.

On speed, the builders hold up

Sites that pass on phones, out of every 100 measured

1. Wix85.9%
2. Shopify79.6%
3. Webflow72.4%
4. Squarespace64.7%
5. WordPress53.9%

If you have heard that a website builder means a slow site, the field data says otherwise. Google measures how quickly and steadily pages load for real people visiting in Chrome, and the HTTP Archive publishes the pass rates by platform.

Every hosted builder in the data passed more often than the most widely used open platform^[1]. Worldwide that platform also sits lowest, at 48.7% on phones^[7].

39.6%

That average covers a wide range, and it says nothing about any one site. The open platform's sites run on every kind of host, theme and add-on. A hosted builder controls its own hosting and code, which may help the average. "Visited from Australia" includes overseas sites that Australians open. Sites built by hand outside these platforms are not measured as a group, so we make no speed claim for them.

Leaving is where a builder costs you

Each platform publishes its own rules for leaving, and they differ. Wix says a Wix site has to be hosted and run on Wix's servers, and that its system does not support hosting anywhere else^[2]. Squarespace's export carries part of the content and leaves out the design^[3]. WordPress.com's export carries posts and pages, with links to your media but not the media files, and leaves out the theme, design changes and plugins^[8]. Shopify's product export is a spreadsheet file without the product images^[9]. If you host open software yourself, you hold the files and the database^[8].

Your domain can come with you. Wix, Squarespace and Shopify all let you transfer a domain bought through them. A 60-day lock can apply after a purchase or a change of contact details^[10][11][12]. Those rules cover names such as .com; check the rules for a .au name with your registrar.

Moving the domain does not move the site^[11], so keeping the name and leaving the platform means rebuilding. Whichever way you build, check the domain is registered in your name.

Leaving a hosted platform

1. Move the domainTransfers out on Wix, Squarespace and ShopifyUp to 7 days on Wix, up to 15 days on Squarespace, up to a week on Shopify; a 60-day lock can apply
2. Export the contentSquarespace, WordPress.com and Shopify export part of it

   Drops out: Wix, the site has to stay on Wix's servers.

3. Bring the designThe theme and design changes

   Drops out: Squarespace and WordPress.com exports leave the design out.

4. RebuildMoving the domain does not move the site

Accessibility depends on what goes on the page

WebAIM scanned the million most-visited home pages in February 2026. The two best-placed hosted builders averaged about 33 detected errors per home page, against 56.1 across all pages^[13]. WebAIM notes that the platform is not always the cause.

• 95.9%

  of home pages had detectable failures

  WebAIM Million, February 2026 [13]

• 83.9%

  had low-contrast text

• 53.1%

  had images with no text description

• 51%

  had form fields with no label

Those are choices made when the content goes in: the colour of the text, the description of each photo, the label on each field. A builder gives you the tools, and someone still has to use them. Automated scans also find only part of the problems.

Doing it yourself is harder to finish than to start

No survey we found counts the hours a DIY site takes. The nearest measure we found is a May 2025 survey of 1,000 US adults by All About Cookies. It is a consumer privacy publisher, not an independent research body^[4].

• 25% built it without significant issues
• 24% finished, but it took much longer than expected
• 29% abandoned it, then finished later with outside help
• 22% abandoned it and never went back

Of the people in it who had built a website, half (51%) abandoned the project before finishing. Design and layout were the hardest part for 37%, and keeping the site secure for 31%^[4].

Those are US adults in general, not small business owners. For a simple site and an owner with time to spare, the trade can still be a fair one.

AI builders hand you a draft

An AI builder turns a prompt into a first draft quickly, and the draft still needs checking. In a test run by AudioEye, a company that sells accessibility tools, five AI coding tools each built three sites to a common accessibility standard. All 15 failed its most basic level, and 13 of the 15 had at least one problem that stops a visitor finishing a task^[5]. The AI-built sites averaged 55 issues per page, close to the 62 AudioEye records for a typical site. It is one vendor's test, and the testing date was not published.

One builder's own documentation says its AI-assisted editor has no site code, though small code snippets can be added^[14]. We found no independent test of how fast AI-built sites load, and no published export rule for any AI builder.

Web designer vs website builder: what you are paying for

• Website builder

  You getHosting included and strong speed on phones^[1]; fewer detected accessibility errors than average on the two leading builders^[13]

  You give upOn at least one platform the site cannot leave^[2]; exports leave the design behind^[3]

  Your timeBuilding, writing and finishing it yourself; in a US survey, half of those who built a site abandoned it before finishing^[4]

• AI builder

  You getA first draft from a prompt

  You give upCode control on at least one platform^[14]; all 15 sites built by AI coding tools in one vendor's test failed the basic accessibility level^[5]

  Your timeChecking and fixing the draft

• Web designer

  You getSomeone accountable for what the site says, who it is for and how a visitor becomes an enquiry

  You give upMore cost up front and a handover; ownership set by the contract

  Your timeThe brief, the content and sign-offs

  A description, not a measured result.

Every option here builds pages, and none of them decides what the pages say. A builder will not tell you who the site is for or which questions a buyer arrives with. Nor will it decide what should happen between a visitor landing and an enquiry reaching you. The questions buyers bring, and what happens when a site leaves them blank, are set out in why a website is not getting enquiries.

That is the job you hire a web designer for. Hiring has trade-offs of its own. It costs more up front, quality varies from one studio to the next, and who owns what depends on the contract. Before you sign, ask who will hold the domain, the files and the logins.

Whichever route you take, decide what the site has to say before you choose the tool.

See what a build includes