AI Adelaide helps Adelaide businesses automate missed calls, follow-ups, and admin without adding more office overhead.
Adelaide small business owners ask us all the time: "Should I use Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, or just hire someone?" The answer depends on your time, budget, and how seriously you want to rank on Google. Here is our honest comparison — including when to use us instead.
The 4 Main Options for Adelaide Small Businesses
1. Wix ($17-159/month)
Wix is the most popular DIY builder. Drag-and-drop, hundreds of templates, decent mobile editor. But Wix sites are slow — Google penalises them in search rankings. You also do all the design, copywriting, and SEO yourself. For a tradie who bills $80/hour, 20 hours on Wix costs $1,600 in lost time.
Best for: Someone who enjoys tinkering and has more time than money.
2. Squarespace ($25-139/month)
Squarespace has the best-looking templates of any builder. Clean, modern, professional. But the same problem: you do everything yourself, and SEO control is limited. Squarespace sites look nice but often do not rank well for competitive local keywords like "plumber Adelaide" or "cafe Glenelg."
Best for: Creative businesses, portfolios, and people who care about design above all else.
3. WordPress ($0 + hosting, but your time)
WordPress is free, but you pay for hosting ($10-50/month), a premium theme ($50-200), plugins ($0-300/year), and your time. WordPress is powerful but requires maintenance — plugin updates, security patches, backups. Most Adelaide small businesses that try WordPress end up with a half-finished site and a plugin conflict they cannot fix.
Best for: Businesses with a tech-savvy owner or an in-house person to manage it.
4. AI Adelaide ($699-2,499 one-off + $15-30/mo hosting)
That is us. We build your site on Next.js — the same framework used by major companies. It is fast (loads in under 2 seconds), Google loves it, and we handle all the design, copywriting, and SEO setup. You do not touch a builder. See our pricing and process.
Best for: Adelaide small businesses that want a professional website without spending 20 hours learning a builder.
Speed Comparison
- Wix: 3-5 second load times (slow, Google penalises)
- Squarespace: 2-4 seconds (acceptable)
- WordPress: 2-6 seconds (depends on plugins and hosting)
- AI Adelaide (Next.js): Under 2 seconds (fast, Google rewards)
SEO Comparison
For local Adelaide businesses, SEO is how customers find you. Wix and Squarespace have limited SEO control. WordPress is good for SEO but requires plugins (Yoast, RankMath) that need configuring. Our sites come with full SEO built in — schema markup, clean URLs, sitemap, meta tags, and local suburb targeting.
The Hidden Cost of DIY
The cheapest option is not always the cheapest. If you spend 20 hours building a Wix site, that is 20 hours you could have spent billing clients. For a plumber at $80/hour, that is $1,600 in lost revenue — more than our $699 Starter website costs.
Our Recommendation
If you have zero budget and lots of free time, use Wix or Squarespace. If you want a professional site that ranks on Google and you do not want to spend 20 hours learning a builder, use us. The $699 Starter tier pays for itself with one new customer.
Read our full website cost guide, check pricing, or book a free chat to see what we would build for you. Browse all services for more.