Short answer
Use Squarespace or Wix if the budget is under about $2,000 and you are willing to do the work yourself. Use WordPress if you publish constantly and have someone to maintain it. Hire a studio for a custom build when the site is a real sales channel and looking like everyone else costs you money.
In detail
Squarespace
The best DIY option for design quality. Templates look good out of the box, and it is hard to make something ugly.
The limits show up when you need something the template did not anticipate: an unusual booking flow, a custom layout, or speed tuning. You are also renting, and the site does not move to another platform easily.
Wix
More flexible drag-and-drop and a bigger app market. Also easier to end up with something cluttered and slow if you are not careful with layout and apps.
Same trade as Squarespace: convenient, rented, and hard to migrate away from later.
WordPress
Enormous flexibility and genuine ownership. It also needs maintenance: plugin updates, security patches, and backups. A neglected WordPress site is one of the most common ways a small business gets hacked.
Good choice if you publish frequently and have someone maintaining it. Rough choice if nobody is watching it.
Custom build
A hand-built site is faster, has no plugin surface to attack, and looks like your business rather than a theme. It also costs more upfront and needs a developer for structural changes, though day-to-day content edits can be set up for you to handle.
The question to ask is simple: does looking exactly like your competitors cost you work? For a business trading on reputation and craft, it usually does.
The questions that decide it
- What is the budget, honestly, including your own time?
- How often will content change, and who will change it?
- Does the site need to connect to booking, ordering, or inventory systems?
- Does the business depend on looking distinct?
- Do you need to own the site outright?
The short version
Under $2,000 and DIY: Squarespace is the safest choice.
Publishing constantly with a maintainer: WordPress still earns its place.
Site as a real sales channel and reputation matters: build custom.
Related questions
Can I move a Squarespace site to a custom build later?
The content moves, the design does not. We rebuild it and redirect the old URLs so you keep your search rankings.
Is a custom site harder to update?
Not for the things you actually change. We set up menus, prices, hours, and posts so you can edit them without calling us.