I own a web design company. That means I get asked one question a lot:
will website builders like Wix and SquareSpace put web designers out of business?
That’s a great question. Here’s your answer.

Time is Money – Don’t Forget That Honey
Profitable businesses are busy making money, not websites. Now granted, there is a time in the life cycle of a business where the owner or an employee burns through internal time that they might use on doing something like building a website. It’s going to take them a while because they have to learn how to use the interface and get all their media together. But, it’s a good first solution for them because they had time to spend doing things that weren’t making them money anyway.
But eventually as that company grows the owner has no interest in building their own website. They’ll hand it off to an employee. But eventually that employee should be doing things that are generating immediate revenue – they’re too slow at doing web design even if it is a straightforward interface.
And that brings me to the next point.
Customization Is A Global Necessity

As most companies grow so does their dependence on their website. Agreed, some businesses will never grow beyond needing a super simple three part brochure site (that’s what we call a website that only gives information, it’s not doing any additional work for you). Those are the types of companies that will benefit from site builders. And ironically, those are the types of websites that most serious web design agencies don’t want to do. They’re low margin, high volume, high competition. Freelancers like them, but they’re the only ones in trouble here.
As soon as money is on the line, that’s when most business owners realize they need something a little more custom. It’s a very natural next step.
The global economy is so vast and the needs of each website so unique that there will never be one single place that has a customizable solution for every business. There are too many POS systems, backend integrations, customizations, etc.
If one site builder had every solution for every company, their technical debt would bankrupt them before the end of the year.
Serious Web Agencies Are The Winners
Web design agencies that are more than simple drag and drop front end developers will be just fine. In fact, as companies grow out of their site builders they’ll be looking for someone to do something more custom. No need to convince them of what they need, they’re already ready. From a sales perspective, I love that.
So bring on the website builders and thank you in advance.