Wix vs custom website: which fits your Tenerife business?
Wix is great to start. But there's a point where it slows you down more than it helps. This comparison tells you exactly when that point is.
The quick verdict
- If you're testing a business idea and need something online this week with no budget: Wix wins — it'll do for the first 6 months.
- If your Tenerife business is already running and depends on Google and multilingual tourists: custom wins — Wix caps your ceiling.
- The real problem with Wix isn't Wix — it's how hard it is to leave when you grow. Migrating off Wix preserves content but breaks URLs, SEO and third-party plugins.
The 7 dimensions that matter
| Dimension | Wix | Custom website |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | €11-49/month (€132-588/year) | €97/month with Plan Teide Completo, then €19-70/month |
| 3-year cost | €396-1,764 (rises if you add apps) | €1,164 + €1,440-2,520 maintenance = €2,604-3,684 |
| Mobile speed | 3-5 seconds typical (lots of platform JS) | 0.8-1.5 seconds by default |
| SEO | Works, but limited: ugly URLs, limited meta-tag control, no native schema.org | Total control: clean URLs, schema.org JSON-LD per page, full technical SEO |
| Multilingual ES/EN/DE | Higher tier required + manual translation of every change | Native, managed in one panel |
| Visual customisation | Limited to the editor — themes look templated | 100% custom — no other Tenerife business will have your design |
| Leaving the platform | Almost impossible without losing URLs, SEO and a lot of content | Yours from day 1: you keep the code, copy, photos and domain |
When Wix is the right choice
- You're validating a business idea and need something online in 48 hours with zero budget.
- Your business runs almost entirely on word of mouth — the website is just "I exist", not a sales channel.
- You don't care about ranking on Google and customers find you on Instagram or by walking past.
- Your 12-month plan is to not scale — to stay where you are.
When you need a custom website
- You compete on Google against businesses with already-professional sites in your area.
- Your main customer is a tourist — you need real multilingual, speed and online booking.
- You're going to invest in ads or SEO and don't want the platform to be the bottleneck.
- You want your website to be an asset, not a perpetual rental. A custom site is yours.
- Brand image matters and you don't want your business to look generic.
The lock-in trap
Wix teaches you three things in the first month: how to do drag-and-drop pages, how to publish content without knowing HTML, and how to feel in control of your website. What it doesn't teach you is how hard it is to leave. When you reach the point where Wix falls short — because you need a specific integration, because speed kills your SEO, or because you want a design that doesn't fit their templates — you discover you can't simply "export" your site. URLs belong to Wix. SEO accumulated on those URLs breaks on migration. Third-party apps stay in their ecosystem. The real cost of Wix isn't the €25/month — it's the day you need something more. With a custom site, code and URLs belong to you from day one.
Want to talk about your Wix?
15 minutes on WhatsApp. I look at your current Wix with you live, show you where the bottleneck is, and tell you whether to migrate this year or next. No pressure.