Visual drag-and-drop website builders such as Wix, Squarespace and Showit have made it possible for almost anyone to create a professional-looking website without writing code.
That is genuinely useful.
You can select a template, move sections around, upload your photographs and launch a website much faster than you could with traditional development.
But ease of setup can hide some fairly serious long-term issues.
The biggest problems are rarely obvious while you are designing your homepage. They usually appear later. Here are some of the larger issues worth understanding before committing your business website to a no-code platform.
1. You Do Not Control What the Platform Will Cost Next Year
When you build on a subscription platform, you are not buying the website software once. You are agreeing to keep paying whatever the platform charges to keep the website running.
Just a few days ago, Squarespace increased the annual-equivalent price of its Basic plan from $16 to $19 per month. Its Core plan rose from $23 to $29, while Plus increased from $39 to $49.
That represented increases of up to 26% on some plans overnight.
The change caused a noticeable backlash among photographers, designers and other creators on social platforms, with some users discussing moving their websites elsewhere. The problem is not simply that companies sometimes increase prices. Almost every service eventually does. The bigger problem is that moving an established website is not as simple as cancelling Netflix and joining another streaming service. Your website may contain years of content, search rankings, forms, products, integrations and customer information.
By the time the price changes, leaving may be far more expensive and disruptive than accepting the increase.
2. Moving Your Website May Mean Rebuilding It
Many users reasonably assume that because they designed the website, they can download it and host it somewhere else. That is often not the case.
Wix, for example, states that websites built using its technology must continue operating on Wix’s servers. Although your content belongs to you, the actual Wix website cannot simply be exported and hosted with another provider. You can move your domain. You can copy text and download images. You may be able to export certain business records. But the website itself, that is, the layouts, design system and platform functionality generally have to be rebuilt if you leave Wix.
Showit is even more direct about this. Its support documentation states that users cannot export a Showit design for use with another web host. The builder and designs are tied to Showit’s hosting service.
So, while these platforms may say that you own your content, that does not necessarily mean you own a complete, portable version of the website you built.
3. Your Business Can Outgrow the Platform Faster Than Expected
A platform may work perfectly when you need five pages and a contact form. The challenge begins when the business later needs something more advanced, such as:
- A customer or supplier portal
- A specialised booking system
- A custom quotation calculator
- Multiple databases working together
- Advanced user permissions
- A membership platform
- A recruitment or application system
- Integration with internal business software
- Complex payment or fulfilment processes
You may discover that the feature is unavailable, only partly supported or dependent on an external application. Even when the feature exists, it may only be available on a more expensive subscription.
For example, Showit’s entry-level website subscription does not include a blog. The Basic Starter Blog plan includes WordPress, but users cannot add their own plugins beyond the pre-installed selection. Greater plugin flexibility requires the Advanced Blog subscription.
That may not matter when you launch. It matters when the blog becomes an important part of your search, marketing or lead-generation strategy.
4. The Advertised Price Is Rarely the Complete Cost
The price shown on the homepage is usually the cost of entering the platform not necessarily the cost of operating the website you eventually need.
Common additional costs may include:
- Domain renewal
- Business email
- Email marketing
- Appointment scheduling
- Premium templates
- E-commerce tools
- Payment processing
- Digital product fees
- Membership functionality
- Advanced analytics
- Third-party applications
- Extra storage
- Additional contributors
Showit, for example, does not include domain registration or business email hosting in its website subscription. Users need separate providers for those services. It also limits directly hosted background videos to 8MB, with larger video content requiring an external host such as YouTube or Vimeo.
Squarespace includes several business tools, but its current plans still differ in areas such as video storage, analytics, commerce features, transaction costs and integrations. Businesses may therefore need to move to a higher tier as their requirements develop.
No single charge may seem unreasonable but the problem is the gradual accumulation of subscriptions and add-ons that were not considered when the website was first planned.
5. The Platform Decides Which Features Stay, Change or Disappear
With a managed website builder, the provider controls the underlying system. It can:
- Replace subscription plans
- Move features between plans
- Discontinue older templates
- Change usage limits
- Remove integrations
- Alter how certain tools work
Squarespace, for example, replaced its Personal, Business, Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced plans with Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced plans for new subscriptions. Its support documentation explains that users who leave certain legacy plans cannot return to them. It also notes that some legacy subscriptions may be scheduled for price increases.
Changes may introduce useful new features, but they can also force businesses to rethink budgets, workflows or website functionality. The platform is responsible for developing the product. Your business is responsible for adjusting when that product changes.
6. “SEO Tools Included” Does Not Mean an SEO Strategy Is Included
Most no-code builders now offer respectable basic SEO tools and you can usually edit page titles, Meta descriptions, image descriptions, URLs, and so on but the presence of SEO settings can create a false sense that the website has been properly optimised.
The platform cannot automatically decide:
- Which searches matter to your business
- What potential customers are trying to find
- How your service pages should be organised
- Which subjects deserve dedicated pages
- How different pages should link to each other
- Whether your content answers real customer questions
- Which pages should be improved, combined or removed
A business can complete every SEO field and still remain almost invisible in search results. The builder provides the controls. It does not provide the thinking behind them.
7. Visual Freedom Can Produce a Website That Performs Poorly
Drag-and-drop editors make it easy to create attractive pages. They also make it easy to:
- Upload unnecessarily large images
- Add too many animations
- Overlap elements awkwardly
- Create very long pages
- Use inconsistent spacing
- Make mobile layouts difficult to navigate
- Prioritise appearance over usability
If User Experience matters to you, and it should, this should be something to think about critically.
Does This Mean No-Code Website Builders Are Bad?
No. Wix, Squarespace, Showit and similar platforms can be excellent for some early stage and minimal use websites. The mistake is choosing one based entirely on how easy it feels during the first week.
Before committing, a business should ask:
- Can the website be moved later?
- Can the platform support the business in three years?
- What happens if prices increase?
- Who will maintain and improve the website?
- How difficult would a full rebuild be?
A visual website builder can make launching easier but ease of launch is only one part of the decision. The more important question is whether the platform gives your business enough control, flexibility and room to grow after the excitement of building the first website is over.