Website builders are not evil.
Free ones like Wix or Weebly.
Paid ones like Shopify, Squarespace, or GoDaddy.
They’re actually pretty great… as long as you want to do exactly what they think you should want to do.
And that’s the part most people don’t realize until it’s too late.
The Promise: Fast, Easy, Done
These platforms are designed to get you to one thing as fast as possible:
A published homepage.
Drag this. Click that. Pick a theme. Done.
And for a brand-new business, a side project, or something you know will never grow beyond a few pages, that can be perfectly fine.
The problem isn’t what they help you do.
The problem is what they quietly prevent you from doing later.
The Part No One Talks About
Most website builders don’t assume you’ll ever want to fundamentally change how your site works.
They don’t assume you’ll want to:
- Restructure content
- Change how data is stored
- Add custom workflows
- Integrate unusual tools
- Evolve your business model
You’re not building a website so much as accepting a pre-defined data model, architecture, and set of limitations—most of which are invisible while everything feels “easy.”
It all happens behind the scenes.
And six months later, when your business grows and your needs change…
You hit a wall.
Lock-In Is the Business Model
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
The faster you launch, the faster you commit.
You commit to:
- Their pricing tiers
- Their plugins and add-ons
- Their way of organizing content
- Their export (or lack thereof)
- Their rules
By the time you realize the platform can’t do what you need, you’re already deeply invested.
Your content is there.
Your workflows are there.
Your business logic is baked in.
From that point on, the friction works in their favor.
These platforms aren’t optimized for flexibility.
They’re optimized for lock-in.
“But I Own My Content… Right?”
This is where things get especially ugly.
I’ve told clients for years:
If you use a proprietary CMS, all you really own is your data.
And even then, good luck using it.
I’ve personally seen businesses spend $50,000 on a website, decide to leave the platform, and receive…
a disc of text files.
No structure.
No relationships.
No usable system.
Just raw content that has to be rebuilt from scratch.
That’s not ownership.
That’s ransom with extra steps.
Why I Push WordPress (And Always Have)
This is why I’ve consistently pushed people toward WordPress.
Not because it’s trendy.
Not because it’s perfect.
Not because I care about platform politics.
But because WordPress assumes growth.
You can build:
- A one-page site
- A thousand-page site
- A blog, a store, a membership system, a learning platform
And you don’t have to throw anything away to evolve.
If the WordPress ecosystem doesn’t already support what you need, it can be:
- Added
- Extended
- Or built inside your existing site
Most importantly:
If you don’t like me…
You can take your WordPress site somewhere else.
Practically anywhere else.
Freedom Matters More Than Convenience
With WordPress:
- You control the architecture
- You control your data
- You control where the site lives
- You control how it grows
With proprietary platforms—whether it’s a giant company or a local shop’s homegrown CMS—you’re still locked in.
Different logo.
Same barrel.
And the moment you want out, you’ll find out exactly how tight that lock really is.
The Real Question to Ask
Before choosing a platform, don’t ask:
“How fast can I launch?”
Ask:
“What happens when this works?”
Because if your business grows—and that’s the whole point—you don’t want your website to be the thing holding it back.
Easy is fine.
Until it isn’t.
And by then, the cost of “easy” can be very, very expensive.
