Yes, both Squarespace and Wix include hosting as part of their monthly subscription. You don't need to buy separate hosting when you build on either platform. The hosting, the website builder, and the content management are all bundled together into a single monthly fee.
This seems convenient, and for many people it is. But for a paving company or outdoor living business that's serious about using its website to win jobs, there are some important trade-offs worth understanding before you commit to this model.
What's Actually Included
When you pay for a Squarespace or Wix plan, you're paying for their servers to host your site, their software to build and edit it, and their infrastructure to keep it online. The hosting is provided on their servers, in their data centres, under their terms. SSL is included. Uptime is generally reliable. You don't deal with a separate control panel or think about server configurations.
For someone who wants to get a website live quickly without any technical knowledge, this is genuinely appealing. You're paying for a managed, all-in-one service where someone else has already figured out the infrastructure.
The Trade-Offs for a Serious Business Website
The first limitation is control. Because your site lives on Squarespace's or Wix's servers and inside their platform, you're working within their rules. You can customise within what the platform allows, but you cannot go beyond it. Custom functionality, advanced performance optimisation, bespoke integrations — all of this is either restricted or impossible depending on which platform you're on.
For a paving or outdoor living business, this matters because the websites that genuinely win clients aren't just attractive brochures. They're performance-optimised lead generation machines with fast loading times, compelling calls to action, custom-built layouts, and integration with tools like CRMs, quote calculators, or booking systems. Platform builders have constraints that make this difficult or impossible at the level a serious business needs.
The second limitation is performance. Squarespace and Wix have improved significantly in recent years, but custom-coded websites built on modern frameworks consistently outperform platform builder sites on speed benchmarks. Google's Core Web Vitals metrics — which affect search rankings — are harder to optimise within a closed builder platform than in a hand-coded site where every element can be controlled.
Third is ownership. If Squarespace or Wix changes their pricing, alters their terms of service, or in a worst-case scenario shuts down a product line, your website and its content are tied to their platform. Migrating away from these platforms is substantially more work than moving a standard website between hosts. You don't truly own your website in the same way you would with a custom-built, independently hosted site.
The Pricing Reality
Squarespace's business plans run from around £16 to £35 per month. Wix is comparable. These prices include hosting, so the comparison isn't straightforward against a £5/month shared host. But when you factor in what you get for the money — and more importantly, what you don't get — the value calculation looks different.
A custom-built website on quality independent hosting might cost more upfront to build but gives you better performance, full ownership, unlimited flexibility, and no platform dependency. Over three to five years, it's often the more economical choice, and it's almost always the more commercially effective one.
So What's the Right Choice for Your Business?
If you're just starting out, your budget is very limited, you want to test whether a website works for your business, and you're prepared to do the building yourself, a platform like Squarespace or Wix is a reasonable starting point. It's better to have a functional website on a builder than no website at all.
But if you're at the point where your website is your primary source of new leads, you're investing in ads to drive traffic to it, you care about Google rankings, and you want a website that truly represents the quality of your work — a custom-built, independently hosted site is the right move.
The hosting being included in a builder platform isn't a feature. It's a part of a controlled ecosystem. Understanding that distinction helps you make the right choice for where your business is now and where you want it to go.