Best Website Builder for a Trades Business in Scotland | Hutcheson Design Studio
Best Website Builder for a Trades Business in Scotland
If you're a tradesperson or contractor in Scotland looking to get online, you've probably come across Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and a dozen others — all promising an easy, professional website in minutes. Some of them are genuinely good. Some will waste your time. Here's a straight guide to what works for a trades business specifically.
What does a trades website actually need to do?
Before picking a platform, it's worth being clear about the job. A trades website in Scotland needs to: show up on Google when someone searches your trade and location, look professional on mobile, make it easy to request a quote or get in touch, and show enough of your work to build confidence. Everything else is secondary.
Wix — good for trades businesses that want control
Wix has come a long way. For a trades business that wants a professional-looking site without needing a developer for every change, it's a solid option. The drag-and-drop editor is genuinely usable, the SEO tools are reasonable, and the templates are good enough to build from.
The limitation is that out of the box, a Wix template looks like a Wix template. Without someone who knows what they're doing, it can end up looking generic. Built properly by a professional though, it's a strong platform — and crucially, the client can manage it themselves after handoff. We build a number of our client sites on Wix Studio for exactly that reason.
Squarespace — looks great, limited flexibility
Squarespace produces beautiful looking sites with minimal effort. For a trades business, it's slightly over-designed for what you need and the SEO capabilities are more limited than Wix or a custom build. It works, but it's better suited to creative businesses than groundworks companies or plumbers.
WordPress — powerful but overkill for most trades
WordPress powers a huge proportion of the internet and it can do almost anything — but it comes with complexity. Plugins need updating, security needs managing, and getting the most out of it requires either technical knowledge or ongoing developer support. For a trades business that wants a site and then wants to get on with the work, WordPress is usually more than you need.
Framer — the best option for performance and design
Framer is what we primarily build on at Hutcheson Design Studio. It produces fast, lightweight, beautifully designed sites that perform well on Google and look genuinely professional — not like a template. The editing experience for clients is clean and simple. The downside is that it's not a DIY platform — you need a designer to build it. But if you're commissioning a professional site anyway, it's the best tool available right now.
DIY vs. professionally built — the honest trade-off
You can build your own website on Wix or Squarespace for the cost of a monthly subscription. The question is whether the result will do the job. Most DIY trades websites look like DIY trades websites — and the businesses that take them seriously enough to invest in a professional build tend to get more enquiries as a result.
A professionally built trades website in Scotland costs between £900 and £3,000 depending on scope. For most trades businesses, that pays for itself with one or two jobs it generates that you wouldn't otherwise have won.
Real example — Nu City Civils, Glasgow
Nu City Civils are a groundworks and civil engineering company based in Glasgow operating on projects across Scotland and the UK. Before coming to us they had no web presence — a significant liability for a company tendering for large infrastructure contracts. We built them a professional site on Wix Studio that showcases their project portfolio, service areas, and long-term partner relationships. Now when a contractor or developer Googles them before a tender decision, they find a platform that confirms their credibility rather than raising questions about it.