Wix, WordPress or a custom website? What works in Lebanon

There are three ways to get a website for a business in Lebanon. You rent a builder like Wix and do it yourself. You put WordPress on a hosting plan and pick a theme, alone or with a freelancer. Or someone designs and builds a site for you, from a blank page.

I do the third one. Landing page from $390, business website from $890, live in 7 days. So I am not neutral. But I also build stores on Shopify, which is a builder, and I have told people to use Wix when it was the right call. This is the comparison I give on WhatsApp, with numbers instead of opinions.

The three options in one minute

• Wix. You pay a monthly fee and drag blocks onto a page. Wix hosts it, updates it and keeps it running. You never see code.
• WordPress. The software is free. You pay for hosting, usually a theme, and plugins for anything the theme cannot do. Someone has to set it up and keep it updated.
• Custom. A designer and developer builds the site around your business. You pay once. The files are yours.

Cost over 3 years

Monthly fees look small until you multiply by 36. Here is the same one-page site across the three options, with prices I checked while writing this.

Where those numbers come from: Wix lists Light at $17, Core at $29 and Business at $39 per month on yearly billing, and more month to month. One Lebanese guide puts a freelancer WordPress build, usually a template, at $500 to $1,500. A WordPress cost guide puts shared hosting at $3 to $15 a month, a paid theme at $49 to $89 a year and a booking plugin at $79 to $200 a year. Domains are $10 to $25 a year in the Lebanese guides I checked.

Two honest points. If you build it yourself and never need payments or Arabic, Wix is the least cash over 3 years. And that math leaves out your time. A Wix site is $0 plus the evenings you spend on it, and it looks like it.

Speed on a phone, on mobile data

In Ookla's Speedtest Global Index for October 2025, Lebanon ranked 84th for mobile, with a median download speed of 43.55 Mbps. StatCounter put mobile at about 47% of web traffic in Lebanon in September 2026, so half your visitors are on a phone, and everyone who taps through from Instagram is. Google's research found that 53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

How the three options handle that:

• Wix carries the platform's own code on every page. A Wix site can load in a few seconds, but you work for it.
• WordPress is as quick as its theme and plugins. A clean theme with 3 plugins can be quick. A heavy theme with 20 plugins usually is not.
• Custom starts light, because it only contains what your page needs. Every site I build is tested on a phone, on mobile data, before launch.

Who keeps it running

Someone has to keep it working after launch.

• Wix does the technical side. That is what the monthly fee buys. You update the content. Wix updates everything else.
• WordPress needs updates to the core, the theme and every plugin, and they sometimes break each other. Either you learn to do it, or you pay someone. A Lebanese guide I read puts maintenance retainers at $50 to $300 a month.
• Custom depends on who built it. With me, Care is from $40/month for hosting, backups, security and small edits. Without Care, the site still runs.

Design that looks like you

A template looks like everyone else. Custom design looks like you.

On Wix and WordPress you choose a theme that thousands of other businesses also chose, then swap the photos and the colours. The layout and the order of the sections were decided by someone who never heard of your business.

A custom site starts from your photos, your prices and the one thing you want a visitor to do. The home page says what you sell in one screen. Nothing is there because the template had a slot for it.

That matters most when customers compare you with 5 competitors on a phone before they message anyone.

Arabic and English

Wix supports right-to-left text through its multilingual tool, and its help pages say auto-translated text is aligned to the right for you. The same pages note that in Wix Stores and Wix Bookings a change in writing direction applies to all languages at once, so an Arabic and English store on Wix can get awkward.

On WordPress, a second language usually means a translation plugin and a theme that handles right to left, which is one more thing to keep updated.

On a custom site, Arabic is built in from the start. With me a second language adds 30%, and every page exists in both.

Payments in Lebanon

This is where the comparison stops being close.

Wix publishes a list of payment providers by country. When I checked it, the entry for Lebanon read N/A. A Wix store in Lebanon has no built-in way to take a card payment.

Shopify Payments is not available in Lebanon either, according to Shopify's own list of supported countries. A Lebanese Shopify store uses a third-party gateway, and on the Basic plan Shopify adds 2% on each sale for that. It works, and I build stores on Shopify from $990, but know the 2% before you start.

A Lebanese guide I read lists Areeba, Tap, MyFatoorah, Whish and OMT as the gateways to look at here, and notes that Stripe still does not officially support businesses registered in Lebanon. The same guide estimates cash on delivery at 60% to 70% of Lebanese online orders.

A custom site, or a Shopify store, can connect one of those Lebanese gateways. I add online payments for $150. The gateway's own fees are not included.

Ownership and moving away

Ask one question of any platform: if I leave, what do I take with me?

• Wix. Wix's own help page says it does not support exporting a Wix site to another host. You can take your text and photos, not the site. Leaving means rebuilding.
• WordPress. You can move it to another host, since the software is open. In practice you need someone who knows how.
• Custom. The files are yours. With me, the site, the domain and the content are yours from day 7.

When a builder is the right choice

Use Wix if:

• You need something online this week and have $0 to spend upfront
• It is a test, an event page or a side project
• You enjoy building it and will keep updating it yourself
• You do not need card payments in Lebanon or a proper Arabic version

Use WordPress if:

• You or someone on your side already knows it
• You plan to publish a lot of articles over years
• You are fine paying someone to keep it updated

When custom is the right choice

Go custom if:

• Most of your customers find you on a phone and you need the page up in 2 seconds
• You need Arabic and English done properly
• You need payments through a Lebanese gateway
• You want a site that looks like your business, not like a theme
• You do not want to maintain anything, ever
• You want to own the files and the domain outright

Where I stand

I design and build custom websites at a fixed price. Landing page from $390. Business website from $890. Live in 7 days, with design and development in one price. Every package is mobile-ready, has WhatsApp integration and basic SEO.

For stores, I use Shopify from $990 when you want to be selling in 7 days, and build custom from $1,900 when you need more than Shopify gives you.

I am not against builders. I am against paying for one without knowing what you get.

Side by side

Frequently asked questions

Is Wix a good website builder for Lebanon?

For a page with your hours, photos and a WhatsApp number, yes, if you build it yourself and keep it updated. For a store, no, because Wix lists no payment provider for Lebanon. For Arabic and English, it works but takes effort.

WordPress vs Wix: which is cheaper?

Over 3 years, a self-built Wix site is roughly $650 to $1,450 and a freelancer-built WordPress site roughly $750 to $2,300, based on the prices I checked. WordPress gets cheaper if you do everything yourself, and dearer every time you pay someone to fix a plugin.

Custom website vs template: what is the real difference?

A template is a layout made before anyone knew your business. A custom site is made from your business. The difference shows up on a phone, in the first 5 seconds, when a visitor decides whether to keep reading.

Can I move my Wix site to a custom site later?

You can move your text and photos. The site itself cannot be exported, so it gets rebuilt. I redo old sites at the same prices and keep what already works.

Which one do you build?

Custom, at a fixed price, from $390. And Shopify stores from $990 or custom-built stores from $1,900. Tell me what your business does and I reply with one price.