Website and visibility
Vakmeister, Wix or WordPress: what actually works for a craft business?
Three ways to get online, with very different consequences for your week. An honest side-by-side.
Ask ten craft businesses where their website came from and you get three answers. One built something on Wix years ago. Another pays an agency to keep a WordPress site alive. A growing group picks one system where the website is simply included.
On paper the three look alike. You get an address, a few pages and a contact form. In practice they decide something else entirely: how many evenings you lose between a first question and a paid invoice.
So we put them next to each other. Without cheap shots, because Wix and WordPress are both solid software. The question is whether they fit a company of two to ten people that spends the day on scaffolding, under a sink or in a meter cupboard.
The three options, honestly
Wix
A tidy website fast, and that is where it ends
Wix is built for everyone: photographers, hairdressers, web shops and yes, craft businesses too. You drag blocks into place and within an evening something presentable is live. If all you want is a digital business card, that is fine.
It gets tight the moment your business runs. A request arrives as an email. You write the quote in Word or a second tool. Your planning lives in a group chat. Your invoices somewhere else again. Wix knows nothing about any of it, because it was never meant to run your company.
Strong
- Online quickly, no technical knowledge needed
- Designs look neat out of the box
- Hosting and security are included
Watch out
- Website only: no requests, quotes, scheduling or invoices
- Generic building blocks, nothing tuned to craft work
- Separate apps and subscriptions add up
- Support usually in English only
Best for: A good choice if you only want a business card online and your admin is already sorted elsewhere.
WordPress
Anything is possible, if somebody keeps it running
WordPress powers a large share of the web for good reason. You can build literally anything. Want a form, a quote tool or a link to your bookkeeping? There is a plug-in for it.
The bill arrives later. An average WordPress site runs ten to twenty plug-ins from different makers. They need updating, because an outdated plug-in is the most common way in for abuse. If an update breaks something, you are on scaffolding while your site is down.
Craft businesses solve that with a maintenance contract. Expect tens to well over a hundred euro a month for updates and security. Necessary work, but work that brings in no customers by itself.
Strong
- Almost anything is possible, you are never locked in
- Huge choice of themes and plug-ins
- You own your installation
Watch out
- Updates and security are continuous work
- Plug-ins clash, especially after major updates
- You nearly always need a builder or maintenance contract
- Your admin still is not in there
Best for: Fine if you have a regular builder handling maintenance and needs that go well beyond a company website.
Vakmeister
Website plus your whole workflow in one system
Vakmeister is made for Dutch craft businesses and nothing else. The website is the starting point, not the finish. A visitor asks for a price, the request lands in your system, you turn it into a quote, once signed the job goes into your planning and the invoice follows. One customer record, one place where everything lives.
Because it is one system, nobody has to build integrations or babysit plug-ins. Updates happen in the background at no extra cost. Your website keeps running while you work.
You also only see what you need. A painter gets no modules for web shops or table reservations. The wording, the calculation fields and the standard packages are built around craft work in the Netherlands.
Strong
- Website, requests, quotes, scheduling and invoices in one system
- Set up per trade, without modules you never use
- Dutch software and Dutch support
- Hosting and storage in Europe, under European rules
- Maintenance, security and updates included
- You can start today and be online fast
Watch out
- You pick one system instead of combining separate tools yourself
- No web shop with thousands of products or exotic custom features
Best for: The logical choice if your business has to run without costing you evenings, with everything in one place.
Side by side
The same questions, three answers. Amounts are indicative per month, excl. VAT.
Company website
- Wix
- Yes, build it yourself
- WordPress
- Yes, usually via a builder
- Vakmeister
- Yes, theme per trade, online fast
Receiving requests
- Wix
- As email in your inbox
- WordPress
- Form plug-in, email in your inbox
- Vakmeister
- In your system, with customer record and follow-up
Quotes
- Wix
- Separate tool needed
- WordPress
- Separate tool needed
- Vakmeister
- Included, with prices per trade
Scheduling
- Wix
- Not available
- WordPress
- Not available
- Vakmeister
- Included, linked to the job
Invoices
- Wix
- Separate tool needed
- WordPress
- Separate tool needed
- Vakmeister
- Included, straight from the signed quote
Maintenance and updates
- Wix
- Handled by Wix
- WordPress
- You or your builder, continuously
- Vakmeister
- Handled by us, no extra cost
Security
- Wix
- Included
- WordPress
- Depends on plug-ins and updates
- Vakmeister
- Included, daily backups
Hosting
- Wix
- Global, often outside Europe
- WordPress
- Depends on your host
- Vakmeister
- In Europe
Support
- Wix
- Usually English
- WordPress
- Via your builder or forums
- Vakmeister
- Dutch, by people who know the trade
Cost per month
- Wix
- Subscription plus separate apps for quotes and invoices
- WordPress
- Hosting plus maintenance plus separate tools
- Vakmeister
- From € 29 per month plus € 99 one-off. Pro: € 49 per month plus € 199 one-off. Excl. VAT.
| Onderwerp | Wix | WordPress | Vakmeister |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company website | Yes, build it yourself | Yes, usually via a builder | Yes, theme per trade, online fast |
| Receiving requests | As email in your inbox | Form plug-in, email in your inbox | In your system, with customer record and follow-up |
| Quotes | Separate tool needed | Separate tool needed | Included, with prices per trade |
| Scheduling | Not available | Not available | Included, linked to the job |
| Invoices | Separate tool needed | Separate tool needed | Included, straight from the signed quote |
| Maintenance and updates | Handled by Wix | You or your builder, continuously | Handled by us, no extra cost |
| Security | Included | Depends on plug-ins and updates | Included, daily backups |
| Hosting | Global, often outside Europe | Depends on your host | In Europe |
| Support | Usually English | Via your builder or forums | Dutch, by people who know the trade |
| Cost per month | Subscription plus separate apps for quotes and invoices | Hosting plus maintenance plus separate tools | From € 29 per month plus € 99 one-off. Pro: € 49 per month plus € 199 one-off. Excl. VAT. |
Wix and WordPress prices vary by plan, agency and number of plug-ins. We use what craft businesses pay in practice.
A website is not the goal, a full calendar is
Most comparisons are about templates and colours. For a craft business that is the least interesting part. What counts is the route from first question to paid invoice.
With Wix and WordPress that route stops at the contact form. After that your work starts: read the email, call back, type a quote in another program, drop the date in a group chat and hope you remember the invoice. Every handover is a moment where something slips.
In one system the route continues. The request becomes the quote, the quote becomes the job, the job becomes the invoice. Nothing gets retyped and you see what is still open at a glance.
Why a Vakmeister website is affordable
Custom-built sites are expensive because every site is designed, built, tested and maintained from scratch. With us the basis is ready: the theme, the structure, the wording per trade and the technology underneath. We fill in your business instead of inventing something new.
The website also is not a product on its own. It sits in the same subscription as your quotes, scheduling and invoices, so we do not need to sell a separate maintenance contract to keep it alive.
Affordable does not mean bare. It means you do not pay for work everybody else redoes.
- No separate maintenance contract for updates and security
- No separate subscriptions for forms, quotes and invoices
- No hourly rate for small edits you can do yourself
Dutch, not translated
Software from abroad is nearly always translated. You notice it in the VAT fields, the invoice requirements and the moment you need somebody who understands how Dutch craft businesses actually invoice.
Vakmeister is built here. VAT is right, invoices meet Dutch requirements and your data sits on servers in Europe. Call with a question and you get somebody who knows the trade.
The hidden price of separate systems
Add up what you pay today: hosting, maintenance, a quoting tool, an invoicing tool, maybe a planning app and the hours of whoever ties it all together.
For most craft businesses that total is higher than one subscription that does the lot. And the biggest cost is not even in there: the evenings spent retyping what you already filled in once.
So what should you pick?
There is no bad platform on this list. There is a difference between having a website and having a business that runs.
Pick Wix
if you just want to be findable with a neat business card and your admin lives elsewhere.
Pick WordPress
if you have a regular builder, special requirements and you are fine with maintenance.
Pick Vakmeister
if you want website, requests, quotes, scheduling and invoices in one place, without update hassle.
Frequently asked questions
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