A dozen Davis websites moved onto platforms they own

This year I moved my clients off Wix and onto fast, owned sites with their own back office, for nothing or next to nothing. Here is why, and what changed for them.

Most of the websites I built over the years lived on Wix. It was the right tool at the time: a small business could have a real site in a week, and I could keep it current. But every one of those sites was renting its own existence. The plan renewed every year, the domain renewed on top of it, the pages loaded a hundred scripts before a visitor saw a word, and if Wix changed its mind about pricing there was nothing anyone could do about it.

So in 2026 I made a decision as the steward of those sites, not just their designer. Starting with my own, I rebuilt them on a platform the owner holds the keys to: their own domain at an honest registrar, the files in their own repository, the site itself on Cloudflare, where it costs nothing to run. I did this for nothing or next to nothing. These are people and organizations I have worked with for years, and the point was to leave them better off than I found them.

What moved

Sara Ruebelt Therapy, a calm bilingual site in English and Farsi. Integrity Construction and Design, whose home page went from 120 requests and 1.4 MB on Wix to 11 requests and 324 KB. The Perlman Center, with appointment requests straight to the office. The Bike Campaign, Boheme Bewitched, Coffee Time, DV Game Design, and this site. More are in progress.

What each one got

Every rebuilt site is fast enough to open instantly on a phone, is built to be read clearly by Google and by the AI assistants people now ask for recommendations, and keeps every old address working so nothing anyone bookmarked breaks. Each one has a private back office, which I call HQ, where the owner or their staff edit the words, read inquiries, and file a change request with a screenshot in one click. The Wix plans were cancelled as each site went live, which for most owners is a few hundred dollars a year back in their pocket, every year.

Why now

AI changed what one person can deliver. A rebuild that would have taken me a month of evenings now takes days, which is the only reason I could afford to do this as a gift. The judgment, the design and the twenty years of knowing these businesses are still the part that matters, and that part does not get faster. It just gets room to breathe.

If your site is renting its existence somewhere, tell me about it. It might be the easiest decision you make this year.