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I rarely have clients ask me to design full websites for them, but I think I'm about to be asked to.
I have very little knowledge of coding and the idea of creating an entire interactive website is daunting. Not to mention my slow learning curve as I go would impact the client's timeline.
Is it "bad" or "cheating" to use a website building template such as Wix or Squarespace?
What is probably "cheating" are two factors, in my opinion.
One:
I have very little knowledge of coding
It is one thing to design a website (which can be done in Photoshop, Corel, Ilustrator, Indesign, etc) and another to develop the site, which undeniably needs a basic understanding of some types of coding and markup (HTML is not coding, it is markup).
And Two: I am pretty sure that the terms and conditions of Wix do not include "taking" their templates to be used outside the site.
That said, on this planet, at this time nothing is developed from ground 0, especially websites. Developers take advantage of a lot of development already done. Frameworks, design guides, design trends, stock photography, stock images, fonts... and templates.
Make a real aggregated value to your work. If you do not aggregate "too much" creativity, you can of course charge your client for your "know how". But you really need to learn how to code. Again, you will be using a lot of pre-made resources, but you still need to know how to use the tools.
Part of this work could be taking the time to choose a proper template suitable for the client, considering both functionality and style. But either use a free one (with the proper credit according to the terms and conditions of the template) or a paid one.
As an observatory note, I am noticing that more and more designers are being asked and expected to learn some form of coding to support the requests of clients with regards to web design. It's challenging if you don't have any development background.
Now in terms of whether utilizing an existing service like Wix is cheating, I think that you need to look at it not from whether it feel likes "cheating" to you, but rather look at it from the big picture - you are being asked to provide a service to a client. If it is up to you to evaluate your client's requirements and then evaluate the technologies used to achieve the desired result in order to choose a product, there will be several factors that will shape your decision on how to proceed. You may find that Wix, for example, meets all requirements and may choose that solution. It is valuable to note that developer/designer time is also a cost factor for you and client too, so something that is relatively quick and easy to spin up - Wix, WordPress, etc. - might be of huge value to the customer and they may not care that it is an existing service.
As a Developer/Designer I understand the internal guilt you may feel not doing something from scratch. As developers, we are taught to build reusable elements so that we're not wasting our time re-inventing the wheel. As designers, we want to build functional and easy to user interfaces that look good. Evaluate your clients needs in terms of functionality, design, cost, availability, using an existing services, future growth plans, etc. and then evaluate the solution paths or products out there. If utilizing an existing services makes the most sense for your client, I wouldn't call this 'cheating' I would call it a 'win' as you are meeting your client's needs in an efficient manner.
