Wix vs Squarespace 2023: 9 Key Differences You Need to Know

In a rush? Looking for quick answers? We get it – here’s a quick side-by-side comparison table to help you weigh up whether Wix or Squarespace is better for your needs.

Read on for our detailed comparison to find out exactly why Squarespace’s designs are better, why we recommend Wix for beginners, and which has better marketing tools.

Which Is More Beginner Friendly?

The Winner

It's a Tie!

Wix’s drag-and-drop editor and optional Wix ADI feature make it easy for beginners. Squarespace has come on leaps and bounds in terms of its ease of use, but may require a little more patience than Wix.

Visit Wix

Drag-and-Drop Editor: No Need for Code

Both Wix and Squarespace are drag-and-drop website builders. In our testing, Wix scores 4.4 out of 5 for ease of use, remaining relatively the same since last year’s score – because of its smooth drag-and-drop editor. Squarespace also receives 4.4 out of 5 for ease of use, having made some major improvements. Squarespace’s grid-based design, although less creatively free, does a great job laying out your page neatly.

It’s worth shouting out the improvements that Squarespace has made in this category. The editor is now much more beginner-friendly, having introduced a grid-based editing layout and guiding you around all of the most important components. Because of this, its overall ease of use score has seen an increase of 11.1% since our last round of testing. 

Wix is a “pure” drag-and-drop builder, meaning you really can drop whatever you want, wherever you want it. Squarespace isn’t exactly the same – you can’t drag elements around as freely as you can with Wix. This means it takes a little longer to get used to – but does mean if you like having a grid to guide you on where to place elements on the page it could be for you.

If you’re short on time or you don’t feel you have the confidence to build your own website from scratch, Wix has an Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) option which will generate a website for you based on your answers to a few simple questions.

.

During our testing users shared their opinions on how easy both builders were to use. For Wix one user notes, “It’s really intuitive to use, a beginner would grasp it easily!” For Squarespace the experience was just as easy, with users stating, “I felt like I was great at making websites but really it was just Squarespace doing it for me!“

Making ease of use a clear tie between these two website builders.

Wix vs Squarespace: Ease of Use

Click the image below to expand

Close

Squarespace uses a sidebar to help navigate around the more minimalist editor, as well as an edit button that allows you to make changes to the template

Squarespace starts users off with an editor tour, so you'll have some idea of where all the most important elements live

Wix ADI uses your own choices to create a tailored website in a matter of minutes. You can edit your site later on, and experiment with different styles

Wix’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to add in additional elements to your website

Wix in Action: Ksenia Ponka

Ksenia Ponka

Ksenia Ponka is a PR and marketing practitioner. Her passion is to help companies uncover their growth potential and identify solutions to their problems, turning them into growth opportunities. Her professional strength lies in effectively promoting companies and projects through omnichannel communication, combining PR, marketing, CRM, advertising, ecommerce, and social media marketing.

When I announced the launch of my website, more than 20 people wrote to me, asking for contact details for the agency that did the design. And when they heard that it was only me, using Wix, they couldn't believe it.

How long have you been using Wix?

I started to work on my website, Ksenia Ponka, in March 2022. I had no experience in web design, so it was a challenge because I wanted a professional-looking site with multiple pages.

What do you like most about Wix?

Firstly, I tried to use the Tilda website builder, but the number of free templates and the interface weren’t a good fit for my needs. So although it was a great choice to create a portfolio, a resume, or a personal blog, it didn’t work for me. I needed a more complicated design but with easy-to-understand layouts and tools to adjust it. I didn’t watch any guides and how-tos to start a website. I just opened the Wix manager and went on. It was intuitive and user-friendly with plenty of possibilities, including online bookings, request forms, galleries, and sub-pages. Moreover, I got a free voucher for a website domain upgrading to a business account, which helps avoid the service’s ad on your page. Nice touch!

Is there anything you would change about Wix?

Some in-built and third-party plugins cost extra, even if you’ve already paid for a business account. For example, you can choose a template with an online booking service, but if you want it to work, you need to pay, which is a bit frustrating if you already have a professional subscription. Also, even though Wix is a simple website builder for total beginners, some editor options can be intimidating at first.

Would you recommend Wix?

When I announced the launch of my website, more than 20 people wrote to me, asking for contact from an agency that did the design. When they heard that it was only me, using Wix, they couldn’t believe it. So that’s why I would recommend this website builder to other users.

Click the + to see our favorite part of Ksenia's website

Ksenia’s homepage makes a big statement. The color scheme is bold and striking against the stylish white background, and visitors immediately know what it is she offers.

Find out more

• Read our comparison of Wix Editor vs Wix ADI to find out which is best for you

Who Offers More Creative Control?

The Winner

Squarespace has better design flexibility

Squarespace offers quality designs, tons of customization options, and flexibility in spades, scoring an impressive 4.7 out of 5 in our latest research. While Wix has over 800 attractive, customizable templates, not all its designs have the wow-factor that Squarespace’s template designs do.

Visit Squarespace

Wix has an impressive range of templates, most of which are attractive and provide a foundation for a professional-looking website. They’re all mobile responsive, and come with a mobile editor so you can customize both your desktop and your mobile view.

You’ll notice we said most of Wix’s templates are attractive. When you have over 800 designs, there are bound to be some that miss the mark. We found this one uncomfortable to look at for too long:

Click the image below to expand

Close

Click to see Wix’s templates

Not all Wix's templates are attractive - be careful you don't pick one like this!

Squarespace, on the other hand, provides beautiful template designs right across the board. We found that they were all modern, professional, and carefully tailored to different industries:

Click the image below to expand

Close

Click to see Squarespace’s templates

Squarespace’s templates are all mobile responsive – you can even preview how they’ll look on mobile, tablets, and desktop.

In this area, Squarespace is the unbeaten champion of stunning, modern design, scoring 4.7 out of 5 for design functionality. This is a classic case of quality over quantity; Squarespace may have a smaller range than Wix, but every template has been created by professional designers. And, of course, they’re all mobile responsive. Squarespace has remained at a score of 4.7 for design since last year’s testing, due to consistency in improving design features.

Wix, on the other hand, scores 4.6 out of 5, clipping the heels of Squarespace and making a huge 4.5% improvement in its design score. Although less than Squarespace, this is still an excellent score, putting it in second place for design out of all the website builders we tested. Its strength here lies in the fact that its customizability is nearly unparalleled. Plus we’ve seen an improvement in the navigation of Wix websites, as well as visual appeal.

Wix is a good option if you want a lot of creative freedom. However, a word of caution – because there really is no limit to what you can do, it can be easy to lose sight of your overall design, resulting in a website that doesn’t have the same polish as Squarespace’s sites. One user in testing noted, “my page ended up looking so much sleeker and neater than when I used Wix.”

Squarespace in Action: Well Together

Iyana Anderson

Iyana Anderson is the Founder and CEO of Well Together LLC, a wellness company dedicated to providing all the tools needed to invest in the wellbeing of both the individual and the collective. She is a licensed social worker, motivational speaker, innovative wellness strategist, and thought leader. Iyana holds a BA degree in Psychology and an MA in Social Work.

Squarespace is user-friendly, and it is easy to access support if you need it.

How long have you been using Squarespace?

I first used Squarespace to build my website, Wellness Together, about a year and a half ago.

What do you like most about Squarespace?

I like that Squarespace is user-friendly. This was really helpful when I initially started my business and had to create my own website, due to my limited budget. Fortunately, the user-friendly aspect allowed me to enhance my knowledge of web design.

Is there anything you'd change about Squarespace?

If I could change one thing about Squarespace, I would change the access to templates once you’ve already created your website.

Would you recommend Squarespace?

I would recommend Squarespace because I find it to be very user-friendly. Plus, it’s easy to access support, whether it be through the Help Center or by contacting a representative.

Click the + to see our favorite part of Iyana's website

Iyana’s website features a clear contact CTA that is followed by descriptions of all the services Iyana offers. This makes it easy for clients to decide what they want.

Find out more

• Read our detailed Squarespace Templates Review to find out if it’s your design dream
• Prefer Wix’s designs? Check out our Wix Templates Review for a more in-depth look at your choices
• Looking for the best designs for your portfolio? Our Best Portfolio Website Builder Review tells you the best options on the market

Where Should You Invest?

The Winner

Squarespace offers better value for money

Squarespace has four price plans starting at $16 per month. Since the recent pricing updates, both Squarespace and Wix offer the same starter plan price – but Squarespace overall knocks value out of the park. Even though Wix offers a free package, it still can’t beat Squarespace when it comes to value for money!

Visit Squarespace

Is Wix or Squarespace Cheaper?

Wix and Squarespace cost the same on their cheapest plan, both charging $16 per month (billed annually). As you get into higher plans, Squarespace is slightly cheaper – allowing ecommerce for $23 per month compared to Wix’s $27 per month plan. Wix also comes with a free plan, while Squarespace doesn’t.

Wix and Squarespace Pricing Plans

Click the image below to expand

Close

Squarespace pricing starts at $16 per month (billed annually) and comes with a free trial.

We don’t recommend staying on Wix’s free plan in the long run. This is because you’ll need to use a Wix subdomain and put up with Wix ads being littered all over your site.

If you want your website to grow and be taken seriously, you’ll need to upgrade at some point, and when you do, you’ll be paying more with Wix than you would be with Squarespace. While all website builder plans are on the increase each year, Wix saw a 11.8% decrease in its value score. 

Wix only scores 3 out of 5 for value for money, compared to Squarespace, which achieved the best value score of all builders, 4.6 out of 5. Squarespace is the only builder we tested that has increased its value score since last year’s testing – going up by an impressive 15%. Despite increasing its personal plans, we recognize that for the price of $16 per month, the feature offering is very comparable with Wix’s Core plan at $27 per month.

Squarespace’s cheapest plan comes with a ton of great features, making it excellent value for money. For example, it gives you unlimited bandwidth and storage straight away on its $16 per month Personal plan. Whereas Wix only unlocks unlimited bandwidth on its $27 per month Core plan. Plus you’ll only find unlimited storage on the Wix’s plans.

Overall, you’ll get better value for money with Squarespace.

Find out more

• Check out our Squarespace Pricing review for an in-depth look at its plans and prices
• Find out more about the savings you can make with our Squarespace discount code
• Tempted by Wix’s price plans? Read our Wix Pricing review to find out which plan is perfect for you

Which is Best For Selling Online

The Winner

Wix comes with better selling tools

With Wix, it’s super easy to add ecommerce functionality to your website, and you can install a wide variety of apps to support your operations. Squarespace is a great ecommerce option, but it has a smaller app store and loses this round.

Visit Wix

You’ll find these features on both Wix and Squarespace’s cheapest ecommerce plans. For Wix, that’s the $27 per month Core plan, while for Squarespace it’s the $23 per month Business plan.

Although Squarespace has a cheaper starting price than Wix, it also reserves certain features for its top-level plans. For example, you have to be on its $49 per month Advanced Commerce plan to unlock abandoned cart recovery and subscriptions.

In comparison, Wix is much more generous with its sales tools – you get abandoned cart recovery on its $27 per month Core plan, and subscriptions on its $32 per month plan.

This means that for online stores, Wix’s cheap ecommerce plans offer better value for money than Squarespace, making it a better choice for budget-conscious businesses.

Find out more

• Want to sell online? Check out our Wix eCommerce Review to find out more
• Check out our Squarespace Ecommerce Review to see if it’s the right choice for your online store

What Will Your Site Be Able to Do?

The Winner

Wix has better features

Wix scores the highest for features in our research out of all the builders we’ve tested. It has an impressive range of features, backed by the Wix App Market’s extra tools. However, although Wix scores higher, Squarespace’s in-house features are well designed, can save you hassle, and are a fantastic option too.

Visit Wix

This area of testing was pretty close between the two builders, but the sheer number and quality of Wix’s features eventually beat Squarespace’s smaller range of carefully curated tools. This is clearly reflected in their category scores, with Wix scoring a 4.8 out of 5 – a minor 1.3% decrease in Wix’s score since last year. In comparison, Squarespace received 4.6 out of 5, a huge 4% increase from year’s score of 4.4. So Wix is still better for features, but Squarespace’s improvements are something to keep an eye on in future. 

Wix comes with a membership app, alongside a live chat app, donations, bookings, and social media integration. Making your website functional in plenty of different ways, it also has contact forms for customers to get in touch. Improvements over the last year also include Semrush integration, so keywords can now be easily viewed as you’re building.

Comparatively, Squarespace does have memberships and live chat but you either need a higher payment plan or a third party app. Squarespace comes with the ability to donate, make bookings, integrate socials, and contact forms too. Improvements in features over this year have been enhancements of its third party apps that allow you to do scheduling, CRM, and marketing support.

On the whole, both Wix and Squarespace are pretty evenly matched. Wix has more features than Squarespace, although Squarespace ensures quality by using third-party integrations to add that feature to your site.

In contrast, Wix has a lot more features built into its platform. For example, to sell tickets, you just need Wix Events. Although technically an app, it’s built by Wix. The ‘app’ label just means that people who don’t need it, won’t have to add it to their site. Overall, this system makes life easier than integrating with a third party. 

Find out more

• Read our in-depth Wix Review for more details on its features
• Our Squarespace Review takes a better look at the features on offer
• Take a look at our review of the Best Small Business Website Builders and find your perfect match
• Learn How to Make a Booking Website with Wix and Squarespace’s unique tools

Which Extras Are On Offer?

The Winner

Wix has a more extensive app store

There’s really no competition here. Squarespace’s extensions are all high quality and carefully chosen, but compared to Wix’s in-house and third-party apps, they’ve still got a little way to go before having a chance of winning this round.

Visit Wix

Both Wix and Squarespace are pretty evenly matched when it comes to features. But if you want to go one step further, you can add apps.

Wix has its own dedicated App Market, providing apps made by both Wix and other third parties. There are 47 “Made by Wix” apps, such as Wix Bookings or Wix Events, as well as tons of third-party apps such as Printful and Instagram.

There’s also a mix of free and paid apps – over 200 in total! This gives you the freedom to choose the features that work best for your website as it grows.

The majority of Squarespace’s features are designed in-house, and already built into the editor for you. This means everything you need to build, grow, and manage your website is right there at your fingertips – you don’t have to go looking for extra functions.

For features that Squarespace doesn’t have in-house, it relies on third party integrations. For example, you need to use OpenTable for online reservations.

Squarespace’s app store is called Squarespace Extensions, and features a small selection of 31 third-party integrations covering four main categories:

• Shipping and Fulfillment
• Finance
• Inventory and Products
• Sales and Marketing

Examples of these apps include Printful, ShipStation, QuickBooks, and TaxJar. These extensions are designed to help you scale, optimize, and manage your website and are especially useful for growing businesses.

It’s worth mentioning that both builders have a mobile app that lets you manage your site on the go from your phone. You can also edit your Wix or Squarespace site on your phone, too, which is super useful – especially if you’re running a side hustle and aren’t tied to a desk all day!

Which Is Better for Posting Online?

The Winner

It's a Tie!

Both Wix and Squarespace have a wide range of sophisticated blogging tools. Squarespace offers stunning blogging templates, while Wix’s app store makes it easy to expand your blogging functionality.

How Can You Grow Your Site?

The Winner

It's a Tie!

Both Squarespace and Wix are great if you want to put together an all-around marketing strategy. Wix offers a free email marketing tool, apps such as Social Media Icons and Visitor Analytics, and Wix Ascend, a powerful marketing suite. While Squarespace also has an Email Campaigns feature, third party marketing apps, and social post creator.

Additionally, Ascend by Wix is Wix’s most powerful marketing tool. It’s Wix’s all-in-one marketing suite for businesses, and includes:

• Customizable email editor
• Automations
• Advanced analytics
• SEO tools
• Social integration
• Video maker
• Live chat
• Forms
• Invoices

There’s a limited free version, then three paid plans ranging from $9 to $45 per month.

Squarespace’s Marketing Tools

Squarespace also aces the email marketing game, offering an all-in-one platform called Squarespace Email Campaigns. This integrates fully with your website, providing a streamlined service across your brand.

Unlike Wix’s email campaign add-on, Squarespace Email Campaigns doesn’t have a free version. Instead, you get a trial period that lets you send out three campaigns in total, with 50,000 sends per campaign. After this, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid plans, which range from $5 to $48 per month when billed annually.

Is Squarespace’s email marketing platform worth the cost? Here are a few things you can do with it:

• Import content from your website to draft emails
• Send automated emails to subscribers
• Choose from over 30 starter layouts
• Manage your marketing on the go with mobile editing
• Track your campaigns’ success with integrated analytics

There’s no denying you get stellar service from Squarespace’s email marketing. However, if it doesn’t tick your boxes, there are five sales and marketing apps in its Extensions Store to choose from, too – or you can integrate with MailChimp instead!

Squarespace also allows you to connect your website to various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Plus, it offers excellent built-in analytics to help you gauge your marketing impact and improve your strategy.

Which Will Rank Better?

The Winner

It's a Tie!

Wix and Squarespace are neck-and-neck in this category, with both providing comprehensive SEO support throughout the building process. Thanks to its SEO Wiz, Wix is excellent for beginners, while Squarespace has a great selection of built-in SEO tools, including keyword support, as well as a useful SEO Checklist feature.

Both Wix and Squarespace have built-in SEO tools to help you boost your website’s ranking. These include mobile responsive pages, mobile friendly, optimized headings, SEO guidance, and alt text for images. Let’s compare the key SEO features.

Both received a whopping 5 out 5 for SEO – both provide everything you need to rank well in search engines. Some of the SEO features include:

• Customizable meta titles
• Meta descriptions
• Image alt attributes
• SEO specific apps
• SEO prompts
• Keyword support
• Google integrations
• SSL certificates
• Headings
• Personalized SEO suggestions

These tools will help you win over the algorithm, but more importantly is that both received a UX (user experience) score of 5 out of 5 too! This is really important because Google focuses on the user more. 

Ease of use is at the forefront when it comes to Wix’s SEO tools and processes. Its SEO Wiz is awesome for teaching you the basics of SEO while you build, and you can also make the most of best practice prompts while constructing your website.

Wix continues to expand its template offering, now with a UX focus with website navigation taking greater importance along with overall appeal and lifelong visual appeal. Squarespace also has fantastic UX design, with one user in testing noting about the new grid, “I loved the background grid for organizing your layout – it was so good for making sure everything was aligned properly. My page ended up looking so much sleeker and neater than other platforms”

Previously, Squarespace’s SEO tools could have been considered too advanced for a beginner, but it’s made big improvements to ensure optimizing your website for search isn’t too daunting. It now provides a checklist to make sure you haven’t missed anything, as well as keyword support, and a vast range of SEO articles in its excellent knowledge center. It also recently started providing best practice prompts throughout the building process, as Wix does.

Find out more

• Find out more about promoting your Wix website in our Wix SEO Review
• Read our Squarespace SEO Review for more details on what this builder has to offer
• Heard rumours you can’t rank with a website builder? Read our Website Builder SEO vs WordPress SEO comparison to put an end to those concerns

Who Has the Better Helping Hand?

The Winner

It's a Tie!

Squarespace’s customer support and the Wix help center are the very best help and support we’ve tested. Both score full marks in this category due to a wide range of help and support features, including email, live chat, and on-site editor help. Both have comprehensive help centers, the real cherry on top.

Visit Squarespace

Both builders have a 4.8 out of 5 score for support making them joint best (with Ionos) for helping their customers. Wix provides support through forums, social media, live chat, and a 24/7 callback service for phone support. It also comes with a dedicated Support Center. Wix has made vast improvements in its help and support score, an increase of 10.5%! This is due to the support center getting better at answering questions.

Squarespace, in addition to providing a forum, also has a live chat function (from 3am to 8pm EST, Monday through Friday) and a 24/7 email response team. However, Squarespace saw a slight decrease in its 5 out of 5 support score last year to 4.8. 

That’s a 5% decrease in the score, prices have risen across the board as previously mentioned, but whereas Wix has improved its support in line with this price rise, Squarespace’s support has stayed the same. Because there’s currently no phone support available, but if you need a speedy reply you’re in luck – it’s Squarespace’s policy to respond to all emails within one hour – impressive stuff!

One of the best features of Wix’s support is its on-page help while you edit. If you get stuck, or don’t know what something is, all you have to do is click on one of the little question marks on your screen for more information.

Squarespace gives its users more onboarding than it used to, and now offers on-page support while you build – but it hasn’t quite caught up to Wix’s level of helpful prompts.

However, one thing that gives Squarespace an edge over Wix and helps it achieve that 4.8 out of 5 score is how comprehensive its Knowledge Center is. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information at your fingertips, often solving your problems before you need to even think about contacting a Squarespace advisor directly.

We’re here to give you a holistic look at these two website builders – so don’t just take our word for it! Let’s see what experts think of Wix vs Squarespace.

Expert Insights

Katherine Brown

Katherine Brown is the founder and marketing director at Spyic, a tech company specializing in parental control and remote monitoring programs.

I decided to use Wix over Squarespace to build my website for various reasons. Wix offers more ecommerce features, and the pricing structure of the Business and Enterprise plans all facilitate ecommerce. Also, a vital ecommerce feature – abandoned cart recovery – is available at a considerably lower price with Wix.</p> <p>I liked that Wix is more beginner friendly and easier to use. In terms of quantity, Wix offers more templates than Squarespace. It also offers a free plan, which Squarespace doesn’t. However, regardless of Wix having more templates, there is something undeniably special about the design of Squarespace templates.

Expert Insight

Will 'Brimstone' Kucmierowski

Will 'Brimstone’ Kucmierowski is a well-seasoned entertainer and serial entertainment entrepreneur. He boasts a list of titles including professional wrestler, radio host/professional podcaster, actor, voice actor, author, musician, philanthropist, food critic, horror model, and comic book/animated/children’s book/video game hero.

When I started building my website with Wix, the learning curve was really simple and I excelled. I rebuilt my entire website over the course of two weeks, and have never looked back! It was shocking how I was able to rebuild and rebrand my site quickly. I'm thrilled to have everything working as a well-oiled machine without having to rely on anyone other than myself.

Expert Insight

Michelle Mak

Michelle Mak is a product developer at Mewl Baby, specializing in baby and motherhood items. Michelle is the creator of the original Mewl Baby Whiteboard.

Squarespace is very intuitive and easy to use – it doesn’t require any coding! Plus, it has a range of beautifully designed templates to choose from. It's also very easy to make changes yourself instead of paying someone else to do it. I completed my site in just one week!

This article has helped you decide whether Wix or Squarespace is better for you. We’ve explored all the important areas, and shown which builder is better for different users.

Both builders are very easy to use, but Wix is the more creative builder out of the two, while Squarespace’s sleek designs follow a more set structure. Wix is perfect for online stores that want ever expanding features. Squarespace is ideal for creatives, starters with small budgets, and those looking for beautiful designs.

Both of these builders do a phenomenal job for blogs, marketing tools, SEO, and help and support – so you can’t really go wrong with either.

If you’re in doubt, we recommend you try Wix’s free plan to start with. It’s the overall better website builder, scoring 4.8 out of 5 in our research and just pipping Squarespace, which achieved 4.7 out of 5. Wix is easy to use, comes packed with helpful features, and, overall, is the builder our users were most likely to recommend.

Who Do We Recommend Overall?

Overall, we recommend Wix over Squarespace. There are two main reasons Wix should be your go-to choice: it gives you more creative freedom, and offers a wider choice of premium plans than Squarespace. Sure, Squarespace is ideal for creatives – but Wix has something for everyone.

Wix is good if you’re a beginner, or looking to get online quickly. Wix is more beginner-friendly than Squarespace, and with its free plan, Wix is a cheap and hassle-free way of building a website in a matter of hours. Also, Wix’s range of templates and design features ensures your site looks professional even if you whipped it up in one afternoon.

If you crave a stylish website, Squarespace’s templates are super sleek, so your website will stand out from the crowd no matter what, because it scores the best for design.

It’s just as easy to use as Wix, but Squarespace’s templates are more structured, so you can’t move things around as easily as you can with Wix. This means you won’t have as much creative freedom, but if the idea of complete creative freedom is daunting, you can rest assured your website will always look good.