Wix and Squarespace are two popular website builders which let you create your very own website without needing advanced (or even moderate) tech skills.
Wix is the best all-around website builder – over 110 million users enjoy Wix’s creative tools and user-friendly service. This is the best choice for beginners, as it’s a simple but creative way of building a website. In fact, it’s so simple you can publish a site in a single afternoon!
Squarespace is best for creatives who have a little more time on their hands. Millions of people have used Squarespace to create their websites, and it’s easy to see why. It has everything you need to create a truly stunning website, from the best designs on the market to truly top-notch features.
We’re not just pulling these statements out of thin air. We spend hours testing, tweaking, and re-testing every builder we review, to bring you the most thorough information. We even get members of the public involved, to give you the facts you actually want to know.
And that’s just what this article will do. We’ll explore everything from ease of use to pricing and beyond. By the end, you’ll have no doubt whether Wix or Squarespace is the better choice for you.
First things first, let’s take a quick look at how we’ve rated the two builders, before delving deeper into our comparison:
In this head-to-head review, we’ll compare Wix and Squarespace in six different aspects, plus our conclusion, to determine which one is best for you.
Ease of Use: Which Is More Beginner Friendly?
Ease of use was one of the most important things our users told us they looked for when choosing a website builder, and we agree completely. After all, there’s no point signing up to a builder if it’s just too complicated to use.
To cover the basics, both Wix and Squarespace are drag-and-drop website builders. This means you simply select the element you want (such as text boxes, images, and maps), and drag it to where you’d like it positioned on your page. Drop it there, and hey presto – that’s just how it will look once your site is published.
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 freely like you can with Wix. This means it takes a little longer to get used to.
We got our users to test out Wix and Squarespace and tell us exactly what they thought. We’ve included a few of their quotes, so you don’t just have to take our word for it!
Wix Ease of Use
Beginner-friendly shouldn’t mean boring, but this is something a lot of website builders struggle to grasp. Luckily, Wix has mastered the art of bringing fun, creative tools to beginners and tech pros alike.
Wix’s drag-and-drop editor was a big hit with most of our users:
“The drag and drop feature is excellent, allowing quick and easy redesigns.”
If you don’t fancy dragging and dropping to build your page, you can let Wix do it for you with its Artificial Design Intelligence (Wix ADI).
All you do is enter some information, such as the name and purpose of your website, and pick the colors and themes you like the best. Wix ADI then creates a personalized website for you to edit. It’s as easy as taking an online quiz, and only takes a few minutes.
Squarespace Ease of Use
Squarespace is more technical than Wix, and doesn’t sacrifice any creative freedom or dumb down its impressive features. Because of this, it just takes a little longer to get to grips with than Wix.
As you can see, though, it’s still pretty easy to use if you have the patience, or a little technical confidence:
This is what one of our users had to say about using Squarespace:
“I can imagine that once you’ve spent enough time working out what certain elements do, Squarespace would be pretty easy to use. You just need to work out where to click if you want to X, or which function helps with Y.”
It’s well worth spending time learning your way around, as you can create a professional looking site without ever entering a line of code.
Design Flexibility: Who Offers More Creative Control?
You’ve got a great idea for a website, and now you need to dress it up so the world sits up and pays attention. How many templates do you have to choose from? Can you switch to another one later on? Are the designs going to knock your socks off? Let’s find out!
Wix Templates: The Facts
- 510+ templates for you to choose from across different industries
- Very professional looking
- Once you pick a template, you cannot change it without rebuilding your website’s content – so choose carefully!
- All Wix templates are fully mobile responsive, and are supported by a dedicated, advanced mobile editor
Squarespace Templates: The Facts
- Responsive designs (great for mobile phones and tablets)
- Over 60 polished and beautifully designed templates
- You can change templates for your website at any time (no content will be lost)
Design Head to Head: How Do They Compare?
Wix has an impressive range of templates, all 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.
However, when it comes to templates, Squarespace is the unbeaten champion of stunning and modern design. This is a classic case of quality over quantity; Squarespace may have a smaller range than Wix, but each and every template has been created by professional designers. And, of course, they’re all mobile responsive.
By simply looking at some of these templates, you can tell that the Squarespace team has invested a lot of time and effort into crafting them.
Customization
While both Wix and Squarespace have great looking templates, you’re going to want to make them your own.
Wix makes this really easy with its simple drag-and-drop editor. You can replace text and images, add slideshows, and drop in contact forms a-plenty, all with just a few clicks!
To prove it, we took Wix for a spin:
Squarespace gives you tons of creative freedom over your template. However, a lot of features do come included, so it’s still a good idea to pick one that suits your website as well as looking incredible.
If you want to really customize your site with Squarespace, you can! You’re not just limited to drag-and-drop, “what you see is what you get” editing, and this opens up a whole world of options. With Squarespace’s CSS Editor, for example, you can change fonts, colors and backgrounds to make them totally unique.
Switching Templates
With so much choice, it’s understandable that you might want to change your template later down the line. It’s like those shoes you love in the store, then totally regret when you try them on at home. Ideally, you want the option to swap your template, just like you can with those shoes.
One of the biggest downsides of using Wix is that once you’ve selected your template and use it to publish your website, you can’t switch it. You’ll have to rebuild your content if you want to give your site a different look, which is time consuming and fiddly.
Squarespace, on the other hand, lets you switch your template any time you like. Your existing content is automatically transferred into the new template, although you’ll probably need to tweak it a bit to make sure it still looks its best.
You can even install multiple templates with Squarespace, meaning you can edit and preview your new one before making the switch. This makes rebrands and facelifts much easier for your website as it grows and develops.
Features and Tools: How Much Power Will Your Site Have?
It’s exciting enough just making a website. But once you’ve mastered editing your menu and creating multiple pages, you’ll want to go a step further and add some oomph to your site. That’s where features and tools come in.
Customization tools let you add slideshows and galleries, pick from hundreds of fonts, and create custom colors for your page designs. But it doesn’t stop there…
Features can do everything, from giving your site powerful ecommerce tools so you can sell online to customized emails for you to promote your website with. We’ll get into those in a sec.
Both Wix and Squarespace come with tons of built-in features and tools to give your site that extra punch. But if you want to go one step further, you can add apps.
Wix has its own dedicated App Market, providing apps made by Wix as well as third party ones. There’s a mix of free and paid apps – over 200 in total! This gives you the freedom to choose the features which work best for your website as it grows.
Squarespace, meanwhile, doesn’t have an app store. All of its features are designed in-house, and already built into the editor for you.
Ecommerce
If you want to sell online, you’ll need ecommerce tools. Sure, basic ecommerce tools let you accept payments through your website. But for a really professional online store, you’ll need some of what Wix and Squarespace are offering…
Wix has three ecommerce plans, which come with ecommerce tools built-in for you to build your store with. These features include: 0% commission fee, unlimited bandwidth, up to 50GB storage, no Wix adverts, and Google Analytics. You can also integrate Wix apps to expand your store’s capabilities.
Squarespace supports ecommerce on three of its plans. The first one is designed for normal websites which need to sell a few items. The other two are specifically aimed at building online stores.
Both of these ecommerce specific plans come with all the ecommerce tools you need to succeed, already built-in. These features include: 0% transaction fees, unlimited bandwidth and storage, abandoned cart recovery, gift card creation, and customer accounts.
Blogging
If you’ve got something to say… say it! These blogging tools will make sure your voice is heard.
While Wix does have built-in blogging tools such as blog posts, feeds, galleries, and email campaigns, if you want the best for your blog, it’s worth adding the free Wix Blog app to your site.
Squarespace, of course, comes with all its brilliant blogging tools built-in, such as multiple author contribution, scheduled sharing, and category support. With its top-quality designs, Squarespace is ideal for anyone who uses a lot of photography or graphics in their blog posts.
Marketing
Don’t be shy – make sure you shout about your website with top-notch marketing tools.
Create, customize, and run email campaigns, then share them on your social networks, send out newsletters, track your stats, and more with Wix’s Email Marketing tools. If that’s not enough, you can add apps such as the Facebook Like Popup to engage a wider audience.
Meanwhile, Squarespace helps you stand out from the crowd with its highly customized, stunning email campaigns. Combine these with integration across social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and guage their impact using built-in analytics.
SEO: Which Will Rank Better?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and refers to the processes that help your website rank higher up in Google’s search result pages.
All sorts of things go into optimizing your website, including setting keywords and meta titles. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of those – this is exactly where our website builders can help.
Both Wix and Squarespace have built-in SEO tools to help you boost your website’s ranking. These include mobile responsive pages, optimized headings, and alt text for images.
Wix also has an SEO Guide where you can find tons of guides and helpful information on how to set up your site’s SEO, and then develop it as your website grows. This is super beginner-friendly, and is a great introduction for even the most nervous beginners.
And that’s not all Wix offers – you can also use Wix SEO Wiz to receive a personalized step-by-step plan to follow. You just enter information such as the name and purpose of your site, add in some keywords, and Wix does the rest. It’s easy to follow and sets you up for success.
Squarespace has great SEO tools built in, and has an SEO Checklist in its help center for you to follow. You have everything you need to succeed with Squarespace, and it provides a very thorough coverage of SEO to help you get to grips with it.
However, Squarespace isn’t quite as beginner friendly as Wix, and doesn’t have the same personalized SEO journey that Wix provides.
Help and Support: Who Has the Better Helping Hand?
Wix provides support through email, forums, social media, a dedicated Support Center, and over the phone (available from 6am to 5pm PST). There are currently no live chat functions available.
Squarespace, in addition to providing a forum and a knowledge center, also has a live chat function (from 3am to 8pm EST, Monday through Friday) and a 24/7 email response team. 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 1 hour – impressive stuff!
Both Wix and Squarespace have thorough help centers full of articles and guides to help you out.
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.
Squarespace doesn’t have the same in-editor support, but it does go the extra mile with its help center. This provides extra resources such as webinars and workshops, videos, and a great community forum. Squarespace may not offer phone support, but what it does offer is high quality service.
Pricing and Value for Money: Where Should You Invest?
Before we dive into our analysis of each builder’s pricing plans, let’s take a look at what they offer in terms of monthly packages. All prices listed refer to monthly prices on annual plans.
Squarespace offers 4 premium pricing plans. The higher the plan, the more features become available to you:
If you sign up to an annual plan, you can save between 13% and 25% compared to signing up to a month-to-month plan.
| Squarespace Pricing Plans | Monthly Plan ($/month) | Annual Plan ($/month) | Savings (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $16 | $12 | 25% |
| Business | $26 | $18 | 31% |
| Basic (eCommerce) | $30 | $26 | 13% |
| Advanced (eCommerce) | $46 | $40 | 13% |
For $12 per month, the Personal plan gives you everything you need to create a stylish, simple website. It comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage, which is unusual for a low-tier plan and shows just what you’re paying for. This plan is best for personal use, or for those just starting out.
The $18 per month Business plan comes with everything available on the Personal plan, plus a huge array of extra features. These include promotional pop-ups, ecommerce functions, and a professional email from Google. As the name suggests, this plan is best for businesses.
The Basic and Advanced plans are designed for building online stores, and come with features to match. These include all the features from the Business plan, plus extras such as 0% transaction fees, an unlimited number of products to sell, management tools for inventory, orders, tax, and coupons, and much more.
Meanwhile, Wix’s premium plans offer you seven different packages. Four are aimed at websites, while three are ecommerce plans:
The $11 per month Combo plan is the cheapest Wix offers. It allows you to connect a domain and remove Wix adverts from your website. You also get 2GB bandwidth and 3GB storage. It’s good for upgrading from the free plan, but not ideal for long-term use.
The Unlimited plan is great for freelancers, costing $14 per month. It’s a big upgrade for only $3 more, unlocking unlimited bandwidth and 10GB storage. You also get spending value for some cool apps, such as Site Booster.
The $19 per month Pro plan is Wix’s most popular website plan. Increased storage, as well as extra bonuses like the Professional Logo app, make this plan ideal for perfecting your site’s online branding.
The VIP plan doesn’t offer much more than the Pro plan, but for an extra $10 per month, you do get priority support, meaning your problems are fast-tracked to the front of the queue. Best for those who can’t afford to wait!
Here’s a quick look at Wix’s ecommerce plans – you can find a full breakdown of Wix’s ecommerce features and prices in our Wix eCommerce Review.
These plans provide scalability for online stores. They start from $20 per month on the Business Basic plan, increasing to $25 per month for the most popular Business Unlimited plan, and reaching the top price of $35 per month for the Business VIP plan.
If you sign up for a 1-year or 2-year plan, you can save from 20% to 37% per year, depending on which package you select:
| Wix Pricing Plans | Monthly ($/month) | 1-Year ($/month) | Savings (%) | 2-Years ($/month) | Savings (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combo | $14.50 | $11.00 | 24% | $9.00 | 37% |
| Unlimited | $17.50 | $14.00 | 20% | $11.00 | 37% |
| Pro | $24.00 | $19.00 | 21% | $15.50 | 35% |
| eCommerce* | $25.00 | $20.00 | 20% | $17.50 | 30% |
| VIP | $35.00 | $29.00 | 17% | $26.00 | 26% |
*eCommerce represents Business Basic, the cheapest of the three ecommerce plans – read our Wix eCommerce Review to learn more
If you compare the monthly fees for Wix and Squarespace’s annual plans, you’ll see that Wix plans are cheaper than Squarespace, but you get more for your money on Squarespace’s low-tier plans than you do with Wix.
For example, Squarespace gives you unlimited bandwidth and storage straight away on its $12 per month Personal plan, whereas Wix only unlocks unlimited bandwidth on its $14 per month Unlimited plan. You won’t find unlimited storage on any of Wix’s plans.
Our top tip would be to think about the features that matter most to you, and see which builder offers the plan that will provide you with the tools you need, at a price you can afford.
If you want to build a site for free, than Wix is the obvious choice. Its free plan is great for getting started – however, we don’t recommend staying on it long-term. With adverts displaying on your site, a “wix.com” sub-domain, and limited resources, the free plan makes it impossible to create a truly professional looking site.
Squarespace, meanwhile, doesn’t offer a free plan. Instead, it has a 14-day free trial. This is a great chance to test out whether Squarespace is the right builder for you, and you don’t need to enter any payment details unless you decide to sign up to the paid plan.
Wix vs Squarespace: Summary and Recommendation
This article has explored all the ins and outs of Wix and Squarespace, from their features, to ease of use, designs, and more. By now, you should have a good idea of whether Wix or Squarespace is better for you.
To recap, here is a summary table of our comparison above. We’ll have some final thoughts below the table:
| Category & Winner | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use Winner: Wix | Wix is very beginner friendly thanks to its simple drag-and-drop editor. Wix ADI means you could have a website live in an afternoon. | Squarespace is more technical to use than Wix. It takes longer to get used to, so requires patience and/or some technical confidence. |
| Design Flexibility Winner: Squarespace | Wix has over 500 templates to choose from. They’re attractive and easy to customize, but you can’t switch once your site is live. | Squarespace has the best quality templates on the market. It has a smaller range than Wix, but you can switch templates whenever you like. |
| Features & Tools Winner: Draw | Wix has a good number of built-in features covering customization, ecommerce, marketing, and more. You can also use apps from the Wix App Market for extra functionality. | All of Squarespace’s features are built-in, and they’re the best quality features on the market. Squarespace doesn’t have an app market, but it does have a great range of in-house tools. |
| SEO Winner: Wix | Wix has built-in SEO tools, plus in-depth support resources to guide you through optimizing your website. Wix SEO Wiz is beginner friendly, interactive, and creates a personalized step-by-step plan to follow. | Squarespace has built-in SEO tools to use, and has designed its pages to be SEO-friendly. It has support resources to help you, which are in-depth but could be daunting for a first-timer. |
| Help & Support Winner: Wix | Wix offers phone, email, and social media support, plus an in-depth knowledge base. It provides you with on-page editor support, too. | Squarespace has a small but high quality support service via live chat and email, plus a thorough help center with guides, videos, webinars, and a forum. |
| Pricing & Value for Money Winner: Wix | Wix has seven price plans ranging from $11 to $35 per month (billed yearly). It also has a free plan which you can stay on for as long as you like. All paid plans have a 14-day money back guarantee. | Squarespace has four price plans ranging from $12 to $40 per month (billed yearly). It doesn’t have a free plan, but all paid plans have a 14-day free trial, with no payment details needed. |
Understanding the differences between Wix and Squarespace is important in helping you decide which website builder to use.
You Should Use Wix If…
You’re a beginner, or looking to get online quickly. With its free plan, Wix is a cheap and hassle-free way of building a website, while its range of designs and features makes sure your site will look professional even if you whipped it up in one afternoon.
You Should Use Squarespace If…
You’re a creative with a little time or technical confidence. Squarespace’s designs are the best around and its features are right up there to match. It will take some time to get used to, though, so it’s not ideal for beginners or for anyone wanting a quick and simple website.
While they both have their own strengths, overall we recommend Wix over Squarespace. It has something for everyone, from its prices to its designs, and makes it possible for complete beginners to create professional looking websites. While Squarespace has the stunning designs, it’s not quite as easy or affordable as Wix.
With Wix’s great support, large app market, and interactive SEO, there’s nothing stopping even the most nervous of technophobes from jumping feet first into the world of website building.
Wix vs Squarespace: FAQs
Who Should Use Wix?
Wix is the best all-around website builder. It’s fantastic for small business and personal sites alike, boasting a range of incredible features and tools suitable for all abilities. We’d personal see the average Wix user as a budding entrepreneur or individual keen to show the world their work.
Who Should Use Squarespace?
Squarespace is built for creative industries. Its themes can turn any average Joe’s website into something your mates will think a pro web designer’s put together. Photographers, artists and graphic designers should all be looking to make use of Squarespace, whether they want to showcase their work, or sell their art.
Which website builder is easier to use: Wix or Squarespace?
Wix is the winner in terms of ease of use. It is a pure drag-and-drop website builder with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Squarespace isn’t hard to use either, but Wix definitely has the edge in this contest.
Compare ease of use and more in our review of the Best Website Builders of 2019
Which has the better templates: Wix or Squarespace?
Squarespace has the best designs. If you’re looking at numbers alone, Wix has more templates to offer than Squarespace, with over 500 template designs. But despite having a smaller offering, Squarespace’s templates are more flexible, customizable and beautiful – perfect for any budding creative!
Is Wix or Squarespace better value for money?
According to our research, Wix is much better value for money than Squarespace. You can use it for free for as long as you like, although you will have to put up with Wix ads on your site. That said, to get rid of these, all you have to do is upgrade to Wix’s cheapest monthly plan for $11 per month. While Squarespace has a free trial, it only lasts 14 days, after which you’ll have to pay at least $12 per month to maintain your site with them.
Which website builder has better customer support?
It’s a close call on this one, but Wix edges it once again. What you have to bear in mind is how you would like to be supported through your website building journey: if you would like support through a knowledge base, Wix’s is very comprehensive, but if you think you would prefer live chat, Squarespace can provide this functionality.
Which is better for SEO: Wix or Squarespace?
Wix scores a strong 5/5 for SEO on our comparison chart, with Squarespace coming in at 4/5. In Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, Wix is mentioned next to WordPress as being search engine friendly, so you have assurance from the best that your Wix site can make it up the rankings!
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