Wix vs Squarespace: Which Comes Out on Top in 2026?

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How Do Wix and Squarespace Compare?
Is Wix or Squarespace Cheaper?
Is Squarespace Easier To Use Than Wix?
Does Wix or Squarespace Have Better Sales Features?
Which Builder Has the Best Website Features?
Does Squarespace Have Better Templates Than Wix?
How Do Wix and Squarespace’s Support Options Compare?
Can You Switch to Wix or Squarespace?
How We Test Website Builders
Final Verdict: Should You Use Wix or Squarespace?
FAQs

After 300+ hours of research comparing the top website builders, we recommend Wix as the superior all-in-one builder for 2026 due to its 2,000+ templates, ecommerce scalability, and advanced SEO and marketing tools.

Still, Wix and Squarespace both ranked highly in our latest round of testing, so read on to find out which is the best platform for your needs.

 Key Takeaways 🔍
 
 Squarespace is easier to use than Wix, which has an editor that can feel overwhelming
Squarespace’s AI website builder is more collaborative than Wix’s, and takes slightly longer to set up
While Squarespace is cheaper than Wix, Wix’s plans are better value for money
Wix has a free-forever plan to build and publish your site, but Squarespace requires upgrading after its 14-day free trial
You can sell on any of Squarespace’s plans (from $16/mo) but Wix requires upgrading to the Core plan ($29/mo) or above
Both builders offer 24/7 help and support, yet Squarespace doesn’t have a phone number you can contact


 

How we test Wix and Squarespace

To understand how Wix and Squarespace perform in the market, we tested 12 leading website builders across six core research areas: the quality and range of website features (30%), customization options and AI design support (25%), affordability and value (15%), how easy the platform is to use (15%), customer support channels (10%), and reputation (5%).

We can then fairly compare Wix and Squarespace within this wider context and carry out hands-on testing with both builders to see what they’re like to use.

Get a full breakdown of our testing methodology in the detailed section at the end of this review.

How Do Wix and Squarespace Compare?

Use the table below for a quick summary of Wix vs Squarespace:

		Overall Rating	Today's best price	Free plan or free trial	Number of templates	AI website builder	Standout features	Recommended for
Best overall	Easiest to use
Wix	Squarespace
4.8	4.5
~~$17~~ $15.30 with code “TAKE10”	~~$16~~ $14.40 with code “WBE10”
Free plan	14-day free trial
2,000+	190+
check	check
AI chatbot builder Branded email marketing AI image editing Personalized SEO support	Great booking tools Easiest editor to use Stunning templates Blueprint AI builder
Businesses promoting their online presence	Creatives, portfolios and service-based businesses

Is Wix or Squarespace Cheaper?

Wix is better value for money than Squarespace even though it’s slightly more expensive, thanks to its free-forever plan and its extensive range of website features. I’ll break down each builder’s plans below:

Both Wix and Squarespace carry additional costs beyond monthly subscriptions, including domain renewals (around $20 per year), third-party app fees, and additional functionality, such as booking and email marketing tools.

Additional functionality: Such as Squarespace’s Acuity Scheduling (from $16/mo), and its Email Campaigns tool (between $5 and $48/mo).
Apps: Plugins range from free to around $40/mo.
Domain renewal: A free custom domain name for a year will renew at around $20/year.

💸 For a full breakdown of plan tiers, features, and additional costs, check out our Wix pricing and Squarespace pricing guides.

The Winner

Wix is better value than Squarespace

Despite Wix and Squarespace having similar starting prices, you’ll get more bang for your buck with Wix’s premium plans. Plus, Wix has a free plan which is a great option for personal sites and budget-conscious businesses who want to test things out before committing to a plan.

Is Squarespace Easier To Use Than Wix?

Based on 300 hours of testing, Squarespace is the easiest website builder for beginners, due to its structured grid editor and intuitive user interface. Wix utilizes a conversational AI chatbot for personalized site generation, while Squarespace offers ‘Blueprint AI’ as a guided, five-step design solution.

How Does Wix’s AI Setup Work?

Conversational chatbot
Questions about your site type, apps, goals, target audience, and tone of voice
Builds a site profile in real time
Generates a custom website template and setup checklist

Wix AI chatbot asking questions to create custom website — I was impressed by how Wix’s AI chatbot adapted to my website needs. Source: Website Builder Expert

Quote

My experience with Wix…

During my tests, I was impressed by how personalized the questions became following my answers. For example, I set out to create a website for a bookstore, and Wix’s AI chatbot asked: “Do you have any additional goals for your website, like gathering newsletter subscribers or promoting book events?”

Of course, the AI tool isn’t without error – I named my bookshop “Bookmark”, and the chatbot focused heavily on that word when building the site profile, resulting in “bookmarking needs” as a goal. That said, I’d recommend using the AI builder, as opposed to just picking a template, if you want a more personalized experience. You’ll get more control over the outcome.

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

How Does Squarespace Blueprint AI Work?

Hands-on web design solution with AI assistance
Five steps that cover site personality, sections and pages, and theme fonts and colors
Builds website preview that that adapts at each step

Find out more about Squarespace Blueprint AI, and watch our video demonstration:

How Easy Is It to Edit Your Website?

Squarespace’s grid-based editor is easiest for beginners because the structured layout prevents common design errors and ensures element alignment, whereas Wix utilizes an unstructured drag-and-drop editor for total creative freedom.

➡️ See how Hostinger, another intuitive drag-and-drop builder, compares in our Hostinger vs Wix vs Squarespace review

Squarespace’s mobile app focuses on design and content editing, while the Wix app prioritizes business management tools like live customer chat and order fulfillment. Still, both platform’s mobile apps support analytics, blogging, and marketing for on-the-go management.

The Winner

Squarespace is easier to use and beginner-friendly

Both builders help you get online quickly and easily, but Squarespace’s Blueprint AI and editor offer additional guidance. I felt incredibly supported throughout the onboarding process, and I loved the flexibility and stylish designs available in Squarespace’s editor. I could simply place and rearrange elements to my liking, and the grid overlay helped me keep sections aligned with one another.

Does Wix or Squarespace Have Better Sales Features?

Wix is a stronger ecommerce website builder than Squarespace, with powerful sales features, such as POS, omnichannel selling, and unlimited storage included.

What Ecommerce Features Does Wix Have?

POS products that sync in-store and online sales (Squarespace doesn’t do POS)
Multichannel selling across social media and marketplaces such as Amazon and Facebook
AI-powered adaptive content that offers a hyper-personalized consumer experience to increase sales and engagement

🛍️ Find out more about Wix’s sales features in our Wix ecommerce review.

Wix product backend dashboard — I could add, edit, and manage both physical and digital products from Wix’s dashboard. Source: Website Builder Expert

What Ecommerce Features Does Squarespace Have?

Acuity Scheduling to take online bookings, including automation tools, such as calendar syncing, confirmation and reminder emails, and customer time zone detection
Unlimited storage space and products across all plans

🛍️ Read our Squarespace ecommerce review for a full list of sales features.

Squarespace Acuity Scheduling homepage showing form to add new appointment type — I had no trouble adding new appointments to the Acuity Scheduling dashboard, including 1:1 sessions and group classes. Source: Website Builder Expert

What Payment Options Do Wix and Squarespace Offer?

Wix and Squarespace both have native payment solutions, Wix Payments and Squarespace Payments, although Wix Payments supports a wider range of third-party gateways and waives transaction fees on all plans.

The Winner

Wix is the better option for online stores

Wix provides scalable plans and native sales features, such as AI assistants, abandoned cart recovery, and advanced shipping options, that help you serve your customers effectively.
However, for large online stores, I would still recommend Shopify, our top rated ecommerce builder, over Wix or Squarespace.

Which Builder Has the Best Website Features?

Based on our 2025 research, Wix has the best tools to help you improve visibility and promote your business to your target audience, including built-in email marketing and powerful SEO support.

How Do Wix and Squarespace Marketing Tools Compare?

Wix offers superior email marketing scalability, providing a monthly limit of 1,000,000 emails compared to the 500,000 cap on Squarespace. Wix also unlocks new email marketing features as you upgrade, such as multiple send addresses and Mailchimp integrations, which help you grow subscribers and use automations, such as welcome emails.

Which Builder Offers More Advanced Blogging Features?

Wix also has the most advanced blogging platform, equipped with more post management tools and performance reports. Both builders have dedicated blog sections that make it easy to create and schedule content, set up blog-specific SEO, monetize posts, search blog content, and create categories.

Quote

Author's notes

I tried Wix’s AI writer to generate blog content for my test website, which is really handy if you need to churn out a high quantity of blog posts. It was really simple to use, and it created a detailed and well-structured blog post for me based on a headline prompt. I could even request different post types, such as a listicle or how-to guide, as well as the number of images and desired tone of voice. Of course, I always recommend reviewing any AI-generated content for errors and to add a human touch before publishing, but it’s a useful starting point for your blog.

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

Squarespace’s blogging tools lack the post-specific analytics and post-archiving functionality offered by Wix. That said, Wix’s advanced functionality for blogging won’t be necessary for casual bloggers and is best suited to businesses and online stores. Squarespace is a better option for media-focused and creative blogs.

New blog post in Wix's website builder — Wix’s dedicated blog dashboard made it easy for me to add new posts, set categories and tags, and optimize my content for SEO. Source: Website Builder Expert

How Do Wix and Squarespace AI Tools Compare?

Wix is rated as the best AI website builder in our latest round of testing, offering specialized tools for text and logo generation, SEO audits, and natural language site building via Aria.

✨ See the full range of Wix AI features.

 Newest Wix AI Tools (Updated April 2026)
 
 Automations Assistant: Wix Automations users can use the new AI assistant to draft automations (including triggers, actions, conditions, and timing) from natural language prompts (April 2026).
Voice support in Aria: Users can now speak their questions and receive audio responses from Wix’s AI design and business agent (February 2026).

Squarespace’s AI tools include unique branding enhancement opportunities, such as the Brand Identity feature, which generates personalized text in your brand’s tone of voice. However, Squarespace offers fewer native AI tools than Wix, lacking a dedicated logo maker, social media caption generator, and AI marketing chatbot.

Is Wix or Squarespace Better for Search Engine Optimization?

While Wix and Squarespace provide similar basic SEO tools, including AIO and GEO support, mobile optimization, and 301 redirects, Wix’s SEO is more advanced, including:

Easy onboarding with a custom SEO setup checklist and AI SEO assistant
AI meta tag creation
Semrush keyword research integration

Personalized Wix SEO setup checklist — Wix generated a custom SEO setup checklist for my test website based on some business information and target keywords. Source: Website Builder Expert

The Winner

Wix offers a more comprehensive set of native website features than Squarespace

Wix is an all-in-one solution for building, managing, and growing your online presence, with built in SEO, blog monetization, and email marketing tools. Wix’s app store also offers 800+ plugins for additional functionality, whereas Squarespace has 50 Extensions.

Does Squarespace Have Better Templates Than Wix?

Squarespace has the best quality templates, while Wix offers a wider range (2,000+) to choose from. As of April 2026, Squarespace has over 190 unique and professionally designed templates to choose from, which are a great fit for creative businesses and portfolio sites.

How do I change my template on Wix and Squarespace?

Templates cannot be changed after your site is live with either Wix or Squarespace (if you’re using Squarespace’s 7.1 editor), which means design updates must be edited manually, which can be time consuming.

Squarespace template library — Squarespace's templates are incredibly well-designed, modern, and professional. Source: Website Builder Expert

The Winner

Squarespace offers high-quality designs

While Wix has more template options to choose from, Squarespace can’t be beat when it comes to the quality and professionalism of its designs. They’re sleek, modern, and intuitive to navigate around.

How Do Wix and Squarespace’s Support Options Compare?

Wix offers superior help and support via live chat, social media, knowledge center, 24/7 phone lines and more, the latter of which isn’t offered by Squarespace.

Support options	Wix	Squarespace
Live chat	✔️ Mon-Fri (2AM-6PM EST)	✔️ Mon-Fri (4AM-8PM ET)
Phone	✔️ 24/7	❌
Email	❌	✔️ 24/7
Social media	✔️	✔️
In-editor support	✔️	❌
Knowledge center	✔️	✔️
Video tutorials	✔️	✔️
SEO learning hub	✔️	❌
Community forum	✔️	✔️

📲 Find out more about Squarespace’s customer support options.

The Winner

Wix offers 24/7 customer support

I found Wix’s contact options, such as the 24/7 phone support and live chat, to be more responsive and accessible. Plus, Wix provides a lot of expert guidance in the form of its SEO Learning Hub, video guides, and interactive online courses.

Can You Switch to Wix or Squarespace?

It is possible to switch your website content over to Wix or Squarespace from another platform. However, neither Wix nor Squarespace offers an automated migration process, and it’s not possible to create an exact match of your old site’s style.

Which Has the Easiest Migration Process?

It’s easier to switch your website to Squarespace than to Wix due to Squarespace’s extensive content import options. While Wix only supports importing blog posts from WordPress, Squarespace lets you import pages, blog posts, and other content from a WordPress, Tumblr, or Blogger site.

However, Squarespace can’t duplicate fonts, templates, or your page layouts, so you’ll need to start with a template that suits your site.

Both Wix and Squarespace support bulk product importing via CSV files and prompt you to transfer an existing domain during initial setup, which speeds up the remainder of the migration process. If you get stuck along the way, you’ll have the option to hire a Wix or Squarespace expert to handle the switch.

➡️ Review your options in our detailed Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress comparison.

I could import content to Squarespace by entering the login credentials for my WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr site. Source: Website Builder Expert

How We Test Website Builders

When comparing two of the top website builders, like Wix and Squarespace, we carry out regular testing to guarantee that our recommendations and judgments are accurate.

After over 300 hours of data analysis and hands-on testing with each builder, Wix and Squarespace have been awarded a star rating out of five for each core area of investigation in our research process:

What website features do I get? (30%): We looked at the range of built-in functionality, such as blogging tools for content creation, SEO for online visibility, and email marketing for audience engagement
Can I build a professional and stylish website? (25%): We analyzed each platform’s AI website builder, the flexibility of the editor, the quality of templates, and the level of creative control available
How much do Wix and Squarespace cost? (15%): We compared pricing plans, the balance of features for the subscription fee, and potential hidden costs
Is the builder easy to use? (15%): I carried out hands-on testing with both builders to experience the onboarding process, editors, backend management, and available features for myself
Are there reliable support options if I have a problem? (10%): We looked at customer support channels, such as live chat and phone, as well as knowledge centers and AI assistants
How do people feel about the platform? (5%): We reviewed how each builder compares in the market, based on existing customer reviews, third-party reviews, and brand trust

I sat down and built websites with both Wix and Squarespace myself, so you know that any insights I share on using the builders are based on real, first-hand experience. I’ve included tips and screenshots of my testing throughout this comparison to help you decide which is the best platform for you.

Quote

My Testing Summary

Wix is a great option for a variety of website needs and industries due to its broad range of templates and tools. Because of this, I recommend Wix to everyone, but particularly small businesses looking for a central hub to manage and grow their brand. It’s really the best all-in-one resource for website owners.

Squarespace sits just behind, providing a beginner-friendly editing experience, stunning templates, and great booking tools. As a result, I recommend Squarespace to creatives and service-based businesses who want an aesthetically pleasing site.

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

Final Verdict: Should You Use Wix or Squarespace?

While both website builders performed well in our testing, Wix is the best platform overall thanks to its outstanding ecommerce, marketing, and SEO tools. It offers a comprehensive suite of features and templates for most industries and business types.

If you’re still deciding between Wix or Squarespace, the best advice I can offer is to make use of Wix’s free plan or Squarespace’s 14-day free trial to test out the platforms for yourself and see if it’s a good fit for you.

FAQs

Wix is our top choice if you’re looking to build a photography website. The builder provides a built-in photo studio so you can edit and optimize your photos for your site, minimizing the risk of slow-loading times. You can also password-protect your image galleries, protect your images from theft, and watermark your photos.

Wix is the better option for membership websites, since it offers advanced tools, such as members-only emails, profile badges, and customizable pages. You can accept payments for memberships, as long as you’re subscribed to Wix’s Core plan ($29/month) or above.

Migrating your content to a new website builder can be painful – you can’t simply click a button and have everything transferred over automatically. You can pay for migration services from an external party or manually copy and paste content over to your new site. Either way, a lot of your existing website content won’t transfer over seamlessly, since you’re starting again with a new website builder and its unique infrastructure.

Written By

Emma Ryan

Emma is Deputy Editor of MVF’s B2B brands, specializing in website builders, ecommerce, marketing, and vibe coding. Emma combines her wealth of knowledge and years of hands-on testing with a passion for helping small businesses and website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Digiday, TechRound, and Industry Today.

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Reviewed By

Oliver Simpson Senior Research Executive

After three years of refining his skills in data analysis, Oliver transitioned to a role as a researcher to help understand reader preferences, decision making factors, pain points, and needs when it comes to building an online presence.

Oliver’s professional journey started out as a researcher in law enforcement, where he developed strong analytical abilities. He later moved into operations, which strengthened his understanding of quantitative data.

Now, Oliver blends his quantitative analysis skills with qualitative research to explore both audience preferences and product nuances.

In his three years at Website Builder Expert, Oliver has used his skills to provide up to date, unbiased insights into the products we review, to help ensure the best possible recommendations for readers. Oliver regularly assesses and iterates our website builder research methodology, staying on top of industry trends, digging into platform features and UX, and prioritizing areas that matter most to business owners. This provides web builder and ecommerce rankings you can trust.

In 2025 alone, Oliver’s conducted over 100 hours of data collection across website builder and ecommerce testing, and investigated 283 individual areas in the ecommerce methodology. He’s overseen 54 individual user tests of website builders, to assess how easy they are to use, and compiled the data into clear ratings for each builder.

You’ll find Oliver’s research referenced across all of our key pages; our content team use it to determine the ranking orders of pages such as the Best Website Builders of 2025, or comparisons like Wix vs Squarespace. We don’t decide who “wins” on personal preference; Oliver’s thorough research clearly outlines which platforms are best for different user needs.

Equipped with a UX design diploma, Oliver translates complex research findings into actionable insights that facilitate informed decision-making.

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Kim 8 months ago

Which is best for a very basic blog/show case my writing? I don't plan on using e commerce or any of the other bells and whistles. I'm a writer, I need a personal/blog/place to post the stories I write sort of web site and I plan on keeping a blog for updates on how my writing is going.

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1 reply
- Annie Angus 8 months ago
  
  H Kim,
  Wix and Squarespace are our top two blog platform recommendations. I suggest Wix if you're wanting to make money from your blog at any point in the future you're looking, since it has plenty of monetization features and blog post analytics to track the success of your posts. Squarespace has the most eye catching blog templates, so its a good choice for bloggers focused on design. If you want to read more about Wix and Squarespace's blogging tools and check out our other options, read our best blogging platforms article.
  Best,
  Annie
  
  Reply
Barbara 1 year ago

Great comparison! One thing I wasn't clear on: the whole "switching templates" thing. If I want a different template, it sounds like I'd just need to start fresh, is that right? And which aspects of a template are fixed, vs. customizable? Are there things that CAN'T be changed with a template?

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1 reply
- Annie Angus 1 year ago
  
  Hi Barbara,
  Yes, that's right. With other website builders like Hostinger, you can apply new themes to your store, even after it's live. Once you swap the theme, all your existing pages and website content will be transferred to your new template automatically. Wix and Squarespace differ, since you'll have to open a new site, choose a theme, and then copy and paste the content from your old site to your new site manually.
  
  The areas that are fixed will vary depending on the theme you use. I recommend having a play around using free trials or contacting Wix and Squarespace's support teams for more information.
  Hope this helps,
  Annie
  
  Reply
Linda 1 year ago

Hi Emma, I'm looking to start a small business selling bisque ceramic pieces online first and then grow it to a ceramic store where you can paint a piece and be able to offer classes, handbuilding and wheel throwing that will allow appointment booking for classes. Which site would you recommend where I can start small but be able to grow it with out switching sites. Linda

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1 reply
- Annie Angus 1 year ago
  
  Hi Linda, thanks for reaching out! I recommend Squarespace for your business. You'll be able to start selling on the cheapest $16 per month plan, and you can book and manage your classes with its Acuity Scheduling tool. Squarespace is also the easiest website builder we've tested this year, so it's perfect if you're a beginner.
  Best of luck with the business,
  Annie
  
  Reply
Janean 1 year ago

I need more bandwidth and more pages but I am already paying nearly $400 a year for Wix. Any suggestions?

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1 reply
- Emma Ryan 1 year ago
  
  Hi Janean,
  
  Thanks for commenting! Bandwidth and page allowance is an important factor when choosing a website builder. All of Wix's plans come with unlimited bandwidth, but you'll need the most expensive Business Elite plan for unlimited storage space too. And, Wix limits users to 100 static pages. In comparison, Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth and up to 1,000 pages per website on all of its plans, so that could be a good alternative to Wix if you need the extra capacity. Plus, Squarespace is a slightly cheaper option than Wix, with plans ranging from $16 to $99 per month (billed annually). I hope that helps!
  
  Very best,
  Emma
  
  Reply
Nathan 1 year ago

I'm curious to know which site would be better for a mobile detailing business. In the beginning it will mainly be used as an information website as far as the services provided while booking appointments is what will be doing the heavy lifting. Eventually, I would like to sell merchandise and potentially a digital course on how to detail like a professional/start your own mobile detailing business. Is it possible to start on squarespace then switch to wix? Or will there be an issue with the domain name?

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1 reply
- Emma Ryan 1 year ago
  
  Hi Nathan,
  
  Thanks for commenting - that's a great question! Based on my own experience with both Wix and Squarespace, Squarespace sounds like the best fit for your business needs since it has great booking capabilities and lets you sell merchandise and courses. If you aren't happy with Squarespace, you can easily switch your domain but you'll need to manually migrate the content over and products over. I hope that helps, but let us know if you have any other questions about starting your online business.
  
  Very best,
  Emma
  
  Reply
Kyle 2 years ago

Not sure if things have changed, or if it is based on the account you had, but Wix has completely removed any means of customer support... which is what lead me to researching options. It's an endless loop of clicking on support links that just take you in circles. It's also been noted on Reddit that Wix has removed their customer support teams.

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1 reply
- Annie Angus 1 year ago
  
  Hi Kyle, thanks for your comment. I've just had a play around in Wix's support center and I was able to speak with an agent via live chat by heading to the contact page, clicking the "get started" button, asking the chatbot a question, and then asking "Can I speak to an agent?" From here, you'll be able to choose whether you cant to speak to someone via live chat or request a callback.
  I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!
  Best wishes, Annie
  
  Reply
Tina 2 years ago

This is a great article, thank you! We are wanting to transition off of Weebly and build a new website for our pottery studio, that offers in-person classes, workshops, and e-commerce sales of clay and pottery. One important feature that we need is the ability to have easily accessible class rosters for class signups. What site would you recommend? Thanks!

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1 reply
- Annie Angus 2 years ago
  
  Hi Cristina, thanks for your feedback. I'm so glad this article was useful!
  
  I'd recommend Squarespace for your pottery studio website; it's our top choice for service-based businesses. Its Acuity Scheduling feature will show your availability for classes and workshops on the website and let your visitors book in or sign up. Squarespace also has strong e-commerce capability, so I'd recommend checking it out!
  
  Let us know if you have any further questions. Best of luck with the new website! Kind regards, Annie
  
  Reply
John 2 years ago

Great post. Looking to leverage one of these as a personal site focused on professional areas of focus for consulting/thought leadership, blogging and eventually want to work in a podcast to my site. Not looking to sell anything at the moment but that could change. I have used straight up WordPress over 10 years ago and that was great for blogging mainly but I want to have a site where I can publish content around technology as well as give people a feel for who I am as a professional (cybersecurity and other tech topics) as well as personal (e.g. gardening, travel, family, music, cooking).

I love a balance of visual and textual. Not looking to do so immediately but might want to explore monetizing some things like blog, podcast etc if they take root and grow but not main motivation.

Appreciate your thoughts and input on which one may be a solid fit for me to get initial version up before August. Thanks for the great post and cheers to everyone else out there working hard and doing great things!

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1 reply
- Emma Ryan 2 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  Thanks so much for the comment and kind words, we appreciate you reaching out!
  
  From our hands-on testing and research, Wix comes out on top in our lists of the best website builder, best portfolio builder, and best blogging platform - so Wix would be a great fit for your needs. It definitely strikes a nice balance between impressive features and design elements, and you can easily achieve all of your long-term goals (like monetizing your blog) with Wix. I hope that helps, and apologies for the delay on your August deadline! Let us know if you need any other advice as you get started with one of these builders.
  
  Very best,
  Emma
  
  Reply
T 2 years ago

Looking for a website for my construction business.something were my work can be shown before and after and just have a nice online presence.nothing that looks cookie cutter.i am a beginner with websites.which one is the best opinion.

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1 reply
- Holly Choules 2 years ago
  
  Hi there T,
  
  That's a great question!
  
  First off, since you're a beginner, I'd recommend Squarespace over Wix because it has the easiest editor to use. With Squarespace, it's easy to create the website you want even if you lack the technical skills.
  
  You also said that you wanted a website that doesn't look cookie cutter. Squarespace wins on that front too! The platform is known for having stunning, professional templates, so you'll certainly find one that suits your needs and will make you look great online.
  
  You can also showcase your before and after examples by adding great photos to your website.
  
  I hope that answers your question. Thanks for reaching out. Holly.
  
  Reply
Linda 2 years ago

Hi, we have been using Weebly for our cohousing website, which needs a complete redesign. We have not been happy with Weebly so we are looking at Wix and SquareSpace. This article is the most comprehensive I've seen, thank you, but I wish it included comparisons of best for viewing on mobile devices and best for SEO.

Does either or both offer tables? One big frustration with Weebly is that, while they do offer table elements, you can only add rows at the bottom of the table. For us, adding rows at the top is critical. Also, I believe both will integrate with Mailchimp and Constant Contact , but do they integrate with Substack?

Thank you.

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1 reply
- Emma Ryan 2 years ago
  
  Hi Linda,
  Thanks for commenting! We're so pleased to hear you found our comparison useful, and those are great bonus questions! Let's dive right in. Both Wix and Squarespace are great when it comes to viewing sites on mobile devices - they automatically optimize your website so mobile viewers can browse your pages without a problem. You can also change your device view when editing to take a look at how your site appears on mobile devices. As for SEO, we'd argue that Wix is the better option here. While Squarespace still offers great SEO support, Wix takes the lead in our research thanks to its unique features, such as a personalized SEO checklist, keyword support from Semrush, and more. I recommend checking out our Best SEO Website Builders page to read more about what Wix and Squarespace offer. For tables, both Wix and Squarespace lack pre-designed table elements so you'll need to use CMS or tweak an alternative element to suit your needs. And, unfortunately, neither builder offer Substack as an integration, but you can embed your Substack newsletter through HTML code. I hope that helps, but let us know if you have any other questions! You can also check out our detailed Wix Review and Squarespace Review pages for a closer look at each builder.
  Very best,
  Emma
  
  Reply
Megan 4 years ago

Hi. I have been struggling and reading article after article and am still unsure which website to pick. I have used Squarespace for a simple photography website to showcase my portfolio, share blogs, and have a contact page. Super easy and took me maybe two days to really get it complete with what I want. Well now I want to start a business in selling clothing, home good items, candles, soaps, etc. Just basic things. I am young so I am tech savvy and can easily learn but my mom, who is also starting the business, I want it to be easy on her too. I just do not know what option is best for my business. I have looked into Shopify and feel it might not be as nice and easy to use as Sqarespace or Wix. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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1 reply
- Samuel Jagger 4 years ago
  
  Hi Megan! Thank you for your comment. We understand that this decision can be a tricky one. We try and make it easy with our articles but often you are just so bombarded with knowledge you feel more stuck than when you started! That's why we'll tell you plainly: stick with Squarespace. Not only does it have really good ecommerce features, perfect for the store you want to make, but it's also really simple and intuitive to use, meaning your Mom can also have an easy time with it. Best of all, you are already familiar with it! You can not only make a website easier but help your Mom better too. I hope this has helped! All the best - Sam
  
  Reply
Silvia 5 years ago

Thank you so much for the information.
I am still torn between Wix and Squarespace.
My goal is to offer services as a fitness professional and using my website for a great blog and international platform while being able to sell ebooks. Which websitebuilder would you recommend me for these goals?

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1 reply
- Lucy Carney 5 years ago
  
  Hi Silvia,
  Glad you enjoyed the comparison! From what you've said here I'd recommend Wix over Squarespace. There's not much difference in their blogging capabilities, but Wix is better for internationalization - mainly because it has a greater number of languages supported at checkout than Squarespace does. You can sell ebooks as digital products, and manage bookings through your site. Wix is also very easy to use, which is important for a busy professional like yourself!
  
  Hope this has helped, all the best!
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Ryan 5 years ago

Really good informative article, thank you! I would like to know how important storage space is on a website?

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1 reply
- Lucy Carney 5 years ago
  
  Hi Ryan,
  Thanks for your comment - I'm so glad you enjoyed the article!
  Storage space is important because it determines how much data you can store on your site's server. So, if you needed to add lots of heavy files - such as large images, long videos, or enable file downloads - then you'll need more storage than a plain text website, for example.
  Squarespace gives you unlimited storage on all its plans, so you don't need to worry about storage if you choose Squarespace! Wix provides 500MB on its free plan, which could be limiting depending on your website's size. Wix's $14/month Combo plan gives you 3GB storage, which should be fine for most standard websites.
  I hope this has helped!
  Best, Lucy
  
  Reply
Derrick Jones 6 years ago

If you are a small business that's venturing into the energy drink business, which platform would be the most effective?

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi Derrick, of these two platforms I'd probably give the edge to Wix (better ecommerce features), but it may also be worth considering an ecommerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce, depending on the size of your business, and your plans for growing it. Our ecommerce platform comparison chart should help with the choice!
  
  Reply
Jerry 6 years ago

Great article! I loved all the detail and the comparison tables. It seems to be missing an important detail, though. The Squarespace trial only lets you build the site, but no one can see it until you pay. So, if you want to ask your friends to check it out and give comments, they can't! (One reason for multiple people to check a website is because a website can look different on different browsers. Squarespace doesn't have a tablet-size preview, so I think you can't see what it looks on a tablet like even if you want to.)

Reply
1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi Jerry, thanks for your feedback - so glad you enjoyed the article! Squarespace does have a way for sharing your site while it's on trial, which involves adding a site-wide password - more info here, but you're right in that this isn't as easy as sharing a site built on Wix's free plan! Great tips about checking your site on different devices and browsers, too - this is so important but so easily forgotten! Many thanks, Hannah
  
  Reply
Melissa Brown 6 years ago

Hi there,
I was torn between Wix and Squarespace until reading this article. Wish I saw it a little time back when I couldn't decide between them.
IMHO - Wix is a perfect solution for the newbies in online store development. It has a seamless drag-and-drop interface, better functionality, flexibility, and lower monthly fees. Squarespace, alternatively, offers more responsiveness. It also fits the beginners, but one needs to have at least a minimal understanding of technical aspects.
In my case, I decided to give Squarespace a try and have zero regrets. Of course, it took me some time to get comfortable with it (because I'm not very tech educated), but overall I'm happy with how my store is running now.
btw, when I've been surfing the net for Wix vs Squarespace comparison, I found Cart2Cart's Migration Preview option. With the help of its test stores I managed to preview how each platform works and made the right choice (it's free).
Hope it helps.

Reply
Lucy Carney 6 years ago

Hi Lin!
This sounds really exciting, thanks for reaching out. I recommend you try Squarespace's free trial - it's the only way to see if you'll enjoy using it. If Squarespace is a bit too tricky, don't worry! Wix is still an excellent choice for artists, and is nice and easy to use. It has a free plan too so you can try it out and see if you get on with it.
If you want more guidance, check out our article on the Best Website Builders for Artists!
Best of luck with your art,
Lucy

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Tim 6 years ago

Great article. Thanks for setting things out so clearly.

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Linda 6 years ago

Thanks! That really clarified my choice of WIX as the best builder for me new e-commerce biz. Great review!

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Faith Offor 6 years ago

thanks, really found this helpful, hope to make a great website someday.

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Amit 6 years ago

The wix designer is very bulky. The comparison should be basically wix ADI vs squarespace
because wix designer is just a blank slate and therefore its completely different and only suitable for less number of pages in a site.
where as the wix ADI truely compares to squarespace in terms of per-defined blocks to create website.

I wanted to move towards squarespace but comparing costs and design options provided by wix ADI, I'm forced to see wix ADI as great VFM over squarespace

What are you inputs on it?

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1 reply
- Lucy Carney 6 years ago
  
  Hi Amit,
  Thanks for commenting!
  While this comparison does touch on Wix ADI, the majority of the article looks at the traditional Wix Editor against Squarespace's website builder.
  In terms of value for money, Squarespace offers better value than Wix ADI. This is because it is more powerful than Wix ADI, which is a simplified and stripped back version of the traditional Wix Editor. For example, you only have limited access to apps with Wix ADI, you can't manage specific URL pages, and you can't use Wix Code. If you didn't enjoy Wix's traditional Editor, and you want power, customization, and great value, I would recommend Squarespace. If you're after quick, easy, and stylish, then Wix ADI is a solid choice! We have a helpful Wix Editor vs Wix ADI comparison if you want to read more.
  I hope this has helped - happy building!
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Jennifer 6 years ago

Finally a good comprehensive unbiased review of both sites! Really helped me narrow down my choice and I learned lots of good info as well!

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Lisa 7 years ago

Great article! Very helpful for someone that’s not computer savvy looking to start a site!

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Mikkel 7 years ago

Hey Lucy and Charlie

I want to create a creative site where I sell figures that you can send in and get painted, or even order 3D prints of them.
I love your guide, but I'm still conflicted. Right now I'm leaning to Wix, but i don't wanna lose out on the pretty websites i can get to show the painted figures of on squarespace professional look. Also i want an easy shop to manage, does any of them take transaction fees.

Thank you so much for a good guide.

Best regards Mikkel

Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 6 years ago
  
  Hi Mikkel,
  Thanks so much for your comment! That sounds like a very exciting project to be starting - hopefully I can help answer your questions.
  Firstly, if you favor Wix then don't worry about losing out on attractive designs. Although Squarespace has the best designs, Wix's are still stylish and it has a huge range so I'm sure you'll find something you love. Wix is easier to use than Squarespace, if that affects your decision at all.
  Wix doesn't charge transaction fees on any of its ecommerce plans. Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee on its $18 per month Business plan, but no fees on its two ecommerce plans (the Basic and Advanced Commerce plans).
  I hope that helps, and best of luck with your creative site!
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Siri 7 years ago

How can we remove the squarespace in our url? Like is it possible to change www.example.squarespace.com to just www.squarespace.com? How can we do that?

Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 6 years ago
  
  Hi Siri,
  If you want to remove the Squarespace part of the url you need to connect your own domain! This Squarespace url is the automatic, built-in domain that Squarespace generates for you.
  To have a custom domain (such as www.example.com) you need to register your own domain. If you're on an annual plan, you can register a custom domain for free (for one year). Otherwise, you'll need to pay for your domain.
  Here's a Squarespace guide on registering domains to help you get started.
  Hope this helps! Best, Lucy
  
  Reply
Dima 7 years ago

The one small wix feature was unfortunately ignored:
Corvid (ex wix code) - basically allows to do whatever you want with JS. Aimed at people with code skills that know what they want.

Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 6 years ago
  
  Hi Dima,
  We have a dedicated page where we review this Wix feature - you can read our Wix Corvid Overview here. Hope you find it useful!
  Thanks!
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Hans 7 years ago

<3<3 good guide for beginners.. obviously

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Rocco 7 years ago

Can either site be editing using standard HTML tools?

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 7 years ago
  
  Hi Rocco,
  
  Thanks for your comment. You can't directly edit the source code of templates on Wix or Squarespace. Wix has its own HTML app which allows you to insert external HTML, while Squarespace has its own developer platform where you can build your own template (this will require a fair amount of HTML knowledge on your part, though). Hope that helps!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Lin 7 years ago

Hi, I am an artist and will be retiring soon to do my art full-time. I want a website to be able to show and sell my paintings. I am not computer savvy and want something not to difficult to set up. However it sounds like Squarespace is better for artists?? What do you suggest?

Reply
Elisabeth Luissint 8 years ago

Hello Charlie,

thank you for your help.

Can Squareface manage mapping and Salesforce?

Well written!

Greetings,

Inf

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Elisabeth,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Salesforce does integrate with Squarespace but you'll need a third party plug-in. We'd recommend using Zapier who can connect the two together. It comes with a 14-day free trial too, so you can see how you get on with it before investing. Thanks and best of luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Inf 8 years ago

Hi,

I have to design a website for an NGO, with possibilities for donations via PayPal, Credit Cards Visa and MasterCard, compatibility with Salesforce, mapping, and a calendar. The owners need to manage their own content once the site will be ready.

What would you suggest?

Greetings,

Inf

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Inf,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Both Wix and Squarespace can accept donations via PayPal, Credit, Visa and MasterCard and have calendars. Wix is probably your best bet as it easily integrates with Salesforce and you can have multiple site editors (owners) with different levels of access/authority.
  
  Hope that helps and best of luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Inf 8 years ago
  
  Hi Charlie,
  
  thank you for your help. Being a designer i prefer to use an interface a bit more complex but well designed... Does Squareface also work with Salesforce and mapping?
  
  Many greetings,
  
  Inf
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Lucy Carney 6 years ago
  
  Hi Inf,
  You can integrate Squarespace with Salesfoce using Zapier - you can learn more here. Hope this helps!
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Bree 8 years ago

This was extremely helpful!! Thank you for providing such wisely considered, well-written, detailed information.

Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 8 years ago
  
  Hi Bree,
  Thanks so much for the great feedback! So glad you found it useful - please do share it on if you think it'd help others.
  Thank you for reading,
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Robin 8 years ago

Hi, I would like to build a website that customers can go to and down load my 30 minute hypnotherapy audios. Would you recommend Wix or Squarespace?

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Robin,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Both Wix and Squarespace support digital downloads so it's more a choice of personal preference. If you're quite handy on a computer, you can create a stunning website with Squarespace but for pure ease of use, Wix is your best bet. Hope that helps and good luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Raymond Watkins 8 years ago

Great Blog. Thanks for sharing such an informative post. I really appreciate your work & also I highly recommend to all those people who don't know about comparisons between Wix and Squarespace. Keep up the good work

Reply
1 reply
- Dan Barraclough 8 years ago
  
  Hi Raymond,
  
  Thanks for your comment - we're really happy you're enjoying our work. Please feel free to share our articles on social media!
  
  Best,
  Dan
  
  Reply
Aafke-Art 8 years ago

Thanks for this great comparison article. It really helped me to figure out what I want.
I think if you want a personal site Wix is the site builder to go with.

As an artist I prefer the beautiful designs of SquareSpace. And I like that SquareSpace is more mobile friendly. And with unlimited bandwidth versus 10GB at Wix.
If you need a business plan Wix is only 3 dollars cheaper per month.
I think for a professional who needs a commerce plan SquareSpace wins.

Reply
1 reply
- Dan Barraclough 8 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Thank you for your positive feedback. It's great to see you've made an informed decision from our article!
  
  Thanks,
  Dan
  
  Reply
Blair 8 years ago

Nice work - I've done several sites on WIX for real life businesses, and it does almost everything, so we are probably going to stay there, even tho some turn up their noses at WIX.

Reply
Hanna 8 years ago

I’m missing a rollback-function in Squarespace, and a staging environment. Does wix have that?

Reply
1 reply
- Dan Barraclough 8 years ago
  
  Hi Hanna,
  
  Wix does have a rollback function, but does not currently support a staging environment - it is something they are looking into, though. For more coding flexibility, we'd recommend another open-source software like Wordpress.org.
  
  Best,
  Dan
  
  Reply
Lucy Carney 8 years ago

Hi John,
Thanks for your comment! Wix and Squarespace both have ecommerce functionality, and you can read about the details in our Wix eCommerce Review and our Squarespace Ecommerce Review (I've linked to both).
I think the best place to look is our best ecommerce website builders comparison chart and then browse the reviews from there.
We've just completed an in-depth research project into ecommerce builders, so watch this space!
Thanks so much for reading and hope you find this useful,
Lucy

Reply
John Nelson 8 years ago

You did not cover the ecommerce aspect of the sites. I would be curios to know how they stack up against Weebly as well.

Cheers John

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hogan 8 years ago

which one has member function that can let me show some page only for members?

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Hogan,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Both Wix and Squarespace offer the ability to create a members only area as well as being able to create password protected pages. Wix is easier to use than Squarespace but Squarespace's templates are more sleek and modern, so which one you chose really depends on your needs. For a more in-depth look at both, why not check out our Wix review here and our Squarespace review here. Hope that helps you come to the right decision!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Dabbler 8 years ago

Just cracking open Wix, and aside from the sites not being responsive (which is a deal breaker), the support, while attentive, is totally insufficient. They're dodging simple questions or failing to answer entirely, and simply linking to help articles I've already read (and that aren't helpful) instead of explaining in detail what needs to be done.

I'm ditching them right away. I do like some of the flexibility they offer (like allowing for custom lightboxes, and generally more free form elements) but the fixed position and lackluster support aren't enough to pull me away from Squarespace.

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Dabbler,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear you're not getting on with Wix. Like most things, selecting the right website builder very much depends on your needs. Squarespace is a fantastic option for creative industries thanks to their clean and sophisticated templates. If you're after great customer help and support, however, We'd have to recommend Site123. They're live chat is fantastic, offers quick responses and is available 24/7. If you want to read more about Site123, check out our review here.
  
  Thanks and good luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Jim 8 years ago

Excellent analysis & insights. Saved me hours of time vs. doing my own trial & error comparison and likely missing key features. Thanks!!!

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Kevin Max 8 years ago

Good comparison, I like wix more than squarespace. I am using Donorbox whcih helps to set up recurring donation form on Wix and Squarespace.

Wix Donation Button
https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/wix-donation-button/

How To Accept Recurring Donations on Squarespace for Nonprofit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLr7Ls6nPQU

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Ben 8 years ago

Thanks, I would love to see a comparison of all e-commerce fees, any transaction fees and credit card processing fees. Adding in Shopify along with Wix and SquareSpace would be great.

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Ben, we've got some pretty detailed pricing reviews that might be of interest? Try Shopify - https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/ecommerce-website-builders/shopify/shopify-pricing/
  
  Reply
Albert 8 years ago

Hi Jeremy and Friends,

I have been struggling with the decision about a website builder. I want to showcase and sell photos, music, videos, and books. The photo-specific services are great for photos but not for the other stuff.

I do not want to do a Wordpress site as I want it to be easier than that.

Wix seems to have the functionality that I am looking for but I am hesitant because on mist of the Wix sites I have looked at the text or images are cut off when viewing on a phone. Totally unacceptable. Even their own sample sites are like this. The other issue with Wix is that I could not find a way to contact them via email. Maybe that is only for their clients or maybe I just didn’t see it. But SS sites look good on my phone and they have enail contact. But selling through SS is not as easy and you have to upload photos for each spot on your site - they don’t have a site storage option.

My question - if Wix is able to be edited for mobile use how is it that the sites they feature do not look good on mobile devices?

And, are there other options I have not considered? (I have looked at Weebly and Jimdo briefly too).
Thanks for your assistance and great work here.

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Albert,
  
  Thanks for joining in the conversation. That's strange, all Wix sites are mobile responsive and from all of the samples we've looked at, this hasn't been an issue. In regards to contacting Wix via email, you have to submit a ticket on the Wix contact page where you can enter your query and even attach a file detailing your issue further. You must have signed up to Wix (even just on the Free Plan) however to access this.
  
  Hope that clears up your concerns.
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Cher Young 8 years ago
  
  Albert and Charlie,
  
  I have a Wix site. With regards to mobile content, though responsive, it isn't ideal. There are spacing and image placement issues.
  
  So, if you have a photo before a title on your website, you may find that the image is at the bottom of the mobile version.
  
  If you've centered text on your site, it may be on 3 lines, not 2, and not centered. Footers are good examples of that.
  
  Just always keep checking your Wix mobile editor. It's super easy to make adjustments and have it all work out.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Cher,
  
  All excellent points! If you are having trouble with mobile responsiveness, Wix's mobile editor allows you to make amendments specifically for mobile, without it impacting upon the desktop version of your website.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Laura 8 years ago

This is a great article. I ended up using Wix because of the drap and drop features. Plus, it was easier to find a template that hosted video and print samples on the same page. I started with the free model but am thinking of upgrading now that I got it to work for me.

Your tips are very helpful! Thank you.

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Laura,
  
  Thanks for the comment, it's great to hear our piece helped you on your website-building journey.
  
  In our experience, upgrading to a premium Wix plan definitely pays off in the long run.
  
  Let us know how you get on!
  
  Fred
  
  Reply
ez 8 years ago

Thanks!
Valuable comparison.

Squarespace looks great, but their commision of 2-3% of sales is outrageous!!!

Does wix have an invoice and accounts plug?

Which one of them has better cso rating?

Reply
1 reply
- charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Ez,
  
  I'm glad you found our article useful! Wix do indeed have plenty of great apps that can help you with your invoices - you can check them out here.
  
  Hope that helps,
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Chris 8 years ago

Thank you for the review, saved me time. Out of the 2 Squarespace suits me best.
My difficulty and confusion is that I need a full website that will also include a store for buying streaming video and downloading digital ebooks, etc. I have searched on both wix and squarespace sites, their stores do not include paid for streaming video and while squarespace has unlimited bandwidth for digital downloads it limits uploads to 5mb.

I also saw can add Shopify store to Squarespace, doesnt help with my products. Wix has Sellify - also doesn't sell my streaming and limits digital products

I see both have "developer coding" sections which seem to really among to not much

I been searching and I cannot find how you can create a regular website - about/services/methods/credentials etc with a store section that sells access to streaming videos, lot of space for having digital products for download etc. I have already tried Wordpress - that is not an option.

I just came across a site that listed online stores that can do what i need but they are separate websites - I dont see how to add into my regular website.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Btw - I found it much easier to navigate and find specific answers on Squarespace whereas Wix offered poor, incomplete answers with a continual pop up to sign up - I assume to get the information you want you have to sign up.

Reply
1 reply
- charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  Thanks for your comment.
  
  Sorry to hear you’re having problems. If you use Shopify directly, it is possible to sell digital downloads - here’s some useful reading on how to get set up. In regards to paid streaming, this should also be possible via a Shopify app called Sky Pilot.
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Akshay 8 years ago

It is helpful. Thank you. Clears my doubt to choose wix or not. Honestly didn't know about squarespace before.

But I liked wix already so I think I will buy it and try for 1 year atleast.

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Great stuff Akshay.
  
  Do let us know how you get on!
  
  Reply
kiwiwelker 8 years ago

I'll be honest, I've never seen a Wix site I was "wowed" by outside of the ones that they advertise and their mobile sites look clunky and 2010ish to me. However, I have seen MANY SS sites that have blown my mind. From a design and aesthetic perspective SS takes the cake for me.

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  I agree SquareSpace takes the crown as the king of stylish designs, but I've seen plenty of sites on Wix that are very impressive.
  
  Thanks for the comment!
  
  Reply
alex Harrison 8 years ago

Hi
Very interesting comparison.

Have you compared their blogging tools?

I went with Wix 2 years ago and now need to start a blog but Wix blog really doesn't cut it at the moment which is very frustrating.
Regards Alex

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1 reply
- Tom Watts 8 years ago
  
  Hi Alex,
  
  We've got in-depth reviews of both Wix and Squarespace for you to read, although we only briefly touch on the blogging capabilities on both.
  
  That's not to say we haven't used both for blogging though. For me, I really like the relaunched Wix Blog, as it is definitely an improvement on the previous blogging tool offered. However, I'm going to guess the new Wix Blog is the one you are already using and that isn't cutting it for you?
  
  In that case, I'd say Squarespace is definitely up there among the best website builders for blogging. It pushes Wix all the way and pips it in a couple of key areas. Squarespace will always come out on top in terms of designs and looks (that's what it's great at after all), but I think the thing that Squarespace does best is to liberate blogging - it's super easy to post on-the-go with the Squarespace Blog App
  
  It is designed to be very user-friendly and this makes it very simple to add new content whenever and wherever. It is easier to use than Wix's own mobile app in my opinion.
  
  As you've used the Wix blogging tool already, why not take up Squarespace's 2-week free trial and see how you get on?
  
  You can read more about blogging on Squarespace here.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Dave 8 years ago

I came to this review to help me make up my mind... However your statement: "Wix, on the other hand, does not provide responsive templates" - Huh? I am in the middle of testing out Wix and it seems to be mobile responsive to me....

Is this for a particular template?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 8 years ago
  
  Hi Dave,
  
  Thanks for joining the conversation.
  
  What we mean by mobile responsive is that your website will automatically optimize itself for whatever screen it is viewed on.
  
  In my experience, Wix provides mobile-friendly templates that need to be tweaked in the 'mobile editor' to ensure they look as good as they can be on different devices.
  
  That's not to say that Wix isn't responsive at all though. Wix is definitely becoming more and more responsive all the time, so while not 100% responsive, you'll find that elements like slideshows and galleries that can be stretched to 'full-width' across the page are responsive already! You can find a full list of responsive elements here.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Janey 9 years ago

Thanks you for the very detailed article!! It's good to see the comparison side by side.
I'm just a little indecisive now haha. What would you recommend for a fashion designer?.
I've been using godaddy+wordpress for year, and it is NOT easy. I found it hard to update over time. This was after the web designer did his job.
While I was told to switch to squarespace, i just kept seeing wix ads popping up everywhere. Oh the creepy power of google search!!!....
After reading your article, i feel like squarespace but wix?... What would you suggest please?. I just want quality+ easy to use. I don't mind either pricing.

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Janey,
  
  I'm glad to hear you found the comparison useful - although I guess these things can give you a little bit too much food for thought sometimes!
  
  Your decision should come down to a couple of factors:
  - What do you want to achieve with your fashion website (is it to sell or more of an information/blog style website?)
  - How technically confident do you feel?
  
  I'd say Wix probably has the edge when it comes to selling online (ecommerce), although both are better suited to smaller, more boutique-style online stores rather than a full-on dedicated online shop.
  
  Squarespace can help you make a sleeker, more "fashionable" looking website thanks to its high-end and attractive templates. Although that's not to say Wix doesn't have some really eye-catching designs either.
  
  Wix is the slightly easier platform to use and to master thanks to its editor's versatility.
  
  The best thing you can do Janey is to give both a spin!
  
  Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial and Wix has a free plan with no time limit. Give both a go over the weekend and see which you feel more comfortable with. I think this is the best advice I can give. There's no point using a "better" platform if you find it hard or cumbersome to use.
  
  Hope that helps + best of luck with your site building! Let us know how it goes :)
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Geoffrey Graeme 9 years ago

Thank you for such a comprehensive comparison

Reply
Candace 9 years ago

This article was very well written, thank you! I've used Wix in the past for business but left for Go Daddy a couple of years ago because it was cheaper. I've since matured as an entrepreneur haha and decided to do some research this time before bouncing back to Wix. I'm going to try Squarespace and see how it works for me. You've done a great job breaking down everything so that it's easy to understand and compare without being biased. Thank you for sharing!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Candace,
  
  Thanks for your feedback, it's good to hear you found the discussion so useful!
  
  Ha, I think you made the right move heading back to Wix from GoDaddy, it's a much more versatile (and attractive!) platform.
  
  I'd advise giving Squarespace's two week free trial a go before fully committing to it as you may not find it as intuitive as Wix.
  
  Squarespace has some really beautiful template and design features, so you can guarantee your site will look great, but you mentioned being an entrepreneur, so you might find Wix a slightly easier to use ecommerce website. Either way, test it out and see how you get on.
  
  We also have a more in-depth Squarespace review that may be of interest,
  
  thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Ileana Costea 9 years ago

Clear, to the point, great advice. I loved the comparison. I still am not sure which one of the two to use, but the advice to try both is great. Thanks for writing it.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hello Ileana,
  
  Thanks for the great fdeedback, really good to know the discussion proved useful for you.
  
  If you need some more clarity, we also have in-depth reviews of both Wix and Squarespace (which I've linked to for you).
  
  Our website builder comparison chart might prove helpful too.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  -Tom
  
  Reply
JR 9 years ago

Re: Customer support: Wix does offer 24/7 email support and has fast response time on facebook chat and twitter. For calls there is under 5 minute wait time. They have phone support in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and email support in like a dozen other languages. Solid Help Center as well. I've tried both and Wix wins in the support category as well.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi JR,
  
  I know that having so many contact options helps to give me some peace of mind when website building, it's great to hear that you've had such a positive experience with Wix's customer support.
  
  Hope they solved your issue for you!
  
  Thanks for reading
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Alex Zavala 9 years ago

Hi. How área you. I am starting a small busines and I want to know what about if I register a DOMAIN and then I want to move to a prefessional grade in any other provider? Can I keep the domain name? i maybe do t care the files but yes thebURL

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Alex,
  
  If you purchase your own domain through another website like GoDaddy then it is yours to keep as long as you pay the monthly/annual fee.
  
  You can use this domain on any website builder than allows you to connect a personal domain (usually after you subscribe to a premium plan).
  
  Most builders provide helpful guides in their support pages that explain how to connect/disconnect your domain if moving to another platform.
  
  Our domain name guide will give you more advice.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Tom Watts 9 years ago

Hi Alison,

Jeremy is referring to a Free Wix account, which does not allow you to use a custom domain.

You need to subscribe to a premium plan in order to use your own website address.

Thanks for reading,
- Tom

Reply
spence 9 years ago

great article and very helpful. we have built websites on 7 platforms and Square Space is by far the best over time.. after you figure out the ins and outs of their platform.

One area which applies to Google Search is Square has the absolute BEST crawling structure.. which is so important..

Having a great website is one thing, but making it Easier for Google to map and index the site for search is CRITICAL.. so on this fact alone.. Square Wins.

Spence

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hello spence,
  
  Thanks for joining the conversation.
  
  It's great to hear you've had such a positive experience with Squarespace over the years.
  
  Having a clear site structure is definitely a plus point in Google's book as it makes your website easier to crawl and index, in turn making it more likely to appear higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS)!
  
  I've found that both platforms give you decent scope to keep your site organized, and while Squarespace wins hands down for you, it's not to say that Wix websites can't rank highly - because they can! We look at this in more detail in this discussion.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
José 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy! Amazing article :) very usefull
I´m thinking about is possible with the same SEO efforts achieve the same position in Google with Wix than wordpress for example. Because one of the things more i work is the optimization of the site and finally I´m note sure if Wix is the best option.
Regards
Thank you

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Jose,
  
  There's no reason why a website made on Wix should perform worse than a WordPress website in the search engine results pages (SERPS).
  
  Google have explicitly said that they don't penalize Wix sites, so using Wix should not harm your chances of getting to position 1. We look at this in more detail in this conversation.
  
  What you do need to consider is:
  - the relevancy of your content to the audience you want to attract
  - length and detail of your content
  - whether your content is focused enough on keyword driven topics (e.g. do all your headers and titles back up the theme of the page?)
  - whether your metadata is updated and optimized
  - the structure of your website and pages
  - what websites link back to your own website?
  
  There are lots of factors that contribute to getting you a higher ranking. The above list is just a start, but it's a good guide of what to keep an eye out for.
  
  Hope that helps,
  Tom
  
  Reply
Laura 9 years ago

Really helpful! Thank you very much.

Reply
Toby 9 years ago

Really great Summary, thank you!!

Any chance you could do a similar summary for the best website builder to use for a not for profit website?

Many Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Toby,
  
  The best place to start would be with our website builder comparison chart, which compares some of the best builders on the market.
  
  Off the top of my head, I'd suggest looking at Wix , Weebly and Squarespace for starters.
  
  Thanks,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
caroline towning 9 years ago

Wow thank you this article is so interesting

Reply
ZetaFirst 9 years ago

Awesome article! Yesterday my friend was showing me how cool and easy to use is Wix. I had been a SquareSpace customers for few years now... I have to say I am happy with them, so will stick with them.

Yes, Wix is easy and pretty...But needing a website as a business card I really need something sleek and uber responsive.

I have been reading few posts to know if I should change ship... But now I won't!

Cheerio!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey ZetaFirst,
  
  Thanks for the nice feedback, glad you found the discussion interesting.
  
  I agree that Squarespace's templates can be a bit sleeker than Wix's, so if you've found what works for you then that is great!
  
  Otherwise, Wix's editor can give you a bit more drag & drop freedom than Squarespace's, so if you were ever looking for a bit more versatility and simplicity then Wix would be worth a look.
  
  Thanks
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Whitney 9 years ago

This was a wonderful summary - incredibly helpful. Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey Whitney,
  
  Great to hear you found the discussion useful.
  
  Feel free to share on social media using the buttons up on the left if you think others could benefit too - It's great way of paying it forward!
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
V 9 years ago

After all that your conclusion is to try both? Not! The article was great and you told us about things I didn't know I needed to look at or know about. I'll be going with Squarespace. Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi V,
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace will suit different types of people, especially in how they work and manage their website.
  
  It's always worth trying both platforms if they offer free trials. This can help you familiarize yourself with each before making a (potentially financial) commitment to one or the other.
  
  Great to know you found the discussion useful. Best of luck with your website,
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Linds 9 years ago

I think I'm going to try Squarespace for my own website - simply because a small business I was working at used Wix and it drove me mad. :) The main problem, I believe, was that whoever had started using Wix had not chosen the template and site structure well, so it was an enormous pain to add content and edit. And of course, you can't change your Wix template without rebuilding!

It may have been the company's older computer, but I also found many glitches while editing for long periods of time. Fortunately I didn't usually lose any content, but I found myself having to close my browser and log in again to regain functionality quite often. The way that EVERYTHING is drag-and-drop in Wix can be quite hard on your browser and computer's resources, since it builds up layers and layers of items on each page.

Anyway, thank you for the summary! Now I know there's no huge glaring problems with Squarespace, so I will give them that 14-day try to see what I think.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Linds,
  
  I totally understand your frustrations - Wix can be a pain if you don't get on with the template that has been chosen, and I imagine it's even more frustrating when it wasn't you who chose the template.
  
  I haven't heard or seen any glitches when using the editor for a longer period of time, so that's a little odd. Did you contact Wix support about this issue?
  
  I don't think it is the number of layers you are using in the editor that is affecting your browser's performance as although that is how the site appears to you (i.e. layers + media), to the computer it is just a collection of data, which can build up when using the Wix editor but it's no more intensive than streaming a movie or TV show in the scheme of things. Don't forget these glitches and lags can also be caused by pushing your computer's processing power too hard, so that is a consideration to bear in mind (I know I always have to try and get a better spec laptop than I think I need just to give myself some processing wiggle room).
  
  Squarespace is also a drag and drop builder, so see how you get on with it, hopefully you'll find it smoother sailing.
  
  Best
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Rachel Weber 9 years ago

Mr. Wong, Thanks so much for all of the helpful comparisons. I have been going crazy trying to figure out all of the pros and cons myself, and your comparison lays them out very clearly, KUDOS! Thanks again for the great info!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey Rachel,
  
  Thanks for reading , glad you found the discussion and Jeremy's insights so helpful.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Jeremy S 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Thank you for the in depth review of Squarespace and WIX. I am currently in the process of trying to choose a website builder. I like the look of Squarespace and the unlimited bandwidth but I also like all the options it appears WIX offers. For me, I am really concerned about some key functions: can I have a blog, can I have videos, can I sell items, and would I be able to link podcasts to my site. Do either Squarespace or WIX fail to offer any of these functions? Are you also able to link social media to either? Does WIX allow you to have a professional email with your domain name like Squarespace does? Thank you for taking the time ti answer. Best Wishes

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  
  It's great to hear that you found the discussion useful.
  
  Now I don't know how useful this will be for you...but both Wix and Squarespace offer everything that you need - You're literally spoiled for choice, which is an envable position to be in!
  
  I'd recommend doing a bit more reading into Wix and Squarespace (I've linked to our in-depth reviews there for you).
  
  Otherwise, I would honestly recommend that you give the free trial a go on both Wix and Squarespace and seeing how you get on using them, then go from there!
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Brendan 9 years ago

Hey guys, really useful article, thanks!
A question: I know that in Wix certain features (such as form builder) are only available in the more expensive subscriptions and only if paying annually, not paying by the month. Is it the same for Squarespace? Or are all features available for all plans?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Brendan,
  
  You can access all features on Squarespace regardless of the plan you are using. However, if you want custom features that aren't available by default then it can be a a little tricky on Squarespace as most custom features require you to use and edit 'custom blocks'.
  
  It's probably worth giving the 14-day Squarespace trial a go and seeing how you get on and whether the available features cover your needs.
  
  Hope that helps,
  Tom
  
  Reply
BA 9 years ago

Thanks! I learned a lot from this article - especially the note about the ability to change themes in squarespace without losing content, vs the loss of content in wix. That's important to me, bc I have found in the past I like to try new things after a couple of years.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey BA,
  
  Great to hear you found the article so helpful, we always love to hear positive feedback for our content so thank you.
  
  Good luck testing out some new ideas - it's always the most fun part!
  
  Feel freee to share this article using the social media icons above on the left. It really helps to spread the word, plus you never know who else you might help out.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Helen Burness 9 years ago

Thanks so much for this great analysis - am just working out which platform to use for a new business and this has been so helpful! I will test both out.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey Helen,
  
  Great to hear you found our analysis helpful. Let us know how you get on testing out both Wix and Squarespace, it will be interesting to see which you prefer.
  
  Thanks for joining the discussion. Feel free to give us a hand by sharing the article using the social buttons above, we really appreciate it (and who knows, one of your friends might find it handy too!)
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Stephen F 9 years ago

I just got squarespace and I am highly satisfied. My sister has Wix and she also likes it. I was attracted to squarespace because Joe Rogan has always promoted it.

I can safely say Squarespace is an incredible builder. You can essentially customize everything (although the hardest thing I have had trouble figuring out is if the typefaces can be changed, as they can but NOT for ALL of the places where type is permitted), and all it takes is a little bit of practice to figure it out; this is why it is imperative that you sign up JUST TO TRY the free trial! You can essentially build your website during the free-trial before launch.

Reply
Vicki Maguire 9 years ago

Excellent article; I have started a squarespace with a paid domain and I have a google suite business
no. yet, I find it a bit clunky on my MAC and thought WIX may be more friendly for drop and drag.

Also, Question: can I use the domain and host paid for for Wix? I have NOT launched the squarespace yet. I also need great SEO.! How do I do that? Great info. Sir.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Vicki,
  
  Glad you found the article useful!
  
  Wix has a very easy-to-use drag and drop interface, which you may find a bit easier to use on your Mac. I would also suggest Weebly as another alternative as it also has an intuitive builder.
  
  It's free to transfer your existing domain to Wix - that's not a problem and is covered in the Wix Support Center. There shouldn't be an issue with hosting either because Squarespace will host your Squarespace website, while Wix will host your Wix website - that is part of their service and part of what makes these builders so valuable for non-technical users.
  
  For advice on SEO, I'll point you towards this series of articles, which will prove handy.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Miguel 9 years ago

Thanks for the article. Very helpful

Reply
Nancy 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Great article, thank you! I am wondering if Wix (and/or Squarespace) allow you to post the website link externally, such as in an email blast. Since the site is hosted by Wix, can it live in an external channel and still be clickable to the site? I'd like to drive traffic to it through this tactic but am afraid it won't work. Would love your thoughts.

Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Nancy,
  
  What I think you're asking is whether you can include a hyperlink back to your website from an email send out? If so, then absolutely you can! Just because your site is hosted by Wix doesn't mean it can't be accessed by your visitors from other avenues.
  
  If you've still got concerns, why not check out Wix Shout, which is Wix's easy-to-use newsletter feature.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kaz 9 years ago

Wow, excellent in-depth review that appears unbiased thank you! And great to find something that's current as well. I'll certainly be sharing this. Love to see reviews on wordpress and opencart!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Thanks Kaz for your kind words!
  
  It really means a lot to hear positive feedback from our readers.
  
  Feel free to share this post on social media if you think others will benefit too!
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Melissa P 9 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I appreciate this article a lot. I am about to start a service business in which I would like for clients to purchase their service packets online. However, I am not that technologically savvy. I am way more familiar with Wix, as I currently use it for assignments in grad school. But, I find it a little difficult to use. If I struggle with Wix, do you think I will struggle with Squarespace? I just want a simple website, at most an about page, service page and purchase page. I just need a professionally-looking site until I can afford to have someone design my dream site. Oh, and I have purchased my domain site through Squarespace, even though I haven't started my free trial. Any recommendations or advice?

Thanks,
Melissa

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Melissa,
  
  Have you tried using Squarespace yet? They offer a free trial period, so you can compare your experiences with Wix directly.
  
  If you are not looking to build a very advanced website (sounds like you're going to keep your website simple as per your comment), then both Wix and Squarespace can get the job done just fine. It really comes down to your personal preference.
  
  Give Squarespace a try (free trial) and see how you like it?
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  melissa pratt 9 years ago
  
  Thank you, Jeremy. I will.
  
  Reply
Julia 9 years ago

If I wanted to say upload photos or a blog via cellphone/tablet which website would let me do this? Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Julia,
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace offer mobile apps in which you can create / manage your blog posts.
  
  Check out footnote 20 on our website builder comparison review and you'll find more information there.
  
  I hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Dr. Tyra Oldham 9 years ago

Good read and informative. I am currently a Squarespace user but at the end of the day I love to have a definitive yes to Wix or Squarespace. If one is to choose for functionality, looks and cost which is the overall winner? Still not sure. At this time I do not doubt Squarespace. They continue to be reliable but as technology changes so must we keep up with the current tech that can be helpful. This is why I sought to read this article.

Reply
Judith 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I am a 54 year old woman who is a computer idiot. I use my IPad for my business Facebook page for all the photos and such.

I also have a shop on Etsy.com. I sell tea Wares. I want to start a blog about Tea and connect my shop to the blog so I can sell my items away from Etsy. I need to be able to take all credit cards too. I have no idea where to start.

I purchased my domain name from domain monster and I tried moving it over to Wix but had trouble doing that.

I also at one time inadvertently signed up for the free trial on square space so I don't have that opportunity any more.

I really am the true definition of the blind leading the blind. I have no idea as what to do. I did start my template for my blog on Wix but like I said, I had trouble moving my domain name over. What do you think a computer dummy as myself should do? Wix or Square or another platform? The Blog is important to me and so is being able to sell items and taking credit cards. Thanks so much, Judith

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Judith,
  
  Thanks for your comment. I think you're on the right track in trying to diversify some business away from Etsy, instead of having "all your eggs in one basket", so to speak.
  
  1) We have a guide about Etsy here and how you can integrate it with Wix. Wix offers you an app to do this.
  
  2) Domain Name - You don't have to migrate your domain name from your registrar (Domain Monster) to Wix. You can just connect it from Domain Monster to your Wix website. We have a domain name guide here that will go over the pros and cons. Wix's support center will also have tutorials on how you can connect your domain name (without having to transfer it into Wix).
  
  3) Squarespace - I think you can re-activate your account just by signing into it. Alternatively, you can always sign up for a new trial account using a different email address.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Judith Jevnik 9 years ago
  
  Thanks Jeremy for getting back to me so quickly. In your opinion, which one do you think would be best for me, I really am at a loss? I know you don't know my needs but which one do you think is best for a person who isn't computer literate? I don't know if I link my Etsy to Wix, will Etsy still get a commission from my sales.. I know I will have to read up on it. That's what I want to avoid. Also, what do you think about Wordpress over wix and Square? The Blog is very important to me too and I know Wordpress has the ability for blogs.
  
  Thanks again,
  Judith
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Judith,
  
  I'm not entirely sure if Etsy will take a commission from you if you sold products on your Wix website (but through the Etsy app). I think that's a really good question to ask. Let me know what you find.
  
  As for WordPress, it's really a fantastic platform and offers you almost unlimited flexibility. However, one caveat is that you'll have to be pretty technically savvy in order to use it effectively (or have a budget to hire someone to help you).
  
  If you don't mind climbing a fairly steep learning curve and actively managing the technical side of operating a website, WordPress is a good option.
  
  The benefit of using a "managed" website builder such as Wix or Squarespace is that their support team takes care of the technical and administrative side of maintaining a website.
  
  We have comparison guides here and here, where we discuss the pros / cons of using Wix or Squarespace versus WordPress.
  
  Hope you find them helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Judith Jevnik 9 years ago
  
  Thanks so much. I appreciate your help.
  
  Reply
Vita 9 years ago

This was super helpful! Thank you for taking the time to put all this information together and share!

Reply
Rebecca 9 years ago

Jeremy,

I currently have a small side photography business and I'm looking to expand. I have used Squarespace thru the free trial and find that the interface is easy to use, so I assume working with Wix would be easy for me as well. As I have a goal of future growth, would you advise one over the other in terms of business opportunity linked into the site? For some reason I feel that Squarespace has more offers, but maybe I am wrong. Would love your input.

Thanks so much for this article, it really is valuable!

Rebecca

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Rebecca,
  
  I think Wix offers you a larger pool of tools at your disposal and they have a larger library of templates.
  
  Squarespace also has gorgeous designs and they have a bit more flexibility in terms of being able to export most of your content into a WordPress site if you choose to migrate your website later down the road.
  
  Wix introduces interesting, functional and design-oriented features fairly often and Squarespace doesn't introduce new tools very often. So there are definitely pros and cons.
  
  I think a lot more photographers go with Squarespace as their website builder seems to be more aligned with portfolio-oriented users.
  
  If you feel very comfortable with Squarespace, then go with them. But you can always sign up for a free account with Wix to get some hands-on experience using them. You'll get a much better sense of which website builder is better suited for your needs.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Rebecca 9 years ago

Huge help!!! Thank you:)

Reply
Paul 9 years ago

Great article and comparison,
I'm a small hotel which would offer me the most functions such as online booking apps. Keep up.the good work !

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  Wix has dedicated tools for hotels and B&B's. Take a look at this discussion.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Gemi Hartojo 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy -
Which of these two platforms allows for paid membership areas? or paid membership - watch videos? I do like Wix as the price points of entry is much lower than Squarespace but, if in the end I can't make my videos available to paid users only then it doesn't work for me. Would love your thoughts!

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Gemi,
  
  Unfortunately, neither Wix nor Squarepace give you the ability to charge members monthly subscription fees. Wix does allow you to create members where they can access members-only pages, but you can't charge them fees for this access, yet.
  
  One option is to check out Sentry Login. They are a premium membership tool and I think it can integrate with both Wix and Squarespace. Apparently they can turn your website into a paid membership website.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Keith L 9 years ago

Hey Jeremy, Great article. I have a question regarding Squarespace. If I chose to go with Squarespace, would there be any advantage (cost or otherwise) to setting up a domain and G Suite directly through Google first and then setting up a Squarespace account after?

Thanks again for taking the time to provide all the helpful info.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Keith,
  
  There are pros and cons with getting your domain name and email (G Suite) separately, versus getting these services through Squarespace (or other drag and drop website builders that offer these features).
  
  Cost aside, it's also a matter of convenience and control. We go over these in detail in our domain name guide here.
  
  Hope the guide helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
lee 9 years ago

This was very helpful. Thank you so much!

Reply
Russ Gordon 9 years ago

Thank You! Great side-by-side and this is exactly the sort of thing I have been looking for to help me pick.

As an additional note / update Google has now partnered with Squarespace. Previously when you registered through Google for your domain purchase, registration and services they just gave a list of popular website builder/host companies for that aspect of your development.

Bottom line is that Squarespace websites should be much higher in Google search rankings by default as long as this partnership is in effect (whether one agrees with that Google policy or not is open to debate.)

Reply
Mario Stresow 9 years ago

Thank you for this very good article. In the past I've used several platforms for building my sites.

Lately I switched from wix to squarespace. The main reason was, that Squarespace looks automatically good on every device. That saves a lot of time, because at wix I always had to use the mobile editor to get this side in a good shape for mobile viewing. And when if I did, on tablets with wix you'll see just the website view like on PC. Also squarespace is faster on mobile devices, which I consider as very important.

Having the freedom of putting anything everywhere, like it is with wix, can also let you run into a style trap. With squarespace the user is more limited, but their templates come generally with a very good taste and look.

Warm regards all over from germany, Mario

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Mario,
  
  Thank you for your comment and sharing your experiences with us.
  
  If you use Squarespace and create blog posts, they have AMP activated which enables your blog posts to load lightening fast if your visitors find your posts on a Google search. That's very advantageous as people generally don't like to wait for webpages to load nowadays. But just be aware that this is only activated when your blog posts are found in Google search results.
  
  I also agree with you in terms of the templates. Squarespace's designs are more stylish, but Wix offers more variety.
  
  Wix also allows you complete freedom of placing content anywhere on your webpages. But I can see how this can be challenging for some users if they go over-board in over-designing.
  
  Thanks for your comment!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
FrankNBarry 9 years ago

I love squarespace, but last year they stopped their transfer in a preexisting domain name service. You hv to buy the domain from squarespace & then build a website. This limits their usability as a website builder.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Frank,
  
  You don't have to transfer your domain name to the website builder (such as Squarespace). You can actually connect your domain name from your domain name registrar to Squarespace. If you visit Squarespace's support portal and search for "domain name" you'll find instructions.
  
  We also have a beginners guide to domain names which will explain how this all works.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
gary dockham 9 years ago

great site to help out with the difference bt builders and what to consider
great job with this!!

Reply
Marleah 9 years ago

Thank you so, so much for the very thorough comparison! This was extremely helpful and your article was very well done.

Reply
Christiane 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for this concise article. It has definitely helped me move toward favoring one site builder over the other. One aspect that I have yet to figure out and hopefully you can help with is, what about SEO advantages? I must preface this by stating that I am sadly quite computer illiterate and so this may not make sense. I am a small business owner running my own massage practice and want to try my hardest to get on the first page of my local web searches for massage. Would one of the two aforementioned sites be better for that? Or how does that work?

Also, I have a client who is doing some back end SEO work with keywords and he is suggesting I go with a friend of his who is a web designer that wants to charge me $2000 to revamp my sad and unresponsive existing website. My naive self wants to say "no way, I'll go with a builder like WIX or Squarespace and just have him plug in-or what ever the lingo is-those keywords and roll with that. What are your thought?

Thanks So Much Jeremy!

Christiane

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Christiane,
  
  We have a guide to website builder SEO which you might find insightful. Hopefully it will point in the right direction
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Guillermo 9 years ago

Good job Jeremy.

Crucial things that need mention are the build your store possibility with SS and their added security.
The add-ons on WIX.
Domain prices after first year for each?
Multiple account logins?

Very useful article.

Guillermo

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Thank you, Guillermo.
  
  Both Squarespace and Wix have SSL enabled websites so your websites are property encrypted.
  
  Relating to Wix add-on's or apps, that's a great point. Wix offer hundreds of apps for you to bolt on to your website, if you want to expand the functionality of your website. We have a discussion about that here.
  
  For domain prices after the first year (you get a domain name for free if you sign up to Wix or Squarespace's annual plan), the renewal rate is $14.95 per year ($24.85 if you include privacy registration), and $20 for Squarespace (including privacy registration).
  
  You can also invite multiple contributors to your website with both website builders.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Charles Taylor 9 years ago

This article was extremely helpful. Now, I'm going to try both before making a decision. I've had a website up with both platforms, but did not do the actual building. My former business partner, a graphic designer, did a poor job in creating both sites and they didn't do the job. Now, I have an actual web designer as a partner and she's going to help me make an informed decision. I'm going to share this eye-opening article with her.

Thanks!

CT

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Thanks for sharing this with us, Charles. Glad you found our comparison helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Michelle 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for the comparison! Super helpful!
Beginner with no experience here! - I am wondering about backing up content, both content and images, is that possible with wix or squarespace? If not, is there a service that provides that option? I saw a comment below that mentioned longevity....I have been wondering about that as well, which lead me to this question.
Thank you!!! Michelle

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Michelle,
  
  Wix and Squarespace allow you to restore your website if you make mistakes. So technically that means you have your content backed up.
  
  Take a look at our website builder comparison chart (see footnote 13) for more details.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jade 9 years ago

This was SO helpful! I am going with Squarespace!

Reply
Jennifer 9 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I've been trying to look into a few different website builders and one of the common features I don't quite see clearly spelled out is "Do you have to use their templates?" Can you use a third-party template? I found some amazing designs from a different website I considered purchasing, but I don't see Wix or Squarespace allowing that because of their in house support Can I safely assume you will redirect me to Wordpress?

Thanks! :)

Jennifer

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Jennifer,
  
  If you want to import a premium template and use a drag & drop website builder, then Weebly is an option for you. You can see our review of Weebly here.
  
  If you search for "weebly templates", you'll find a few premium template providers out there.
  
  And of course, there are tons of premium templates available for WordPress users!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jennifer 9 years ago
  
  Ok. I read the review. You mentioned that the templates are very limited (to font a color scheme). What if I used a third-party template that promises all these customization options - would it be difficult to customize them with Weebly's limited interface?
  
  I will be using this for a small video services business.
  
  Thanks! :)
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Generally speaking, any non-Weebly built customizations will have to be done in the codes. Weebly's interface does allow you to access the HTML and CSS of the template you are using.
  
  So it really depends on whether the third party template provide you with the coding instructions to customize the design. Maybe you can ask them directly?
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Dr. Al 9 years ago

Good afternoon Mr. Wong,

Thank you very much for your knowledge sharing.
Which would you recommend for professional counseling services.

Thank you,

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Dr. Al,
  
  Take a look at some of the templates offered by Wix. They have a broad selection of designs from various industries so you might find one that's suitable.
  
  Further, Wix offers a tool called Wix Bookings which allows you to offer the ability for your website visitors to book appointments and pay through your website. I'm assuming that might be helpful to you?
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Dr. Al 9 years ago
  
  Good morning Mr. Wong,
  
  Indeed, thank you very much.
  
  Best regards,
  
  Reply
Sandy 10 years ago

Thank you for this comparison. This information was very helpful. Although I would have preferred to get an overall answer as to which site was the best I appreciate the encouragement to explore the sites independently.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Sandy,
  
  I think which website builder is the best is a bit subjective as it depends on what you're looking for. But very generally speaking, I personally feel that Wix is better than Squarespace on an overall basis.
  
  But if you want a very design-oriented website (especially if you are a photographer, artist, or just someone who wants a very visually oriented website), then Squarespace is worth checking out.
  
  One way forward is to sign up to both Wix and Squarespace and invest some time to exploring how it is like to use them before making a decision. Each user has his/her own preferences and so one website builder might resonate more with the user.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
jacob sitati 10 years ago

Hi: This is the most comprehensive guide that I have read, thank you for your review. I currently have a site that was built by a friend, but I want to take charge of it and manage it. It is a family ranch site that will be informational in nature on our animals. Nothing fancy but heavy on images and profiles. After reading your reviews I would be comfortable with either however the flexibility you mention to change with Squarespace has me leaning towards them. I will give both a trial run and then decide which way to go. Would you recommend one over the other where for a site like mine which is focused more on images and video for presentation and information purposes?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Jacob,
  
  Thanks for your comment. To be honest, I think both Wix and Squarespace have the tools to get the job done. It really comes down to how much you enjoy working with each one of them (they both have different user-interfaces) and if you can find a suitable design template to work with. So both will provide you with different experiences.
  
  I think you're on the right track in trying out both of them. That's the best way to determine which website builder you prefer to work with.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Nick Marmarou 10 years ago

Does google punish Wix site because they are not responsive? How does a non responsive site effect the SEO?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Nick,
  
  I don't think so. Websites built using Wix are mobile ready. They have a dedicated mobile editor so when your visitors see your website on their mobile devices, it will be mobile friendly. Have a look at our mobile comparison guide here.
  
  I don't think Google specifically said that websites must be mobile "responsive". They will be given preference if they are mobile ready. There are a lot of very highly ranked, authoritative websites out there that are not mobile responsive. They are mobile friendly, though, as they have their own custom mobile designs.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
kaush 10 years ago

I think in squarespace you cannot remove the square space logo at the bottom of your website. But in Wix you can Is that right??.. i know its not a big thing but people can see that you have just used a service to create the website.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Kaush,
  
  You can definitely remove the Wix or Squarespace logos from your website, if you upgrade to their premium plans. With Wix, you'll have to upgrade to at least their Combo plan.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Vin Gen 10 years ago

Thank you very much for this helpful information! I initially judged based on user interface and I really just liked how Squarespace had some kind of "Apple look" so-to-speak. But after reading this article I feel I am most likely proceeding with Wix. Wix is just so much easier to work with. And I mean hey, Wix is still pretty gorgeous (specially if you know what you're doing).

And man I am cooking something up at the Wix site right now and I am very excited to see the final result. I think that I should only start paying once I feel that my site (graphic design portfolio) is ready for launch. I don't think I can take my time with Squarespace 14-day trial.

And again thanks for the additional information like pricing, customer support and bandwidth. All super helpful. And it's so much more convenient seeing a quick, honest and detailed review side by side.

5-stars!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Vin.
  
  Yes, definitely take your time with Wix and you're not in a rush to upgrade until you are ready. They don't have a time limit on their free plan.
  
  Good luck with your website!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ahnna 10 years ago

Thank you for your comparison review. It feels very unbiased and objective. You seemed to answer any question that might come up before it was asked. The main topics you touched on helped me come to a decision on which route for me to take, without feeling pushed in either direction. Thank you!

Reply
Keith Willy 10 years ago

Thank you for this overview. Very helpful. Can you comment on WIX vs Squarespace SEO effectiveness?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Keith,
  
  Take a look at our website builder SEO guide here. It will go into details about the basics of SEO that you should be aware of, and also benchmarks the SEO features of Wix and Squarespace.
  
  Here is also a website builder comparison chart that directly compares these two website builders too.
  
  Hope you find these resources helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tosin 10 years ago

Brilliant article with loads of useful information and comparisons that were not biased.

Thanks for this and keep up the great work

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thank you, Tosin. Glad you found this comparison helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ben 10 years ago

Wonderful write up!
Thanks!
I have used Wix for three years. I have gotten used to it. But I need a new platform becasue Wix has gotten boring ;)
I am now in the process of creating a webpage based on our Email Group which shares ideas and helping others on what they need and etc.
On the site we would like to add galleries for weekly event pictures of events around our community. (so bandwidth can be crucial here). And many other community initiatives.

Eventually people would want to place their ads on the site. (which they will send to me and I can post it)
Is Wix or Squarespace in your vast experience and knowlegde good for what I am trying to accomplish?

Thank so much!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Ben,
  
  I think both Wix and Squarespace can get the job done. So it really comes down to if you prefer Squarespace's user interface and specific tools. Have you had a chance to sign up for a free trial? Just to get a good feel for what they offer.
  
  Also, could you elaborate what you mean by getting "boring"? Are you just looking for a new experience? Or are some of the features you're looking for are not being offered?
  
  But it sounds like you're having fun, which is awesome!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
René Morales 10 years ago

Thank you - I needed this review. Well done. Would have liked to have seen comparison information on transferring a domain to either Wix or SquareSpace.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Rene,
  
  The domain transfer process is relatively similar. The motion you'll need to go through to have your domain name released from your current domain name registrar will be the same, but the final transfer address to either Wix or Squarespace will be different.
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace have tutorials in their support center on how to do this.
  
  You might want to read our guide on domain names to determine if it is the best decision for you to transfer your domain name to the website builders. There are pros and cons.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Wes 10 years ago

I work for a small community bank. I'm researching a web builder to host the brochure side of our site. It will require a login box (that will send them to a separate secure site) for customers to do e-banking. Would you have concerns with either of these companies for this purpose?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Wes,
  
  I was just wondering, if you want to send visitors to another secure site to performing e-banking services, why don't you set the website up to just directly send people to the secure site, without them having to log in?
  
  It's safer and more secure for people to log into their accounts directly on a secured site that has security levels that matches the need for banks. I'm not entirely sure if website builders will be able to match the security levels that is suitable for e-banking.
  
  You can definitely use either Wix or Squarespace to build a website for advertisement / brochure purposes. But I would suggest that you just link from this website to your e-banking login page (which is simple and doable with Wix or Squarespace). No need for your visitors to log in.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Li Swan 10 years ago

Thank you for the comparison. I'm not sure, but I was told that in 2017, if a website doesn't have SSL incorporated into their page, Google may block the entire website. Does both Wix & SquareSpace offer SSL security on their sites? Or can you add an SSL, if they don't?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  That's actually misinterpreted (sorry to say!) There are a lot of mis-information floating around the web so we all need to be a bit careful about that! So I'm glad you posted your question.
  
  The latest update from Google is that if your page involves a login function (such as if people are required to login as a member), and if the page is not SSL protected, then the Google Chrome browser will highlight to the visitor that the webpage is not SSL protected.
  
  Note that:
  
  1) This only occurs on pages where there is a login function.
  
  2) The warning (if any) only takes place if the visitor is using the Chrome browser.
  
  Of course, no one can predict if Google is going to take this up another notch and make SSL mandatory for all pages (including non-login pages). I'm not sure why they would do that for pages where the visitor is not required to submit any personal / private information such as passwords.
  
  If that happens, I'm pretty sure all website builders such as Wix and Squarespace will adapt as necessary.
  
  But to answer your other question directly, all webpages created by Squarespace can be SSL protected. They offer this feature right now.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
TJP 10 years ago

This article and comparison was incredibly insightful, informative, and helpful! Thanks! (I think I may go Squarespace....I'm a novice, and you helped give me perspective with the "Bandwidth" comparison.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey TJP,
  
  Glad our comparison here helped! Good luck with building out your website!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Eric C. 10 years ago

Great comparison but I do believe you should of have included SEO capabilities. I know some people may think that there is not much of a need to compare but there are differences.

For example: on Wix sure you can change the name of the web page URL but you cannot change the name of each individual product URL in the Wix store, which is very crucial if your site is e-commerce centric.

Also, I know that some website builders do not allow you to customize all Header texts (Wix does, fortunately), or how you cannot import your very own Sitemap.XML I created with a third party but rather forced to use the one Wix provides.

All in all, we've been using Wix for just over 3 months now and we still really like it. The biggest concern is the individual product page name in the Wix shop. If you have any suggestions on how to fix that it would be amazing. Considering individual products make up 80% of our pages (URL) this is crucial for SEO...

example:
- https://imgur.com/a/sJtlj
- We are 'www.lenmark.com , and our immediate competition is Coast.

- See how ours is gibberish, and theirs is the name along with some specs (voltage)?

P.S.
A really good thing that Wix (among many awesome features!) is that they have a place where you can vote for updates and features that you would like to see implemented on the site builder! In my case, we have actually been chosen for feedback and to test automatic shipping calculator feature that they are looking at implementing.

This will literally change the way we operate. Currently, we are limited to being contacted since the merchandise we ship comes in such a wide array of sizes and dimensions (we sell new and used industrial machinery and components: forklifts, lathes, motors, compressors, pumps, etc. etc,)

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Awesome feedback, Eric! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us!
  
  I also like how Wix is actively seeking feedback and that they have a structured process in place to allow people to request features. Although not every feature request will be created for practical reasons, it really does show that Wix is improving incrementally.
  
  Wix has been consistently adding new and improved features to their platform. That's one of the bright spots about Wix. You can actually see their list of updates here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kimball 10 years ago

Jeremy,

I was super impressed by your comparison, just wanted to express my appreciation for your thorough and helpful review.

Sincerely,

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thank you, Kimball. Glad you enjoyed our comparison here.
  
  Please do share it with others who might find this guide helpful. I'd really appreciate it!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Brandy 10 years ago

Hello,

I an extreme amateur and I am putting together a site for a non-profit organization. These are the two web builders that I have narrowed it down too, what it may rely on is how people will be able to donate to the organization. We would like to use PayPal, do either of these hosts allow a PayPal collaboration of sorts?

Thank you

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Brandy,
  
  Wix's ecommerce features can be integrated with PayPal. However, they don't have a donation function. What you can do is get the embed codes for the PayPal donation button from PayPal, then insert it into your Wix page using their "HTML Code" function. That way, a donation button will appear and people can click on it to donate. You can sign up to a free account and test that out.
  
  For Squarespace, they do have a specific donation function, but their payment collection is powered by Stripe (not PayPal). It's straightforward to setup a Stripe account and the money gets deposited directly into your bank account after a few days.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Elizabeth 10 years ago

I've built several sites using Wix and love the ease and flexibility in building pages. But when I build new sites that require new URLs, even if I follow Wix's instructions, the sites do not show up in Google searches. A friend told me that that is a huge problem and I should stop using Wix and use SS instead because Wix sites are hard to find. I don't know a lot about SEO so maybe it's me.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Elizabeth,
  
  Having your webpages show up in search results is not "automatic" per se. It does require you to promote your pages and there are a lot of good discussions about SEO if you search for them on Google. Picking one website builder over another does not mean you'll pop up on the top of the search results!
  
  We also have a guide on website builder SEO here, which will give you a basic understanding of some of the issues you should be aware of.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Michael 10 years ago

Jeremy,

Thanks for the review. Great insight into the core considerations. Appreciate it.

Wondering if you can provide your perspective in two additional areas:
1. Versioning and analytics
2. Capturing visitor data

1. Versioning and Analytics: Our intent is to use Wix or Squarespace to create landing pages (to be used with paid search, email and Facebook marketing) for lead generation. We will want to test different versions of landing pages to determine which converts traffic into leads at a higher rate. Can you provide your thoughts as to which may serve our needs better?

2. Capturing Visitor Data: My vision is to use Wix or Squarespace to create landing pages (to be used with paid search, email and Facebook marketing) for lead generation. Landing pages will provide more info to the visitor and encourage them to answer a 3-7 multiple choice questions, and provide their contact info. This data will be captured and followed up on by a sales force. Can you provide your thoughts as to which may serve our needs better?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Michael,
  
  If you're handy with Google Analytics and crunching raw data, you probably only need to use Google Analytics.
  
  But there are landing page software / tools, such as LeadPages, where they allow you to create landing pages very quickly and will automatically provide statistics on conversion rates, allow you to split test different versions of your landing pages to see which one performs better, etc.
  
  It's a paid tool, but is quite powerful and might save you a lot of time.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Michael 10 years ago
  
  JW!!! Incredibly valuable! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
  
  Reply
Saba The G 10 years ago

Jeremy, this was a great review. Thank you so much... this made choosing a lot easier!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Great! Glad we can be helpful to you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Thatyogachick 10 years ago

Hiya. Thanks for this great review. I had no idea what Squarespace was until I looked up alternatives to Wix when I noticed a few problems that have already been listed below. My major issue with Wix is the fact they Do Not give you an SSL Certificate. Thankfully I noticed it before I made a major error in judgement. On the other hand Squarespace automatically offers you an SSL Certificate when you buy from them and their rates don't change the next year. I'm now thinking of trying Squarespace :)

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey there,
  
  Good point. Although I think that unless you require your website visitors to input sensitive information (such as email, address, credit card information), there isn't a need for SSL. But if you do ask your visitors for those information, SSL is definitely helpful.
  
  If you use Wix to sell products, their check out / payment page does come with SSL (provided by the payment processor). So your customers' private information in that regard is protected.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Brooke Witham 10 years ago

Hi
I am curious as to how long these sites will be around?
Will they be outdated in a short time?
Sorry if this is a novice question ?
Brooke

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Brooke,
  
  This is actually a good and fair question. Nobody wants to rely on a business if it is not established and won't be around for a long time!
  
  In my view, both Wix and Squarespace have been around for years, and will be around for many years to come.
  
  Wix has been around since 2006 (so 10 years as of today), and Squarespace was founded in 2004 (12 years as of today).
  
  I know it's not decades, but considering how fast the internet is evolving and growing, they're "veterans"!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hello Shari,

You can build websites with Wix and Squarespace on your desktop browser. So it doesn't matter which version of Windows you ares using. You just open your web browser, log on either your Wix or Squarespace account and you can start making your website. You do need to have an internet connection, though.

Both Wix and Squarespace are mobile ready, so your visitors can definitely visit your website on their mobile devices. Wix has a separate dedicated mobile editor, and Squarespace's templates are mobile responsive. We have more information about their differences here.

Squarespace provides you with a style editor so you can edit the design that way.

As for why people pick a drag & drop website builder, have a look at our discussion here.

Hiring a designer is a process that takes time and money. If money is not an issue for you, read our guide on how to hire web designers or developers.

Jeremy

Reply
Shari 10 years ago

Great article comparison. But I'm still unclear on a couple things. I own an art gallery and need to create a new website since Windows 10 made my website editing software unsupported! My main question is regarding mobilization. I don't feel that I need to edit my website on a tablet/phone, but are customers still able to view my website on their tablet and phone using Wix. I feel being able to search our website on a phone or tablet is ultra important because that is how most people are obtaining information. I like the look of square space templates but they do look very contemporary. Can I change the background color from stark white to a softer white...Also, I would like about 7-8 tabs to click on to get different information from. The cost is not an issue for me. Also, why are people choosing a square space, Wix option instead of using a designer? What is the difference there? Thank you so much for your time.

Reply
1 reply
- Lynn 10 years ago
  
  Hey Shari, check out Masterpiece Solutions. They make websites and systems specifically for art galleries.
  
  Reply
Fr. Louis 10 years ago

Your analyses are soooo helpful! I don't like to make a big investment without proper knowledge, and your website has definitely helped me. Thanks for providing such details in so manny different ways. May God bless you and your work!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thank you and I'm glad you found our comparison helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kathleen Kunster 10 years ago

I am learning a lot from your postings. 3 Questions:

1. Just how MUCH EASIER is it to use WIX than SQUARESPACE ?

2. And, just WHICH features, parts, processes (or whatever) are more difficult on Squarespace?

3. What accounts for that greater difficulty?

I am leaning strongly towards SquareSpace - but I don't want to get myself into a mess.

Thank you.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Kathleen,
  
  Thanks for your note.
  
  It's hard to say exactly as it's so subjective to evaluate how "much easier".
  
  I'd say in my own experience, Wix is easier. That's the general feedback I get from people as well. That's not saying Squarespace hard, just not as easy.
  
  I think at the end of the day, I'd suggest you sign up for a free account with Wix and a free trial account with Squarespace and invest a few hours "playing" with each platform.
  
  This hands-on experience will give you a much better sense of which platform works better for you. What works for others might not work for you!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jenny 10 years ago

You missed he most important part. You cannot effectively use squarespace on your mobile phone or iPad. When I travel I need to bring a computer. Wix is much easier to use on other devices.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Jenny,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Could you elaborate a bit more about what you mean?
  
  Do you mean you can't edit your Squarespace website on your mobile device?
  
  They have Apps you can download for you to edit blog posts, track analytics and manage online sales (if you run an ecommerce store).
  
  But if you are referring to building or editing your webpages, then yes you'll need your laptop / desktop to do so.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sandra Jones 10 years ago

Great comparison, Jeremy. Do you know which has better SEO capabilities? Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Sandra,
  
  Take a look at our comparison chart here.
  
  Also, we have a guide on website builder SEO here which might be insightful to you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
HawaiiActor 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Which would you recommend if I'm a working actor moving to Los Angeles? I'd like to keep my site relatively simple but professional - Photos / headshots, acting resume, links to films/commercials, and my reel. Maybe several pages in total.

I'm very involved with social media but have never built my own site before. Please help, thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello there,
  
  To be quite honest, I think either Wix or Squarespace can allow you to build a professional looking website. Personally I think Wix is a bit easier to use, but Squarespace's design templates look awesome.
  
  I think one thing you can consider doing, is signing up to both website builders and play around with them. That's the only way you can gain some exposure to see which one you prefer working with.
  
  But at the end of the day, both will get the job done well for you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mark 10 years ago

Hello,
I have built several sites with Wix. I have just begun a site with Squarespace and lIke it so far (not for first time builders IMO). Jeremy is right on point..Wix is a much easier platform to learn...on the other side is alot of the features you may want to incorporate (forms, restaurant online ordering, list building, etc) are extra monthly costs. Also, Wix (at this time) does not support redirecting to an external mobile site when users are on mobile devices. Squarespace allows a developer to implent their own code to accomplish many of these tasks if they choose.

-Mark

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Peter 10 years ago

Hi,

I am after a platform that allows you to have a social community. Basically where users can create logins and search for other people, much like couchsurfing. Could you please advise which website would best suit this. I have had a look at wix and squarespace and they dont seem to have any similar plugins/functionality for this.

Thanks,
Peter

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Peter,
  
  I think you're right in that Wix and Squarespace don't offer this feature (yet). Have you tried Google searching for "social network website builder" or something similar to that? A few options popped up when I searched.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lauren J 10 years ago

Thank you Jeremy. This was SUPER helpful.

I've been using Wix for years. I considered using Squarespace but like the review said there was a higher learning curve so I always decided against it. I DO like how Wix allows you to edit the mobile version. On the other hand it *would be nice* to have a fully mobile responsive site.

It seems to me that Wix has more templates and may be better for the mom and pop shop or non-website designer. Squarespace has modern/minimalist templates which seems to lend themselves to fashion/ high end clothiers, swanky/ new-agey restaurants, photographers and elite hipster types. I would say Wix has a larger variety in terms of "looks" and templates for hotels (villas to B&B's), health & wellness, education, etc.

On the other hand, I do agree that Squarespace has better designers -- the templates are cleaner, more streamlined and just have an extra refined look.

The conclusion: Wix is best for non-designers and Squarespace may be easier for people with design backgrounds (until you get over the learning curve of course.) Wix is totally user-friendly and I've had good experiences with the Support team. Although I am a Wix fan, I must agree with Jeremy - "I just can’t help but admire Squarespace’s templates!"

Thanks again Jeremy for your detailed analysis. It really helped!!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Wow, thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lauren!
  
  Your conclusion really summarizes and aligns with our thoughts as well. Your summary will really be helpful for our other readers as well!
  
  Thanks SO much again!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Scott 10 years ago

I really enjoyed the article, extremely helpful. One question, I am looking to build a website with filters to enable potential customers to filter data to specific interests/tastes. Do either of these sites offer that functionality, if both do, which would you recommend?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Scott,
  
  Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a filtering tool for either Wix or Squarespace.
  
  If that is a very important tool to you, something like WordPress will have this available.
  
  But in terms of drag & drop builders, you will have to use something like Weebly. Weebly gives you access to its HTML & CSS codes, so you can custom code the function into the website (or hire someone to do that for you).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Howard 10 years ago

Wix uses Ajax crawling and I see Google responds less well to the wix SEO... What do you think???

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Howard,
  
  I don't think that is the case. Have a look at the SEO section in our review of Wix here.
  
  Also, this website builder SEO guide might also be insightful for you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Howard 10 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy
  With wix can I get my own domain and / or hosting service and if so, is this indeed preferable? ( ps. What if I try the plunge of learning Wordpress ... Can it be moved over to it?)
  Last and pretty important , can I get display ads put on wix if a manufacturer wants to advertise directly with me? ( box or banner, I think they call them?). What about email???
  Howard
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Howard,
  
  If you use Wix, you won't be able to migrate any content into WordPress.org. However, you can keep your domain name and connect it to your WordPress later, if you want to.
  
  If you want a website builder that can have its content transferred into a WordPress site, Squarespace is a good choice to consider. Take a look at this guide here.
  
  With Wix, you can certainly place image ads / banners into your website.
  
  They also offer you the ability to connect to an email service that's powered by Google. This information can be found on Wix's site.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Michael 10 years ago

Great Article. Thank you. As my small business scales, can I easily upgrade my site with Square Space to take advantage of the increased capabilities?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Michael,
  
  Yes. You can upgrade / downgrade at any time. However, just note that Squarespace only offers you a 14-day trial period. So to continue using them, you'll have to subscribe to at least their lowest plan.
  
  With Wix, you can continue to build your website under their free plan (but with limitations, of course).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Marc 10 years ago

In the four differences you mentioned you left out the biggest difference which is huge and a real game changer for anyone interested in hoping to build a website for a business not just for play. That difference is that with WIX, once you have finished building your website and publish it to the web, you find out that WIX adds cryptic code to your URLs (called Ajax coding). Instead of having a clean, professional looking web address, you end up with confusing amateurish web addresses.

For instance if you make a website for a bakery called ABC Bakery and you have a page all about your bagels you would expect to have a web address that reads: 'www.abc-bakery/bagels. Instead, it will read: 'www.abc-bakery/#!bagels/c1bv3 Who could ever remember that crazy URL to tell a customer?

You WILL NOT find out about this problem until after you have spent all that time working on your site and publishing it to the web. Too late to change things! It is ruinous for a serious business that wants a professional looking website.

Interesting to note: WIX themselves do not use the Ajax system on their own website because they know that addresses like 'www.abc-bakery/#!bagels/c1bv3 are terribly unprofessional. They sell a service that they do not use themselves.

If you want a serious, professional website DO NOT USE WIX.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Marc,
  
  Thanks for your comment. I agree and disagree with your comment.
  
  Including those symbols in a URL could look a bit messy, and that's why Wix has a "URL Cleaning" function where you can alter your webpage address to whatever you want it to be.
  
  This pretty much solves the problem you are referring to.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Davistiano 10 years ago
  
  I am a WIX user and have been frustrated with the Ajax thing in the URL as well! But I noticed that it seems to have gone now, WIX has probably finally fixed it! :)
  
  Thanks for your article thou Jeremy, very useful! I have been trying to do a photography site in WIX but end up I keep changing mind on the template and yes - I have to redo the whole site.
  
  So I went to wordpress but now I am thinking to give a try to squarespace after reading your comparison :)
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Davistiano,
  
  Yup I think Wix did a good job in enabling you to customize your webpage addresses!
  
  Give Squarespace a try and see what you think! The best way to understanding which website builder works best for you is to get some hands on experience!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Rahul Nambiar 10 years ago

thanks a lot Jeremy, the comparison was real help.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for your feedback Rahul!
  
  Reply
Anthony 10 years ago

Squarespace is not available in my country. Wix is. That was a pretty easy decision for me.

Reply
Stuart Metcalfe 10 years ago

I have been told that Wix is less good in terms of Google and your SEO stuff - does anyone have any thoughts?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Stuart,
  
  We do have our own views about this. Take a look at the SEO discussion on our Wix review page here.
  
  We also have another discussion about SEO for website builders in general here.
  
  Hope these are helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
matthew 10 years ago

Great article! I'm still reading. Gentle little grammar check in section 4. I think you mean: "Who is more popular?" I followed you here from the wix vs. wordpress article and feel like I'm going with squarespaces now.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Matthew,
  
  Thanks for the note!
  
  Glad we were able to point you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
J 10 years ago

Thankyou for a great read and - just as informative q & a.

Appreciate everything I've been reading, always hard to find solid advice!.

Cheers
J

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for your comment J!
  
  Glad you found our discussions helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Dmar 10 years ago

Very well read article!
i was wondering if wanted to do articles, sell music and shirts and 3d printed objects, coupled with random self promotion/interpersonal promotion which would you recommend?/

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Dmar,
  
  Wix might be interesting for you to test out, as they have a dedicated Music sales tool to help you sell your music. You can of course, sell other physical items that you mentioned with Wix's ecommerce tools.
  
  So worth exploring testing out Wix.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ricky 10 years ago

Will either one of these allow me to link my existing godaddy domain to the site that I create or do they force you to use their own service?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Ricky,
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace allow you to connect your domain name from GoDaddy (or other domain name registrars) to your website. So you are not forced to use their own domain name services. They just have that service out of convenience.
  
  We have a guide on domain names which you might find helpful as well.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
kyla 10 years ago

Great info. Thank you! I'm looking to build an ecommerce site for a storefront with online presence. As far as integrating a POS is there a benefit one over the other?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Kyla,
  
  If you want to integrate a Point of Sale (POS) system with your ecommerce online store, I'd suggest you take a look at Shopify (one of the best ecommerce builders today).
  
  They have an in-house POS system that fully syncs with the online store that you build with their system. We have more discussion about that here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Simon 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Which would you recommend for a rock band? This would include a merch page to sell CDs and t-shirts? I've tried the 14 day trial with SQS and must admit it took some getting used to as I have no experience with sort of thing. The main issue I'm having is with listing the t-shirts. I'm able to list them but can't seem to allow people to specify which size they want? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Simon,
  
  Take a look at Wix Music. Wix has specific tools for musicians to sell products online! I think you'll like what you see.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Phil 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy - thanks for the high level comparison. I've used Wix in the past and found it easy to use but there are limitations. The main sticking point I'm finding now is the inability to use a 3rd party testing site like Optimizely since I can't insert the required code into the page. Does Squarespace allow this type of editing?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Phil,
  
  Sorry to hear that you can't get Optimizely to work with Wix.
  
  I just did a quick search and it looks like Optimizely will work with Squarespace, based on their tutorial here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
bob bon jovi 10 years ago

Btw... isnt it possible to build a website with wix just like one of those squarespace templets?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  With Wix, you can position any content anywhere. So you can mimic pretty much any websites you see out there. Of course it won't be perfect, but at least on the surface it will look similar.
  
  The exception for mimicking a Squarespace website is that with Wix, their websites are not mobile responsive. Instead, you have a dedicated mobile editor where you can personalize how you want your Wix site to be displayed on mobile devices. We have more discussion about this here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
bob bon jovi 10 years ago

Good read. And good comments with q and a. Heres my experience. I do renders and animation. I use Maya,3dmax,zbrush and use Vray,maxwell,iray and mentalray for the final renders. Finally I use vega and premier for my editings. Now im launching a career with my skills and never learned any code but basic Ruby. So worth that being said, I searched and came across wix and squarespace.

I decided to go with squarespace due to the professional looking sites. But after playing with it for 3 days, im so sick of the user interface! Its not great and intuitive. Its a bit sluggish in response and i found that most of the templets are really similar to each other. Only major difference is the 4 or 5 templetes with parallax scrolling. But the rest are freaking the same in a way. I didn't get that "ohh ahhh feeling from switching from one to the other.

So. .. i decided to give wix a try, HUGE DIFFERENCE! . The UI is far superior and responsive. And the blank templet gives you so much freedom than all the squarespace templets combined! So ill be using wix. Only thing I'm not too happy with wix is the seo everyone says sucks. But thats not the case like this article says. Also the lack of not injecting your own code bums me out but hell, i dont want to learn another program.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for your comment.
  
  Wix does give you a lot more creative freedom over Squarespace. So if that works better for you, then keep testing out Wix.
  
  I guess it's really a matter of personal preference. Some people will like Squarespace more than Wix for different reasons, or vice versa.
  
  As for getting a Wix website to rank well in search engines, yes a lot of people say that it's "impossible". But then, a lot of people also say it's impossible to do a lot of things, yet time and time again we see that it is possible (with the right approach).
  
  A lot of folks out there said to use WordPress instead because they rank well in search results, but that's simply not the case. One can't expect to use WordPress and automatically be ranked high in search results. It just doesn't work that way, unfortunately!
  
  A website builder is just a tool, and it's how a person uses the tool that matters. Just because a person is handed the key to a Ferrari, doesn't automatically make the person the best driver in the world!
  
  We have more discussions about SEO in our FAQ page here.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Glenn Ruga 10 years ago

Jeremy: Great summary and resource! Thanks. Very helpful. I am more familiar with Squarespace but after reading everything, I am inclined to check out WIX. Curious as to how the mobile/tablet editor works on WIX and how much it solves the responsive issue.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Glenn,
  
  Thanks for reading our discussion here. Wix's mobile editor does not solve the mobile responsive issue, as Wix doesn't support mobile responsiveness.
  
  However, they are mobile friendly as they have a dedicated mobile editor so your site will work perfectly well on mobile devices.
  
  Their mobile editor allow you a lot more flexibility than a responsive design, as you can re-position content around your mobile layout, or choose to hide certain elements if you want to. So this gives you more layout design options, while a responsive design just takes what you have on your desktop version of your website, and automatically re-positioning all the content without you having any control over it (unless you edit the codes).
  
  So they're quite different. It's worth a shot to sign up for a free Wix account and check out their editor so you can assess it for yourself. We also have a discussion article here that talks about this as well - you might find it helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mel 10 years ago

Hi

We are currently using Weebly for our dog rescue & are looking at changing to Wix for more flexibility. Someone suggested trying Squarespace, which led me to this article.

The most important thing apart from cost, is that we have a good gallery/portfolio to showcase dogs up for adoption. I was hoping to find a template or app that would have a gallery showing a single photo of each dog, which when clicked, would open a gallery with write up, for that dog. Some have videos too.

I haven't seen anything with this type of thing already in a template, unless I have simply missed it. As the dogs on the site change regularly, I need something that I can update quickly & easily, without having to build pages in the background each time I add a dog.

Any advice or links to purpose built apps would be greatly appreciated please?!

Many thanks

Mel

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2 replies
- Kathleen Kunster 10 years ago
  
  Mel - small company, but with gallery pages that might interest you; not sure if the photo's can be active - but since you enter some code, maybe. Or, they might be able to do just that part for you. Nice people.
  
  The website for BALMORAL CASTLE is built on an Allwebco Template. Lots of designers use these templates.
  
  ALL WEBCO DESIGN / ALL WEBCO TEMPLATES
  
  but these are not for beginners. If you have experience putting up sites, they may work for you - otherwise probably not.
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Mel,
  
  Squarespace has the Image block where you can insert caption below the image. But I'm not sure how much text you can add as there may be limits (a couple of sentences, but not paragraphs, I suspect).
  
  With Wix, check out their App Market as they have a couple of gallery apps (POWr or Impressive Slideshow). I just read their product description and you can insert captions.
  
  So definitely check out those tools. You can sign up to Squarespace for a 14 day free trial, or Wix for unlimited free trial. Give them a test to see if they actually work out for you!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Franziska 10 years ago

Hey Jeremy,

Thank you for this very informative article !

I fall into the category you mentioned in the beginning: built my website since the beginning of the year with WIX only to find out today, that WIX websites just don't show up on google.

What is your experience with that? I have already started to build a new site with other builders but I love my old one. Do you think there is any truth to that, will google change anything soon or should I start building with a new host?

Thanks so much,
Franziska

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Franziska,
  
  Wix websites DO show up on Google search results! In fact, Google actually highlighted Wix next to WordPress in their Google Webmasters Discussion Forum (we discussed this in the SEO section of our Wix review article here).
  
  One of the things (myths) that most new website owners is that once you build a website, then your website will automatically show up in people's searches - which unfortunately, won't be true.
  
  I guess one thing to consider is how many websites there are in the world, about the same topic as your website. Probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions. A lot of these websites are much older, and much larger than yours (considering that your site is new).
  
  So in a way, if your website rises to the top of search results this quickly and easily, then you can just as easily be "de-throned" when someone else creates a new website tomorrow. Know what I mean?
  
  Getting your website to rank well in search engines is a long term game. Amongst many different things, it requires you to add a lot of value / content to your website, to promote your website to the right audience, etc.
  
  We have a lot more discussion about this in our FAQ page. I think you'll find it informative.
  
  I know it's frustrating not to see your website appear in search engines (yet), but I guess that's just a way to separate those who take a long term view of good, consistent building content, and those who give up too quickly. So don't give up!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Franziska 10 years ago
  
  Thank you so much for taking the time to reply Jeremy!
  You made my day.
  (And probably that of many others with the same worry!)
  
  Reply
Suzanne 10 years ago

Jeremy, you're a saint!

Meanwhile, my couple of questions, now deciding between Squarespace and Wix:
1. As a photographer I like to include dynamic pages, mainly good inbuilt slideshow functionability - do you know which is better?
Also I've created slideshows in the past using eg. bigfolio, I guess I can insert them into either utilizing a link?
2. For another line of work ie. now as a massage therapist, neither would support 2 sites correct?
3. Are there any outstanding downsides (or greater advantages) of note to either Squarespace or Wix for photographers that you know of?

Thanks much in advance!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Suzanne,
  
  Thanks! Glad you're enjoying our discussions here.
  
  I think in general, the best thing to do is sign up for free test accounts with both web builders, and invest a few hours into "playing" around with each one of them. Sometimes, a lot of people focus so much on studying what features / tools are available from the "outside" and find out that they don't like how the actual website builder works from the "inside".
  
  Take your time to work with some of the tools that you're concerned about (such as slideshows, gallery functions), and don't forget to try to use their support system to see which one you prefer. That's a really important part of your overall experience too.
  
  Having said that, both web builders will work fine for photographers and for massage therapists. Generally speaking, photographers tend to lean towards Squarespace as their template designs tend to be favored by photographers.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Adrienne 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy! Thanks for the great article.

I am building a website for pizza shop that will have online/mobile ordering. Do you think one builder is better than the other for this option?

Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Adrienne,
  
  Wix actually has a food ordering App that you can use so you can take online food orders and receive payments.
  
  Just visit their App Market and search for "Food".
  
  Squarespace doesn't have this function, but you can integrate Open Table with a website built with their platform.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jesse 10 years ago

I started with squarespace, and have since switched to wix. As someone coming from a graphics background rather than having any kind of coding/website building experience, I found squarespace to be difficult to use. Wix is much more intuitive and builds your site more like a graphics program in my opinion. I also like that I can design my site for free with wix, and only start paying once my site is ready to go live (to remove the adds, and start accepting payments). I'm building a website slowly over time as a part of a side business, so I'd rather not be wasting money with squarespace with a website that I don't really need to be active yet.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Jesse,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experiences with using both Wix and Squarespace with us. I'd definitely agree that Wix is easier to use.
  
  In addition to that, they are continuously introducing advanced and updated designs, and also business tools (such as booking / scheduling engines). So they are very business friendly.
  
  You're also right that Wix allows you to "test out" their platform without any time limitations. So users can definitely take their time to build out their site before upgrading (or if at all).
  
  I guess from Squarespace's perspective, if you don't "love" their platform after the 14 day trial, you most likely won't sign up anyway. In a way, that is sensible from a business perspective as free users may bog down their support staff. By implementing a time limit on the trial period, Squarepace can focus all their resources to serve paying customers.
  
  There isn't a right or wrong approach I guess. It's just different ways of doing business!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
david 11 years ago

Hey there,

First of all, I hope you guys are nominated for a Pulitzer or a Nobel prize, because the amount and quality of information you are providing here is pretty amazing. My hat is off to you. Truly an inspiring website that others should aspire to.

I wanted to add something about the comparison on this page. I haven't had any experience with WIX, but I have to say that my experience with Squarespace is by and large dismal. Sometimes the email support gets back to you withiin an hour — but that is very much the exception rather than the rule — and I have waited on more than one occasion for 48 hours before getting an answer. And then, as is often the case, what if their answer prompts another question? Often they will just give you a URL in the support base which doesn't actually answer your question (which is why you emailed!) The live chat is an improvement, but it will take much longer than a phone call would -- it's simply not as efficient as talking to somoene on the phone (who cannot be talking to four people at once as the live chat people are).

Squarespace has some attractive features, but their support is not one of them.

Nonetheless, this is a great resource and you should be commended for pouring so much work into this and all the other pages you've done so extraordinarily well.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello David,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experiences with us and with our readers.
  
  I guess no single platform is "perfect", especially with their support teams. Also, each user will have a different set of experiences.
  
  I personally haven't had any issues with them and found Squarespace's support team to be very helpful.
  
  Of course, my own experience is not representative of what others should experience. I may have posed questions when they weren't as busy, or my questions might be much easier to answer compared to yours.
  
  Also, Squarespace has been growing over the past few years, so their support burden has no doubt increased. That may also cause some level of support quality issues, especially during peak hours.
  
  So thanks for sharing your experiences with us. This is a real issue across all services, so it's good to be aware of it!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Chrys 11 years ago

Thanks for the breakdown. Your pages are very very helpful.
Question: Do all of these popular web builders allow you to create both static web pages AND blog pages. I need the option of blogging.
Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Chrys! Glad our discussions here are helpful.
  
  The answer is yes. You can definitely create blog posts with either Wix or Squarepace. In fact, all the drag & drop website builders we've covered allow you to create a blog as part of the website.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Amy 11 years ago

Thanks for the great review.
Are you familiar at all with MemberSpace or Sentry for a login on a Squarespace site? From what I read you can not have a login on a Squarespace site unless you use one of these but they do not seem to be secure options. This login is a very important piece of my site so I'm wondering if another website builder would have the login functionality built in and be a better solution for me?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Amy,
  
  Squarespace currently doesn't have a membership login function, but Wix does in their app store. Weebly also has a membership function.
  
  However, the membership function from Wix and Weebly are non-paying subscription - so you can't charge members a fee.
  
  If you want to set up a membership gateway and charge monthly fees, then I also heard that Sentry Login can work with both Squarespace and Wix. But I haven't used them before, but I know they've been around for at least a few years.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bui Chung Hieu 11 years ago

Hi. I want to build a website is bester for SEO. I want my site is easier to search on Google. So Which website builder is Better for me? WIX or squarespace? Please help me.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  That's a really hard question to answer, and if anyone tells you that one is 100% better than the other is probably not very reliable.
  
  I've mentioned this in response to many other comments as well, but search engine ranking is not determined by which website builder you use. Not even close!
  
  A lot of people read somewhere online that using WordPress will guarantee high rankings, and it's just not accurate (based on my own experience anyway). If it was that easy, then everybody would rank highly in search results (which means nobody will).
  
  The last I read, there are over 200 search ranking factors that Google evaluate, so I believe that one should focus on the more important factors rather than spending so much effort determining which web builder will yield better results.
  
  One important factor to focus on when you are working on improving your SEO, is to promote your content / website to authoritative websites, so that perhaps they will link back to your website. These sort of links are challenging to get as it shows Google that the other website is "endorsing" your website. So your website and content has to be top notch.
  
  In any case, my personal suggestion is to use the website builder that you enjoy using the most. Create some really helpful and interesting content, then go and share them with larger, more authoritative websites! If those sites like it, they may share a link to your website, or share it with their follows. From there, you can gain some good traction to getting more traffic.
  
  I wished there was an easier way. it's a lot of work and that's why some websites rank higher than others!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Carla Cahill 11 years ago

I use Wix and link it with my domain name and there is no wix attached to it that I can see. So that piece of information may be incorrect.

(it keeps telling me to resubmit--if you get more than one)

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Carla,
  
  If you connect your domain name to your Wix site, your website address will no longer display the "wix" subdomain. It will only display your own domain name.
  
  So it sounds like you have successfully connected your own domain name to your Wix site.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tyler Goeser 11 years ago

Do you know anything about email? From what I can see is that for email with your own domain name, they both use google apps. In the Squarespace Business Plan, it seems to include that in the plan, but in the Wix Ecommerce (which would be somewhat similar to the squarespace business) you have to add it. Google Apps charges 3.75 a month for that, so it seems that in the end, with email you would end up paying more with Wix Ecommerce totaling $19.92/month and Squarespace at $18/month. Is this accurate?

I also know that the Squarespace business only allows up to 25 products to be sold, for me that's not a problem at all being I offer customer services and only sell a few set and already made designs at a time. What do you think about the email though?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Tyler,
  
  Keep in mind that while Squarespace does give you free email service with Google Apps, it's only for the first year. You'll have to pay for the service yourself after the first year.
  
  Having said that, I do suggest you test out both website builders to see which one you prefer overall. I guess what I'm saying is don't let a few dollars of savings (for the first year only) sway you from picking the best website builder for your needs. Also, both Squarespace and Wix have different user interfaces, so you may prefer one over the other!
  
  Hope this provides you with some helpful guidance.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Carlos 11 years ago

Can you compare features please, for example which (if either): automatically resizes (optimises) image size from large primary uploaded image; enables text wrapping around image; has 'on mouseover' text (or image) when hovering over text (or image); allows direct import of images (& docs) from cloud storage (My Drive etc); displays pdf (or other formats) directly without downloading and opening; has blank template, allows font sizes and colours etc to be set upfront (default) for whole website; an, html code (embedded docs etc).

Thanks, BFN Carlos

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Carlos,
  
  The best way to experience the features is to sign up for trial accounts and get your "hands dirty" so to speak. That's the most effective way to evaluate which website builder suits your needs better, as each user is different.
  
  We try to bring out some of the bigger / macro points for potential users to consider. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty details, it's best to dive right in and start using the website builders! Wix has an unlimited free usage period, and Squarespace gives you 14 days which is generally sufficient for you to get a sense of whether you like them or not.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Peter 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Firstly, great article!

I plan on using a website builder to create my own website design business. My plan is to then use the same website builder over and over again to build customer websites ( thus getting away from the need to learn over complicated coding ). Wix will not allow you to host their website anywhere else and the option to transfer to another template is a non starter so i'm leaning towards Squarespace as Wordpress is overly- complicated and potentially buggy. Do you have any thoughts on using these builders as a means of creating websites for others as a business?!

Cheers
Peter

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Peter,
  
  Take a look at Weebly's Designer Platform. They allow you to "white label" the their website builder, so your clients wont' know that you are building their websites with Weebly.
  
  So when your clients log into their website, they will only see your web firm's name, and not Weebly's. It's very popular amongst web designers offering website building services.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Connie 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy- Thanks for the article!

I'm planning to build two websites in the near future...

I'm thinking using WIX for one domain, and Squarespace for another.

Do you think that's an okay idea? Or is it a "smarter" choice to just use one website builder for both domains....

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Connie,
  
  It's really up to you! Either way will work. But I'd suggest you test drive both Wix and Squarespace to see which one you prefer to work with. Usually a person will prefer one platform over the other. So if you enjoy using Wix more than Squarespace, or vice versa, you might want to consider building both sites with one of them. A benefit is that you can become more proficient with one website builder, which should improve your web building experience!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sarita 11 years ago

Hi, thanks for the helpful comparison. I was very suprised to read you saying that wix.com cannot be removed from domain names, as that's simply not the case (my boyfriend has a wix site with his own domain.) Could you update this info, as it's very misleading?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Sarita,
  
  The only way to remove the "Wix" term from your domain name is if you upgrade to one of their paid plans. So if you're using the free version of Wix, you can only use their subdomain structure with your website. So your boyfriend must have upgraded to one of Wix's paid plans.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Joanne Irwin 11 years ago

Very helpful comparisons. Appreciate all your input and tech savvy!

I have a website - plantbasednana.com that was built by a designer and now hosted by her. Two weeks ago my NAV bar disappeared and margins on my welcome page box off center. She is unresponsive to my phone calls and emails. Very frustrating as folks are unable to access recipes from my site; instead must do google search for recipes link. And I'm paying a yearly fee. Since she hasn't responded - and that's unusual for her - I might have to rebuild my own site.

I'm still debating between WIX and Squarespace. Don't know if you do this, but if you check out my site, you might be able to advise which builder to go with. I'm very frustrated at this point. Thanks for all you do to help us out there in cyberspace!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Joanne,
  
  Sorry to hear about your situation. That's one of the risks of hiring a designer / developer to help you build your website.
  
  I tried to take a peek at your website but it's not loading for me. In any case, I would suggest you sign up for both Wix and Squarespace and test them out to see which one you prefer to work with.
  
  Squarespace has a 14 day free trial period so hopefully that will be sufficient for you to make a decision. Wix has a free plan so you can give them a test drive as well.
  
  Good luck with that!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kristinn 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy, thanks for amazing articles and comparisons on these web site builders as well as informative answers to all the comments. I was about to rush into starting a website with Wix, now you've convinced me to take a step back and try Squarespace's 14 day trial as well. I've also bookmarked your site, so if...WHEN...I have questions about website building in the future, I'll know where to look first.

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Kristinn,
  
  Glad you found our discussions here helpful! Squarespace also has a lot to offer. At the end of the day, there is no "perfect" website builder out there, as they all offer you different pros & cons. So it's definitely prudent to test them out to see which one you prefer to work with.
  
  Good luck with Squarespace!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Carmelita 11 years ago

So I have tried both, mostly Wix because it is much easier. I created a draft in Wix utilizing the free images. I found those same images on Squarespace but for a $10 charge. Also I have reached out to the Chatline for squarespace... I could see that I was "1" in the queue, but I stayed on hold for over 10 minutes. From reading some of the post, it seemed that squarespace was favored, if that is the case I totally DISAGREE! I will stick with Wix.

Reply
2 replies
- Andrew Wyckoff 8 years ago
  
  I agree Wix is better i think the GUI looks better and itt has more things to put on your website!
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Carmelita,
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
  
  The images on Squarespace that cost $10 are from Getty Images, which is a professional images seller / licensor. That's why it costs money to license images from them.
  
  As for Squarespace's support, if you're waiting in line for a while (they're quite busy at times, especially during certain times of the week), try emailing them to get your answers.
  
  But if you're happy with Wix, definitely stay with them! They're a great website builder too!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jay 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy, great article. I have a question. I am currently using a custom premade Wordpress template I paid for to sell digital download(instrumentals) but it's very limited to only what the creator of the theme made it available. I was searching around for other options and I never realized that there was options to create beautiful websites easily with such as SQS, wix, weebly and etc. I am seriously in love at the moment with ideas and with the fact that I can create a website just the way I want to without paying thousands of dollars. I am currently messing with wix but I think it's a little cheesy when it come to creating digital download options. So may I ask you, what would you suggest for music contents, service and digital downloads. Thanks.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jay,
  
  Yeah for pre-set WordPress themes it can a bit limiting, but solvable if you can edit the codes (or hire someone to help you with it).
  
  As to selling digital products, all the of the drag and drop website builders you referenced have that capability (Wix, Squarespace, Weebly).
  
  So I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "cheesy" so I can't give you an opinion. But in general, the best way to find out which website builder you like the most is to sign up for a free / trial account to test things out yourself. As there are a lot of tools beyond the ability to sell digital products - so make sure you play around with each builder to see which one better suits your needs.
  
  The drawback of Squarespace is that they only allow you to integrate your check out cart with Stripe (which is popular and effective, but some people prefer more options, such as PayPal).
  
  Hope this helps a little bit!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Karen 11 years ago

Jeremy,

I am trying to decide between SQS, WP and WIX. I am not tech savvy at all.

What I have been reading has been saying SQS is good for some one like me, but limited on the monetizing of the site. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Is WP actulaly better for that? What about WIX?

Also, if I start with SQS and get better with tech, can I change to WP, if I decide it is a better platform?

Thanks, Karen

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Karen,
  
  If being able to migrate to WordPress is an important consideration for you, then Squarespace is probably the best option for you here. They do have an export tool that allows you to export certain content from your Squarespace site to WordPress.
  
  Just note that not all content are exportable - here is more info on this.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Heather Binns, CPT 11 years ago

Great article! Thank you so much for helping me make my decision between the two platforms.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Heather! Glad our discussion here has been helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
hazel 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for the interesting article.

Would you recommend one over the other for google search results and SEO? Also I would like to transfer a current website, would you recommend one for ease of domain and hosting transfer?

Many thanks,

Hazel

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Hazel,
  
  In terms of migration, Squarespace has better tools to help you migrate. You can migrate content (but not the design) from Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Big Cartel, Shopify, and Etsy into Squarespace pretty easily using their import tool.
  
  As for search results / SEO perspective, it's really hard to say which of Wix or Squarespace performs better. Google has over 200 ranking factors that they consider when deciding how to rank your website, so the majority of those ranking factors will not have anything to do with which website builder you use.
  
  So I'd suggest you focus on deciding which website builder you prefer using (maybe sign up to both to test them out for free), and work on your website ranking by considering other factors.
  
  Hope this is helpful in some way!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Kristen 11 years ago
  
  I have to add that if Tumblr is at all important to you - for our business, it's essential - you should go with SquareSpace. There's no support for Tumblr in Wix. There's a widget that displays your Tumblr page. But that's sort of useless when you want to migrate, as opposed to merely feature, content.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Kristen.
  
  Reply
Cath 11 years ago

Hi I'm trying to find a site that will allow me to have a seperate area for Trade customers which will allow them to place an order online. Is this possible on either of these sites?
Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Cath,
  
  Could you elaborate a bit more about what you mean by "trade" customers? Do you mean wholesale customers?
  
  If so, there isn't a specific tool for both Wix or Squarespace to manage this for you. But if you have a look at Shopify, which is a pure ecommerce store builder, they do have an App in their App Store that can help you manage wholesale customers.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Nancy 11 years ago

This article was very helpful. I am trying to market some hand crafted articles, I have never done a web page and I am confused.I thought your article was fair and comprehensive. As a novice, do you recommend one over the other for me? I was leaning toward Squarespace....but now I am not sure. Also, I am an Apple user.
Thanks!!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Nancy,
  
  It's really hard to say one is better than the other for all users. So it really depends on what you're looking for (or what features you are more important for you).
  
  For instance, if you want complete freedom to insert content anywhere on the page, Wix is better. If you want mobile responsive templates, Squarespace is better (but Wix's templates are mobile friendly as well, just not responsive). If you want a website builder that has phone support, Wix provides that. So on and so forth.
  
  I think if you're unsure of what you want (at the moment anyway), I'd suggest you sign up to both Wix and Squarespace as they are free to use, and give them both test drives. With Wix you can use their free platform without any time limitations. With Squarespace, you get a 14 day free trial which should hopefully be enough time for you to see if you like them or not.
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Janel 11 years ago

Thanks for this great article.

I have few questions about Squarespace.

First, I have several domains. They're all with my hosting company ebound. They're pointed to pages on my WP site. Can I host all of them on one Squarespace account too? I think Squarespace maybe easier for me to make a better looking and still functioning site, so I'm checking it out.

What happens to the site at end of term of payment. Does it just go unpublished, or is it gone? I have auto pay to my host, and would do same if possible, but stuff happens. For $10 a month my site is hosted - with multiple domains/sites on WP with no problems. I worry that this could be problem on Squarespace.

Thanks so much

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Janel,
  
  I believe you can only use one single domain name with each website built with Squarespace.
  
  But what you can do, is "forward" your other domain names to a single Squarespace website (this can be done with your domain registrar). So if someone types in the forwarded domain address, they will be re-directed to the Squarespace site. But once they land on the website, the domain address in the address bar will be original domain name that you set as the primary domain name. Hope this makes sense!
  
  As for payments, they do have auto renewals so you won't have to worry about making monthly payments. But if you didn't activate the auto renewal function, or if your credit card expired, I'm sure they will email you to remind you of pending payments.
  
  If you try out WordPress and really like it, I'd suggest you sign up to their annual plan as you end up saving around 30%.
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Michelle 11 years ago

I'm currently using Wix and I used to have my website built through Dreamweaver. I'm not sure if it's the new mobile standards by Google or if it is that Wix doesn't let you have as many keywords, but my search engine placement has dropped. I also noticed that the pages in Wix have little symbols like this: xyz.com/*%page* so to me, it is clear that it's a template site and not a REAL professional site. The main reason I did Wix is because I wasn't sure how to make my site more mobile-friendly myself through Dreamweaver, but I'm starting to regret the switch based on my dropping in SEO placement. Do you have any info on that? Is it because of Wix or could it be because of the changes in Google?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Michelle,
  
  Sorry to hear about the drop in your website ranking in Google search results. Honestly, it's really hard to pinpoint what caused that. It could be a bit of everything....
  
  But I've definitely seen Wix sites that are ranked well in search results. One of the things that some Wix users find annoying is that the URL structure has a mix of what seems to be random symbols (as you have highlighted).
  
  I've read mixed reports / assessments on this. Some people say URLs have to be very clean, and some also say that it doesn't matter. For example, if I look at my Google mail account, the URL also has a bunch of random symbols in it. So all in all, I haven't seen any concrete evidence suggesting that one is definitively better than the other.
  
  One of the universal challenges with moving from one website builder to another, is that it might affect how Google views your site especially when your page addresses change. It might take Google some time to re-index your site, to understand that your site content has not changed, and just the page addresses.
  
  One thing to consider is to use 301 redirect so that it tells Google what your old page addresses were, and what the new addresses are now. Wix has a feature that helps you do that and you can see it here.
  
  Losing ranking in Google is a real pain, but there are so many different reasons why this can happen (such as Google algorithm updates, changing of page addresses, etc).
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Matthew 11 years ago

Hey Jeremy, just thought I'd drop in and let you know that the Squarespace site now lists all their plans as having unlimited bandwidth.

Really appreciate the article. Keep up the good work!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks for the note Matthew! Definitely a positive improvement for Squarespace!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ben 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy!

I definitely want to use squarespace, bc of the ability to change layouts etc. unfortunately I'm a big fan of the drag and drop feature of wix. And wix is cheaper with buying domain names.

If I buy a domain on GoDaddy.. Do you mind telling me how I go about connecting it to a squarespace site? And how I go about saving myself money.

Thanks!
Ben

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Ben,
  
  Purchasing your domain from GoDaddy is definitely a cheaper alternative. The drawback is that you have to connect the domain name to the website builder yourself (versus having it all set up for you). But it's relatively straight forward to connect the domain to the website.
  
  For Squarespace, see this tutorial from them. Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jose Muniain 11 years ago

Hello,
Can you do a social aggregator on Squarespace?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jose,
  
  Do you mean create a website that can help you aggregate news? If so, I don't think any drag and drop website builders are created for doing that. I mean you could, but you probably have to manually insert news and updates, which can be pretty hectic really quickly.
  
  If you have a lot of news updates, a better platform to consider is probably WordPress as they are a bit better at helping users manage a lot of posts / pages.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sally 11 years ago

I've been using Wix for about 9 months. The interface is fantastic, and very easy to use.
BUT I put my publications available for pdf download from my website and have two major problems with Wix:

1. You can't customise the URL, and all pdf (or other format) files that are downloadable from Wix come with a wix.com rather than your own domain name. This is incredibly frustrating when I want to refer to my own publications using a direct URL (eg on Twitter, email, etc). Wix has said they won't be changing this any time soon.
I noticed that you said "Squarespace you can rename your website address (URL) to whatever you want."
So does that mean you can name your pdf files to whatever you want? This would be a winning feature for me.

2. Downloading files from Wix is incredibly slow! Even a 2-5mb pdf file can take several minutes. This quickly loses potential clients. Is Squarespace faster?

3. Wix is an Israeli company (as far as I can tell). For some this is important, for others it is irrelevant.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Sally,
  
  1) Yes you can alter the URL structure for Squarespace. But when it comes to download links, or the link that is directly related to the download file, I'm not 100% sure if it will have "Squarespace" in it or not. You might want to ask their support team directly.
  
  Also, a workaround is to sign up for a Dropbox account (free), and insert your download file into Dropbox and it can create a link for you to share with your readers. Dropbox is very popular nowadays and I personally wouldn't think differently about a business / website if I saw a link that is connected to Dropbox.
  
  2) I'm not 100% sure as I haven't tested the downloading speed between the two website builders. One option is to sign up for a free Squarespace account and quickly test that out. Just be aware that your visitors will have varying internet speeds so their experiences may be different from yours.
  
  3) Yes they are an Israeli company, and they are also and publicly traded company, listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the US.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tricia 11 years ago

I'm looking at both right now and trying to decide myself. I did find both have a free domain for first year with annual plan, but I'm not finding how much domain is with either plan after the first year.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Tricia,
  
  A really good question!
  
  For Squarespace, currently it's $20 to renew the domain name every year after your first year for free (with an annual plan). If you visit their pricing page and hover your mouse over "Custom Domain" it will show you the details there.
  
  You can probably find a cheaper alternative with GoDaddy (usually around $12 - $14 per year), so the saving is fairly marginal on a per month basis.
  
  So if you don't mind the added work of connecting a custom domain from GoDaddy to Squarespace, you can definitely have a little of savings there.
  
  For Wix, I think it's around $15 per year after your first free year (again under the annual plan). I searched around their Support Portal and their illustration suggests it's about $15, with the option to add privacy protection if you want that.
  
  So again compared to GoDaddy, the incremental cost is marginal at most!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ben 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

The pricing between the Squarespace Personal plan and the Wix Combo plan both look competitive, but do both of these plans include a free domain name registration and business email address?

Please let me know, as both of these will be necessities for my website.

Thanks,
-Ben

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Ben,
  
  Both plans will offer you a 1 year free domain if you sign up to their annual plans.
  
  Both Squarespace and Wix don't have their own email systems (as their core competency is relating to helping you build websites).
  
  However, both have partnered up with Google Apps so you can use Google to set up your own custom domain email address for a few dollars a month. The benefit is that you get to use the Gmail interface (which we find very fast, reliable and user friendly) and be able to brand the email address as your own. We use it ourselves and love it!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Luisa Bell 11 years ago

I am planning on making a website with tons of photos and videos - which would be preferable? I need to make sure that there is no limit on either visitors and myself placing new photos on the website

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Luisa,
  
  With both Squarespace and Wix, you can upload as many pictures as you want to for yourself. They don't have a mechanism where you can allow your visitors to upload images to your site. You'll need a very customized website for that to happen.
  
  One caveat is that Wix does have some storage limitations, and starts at 500MB with their lowest plan, and goes to 20GB with their highest plan. So depending on how many images you want to upload, you may need to pick a plan that gives you the storage space you need.
  
  With Squarespace, they don't have any storage limitations.
  
  For videos, I'd suggest you upload them to either YouTube or Vimeo and stream them to your website accordingly. The main reason being that video files are massive, and YouTube / Vimeo have the proper infrastructure to stream videos very efficiently. So if you upload your videos into Squarespace or Wix, it might slow down your site's loading speed.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Myf,

Squarespace can work well with text-heavy sites! I'm not sure why some people think otherwise. Regardless, you might want to sign up for their free trial account to discover this yourself. This also gives you a chance to see if you actually like their user interface, as all web builders have different user interfaces and some work for some people, but not for others.

As for templates, it's a really personal decision. But in general, all of them have the capability for you to insert a lot of text, create multiple pages, insert a contact form and contact information, etc.

Jeremy

Reply
Oscar 11 years ago

I am in the process of doing a start-up biz.

I will Never need to collect a dime online but Will need to have a fill-in box/space for a "quote" or "get more info" on every page.

Also will want to add a logo graphic on every page, and a video eventually on at least the cover or main page.

I noticed Weebly has this "Get a Quote" feature already designed on some of their templates - do you know if Squarespace & Wix do too; or if this feature is available to add?

Thank you Jeremy for providing invaluable comparisons for the key web template service providers!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Oscar,
  
  What you can consider doing is insert a "contact us" box on your pages so people can reach out to you to get a quote. You can of course, insert a title above the contact form to instruct people to reach out to you.
  
  So both Squarespace and Wix have this feature for you to use. You just need to connect the contact form to your email address which is pretty straightforward when you are setting up the form.
  
  You can also insert images, videos on all of the pages for both website builders.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Joanne 11 years ago

We are considering Square Space for our non profit website and receive a lot of donations via website using paypal currently. For e commerce donations (not selling products right now) how does that work with Stripe? Is it as easy as pay pal? or might donors be put off or fearful of using this?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Joanne,
  
  It's not too challenging to use Stripe. You first have to determine whether Stripe is supported in your country (see this). If so, just sign up for an account and link it to your bank account (so that the funds can be transferred into Stripe then transferred into your bank account).
  
  I think the donation page where your donors will insert their credit card information will look quite professional, just like an ecommerce shopping check out cart page. Here is more information on how to use Squarespace's donation block.
  
  But if you want, you can always keep using PayPal and just insert a PayPal donation widget directly into your Squarespace page(s). Just get the PayPal donation widget code from PayPal and insert it into your Squarespace page using a Code Block.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Katie 11 years ago

Hello Jeremy

What a wonderful resource you have provided to those of us who are website building novices, THANK YOU!

I'm having a hard time determining which website builder is best to start an e-card business where customers can choose from sending a standard pre-designed e-card or choose templates and sentiments to design their own. In addition to e-cards, I want to sell ebooks of poetry, and receive inquiries regarding booking of speaking engagements. Obviously, I also want to protect customer financial data in addition to having a well-designed site. Your insight is appreciated.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Katie,
  
  Glad you're enjoying our discussions here!
  
  I don't think any of the drag and drop website builders will give you the ability for your customers to design custom e-cards online. Some of the web builders have decent ecommerce features so you can definitely sell cards, but if you want the ability to deliver pre-made or customized e-cards, it sounds like you'll need a fairly customized solution built by a capable developer.
  
  Website builders such as Squarespace or Wix do have ecommerce tools to deliver physical or digital goods (digital meaning music or computer file downloads).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Allison 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the article. I (briefly) tried to find the answer I'm looking for in the comments but didn't see anything regarding SEO. I have built two websites off of Wix and have been happy with the ability to tag pages, pictures, making meta-titles, etc. Both websites I made perform well in Google search. I'm also fond of the ease of creating the site on Wix's platform.

I haven't considered Squarespace but have been seeing it pop up more and more lately (good PR/marketing). I recently was able to help a friend with her Squarespace site the other day & definitely prefer the imagery, it is far better looking than Wix templates. However, it was not simple in trying to tag pages, make titles, and inject as many keywords that I could for SEO.

My next website project definitely needs to have a strong SEO backbone because search is a major contributor towards my clients goals.

Do you have any insight on which platform performs better in the SEO world?

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Allison,
  
  Congrats on getting good search result rankings for your Wix sites!
  
  I think it's tough to assess which platform will give you better search results, as Google has over a hundred search results ranking factors, so it really depends on how much work you put into each website (on-site SEO, off-site SEO such as promoting your website content generating backlinks from authoritative sites, generating social shares, etc)
  
  I guess I'm saying just because you've had good ranking results for one website doesn't always mean you'll get the same results with another website (unless you consistently apply the same techniques you've done for all of your websites, but that's still doesn't guarantee anything).
  
  Having said that, one thing that I like about Squarespace's SEO capability is that you can rename your website address (URL) to whatever you want. So you can insert keyword rich URLs for each page to help with SEO a bit. Although Wix doesn't have this capability, but I don't think that's going to make or break your search rankings.
  
  I'm not sure if this answers your question, but a big part of that is because I can't give you a definitive answer as I don't 100% know how Google ranks websites (nobody does!)
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
lisa 12 years ago

Hi, I was wondering if you could assist me with a concern I'm having with deciding between Wix and Weebly. My website would be an ecommerce site for a candle business out of my home and I am concerned about other reviews I have read starting that Weebly is not a good host when it comes to having alot of products(my products can range up to 50 individual items [plus the many options availability for each item])....however I am Not at all experienced with scripting and Weebly does sound like the most user friendly available. I also want to make sure my customers have login capabilities and professional yet easy checkout experiences. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Lisa,
  
  Have you had a chance to check out Shopify or Bigcommerce? Those are "pure" online store builders and so they have way more ecommerce tools than what Weebly or Wix offers, especially when you start adding a lot of products to offer to your customers.
  
  They're really focused in allowing you to have a lot of flexibility when building your store so that your visitors get a much better online shopping experience.
  
  We also have an ecommerce store builder comparison table here that will give you an overview about them.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  lisa 12 years ago
  
  Thanks so much for the assist! I will definately look into those also. Great site, very helpful for us "newbies" :) thanks again!!
  
  Reply
Nile 12 years ago

Just a quick heads up: although Squarespace looks better on paper because of their customer service policy they actually haven't replied to my email tickets within the hour (or within 9 hours in this case) which has been problematic and they haven't resolved my issue. I'm not a tech person and was looking for a user friendly click and drag option for my site. I thought that was Squarespace and foolishly paid for the plan ahead of time (although I can cancel and get a prorated refund and the fact that they have that option might be telling?) but now I can't get anything done as they don't have much in the way of basic starter tutorials and the interface is very confusing (at least for me). I might switch to Wix because even though it doesn't look as flexible in terms of esthetics it looks much easier to use and I figure better a less pretty website that is up and running than an idea for a website that can't go live because it's basically just a theory in my head.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Nile,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
  
  It's quite strange that they haven't gotten back to you yet, as in our experience they have been quite consistent with their emails. I've also heard from a lot of our other readers that they have great experiences with Squarespace too.
  
  I'm hoping that it's just one of those instances where your support email fell through the cracks so to speak, but I totally understand how frustrating it is for you.
  
  As for Wix, do give them a try if you want to. I have to say that their website building interface is a bit easier to use and they have really great tutorials covering all their tools and how to use them.
  
  You can see our full discussion on Wix if you haven't seen it here yet.
  
  Sometimes it takes a few tries before finding a website builder that works really well for you. It's just like trying on clothes. It takes a bit of shopping around to find the perfect fit. At least that's what happened to us as well a few years ago! And we spent a LOT of time testing them all out!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  2 replies
  
  Michael 11 years ago
  
  Yes, Sqaurespace got back to me rather quickly and they also provided a personal video of my site showing me how-to-instructions. Love Squarespace
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience with Squarespace Michael!
  
  Reply
  
  Nile 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  As it turns out my email did get lost in the cracks. I opened another ticket noting that my previous ticket hadn't gotten a response and they got back to me pretty quickly.
  Sadly I'm going to have to cancel my account and transfer to Wix. The frustrating thing is that I agree that Squarespace has more going for it in terms of aesthetics and value but they really aren't user friendly if you don't know a lot about site design and stuff like that (e.g. to resize an image they ask you to enter the specific pixel numbers whereas in Wix you can just click and drag until it's the size you want). Too bad. I'll keep an eye out to see if they get a simpler, easier interface in the future.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  hi Nile,
  
  Thanks for updating! Yes I'd agree that Wix is a bit easier to use (it's a pure drag and drop web builder).
  
  But I'm glad you tested out both website builders so now you know which one you prefer! It's always wise to test a couple of website builders as each of them have very different user interface and so it's a very personal decision.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Leilani 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for these helpful articles! They have been instrumental in helping to compare the different website builders available, especially for a non-techy like me.

I was wondering if you could speak to some of the "hidden" costs associated with using Squarespace and Wix. I signed up for the free 14-day trial and all of the images on Squarespace that I saw require payment if you want to use them on your site, whereas Wix has images available for free. That can add up for someone like me since I don't have any images of my own and would have to pay for each image I want to use on my site. With Wix, that additional cost would not be necessary. Do you know if Squarespace has free images available?

I also saw that Wix charges an additional fee for the domain (although they offer the first year for free with most of their paid plans). Do you know how much the additional cost of a domain is with Wix and if Squarespace also charges extra for the domain name?

In a nutshell, I'm wondering about the cost of images, domain names, and other extra expenses (hosting, something else?) that may come up when subscribing to Wix and/or Squarespace. For me, those are also considerations when considering what each web builder will cost.

Thanks in advance!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Leilani,
  
  That's a great question and I'm glad that you brought this up to be discussed so others can also read this as well.
  
  Squarespace and Wix have both teamed up with large image providers and to use those "licensed" images, you'd have to pay a licensing fee. But not all images can only be used under a paid license. There are a number of websites where you can freely use those images as long as you abide by some of the rules.
  
  We have a page here that points out some of these sites (some are free, some are paid).
  
  So it is possible to build your entire site using free images. Of course, if you are creative, you can also create your own images as well.
  
  As for domain name, the best thing to do in my experience is that after your first year of free domain from either Squarespace or Wix, transfer the domain out to a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy, and manage your domain name from there.
  
  There is a small transfer fee that you have to pay, but then the annual upkeep fee to keep the domain name registered under your name is usually about $10 - $15. Sometimes with website builders, their annual domain name renewal fee can be a bit higher than that. So you can save a little of money with this approach over the long run.
  
  Regarding hosting, there are no additional costs to that. But there are some bandwidth usage limitations for the lower plans for both website builders. Squarespace has a much higher bandwidth usage limit than Wix.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sharon Miller 12 years ago

Thanks for the website reviews on Wix & Squarespace. The information was thorough and help me to make a better decision than I had if your review was not available.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sharon - glad you found our discussions helpful!
  
  Do share our website with others by clicking on the social buttons at the top and left side of this page.
  
  The best compliment we can get from you is a social share!
  
  Happy holidays!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Anne Francoise GUIBERT 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,
I contacted you a couple of weeks ago about Wix vs Squarespace and I thought about going for Squarespace. After giving it a try, I still find Squarespace not that flexible. I understand that their templates have a robust structure to avoid any display glitches on different devices but some simple tasks like adjusting the position of a logo or picture require CSS. I was able to make such CSS adjustments but I am scared that further down the line it will get even trickier (for external plugins etc…). My business is a hiking business and we need beautiful visual display, online booking with payment/calendar management and good SEO. On this last point I have read some awful reviews on Wix. I don't know if these are outdated so still relevant. Ranking will be important for us so that people can find us easily when browsing different places we hike to.
I am now considering to do it on Wix (trying to mimic the beautiful template design I had pick on Squarespace) but I would like your advice on Wix SEO.
Thank you very much!
Anne

Reply
Alvaro Gutierrez 12 years ago

I am trying to decide between Weebly and Wix. In fact I already paid Weebly for the 2 year service but now I need to create a table similar to spreadsheet and Weebly does not have the tools I need to make it. I can embed it but Wix seems to have more flexibility for what I need. However, I heard that the loading time for Wix is very slow. Can you let me know if Webbly is faster than Wix in loading?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Alvaro,
  
  I can't say definitively that Wix or Weebly is faster, as there are a lot of variables that can impact loading speed, such as how much content you have on your site, the image sizes that you've uploaded, the time of the day (some hours have higher traffic in general), where you are located, etc.
  
  But Wix did announce that they are overhauling their platform and that all their sites will run faster than 95% of all sites on the internet. The press release suggested that this will be done before the end of this year!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Will Arias 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Love your "vs" articles. Very informative, particularly of the "not too savvy" and "not savvy at all" like myself. Your reviews helped me to decide that Squarespace y for me, ahead of WP and Wix. It took me a couple of hours to check the 32 squarespace templates and you are right. The are stunning, professional, clean-cut, etc... In fact, I'm struggling to show the best for my business which is related to health & fitness services, education, mentoring and personal training services, i was wondering if you could tell me what you think about my 3 favourites: "MONTAUK", "FIVE" and "FLATIRON".

My main goals are promoting my services, blogging and reselling products and workshops. I know one of the great advantage of squarespace is the option to switch between templates. However, given the competitive nature of my profession, i want to make sure I'm taking the right steps. There might be more suitable templates to the ones i consider more appropriate.

So, your enlightening opinion might steer my in the right direction. Thank you so much. Will

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Will,
  
  Glad that our discussions have been helpful!
  
  As for suggesting which Squarespace template works best for you, I'm afraid that I'm not quite qualified for that as a design is really what represents you and your brand. How you position your business may be very different than how another competitor position his/ her business within the same industry / line of business.
  
  So you're right in that you can always change templates with Squarespace which is a nice flexibility to have. One way forward is to pick the one you like the best, and just go with that. Solicit your visitor / customer feedback, and see what they think. Perhaps it warrants switching templates at that point.
  
  It will take some time to do this, but it's all part of the process!
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
shayro 12 years ago

I have used both wix and square space...

Wix is MUCH more user friendly, has lots more templates to choose from, and works well the majority of the time.

Square Space has fancier templates but much fewer, is NOT user friendly and is constantly crashing, freezing, and losing your work.

Wix has been around a lot longer and is much more reliable platform. I highly recommend it over Square Space.

Experienced,

ShayRo

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Shayro,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts with all our readers!
  
  Regarding Squarespace, I personally didn't have that much problems with it and it went pretty smoothly for me. Perhaps you just had a bad streak of glitchy interface, which does happen from time to time to all website builders given they are powering millions of sites all at the same time.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
May 12 years ago

Very helpful article. Answered all that I wanted to know. Thank you!

Reply
Umair Akhtar 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

Really enjoyed your blog about Wix vs Squarespace.

I am currently updating and creating my new graphic design portfolio website as it is completely out of date. Tried using WordPress as I find very difficult to handle to manage the content and the plugins as some of them are rip offs.

I just want to ask a simple question, which website would be suitable for me to design my new graphic design portfolio as I want to make my website simple, legible, shocasing my portfolio and recent work, put out blogs and archives and making it more responsive on any mobile device like smartphones and digital pads.

So which one shall I use Wix or Squarespace? I will be happy to take any comments and advice on board as I want to design this website faster, responsive, accessible and also giving out updates on any design work that I previously worked on.

Please help.

Umair Akhtar

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Umair,
  
  I think both Squarespace and Wix has really clean, contemporary and stylish templates for yo to use for your website.
  
  However, if you want a responsive template (that looks great across all mobile devices), Squarespace's templates are all responsive / mobile ready.
  
  Wix has a decent mobile editor, so I'm not saying that their mobile sites don't look good (more details on their mobile editor here).
  
  But if you're looking for a responsive template, Squarespace is the way to go!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Roy Mears 12 years ago

Great comparison!
I have a web (shippencreek.com) and am in the process of getting control of my domain name and would like to direct it to a site that works best for me. I didn't want to start all over again so please take a look and give me your thoughts. Does this look like something that Squarespace can accommodate?
Thank you.
Roy Mears

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Roy,
  
  Yes I think Squarespace can help you run your online store just fine!
  
  But one thing to consider is that Squarespace currently is only fully integrated with Stripe (the payment processor) so if you live outside of the geographic regions that support Stripe, then Squarespace might not be a good choice for you. Here is a list of countries that Stripe support.
  
  You mentioned that you "dont want to start all over again". Just note that Squarespace allows you to import your existing content from WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger or Etsy. So if your site isn't built with those, you will have to re-insert your content into your Squarespace website. Obviously, this is a one time investment of time to take your content from your current site into Squarespace.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
LucyW 12 years ago

Hello

Thank you for your useful article. I have been doing a lot of research to try and decide between Wix or Squarespace and there are a couple of questions I just can't find answers to anywhere and I was hoping you might be able to help:

1) How many domain names can i link to a website with Wix or Squarespace?

2) Will either or them restrict me to calling my website the same as my domain name or can I meke it different?

Thank you!

Lucy

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Lucy,
  
  With both Wix and Squarespace, you can point 1 single domain name to each website.
  
  If you sign up with any of Squarespace's plans, they give you a free domain name.
  
  For Wix, if you sign up to their Combo plan or above, you also get a free domain name from them.
  
  Hope this clarifies things for you!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
DP 12 years ago

Hello,

This is a great write up. One thing that really impressed me with the Wix editor was the ability to attach elements to a shape and use the shape to copy/paste blocks of code like a template.

It doesn't seem like that's how squarespace works though. On squarespace, you can do some neat things with inserting content blocks but there's not a ton of control over presentation or showing lists of content from one page to the next.

I'm debating between the two to build a site for a peformance studio space so they can list the performances held there as well as showcase the space for rental. So far it's looking like Wix would be a lot easier for relatively inexperienced web content creators to work with, both in terms of the UI, flexibility of layout, and ability to move and duplicate content.

Do you think Wix is a good choice or are there some alternatives worth looking at?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi DP,
  
  I'd agree that Wix is probably more "intuitive" to use than Squarespace as they are a pure drag and drop website builder. Each builder has its own set of pros and cons, and the only way to determine which one has the tools you need, and which one suits your skill set better is to give them an actual try (Squarespace has a free trial period of 14 days and Wix has a free plan).
  
  Sounds like you've already done your homework in this regard so if you feel comfortable with Wix, you should move forward with it!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Anthony 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

Your site has really helped me in choosing a website for my new business. I have a couple of questions for you regarding these two site builders. As others have asked, I am looking to have about half of my site with free information and pages, but would like to sell memberships for exclusive material. You've mentioned the Sentry Login...is it expensive? And can you have different tier memberships through them?

Also, what which of the two would be better for smooth video streaming? Videos and photos will be a major part of the site and it seems like Squarespace does a good job of organizing these. Lastly, which is better for SEO and getting more traffic to the website (I know a lot depends on how your market but one is probably better than the other). This is my first time creating a site and it seems like Squarespace is good for the beginner. Thanks in advance!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Anthony,
  
  Sentry is about $5 per month and allows you to have unlimited members. However, I'm not clear if you can have different tiers of membership, which of course can be handy. I took a quick glance at their website again but didn't find any information on this. Perhaps you can reach out to them to inquire? I'd be curious to know as well.
  
  Regarding Squarespace or Wix, I'd lean towards Squarespace as I think their design templates are a bit more refined and polished. But both website builders will do the job just fine I think. As for SEO, I'd say Squarespace has a marginal advantage as they allow you to structure / modify your page URL which does have a marginal advantage in SEO.
  
  However, at the end of the day, you really have to heavily market your website / business and draw attention to it. Make the content very useful on your site so visitors return or share them online. Having authoritative sites linking to your site, and social share signals (amongst many other factors) are very important when it comes to SEO. So even though website builders provide you with tools, I'd say that tools won't make that big of a difference.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Andrea 12 years ago

If I already have a website with a different host, it sounds like I have to keep my account with the current host as well as squarespace in order to keep my domain name. Is this correct? I'd really rather not have both accounts.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Andrea,
  
  For most hosting accounts, you don't have to purchase their hosting services at all. You just have to pay for the annual fee to keep your domain name registered in your name so you own it (this annual fee has to be paid no matter where you go).
  
  This is the same if you use leading domain name services providers such as GoDaddy - there is an annual fee.
  
  This is unless you sign up with Squarespace's plans and you get a free domain name from them.
  
  I'm not 100% sure if you can transfer your domain name to Squarespace's domain name services and inquire whether they can "waive" your fee as you subscribe to one of their plans. Might be worth while to ask their support team if that's feasible. This might save you some money (but I believe there might be a 1 time domain name transfer fee).
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Stephen Chater 12 years ago

SquareSpace is easy to use and the templates are great. HOWEVER, the biggest disadvantage is their ECommerce option which does not integrate PayPal. I am not a great fan of PayPal but the customers want an easy, secure, and FAST checkout experience. As a result I am rebuilding my SquareSpace site in WIX.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Stephen,
  
  Yes that's one of the downside if you are using Squarespace to power your ecommerce store.
  
  Stripe is a very reputable transaction service provider that is used by powerful ecommerce website builders such as Shopify or Bigcommerce, and also Weebly. It's definitely not as widely used as PayPal, as it is a newer company.
  
  In any case, just in case you haven't heard, that you can also use Shopify's widget to power your Squarespace store. Some people really love the design and polish of Squarespace, but they've decided not to use Stripe for their own reasons, can use Shopify to power the ecommerce aspect of their Squarespace site.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
José 12 years ago

Hi, What about ecommerce functionality? Which one would you recommend?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jose,
  
  I think it depends on what you need. I think Squarespace's ecommerce functions are more advanced than Wix at the moment (see our discussion on Squarespace's ecommerce features here).
  
  One drawback with Squarespace is that you have to use Stripe to manage your payment processing. Or one alternative is to use Shopify's widget (more discussion here).
  
  With Wix, they have a lot more payment processing options for you.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lauren 12 years ago

So...I thought I was going to go with WIX because it sounded easier and more user friendly to create a website. My business is up and going and I need a website immediately. I signed up for WIX and started designing but found that my website doesn't appear in older browsers. I wonder if Squarespace would work any differently? I'm afraid that I will lose customers if some people can't even see my website from an older browser or older computer with an operating system that can't upgrade to a newer browser? Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Lauren,
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace uses HTML5 (latest website browser technology) and as such, some of the older browsers may not get the best experience when viewing these sites.
  
  It's just the way technology is advancing nowadays, and leading edge companies don't really pay too much attention to cater to older browsers. It's a conscious decision they are making as they are laying the foundation for more forward looking designs / technology.
  
  It's a bit of a pain for sure, and this is the case for most website builders.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Matthea 12 years ago

Very helpful post thank you, I have been looking back and forth at both and had a hard time deciding, this has made it clear for me (Squarespace it is!). Would you know by any chance if Squarespace supports a multilingual website?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Matthea,
  
  Squarespace doesn't have any built in multi-language capabilites (none of the larger website builders have this) but they do have a tutorial on how to use Google Translate here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Susan Porter 12 years ago

I wanted to use Squarespace but they don't have a member log in option and Wix does. My client needs a member log in section on their site. Are there any other website builders that are better than Wix that offer that?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Susan,
  
  I know that Sentry Login is a membership login tool that works with Squarespace, effectively turning Squarespace into a membership site. You might want to check that out.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Andrea 12 years ago

hI!!

thanks so much for this!! So I was just wondering in terms of user-friendly. Which is one is more user-friendly? I tried using wordpress and couldnt figure it out. I think I want to go with sqaurespace but not if it isn't user-friendly.

Let me know.

Thanks!! :)

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Andrea,
  
  I think between Wix and Squarespace, Wix is easier to use. But in terms of overall, I'd say Squarespace can create a better website and gives you more powerful tools. But then that depends on what you are trying to get out of your website.
  
  I'd suggest you sign up for a free trial account with Squarespace and Wix, and invest some time into playing around with it. As for some users, Squarespace may be a bit more of a learning curve, but not to others. So the best way is to just play around with it.
  
  Good luck!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Laura Eck 12 years ago

Very helpful review Jeremy! Thank you. So many of us do not know HTML and don't really have the time or inclination to learn.

Reply
Maureen Arnold 13 years ago

I am completely confused about creating my own website using one of these services; WIX or SQUARESPACE. I currently have 3 registered domain names that I pay for through TotalChoice Hosting. I created my one and only website, -www.maureendesigns.com, using SeaMonkey software and it is hosted by TotalChoice. Now I need a brand new website for my miniature horse breeding business and I don't want to go through the hard labor I did before with SeaMonkey. But I don't understand the relationship between WIX, etc, and their fees with what I'm already paying TotalChoice. If I build my own website with SQUARESPACE, and publish with TotalChoice, what am I paying SQUARESPACE a monthly fee for? I'm thinking maybe I need to just buy some design software and then upload it to TotalChoice, but I was hoping to take advantage of some templates to save time and effort. Anyway, color me totally confused and if you could help me understand what I need to do, I would appreciate it.
Maureen

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Maureen,
  
  The difference is that Wix and Squarespace provide you with all the hosting services that you will need to publish the website. So for the new websites that you want to build, you will not need to use your current hosting services (TotalChoice). You just sign up for either Wix or Squarespace, and whatever you create, you can publish and they will host it for you.
  
  So if you decide to sign up to either Wix or Squarespace's premium plans, you are paying to be able to use the drag and drop website building platform, and also for the monthly hosting that they provide for you.
  
  If you haven't read our reviews on Wix and on Squarespace, I'd suggest you do! Hope this helps.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
vanessa 13 years ago

Thank you so much for this great article!
I want to create a simple online portfolio to showcase my presentations in quicktime/video.
It is a very simple site, do you recommend squarespace or wordpress?

thanks.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Vanessa,
  
  If you're not familiar with WordPress and don't want to invest the time to climb the learning curve, I'd definitely recommend checking out Squarespace, especially if you are trying to keep your website and keep things simple. Also, Squarespace's templates are beautiful and will work very well for showcasing online portfolios.
  
  Squarespace offers a 14 day free trial period that's an excellent opportunity to give it a "test drive".
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Erica 13 years ago

Thanks for the great reviews and comparisons across builders. I'm tech saavy but not a coder or designer by any means. I'm looking for a design-friendly, intuitive tool to build a site myself while my restaurant is in start-up mode then hire a designer once I need more robust functionality. I have a few questions...

1. Can Squarespace be exported anywhere besides WordPress? If not, aren't you held hostage to the host in the same way as Wix?

2. Can you elaborate on what responsive templates means? Is it just the smooth transition from computer to mobile or does it also adjust for differences in computer screen size/resolution? You said Squarespace has this and Wix doesn't.

3. Does Squarespace allow you to edit your site from a mobile device?

4. Is Squarespace a pure drag and drop interface like Wix or are you constrained like Weebly? Trying to figure out if Squarespace gives you the best of both worlds - access to the code and freedom to fully customize.

Thanks for the tips. I've played with Wix for a bit and I'm excited to give Squarespace a shot.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Erica,
  
  1) They can only export to WordPress at the moment, which is a lot more flexible than other hosted website builders already. The reason is that other website builders or hosts don't have the technology behind to power Squarespace websites properly, so the option to export to WordPress is already one of the best solutions if you choose to use a hosted website builder. Even for WordPress users, if they ever want to take their site and move it to another CMS (website builder), it won't be an easy solution as other CMS might not be able to power WordPress site perfectly due to different technological platforms.
  
  2) What you can do, is load up one of their example sites, then manually shrink the size of the window and you will see how responsive works. The content will start to reorganize so no matter what screen size or device the visitor is using, the website layout will look good. Wix has a separate mobile editor in which you can build a site specifically for mobile uses. The drawback is that if you make changes to the desktop version of the site, you will also have to do the same change to the mobile version. For Squarespace, you just make the change and it will flow seamlessly into any mobile / desktop screen sizes.
  
  3) You can't edit your site from a mobile device, but you can write and edit blog posts. Only Jimdo has the ability for you to build a full site using their mobile app.
  
  4) Squarespace is not a "pure" drag and drop per se. So it works similar to Weebly. I think the best way is to sign up for a 14 day trial and invest an hour and see if it can work out for you!
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Will 13 years ago

Hi,
Excellent review. You do a great job!
I'm a co-founder of a non-profit, and was looking for the a good website builder that will integrate a way to receive donations into the website as seamless as possible.
Flexibility is another key factor for us. We would need a way to receive monthly (or annual) donations as well as one-time donations. Have you reviewed anything like that? Which website builder would you recommend for a small non-profit, all other things being equal?
Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Will,
  
  Thanks for your feedback. I think that PayPal has a donation button that you can use, but I'm not entirely sure if they can do monthly / annual repeat payments for donors. But I believe they can handle at least one off donations.
  
  PayPal does have monthly subscription payment processors, where your donors are pretty much your "members" and can therefore charge them once a month on a pre-set amount.
  
  I think most of the website builders that we've tested and discussed on our site will do a pretty good job in allowing you to build a website. I don't believe any of them have specific features dedicated to non-profits, but the likes of Squarespace, Wix or Weebly can do the job just fine.
  
  If you keeping a close eye on the budget, I would suggest the Weebly Starter Plan (which allows you to connect your own custom domain). See our Weebly review here.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Phoebe 12 years ago
  
  Interesting reading. Just to let you know, WIX.com has some templates for non-profits. I used Wix a number of years ago and it was wonderful, seems even better now. However, your article brings up some interesting points, so I might check out Squarespace.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Phoebe,
  
  Each website builder has its own pros and cons. The best way is to sign up for a free account or free trial and test things out!
  
  Good luck with trying Squarespace and I think you won't be disappointed!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jabran 13 years ago

Hi, I was wondering for a new startup business, mines involves selling smartphone, and custom built computers, which one would you suggest? And also in the near future I will be designing apps, flash animations and websites. Which websites would work for each of my needs? I would appreciate it very much, thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Jabran,
  
  If you are going to run an online store, I'd suggest you check out this article that we wrote about online store builders. See our discussion there and you'll have a good idea of which builders to test to see if you like them.
  
  Good luck!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lisa 13 years ago

Thank you for your informative review. I just wanted to point out that Wix has an excellent call center open to those who have premium accounts. I work on multiple Wix sites at a time and call this center weekly. The have recently doubled the amount of customer service reps to match demand.

This call center is in addition to the excellent online help features. The call center employees are located in San Francisco and speak excellent English.

The phone number is 1-800-600-0949

Please consider editing you article to include this, as I consider the call center a major benefit of using the Wix platform.

Thank you,

Lisa

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Lisa,
  
  Thanks for sharing this. I was trying to dig up some information about this on Wix's site and I did find a telephone scheduler where you can note down your questions and supposedly someone from Wix will call. I haven't tested this out yet though, but it didn't sound like it's only available for premium members.
  
  I was also searching for the phone number that you mentioned but can't seem to find it. Would you mind sharing the web page with us? This would be a very helpful support function.
  
  Thanks!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Claire 13 years ago

Thank you for sharing your knowledge on all these options we are faced with! I am wondering about the email situation with Squarespace, it says they don't offer email services, but are you still able to have an email linked to your website, such as info@ yoursite. com ? Is that something that is provided through my domain host (currently bluehost) as opposed to the website builder? Sorry I'm new to this and a bit confused!! :-)

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Claire,
  
  You can either use Google Business Apps where you can use a Gmail interface to manage your emails and get your custom email domain name, but they do charge you a small monthly fee (we use it and paying around $4 per month).
  
  Another option is to use Outlook Live (Microsoft) which apparently they offer you custom domain emails for free. I think you'll find more information through the search engines.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Rob 13 years ago

Hi Thanks for the review - we started designing a site on Wix but after doing further research we're no longer sure we want to sign up because of the limitations in bandwidth and storage space (even when buying their most expensive package) + the fact you can not export the code from a Wix site, so basically you re stuck with them unless you build the site from scratch again.

However another thing which is a real problem is that with Wix you can only have 1 site per account and since we are planning on having multiple separate sites for different cities we would have to pay for a new Wix account for every new site created. Is this the same with Squarespace?

Can you have more than 1 site hosted on a single Squarespace account?

Thanks

Rob

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Rob - Thanks for sharing your feedback. Those are also "cons" that we pointed out in our Wix review post (https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders/wix/wix-review/) so definitely something to think about when weighing them against the "pros" of using Wix.
  
  For Squarespace, you also can only build one website per account. I think this is the "standard" for most website builders nowadays.
  
  I remember Weebly used to allow you to upgrade to their "Pro" package and you can build 10 websites under the same account and have access to their premium features. They've updated their program recently so now, although you can control as many websites as you wish under one email address, you have to upgrade your websites to their premium package one at a time. So no longer do you just upgrade and have multiple websites enjoying premium features.
  
  In a way, I think this is fair as each website has its own hosting, maintenance and servicing costs (be it Wix, Squarespace or Weebly). They need to hire big teams of programmers, customer service reps, very expensive IT infrastructures to allow people to build millions of websites and to continue to ensure that they are up and running. So for these website builders to continue to improve and "stay afloat", they will have to charge fees for premium packages for each website. The last thing their users would want is the website builder to stop providing services (or bankrupt) as this means their website(s) will no longer be available to your visitors!
  
  Hope this makes sense!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Abdol 13 years ago

Thanks for all of the awesome review I nearly checked them all but I have 2 nooby questions

After I export a website what next? So if for example I used squarespace and decided I don't want to deal with them anymore I'll just export the website and contact host gator and thats it. i wont need to redesign or code anything?

When they say free custom domain is that for a year or as long as I am paying for squarespace or wix services?

Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Abdol,
  
  For Squarespace, you are currently able to export the blog, but not the entire website. For Wix, you can't export the website at all at the moment.
  
  For Squarespace, once you export the blog, you can upload it into WordPress and Squarespace has guides for that if you search in their support page.
  
  As for the free custom domain, I believe you should get it for free if you keep renewing your annual plans. Just keep in mind that the free domain is only provided if you sign up for their annual plans.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Raghav 13 years ago
  
  Hi
  
  Thanks for the comprehensitve reviews. I had a question about the pricing. Is it only available in the US/Europe or asia too (coutries like india, bangladesh etc? )
  
  Thanks
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Raghav - I believe that the prices are available globally, just that you may have to pay in a different currency than from your home country.
  
  They would require a valid credit card, or for some builders, PayPal will work as well.
  
  But to get the most accurate and updated information, I would encourage you to email their sales / support team directly. Would love to know what you find out!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  LeAnne Rumbel 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy and Connie, GREAT review. One question, with Squarespace can I hide/shield my personal information from anyone looking to see who my website belongs to? I am very private, and do not want this information for public knowledge. Thanks in advance for your help!
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi LeAnne,
  
  I'm not sure but you can ask Squarespace. I don't think there is a way for people to find out who built the site, except if they look up the owner of the domain name.
  
  One way to shield that is to purchase the privacy setting from your domain name registrar. We use GoDaddy and they offer a privacy protection which they mask all the personal information, and it goes for around $10 - $15 per year which is well worth it.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply