Wix vs Weebly vs Squarespace: The Ultimate Comparison (2022)

2 What’s the Difference Between Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace?

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Despite being similar, no website builder is the same, and that’s the case with Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. Knowing the key differences between the three is just one step along the road to deciding which is your best fit – and which is not.

First off, let’s start with the similarities. Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are all website builders, which means they’re platforms that can help you create a website for yourself, without having to deal with the hassle of managing your own hosting.

They’re designed to make the process as easy as possible, so you won’t need to know a single line of code or have a degree in web design. These builders provide an easy, affordable way to create professional-looking websites.

So what’s the difference between them?

Wix is a complete drag-and-drop builder, so you can move anything quite literally anywhere. It’s easy to use and gives you lots of creative control, so it’s great if you have a very definite idea of what you want your website to look like.

Weebly and Squarespace also use drag-and-drop, but they’re more restrictive. Unlike Wix, you’ll need to work within the structured rows of the template you choose, rather than being able to place anything wherever you like. Although they both follow these restrictions, Squarespace allows more creative freedom than Weebly.

In terms of pricing, website builders are a good option if you’ve got a particular budget in mind. This is because they work on a subscription basis, meaning that you can expect a stable payment each month (or year, depending on how you choose to pay). Out of the three, Weebly is the cheapest and offers the best value for money, with Squarespace coming in second, and Wix bringing up the rear. However, your monthly outgoings will depend on which plan you choose. They range anywhere from $6 to $40 per month.

3 Ease of Use

Which Builder is the Most Straightforward?

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Which Builder is the Most Straightforward?

The Winner

Wix is the easiest builder to use out of the three

Wix’s drag-and-drop design, plus the option to use Wix ADI, makes it truly beginner-friendly without giving up creative control. Squarespace strikes a good middle-ground but requires more time to get a grip on. Weebly, on the other hand, might be simple, but its restrictive editor isn’t super intuitive and, at times, can be very frustrating.

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Building websites shouldn’t only be possible for tech-savvy folk – it should be open to beginners and pros alike, no matter your experience. You don’t need to know any code to use Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace. But other than that, just how easy are they to use?

As part of our research, we try out every builder ourselves, and then get other people to test them out too. Here’s what we found, plus some thoughts from our users on each builder. So you don’t just have to take our word for it!

Wix

Wix is the easiest to use of the three. It scored 4.4 out of 5 in our user testing, making it the easiest builder to use from the 14 we reviewed. It’s simple and straightforward, but it doesn’t sacrifice any creative control.

Wix’s drag-and-drop editor allows you to create a totally personalized website with ease: just select elements such as text boxes and other cool features like videos and buttons, and drag them to wherever you want them on your page. This was something that our users particularly enjoyed, with one commenting, “I love that you can drag literally anything to any position“.

However, although we think Wix is super easy to use, it’s not for everyone. Some found the editor to be overwhelming, with too many options. The ability to drag anything anywhere led to some of our users feeling like they’d lost the essence of the template they chose, with one saying “The more I added to it, the clunkier it got.”

Creative control is definitely one of Wix’s perks, but if you’d rather a little more structure to your building experience, you might find that you enjoy Weebly or Squarespace more. This is because, even though you can customize the available templates to your needs, there’s a higher level of restriction with these two than there is with Wix, which stops you from getting too carried away.

Alternatively, you could also use Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to create a website for you. It’s as simple as answering a few questions and selecting the colors and themes you like. From your answers, Wix will create a full website for you – you won’t need to lift a finger! Don’t worry, you can still edit your site, or move it into Wix Editor for full control, but it’s a super quick and easy way to set up your website if starting from scratch sounds too intimidating.

Squarespace

Historically, Squarespace has often been seen as the ‘difficult’ builder to use. Thankfully, this is no longer the case! Although it didn’t score quite as highly as Wix in this category, we awarded Squarespace 4 out of 5 in our user testing, putting it firmly in our top five easiest-to-use builders!

So what’s changed? In years gone by, getting your head around how to use Squarespace would have been quite a task, but those days are long gone. Recently, Squarespace has made big changes to its editor, meaning that it’s now easier to use than ever. This is largely why it’s seen a 15% increase in its ease of use score since we last carried out our user testing pre-2021.

For those of you who found Wix’s editor too busy, you’ll also be pleased to know that Squarespace takes a more minimalist approach. However, this can mean that it might take you slightly longer to find your way around – everything is tucked away very neatly into two menus and it’s not always obvious where you should look, so a little searching for the exact element you want is to be expected.

Even so, if you’ve got the patience for it, Squarespace is the closest you’ll get to a professionally designed website without using a developer.

“I found using Squarespace to be very easy, and it wasn’t overwhelming at all.”

Weebly

Weebly is also a great platform for beginners or those who are new to the world of website building. The editor itself is very simple and easy to navigate. All elements are clearly signposted, so you won’t have any trouble adding extra components to your website. However, in our user testing, it didn’t do as well as Wix or Squarespace, only scoring 3.4 out of 5.

The main reason for this is that, although Weebly’s editor isn’t complicated, customization isn’t very intuitive. Similar to Squarespace, Weebly’s templates are more structured to help guide your design, but rather than making the process easier, it actually makes it more complicated. It’s far more restrictive, meaning that it’s difficult to move things where you want them. Overall, you’re very limited by the template you choose, which can be frustrating.

“It just didn’t feel intuitive or pleasant to work with and I got really frustrated with it.”

However, if you aren’t bothered about creative control, or you don’t want to customize your template too much, Weebly is a good choice. It’ll allow you to build a simple but effective website quickly, without the need for lots of editing before your site goes live.

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4 Design Flexibility

Which Builder Looks the Best and Has the Best Customizability?

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Which Builder Looks the Best and Has the Best Customizability?

The Winner

Squarespace is the best builder for design

Squarespace has the best quality designs on the market, and with tons of customization options, your site is destined to stand out from the crowd. Wix isn’t bad at all, and it has over 800 high-quality templates to choose from, but it just can’t compete with Squarespace’s designs. Weebly stands even less of a chance, especially given that lots of its templates are now starting to look a little outdated.

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They say not to judge a book by its cover, but we do judge websites by their design. After all, this is the one factor you’re visitors will base their first impressions on!

Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace all have a range of templates to help make your site look its best, whether you’re a confident designer or don’t know your banners from your slideshows. But how easy is it to personalize your template? How will it look on mobile? And can you change your mind if you want to switch your design later on?

Wix is a formidable contender when it comes to design, scoring 4.4 out of 5 in our research. It has over 800 templates to choose from, including new designs, blank templates to start from scratch with, and 16 different categories such as ‘Business‘ and ‘Photography‘. The majority of the designs all boast a slick and professional-looking finish, so it’s easy to find the perfect template for your website. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer choice on offer, make certain to use the search bar to refine your options.

It’s really easy to customize your Wix template using the platform’s simple drag-and-drop editing tool. Just select the features you want – such as videos, images, or contact forms – and drop them wherever you want them on your page!

All Wix templates are mobile responsive, so you don’t need to worry about anybody missing out. You can even edit your website from your mobile on the go, so you won’t have to be chained to your desk all day, or rush back if you need to make some vital changes.

The main drawback of Wix is its flexibility – while you have total creative freedom over the design of your site, you can’t switch your template once your website is live.

Weebly, on the other hand, does let you switch templates whenever you like. This is really useful if you want to give your site a rebrand, or just fancy a change!

There are 35 Weebly themes to choose from – a much smaller selection than you get with Wix – but you still have lots of different categories to help you browse.

However, its themes do lack the stylish edge we’re used to seeing with Wix and Squarespace. Some of our users felt that the templates were a little bland, and overall, we have to agree that they do feel slightly dated in comparison to the industry standard. This is partly why Weebly performed so badly in this category, only achieving a score of 2.5 out of 5.

Customization is possible, but as we’ve mentioned, the Weebly editor is quite restrictive, so you won’t be able to deviate too far from the template’s original design. This may appeal to some people, though, who don’t have the time or patience for extensive editing. Plus, if you do want more from your Weebly template, you can use code to create a site that’s truly unique, using Weebly Code Editor.

Despite this, Weebly’s themes do fall down in other areas, particularly when it comes to mobile optimization. During testing, we found that any changes we made to the desktop version of the website weren’t reflected in the mobile version, with most of the formatting becoming jumbled and messy. This is a big oversight given that mobile traffic makes up around 66% of search volume nowadays.

In contrast to this, Squarespace offers a fully mobile-friendly experience, and like Wix, also allows you to edit on the go. Plus, its designs are the very best you can get. 

Squarespace is our top performer in this category, with an impressive score of 4.7 out of 5. It has a stunning collection of templates for you to browse and choose from. It may not have hundreds like its rival Wix, but every single one is designed to an incredible standard.

We had our experts examine the templates from every angle – and they scored top marks in everything from branding and design to user experience.

You can search by category, or even by entering the purpose of your site – for example, “To share my photography portfolio” – and it will give you tailored results to match. You can preview each design, and even favorite your top choices.

Unfortunately, there is one downside – if you’re new to Squarespace, you won’t be able to switch your template once your site has been published. Only older Squarespace members who are still using the 7.0 version have this functionality. The newest version, 7.1, means that if you want to change your theme, you’ll need to start from scratch.

We found this easy to forgive, though, because of the quality of Squarespace’s templates and the scope for customization. Like Wix, it uses a drag-and-drop builder, but it’s similar to Weebly in that you have to work within the pre-set rows. However, Squarespace is much more intuitive and affords much more creative control, striking a lovely balance between its two competitors.

Plus, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can even add your own custom code as long as you subscribe to the Business plan or upwards.

Do You Want a Stunning Website?

Squarespace has the best designs on the market, with a range of modern, stylish templates just waiting for you to customize them.

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5 Pricing and Value for Money

Which Builder Offers the Best Bang For Your Buck?

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Which Builder Offers the Best Bang For Your Buck?

The Winner

Weebly offers the best value for money

It has the cheapest starting price if you want to upgrade from the free plan, making it a great option for those on a budget. Plus, the features you get included are pretty impressive too!  Squarespace is a great second choice if you can afford to spend a little more, especially because it offers so much for the price you pay, but Wix is not the best choice for the budget-conscious. Its prices are the most expensive out of the three, and it’s no longer as competitive as it once was.

Visit Weebly

One of the best things about website builders is that they’re all relatively affordable. Usually, there’s a plan for every budget, and that’s certainly the case for Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. In fact, Wix and Weebly both offer a completely free plan which you can stay on for as long as you like. Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan, but you can take a 14-day free trial instead.

Wix is our top performer in almost every category, however, value for money is where it falls slightly short. It only scored 3.4 out of 5 in this category, putting it well behind both Weebly and Squarespace. There’s no question that Wix’s plans have a lot packed into them, however, compared to Weebly’s and Squarespace’s, the monthly cost is much higher. Wix used to have a reputation for its cheap prices, but that’s simply not true anymore. Yes, you do get a lot for your money, but the price you’re paying is no longer that competitive.

Don’t get us wrong – Wix has plenty going for it. It has seven price plans ranging from $16 to $59 per month, including three ecommerce-specific packages, as well as a free plan. The free plan gives you all the basic features needed to create a website, such as 500MB storage and 500MB bandwidth – however, you can’t connect your own domain, and Wix will display adverts on your website. This isn’t ideal if you’re aiming for a professional image!

If you want to upgrade, there are four plans designed for building websites (these are the plans to choose from if you don’t need to sell online). Billed yearly, these plans range from $16 per month to $45 per month:

• The Combo plan at $16 per month (billed yearly): this includes 3GB storage and 2GB bandwidth, removes Wix adverts from your site, and lets you connect your own domain.
• The Unlimited plan at $22 per month: this gives you unlimited bandwidth and 10GB storage, and comes with extra features such as $300 in ad vouchers.
• The Pro plan at $27 per month: this comes with everything included on the Unlimited plan, plus an increased 20GB storage, and bonuses such as $50 to spend on creating a professional logo.
• The VIP plan at $45 per month: comes with everything from the Pro plan, but gives you the added advantage of VIP support and priority response.

These plans all come with a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can try them out without worrying, but if you only have a small budget to work with, we’d recommend checking out Weebly and Squarespace before you make any final decisions!

Did Wix's Plans Catch Your Eye?

Wix has a large range of price plans, starting at $16 per month. Compare its plans to decide which one could best suit your needs.

Pick a Wix Plan

Compared to Wix, Squarespace keeps things simple. It has four price plans – the $16 per month Personal plan and the $23 per month Business plan are designed for creating websites, while the $27 per month Basic plan and the $49 per month Advanced plan give you everything you need for setting up an online store.

There is no free plan with Squarespace, but each price plan comes with a 14-day free trial. You don’t need to enter any payment details unless you decide to sign up for a paid plan once the trial is over.

The Personal plan is the most basic, but gives you everything you need to create a stylish website, including unlimited bandwidth and storage. Squarespace’s Business plan is only $7 more, but offers more than double the features, including ecommerce functions, promotional pop-ups, and advanced customization.

In our research, Squarespace performed much better than Wix, and we awarded it a score of 4 out of 5 for value for money. You might find this surprising considering that it doesn’t have a free plan, but its success lies in its lower monthly prices, especially when compared against the features on offer. Overall, it makes for a much better deal than Wix!

Out of the three, Weebly is the king of this category. In fact, with a perfect score of 5 out of 5, Weebly beats every other website we’ve tested when it comes to value for money! Let us show you why.

Firstly, Weebly has a free plan, which gives you basic features such as:

• 500MB storage
• SEO tools
• Chat and email support

This is a great option to help you decide if Weebly is the right builder for you, or even if you’re on a very tight budget, but it does have its drawbacks. For example, there will be Weebly ads on your site, and you won’t be able to use your own domain name – instead it will include the “Weebly.com” subdomain. This means that your website address would look something like this: www.mybeautifulwebsite.weebly.com.

If you’re serious about your website, this isn’t the most professional start. If you want to remove adverts and connect your own domain, however, you’ll need to upgrade. The good news is, with its $6 per month Personal plan, Weebly has the cheapest starting price around!

Weebly has three pricing plans:

• The $6 per month Personal plan: this is similar to the free plan but lets you connect your own domain. It won’t remove adverts though – for that, you’ll need the Professional plan…
• The $12 per month Professional plan: this removes adverts, gives you unlimited storage, and offers extra features such as video backgrounds and ecommerce functions.
• The $26 per month Performance plan: has everything from the Professional plan, plus membership registration and more advanced ecommerce features such as inventory management.

Weebly no longer has any dedicated ecommerce plans. This is because, back in 2018, it was acquired by the payment provider Square, which added its own ecommerce builder (Square Online) to Weebly’s platform. Although you can add ecommerce elements to any of Weebly’s templates, if you want to start an online store, you’ll be prompted towards the Square Online editor during the signup process instead.

The good news is, Square Online’s prices are exactly the same as Weebly’s, so you get great value whether you want to build a website or an online store.

As well as Weebly’s free plan, which you can use for as long as you like, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of its paid plans (unless you’re paying on a month-by-month basis). This is great as it means you can try the builder out, and get your money back if you’re not happy.

Overall, Weebly can’t be beaten for its low-price plans that offer a pretty good package of tools and features. If you want the best value for money, we’d recommend skipping the free and the Personal plan, and jumping straight to the $12 per month Professional plan!

Did You See Something You Liked?

Weebly has the cheapest starting price at just $6 per month – see what you get for your money by exploring its pricing page.

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6 Features and Tools

Which Builders Lets Your Website Do More?

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Which Builders Lets Your Website Do More?

The Winner

Wix has the best tools and features

Wix wins this round simply because of the breadth and quality of features available to you! This is why it achieved the highest score in this category. No matter what you want to do with your website, Wix has the tools you need to scale and succeed. Squarespace, however, comes in at a close second. Its built-in features are seriously impressive, and more than match up to Wix’s – there’s just less of them. It’s Weebly that brings up the rear, however. Due to lack of innovation and improvement over recent years, its tools and features are lacking behind its competitors, and offer less in terms of growth and scalability.

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Now for the really juicy stuff. Features and tools are the cogs that keep your website working hard – you want a reliable and smooth running system that will not only make your life easier, but elevate your website above your competitors!

Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly all come with a collection of tools and features to help you expand the potential of your website. Out of the three, Wix achieved the highest score in this area, securing a phenomenal 4.9 out of 5 – the highest out of any builder we tested! Squarespace isn’t that far behind though, with a score of 4.4 out of 5. Unfortunately, Weebly is the builder that once again trails in last place with a disappointing 3.5 out of 5. Although this isn’t the lowest features score we’ve ever awarded, it looks pretty lackluster in comparison to both Wix and Squarespace.

To better show why we’ve awarded these scores, we’re going to look at the key features and tools each builder offers below, so you can really see where they shine – and where they don’t.

Blogging

When it comes to blogging, it’s a two-horse race between Wix and Squarespace. In fact, it’s neck-and-neck. In our blogging category, both builders scored 4.7 out of 5 thanks to the large number of features they offer.

Historically, Squarespace has always swept the floor in this area, thanks to its beautiful designs and easy blog setup. It offers multiple writer profiles, comments, social sharing, blog-specific SEO, and the ability to schedule posts. It’s got everything you need! The only slight complaints we have are that the search function is only available on a couple of templates (Brine, Farro, and Skye), and overall, it lacks dedicated blog analytics. However, this can be remedied by integrating Google Analytics.

Despite Squarespace’s strong offering, though, we have to shout out Wix here. It’s made massive improvements to its blogging functionality so that it now rivals Squarespace in this area. It offers everything that Squarespace does, although if you want a search bar, you’ll need to add an app.

Weebly trails behind these two, scoring 4.1 out of 5. Despite this, it still has lots of key features to offer, such as writer profiles, a comments function, an archive, and a search feature. However, it lacks any suitable blog analytics and it doesn’t come with the option to schedule your posts in advance. It’s not a bad option for a blog by any means, but it’s just not as strong as Wix or Squarespace.

Marketing

Marketing is essential for spreading the word about your shiny new website!

Marketing with Wix is simple. It allows you to run email campaigns and create newsletters, share on social media, and add features such as banners to your website. A lot of Wix’s marketing features come included in apps such as Wix Shoutout, or from third parties in the Wix App Market. It’s important to note here, though, that not all of Wix’s apps are free, so make sure you’re aware of any additional costs before you commit!

Wix also offers a complete marking package with Wix Ascend. It allows you complete control and visibility over all of your marketing channels and initiatives. This will be particularly handy when you’re trying to grow and scale your website.

In comparison, Weebly is slightly lacking on the marketing front. It does have an impressive app store, so there are a few third-party apps you can install to help out, such as Aweber and Privy. It also offers lead capture, so you can add forms to your site in order to collect contacts and engage with visitors, as well as an email marketing service. This runs through the app Weebly Promote, which integrates with your Weebly website, but it’ll cost you. There’s a free trial, but then you’ll have to subscribe to a paid plan, starting from $8 per month.

The thing that really lets Weebly down is its social media integrations. It’s basic at best – a big no-no in today’s digital climate.

Squarespace is slightly different from both Wix and Weebly as it has all its marketing features completely built-in. This means you can do everything  – integrate social media, run email campaigns, and more – all from the comfort of your Squarespace dashboard.

The one drawback is that Squarespace’s email marketing service, Email Campaigns, isn’t free. There are a limited number of free features, such as the ability to build mailing lists, create draft campaigns, and send up to three trial blast campaigns, but if you want the whole package, you’ll have to subscribe to one of their plans. These start from $5 per month but they can be as expensive as $48 per month if you need more features. Alternatively, you can integrate with Mailchimp if you’d rather.

Social Media Integration

If people aren’t checking their emails, you can be sure they’ll be checking their news feeds on social media! Fortunately, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace all support social media integration in some form or another. However, some are better at it than others. 

Wix allows you to add share buttons to your website, while its app store can help you install social tools such as comments sections and custom Twitter feeds. It also comes with a dedicated social dashboard that’s perfect for keeping an eye on your performance.

Squarespace performs equally as well in this area, allowing you to link accounts from over 25 different social accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and Pinterest. You can also auto-post content to Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr, and encourage visitors to follow you with social links on your site.

Meanwhile, Weebly is much more restrictive. Sadly, you can only add social icons to your web pages, linking out to your social media accounts.  You can’t actually integrate any live feeds, and unlike Wix and Squarespace, you won’t be able to create social posts within the builder. This means a lot of extra work and swapping between all the different platforms!

7 App Markets

Which Builder Has the Best Extras?

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Which Builder Has the Best Extras?

The Winner

Wix has the best app market

Wix has over 300 high-quality, easily-searchable apps to choose from when expanding the functionality of your store. They’re not all free, but plenty of them are! Weebly also does well with an equally large app store, although it is a little harder to find exactly what you’re looking for. Squarespace has a much smaller selection on offer because most of its features are already built-in, but those extensions it does offer are super high-quality.

Visit Wix

While Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace all have amazing features built-in, you might want to add extra functions or tools as your website grows. That’s where an app market can really come in handy. Adding apps is a great way of scaling up your website while also making it unique.

Wix has a large and easy to navigate App Market, with over 300 apps on offer. There’s a mix of in-house and third-party apps, as well as both free and premium features. As we’ve mentioned before, though – sometimes Wix’s apps can get costly, causing your monthly outgoings to shoot up. Make sure you know exactly what you’re signing up for before you commit!

You can search for the app or function you’re looking for, or browse by category, such as ‘Bookings‘, ‘Business tools‘, or ‘Analytics‘. Each app comes with a features and pricing breakdown, as well as user reviews and star ratings so you can find the best option for your site.

Similarly, you can integrate apps with your Weebly website from the Weebly App Center.  There are over 300 to choose from, and you can use the search bar to find the app you’re looking for, or filter by category. However, there are fewer browsing tools to help you than with Wix, meaning it could be tricky to make the most of such a wide range.

Squarespace does support apps, such as the Commerce App and Analytics App, but these are built-in. Squarespace offers great third-party integrations, but it doesn’t have an app market – instead, it has a small, specially curated selection of extensions designed to help you increase your store’s potential. This makes Squarespace a great option if you don’t want to have to rely too much on third-party apps, but if you like the extra flexibility these give you, Wix is probably a better option.

Want to See What Wix Has to Offer?

Wix has hundreds of apps, which are all super easy to install and are perfect for growing your website. Take a look and see!

Explore the Wix App Market

8 SEO

Which Builder Will Help Your Website Climb the Search Engine Rankings

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Which Builder Will Help Your Website Climb the Search Engine Rankings

The Winner

Wix has the best SEO capabilities

Wix offers the most support, with its beginner-friendly SEO Wiz and long-term SEO guide. Weebly and Squarespace have strong SEO and great built-in tools, but they lack the same level of interaction that Wix has – especially for beginners.

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SEO is super important if you want anyone other than your mom and your best friend to see your lovingly built website. But what is it?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s how your website gets found in Google. Not looking after your SEO is like having a birthday party and not sending out any invitations – without it, your website will be sat all alone with its party hat on, eating cake by itself. That’s too sad to even think about – your website deserves the best party ever!

You may think SEO isn’t quite as easy as putting a few invitations in the post, but with Wix’s SEO Wiz, it might as well be! Simply pick a few keywords, and the specialist tool will create a personalized plan to get your website ranking highly in search results.

As well as this, Wix has a thorough SEO Guide, where you can search for the area you’d like to learn more about. You can also read help guides on lots of different topics covering SEO, aimed at beginners all the way through to a more advanced level. Even better, Wix provides you with targeted SEO best practice prompts when you’re building your site.

Weebly also has an Ultimate SEO Guide that can help you get started, then grow and track your website’s progress. It guides you through step by step, and is very beginner friendly.

Weebly’s guide is very perfect if you’re new to SEO and, like Wix, it has great SEO tools built-in to help maximize your website’s online presence. But it does lack the interactive element provided by Wix’s SEO Wiz, and it falls a little short when we get to the more advanced end of SEO best practice.

Both Wix and Weebly have SEO apps in their app stores, which you can add to further improve or help with your SEO.

Squarespace has all its SEO tools included, meaning you don’t need to worry about finding the right app or plugin to optimize your website. However, this might be a bit disappointing for those of you who like to have the added security of a specific SEO app, bolstering (and sometimes automating) your optimization efforts.

Although it’s not the most beginner friendly – it doesn’t provide in-editor support like Wix, for instance – Squarespace does shine when it comes to the wealth of SEO support available in its knowledge center. There are articles and videos to help you master SEO for your Squarespace site. There is also an SEO Checklist to walk you through every step of launching your website.

Take a Sneak Peek at Wix's SEO Guide

Wix’s SEO tools are both beginner friendly and effective, making it easy even for SEO novices to optimize their websites.

Check Out Wix's SEO Guide

9 Ecommerce

Which Builder Has the Best Selling Tools?

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Which Builder Has the Best Selling Tools?

The Winner

Wix has the best tools and features for selling online

Out of the three, Wix offers the best ecommerce experience. It has a wider range of tools and can comfortably accommodate medium-sized online stores. It has three plans to choose from, so you’re bound to find one that suits your needs. Squarespace isn’t too far behind, but it does offer a slightly smaller range of features and is better suited to much smaller stores or digital sales. Weebly once again comes last, mostly because it doesn’t have any dedicated ecommerce plans and its features aren’t as extensive. This is down to its acquisition by Square, so all online store creation now goes through this ecommerce-specific platform, although you can still add selling tools to your Weebly website if you’d like.

Visit Wix

If you’re planning to sell through your website, you’ll need ecommerce tools to get started. From basic features such as accepting payments all the way up to abandoned cart recovery, there’s a whole host of tools you can use to start pulling in those sales.

Both Wix and Squarespace make great options for starting an online store. In fact, Wix came out as our top ecommerce builder during our research, scoring 4.7 out of 5. Squarespace also pulled out all the stops, coming third with a score of 4.5 out of 5. So what makes them such great options for selling online?

Wix has three ecommerce plans specifically designed to support selling online. These provide you with a host of built-in ecommerce features so you can accept online payments through over 50 different payment gateways worldwide, get extra storage, sell without paying commission, and track your site’s progress using Google Analytics.

Wix also doesn’t charge any transaction fees on payments, although you still will need to pay any third-party card payment processing fees. These come in at 2.9% + $0.30. This is pretty impressive compared to other ecommerce platforms like Square Online which charges a transaction fee, and third-party processing fees, too.

Do You Want to Build an Online Store?

Wix is a great choice for selling online, with a range of sales tools, apps, and price plans. Explore further to see if it’s right for you.

See Wix's Ecommerce Tools

If you choose to build your online store with Squarespace, the fees you pay will depend on the plan you choose. There are three different plans that allow you to sell online: Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce.

The Business plan is good for those who just want to sell on the side, like an added extra, however, choosing this option will mean you’ll have to pay a 3% transaction fee.

The Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce plans are designed just for selling, and these come with 0% transaction fees. All three plans still incur the same 2.9% + $0.30 third-party fee as Wix.

This aside, Squarespace has a ton to offer would-be ecommerce vendors. You’ll be able to sell physical and digital products, as well as services, and its inventory tools are ideal for managing a modest product list. It also comes with abandoned cart recovery, printable shipping labels, and a guest checkout option. It offers fewer payment gateways than Wix, relying solely on Paypal, Stripe, and Square, but these should at least cover most of your visitors.

When it comes to ecommerce, Weebly is a bit more complicated. This is because it was acquired in 2018 by the ecommerce payments platform, Square. Since then, all of Weebly’s ecommerce plans and templates have vanished. Instead, users will be asked what kind of website they want to build when they sign up. If you choose a business website, or online store, you’ll be encouraged to build your website with Square Online instead.

This might sound a bit complicated, but it’s actually not a bad thing. Square Online did well in our ecommerce testing, scoring 4.2 out of 5. It offers a similar number of payment gateways and inventory features as Squarespace, although, as mentioned, its transaction fees are higher.

The best thing about Square Online, though, is that you can sell for free. Like Weebly, even its paid plans are pretty affordable, starting at just $12 per month.

If you’ve got your heart set on Weebly, though, don’t panic. You can still add ecommerce features to all of Weebly’s templates and upload an unlimited number of products on the cheapest plan. Tools include item badges, product categories and variations, coupon codes, a shipping calculator, and abandoned cart recovery (on the Performance and Premium plans).

However, be aware, in recent years, Weebly hasn’t seen much development or improvement. This is because Square is focussing more on its ecommerce-specific platform, so it’s likely that, like Weebly’s other tools, its sales features might not see much innovation in the future.

10 Help and Support

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The Winner

Squarespace has the best help and support options

Squarespace wins this crown, with a perfect 5 out of 5. From email support to live chat and social media, it offers 24/7 support across a variety of channels. The real star of the show, though, is its incredibly thorough knowledge base. Wix also does well, however, it doesn’t offer email support and we found its help center to be lacking in some areas. Although Weebly does have a good number of ways to contact its help staff, it doesn’t offer 24/7 support, and its knowledge base can’t compare with Squarespace’s.

Visit Squarespace

Building a website is just like building anything – things can sometimes go slightly wrong. Just as having an extra pair of hands never hurts when you’re assembling flat-pack furniture, having a good support system can give you peace of mind when you’re running your website.

Squarespace comes out as the undisputed winner in this category. It scored 5 out of 5 for its help and support services – the only website builder we’ve tested that’s been able to claim that sort of accolade! If anything ever goes wrong, you can reach Squarespace through the following channels:

• 24/7 email
• Live chat (Monday to Friday, 4am – 8pm ET)
• Social media

However, the real jewel in Squarespace’s crown is its incredible knowledge base. Whilst testing Squarespace, if we ever came across an issue, more often than not the knowledge base had everything we needed to solve it. We didn’t even go near that email or live chat function! And it’s not just articles that you’ll find there, either. Squarespace also has video tutorials, forums, and expert webinars to help you out.

The only thing it’s missing is phone support, but we can forgive that given how awesome the rest of its support options are. Plus, if you do need to use the email service, Squarespace promises to get back to you within an hour – impressive right?

With a score of 4.3 out of 5, Wix also has excellent support, including:

• 24/7 phone support
• social media support
• 24/7 live chat

In the same way that Squarespace doesn’t offer phone support, Wix doesn’t offer help through email. It does have a knowledge center, but during testing, we found that it was slightly lacking in some areas, making it a bit tricky to find exactly what we were looking for. On the bright side, though, its in-editor support is second-to-none. Simply click on the question marks dotted throughout the editor to expand help boxes and get little tips whilst you build.

Weebly has a solid support system too, although it does pale somewhat in comparison to that offered by Wix and squarespace. It provides:

• email support
• live chat support
• phone support

Weebly only offers phone support on its higher-paid plans, but does provide live chat if you need to talk to someone urgently. However, sadly, its support isn’t available 24/7, but instead runs from Monday to Friday, 6am – 6pm US Pacific Time.

In the event that you need help outside of these hours, you can visit the help center and browse Weebly’s collection of articles. There’s a strong chance you might be able to find your answer in there, but as with Wix, we found it a bit sparse in some areas.