Wix vs Weebly vs Squarespace: The Battle of The Big Three

Wix Pros:

• Best all-around website builder
• Combines ease of use with tons of creative control

Wix Cons:

• Doesn’t let you switch templates once site is live
• Lack of storage space

Weebly Pros:

• Best features to scale a website
• Cheapest starting plan

Weebly Cons:

• Drag-and-drop customization is limited
• Can’t restore your website without contacting Weebly support

Squarespace Pros:

• Best quality features of any website builder
• Best templates in terms of design and flexibility

Squarespace Cons:

• Relatively expensive price plans
• No app store

Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace all let you create a website yourself, without needing 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 – it’s easy to use and has lots of creative control. Weebly and Squarespace also use drag-and-drop, but you can’t just drag anything anywhere like you can with Wix. Weebly has more structure which guides your design, while Squarespace offers a more technical editing style and lots of creative freedom.

These are a few of the differences that can impact your decision making. But just what do these factors mean for you? Here’s a quick summary of who each builder is best for…

• Wix: best all-around website builder, great for beginners looking for lots of creative control
• Weebly: best for small businesses and portfolios, beginner friendly with structured designs
• Squarespace: best for creatives looking for high quality designs and features

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’s the most beginner friendly, without sacrificing any creative control. Its simple drag-and-drop editor means you can 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.

“I feel like you could get a website up and running fairly quickly, with a lot of capabilities that I would expect take a lot of time to code.”

You can also use Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to create a website for you, simply by selecting the colors and themes you like and entering information such as the name and purpose of your website. 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.

Weebly

Weebly is also very beginner friendly. Its templates are more structured to help guide your design, making it more restrictive than Wix, but less overwhelming. It’s also not as intuitive as Wix, but doesn’t take too long to get used to. If you don’t want to think about design too much, Weebly is a good choice.

“Very intuitive, straightforward. It’s basically like a more structured Wix but with fewer alternative features, which is nice in a way. It was very easy to use.”

Squarespace

Squarespace is the trickiest to use out of these three builders. But it’s still far from being rocket science – it just takes a little longer to get to grips with than the total simplicity of Wix and Weebly.

Perfect for those with some technical confidence, or even just a little patience, Squarespace is the closest you’ll get to a professionally designed website without using a developer.

“Squarespace effectively puts a lot together for you in one go, which I think is great. It looks incredible, too.”

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but we do judge websites by their design. Have you ever gone on a website, found the layout too confusing, got frustrated and left the page? Don’t let that be your website!

Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace all have 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 has over 500 templates to choose from, including new designs, blank templates to start from scratch with, and 16 different categories such as ‘Business‘ and ‘Photography‘. It’s easy to find the perfect template for your website.

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. 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. With simple, attractive designs, you’re sure to find a design you love.

You can preview your theme before selecting it, and Weebly makes it really easy to keep track of themes you’ve been trying out by saving them in a recently viewed list. Like Wix, all Weebly themes are mobile responsive.

You can also jazz up Weebly’s themes and make them your own. The builder makes it simple to personalize your website, using the same drag-and-drop editing style as Wix. You can even use code to create a site that’s truly unique using Weebly Code Editor!

Weebly’s themes are more structured than Wix’s. Some may find this a welcome relief, while others have expressed frustration at their limitations. This really depends on how much control you want over your design.

If you want loads of control and really high quality design, Squarespace is the best you can get.

Squarespace 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.

If choosing is too hard, don’t worry – you can switch your template at any time, or even install multiple templates to work on. We’d certainly struggle to pick just one!

Every Squarespace template is mobile responsive, and gives you a professional, stylish and modern aesthetic to base your website’s design on. You can make your site totally unique by using the drag-and-drop editor, or even through coding.

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’!

Ecommerce

If you want to sell through your website, you’ll need ecommerce tools. 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.

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, get extra storage, sell without paying commission, and track your site’s progress using Google Analytics.

Weebly lets you sell through its three ecommerce plans. Depending on your choice of plan, you can sell digital goods, receive product reviews, enable inventory management and shipping discounts, create coupons, unlock abandoned cart emails, and more.

Squarespace has a vast range of ecommerce tools to make your selling life easier. These include product image zoom, abandoned cart recovery, 0% transaction fees, promotion of products on Instagram, customer accounts, product inventory, order management, tax and shipping controls, coupon creation, and more!

Blogging

Wix has a number of built-in blogging tools which can help your blog get up and running successfully, including galleries, posts, and email campaigns. If you want even more features, it’s best to add the free Wix Blog app to your site.

Weebly has more built-in blogging tools than Wix, as well as integration with the Weebly App Center. These built-in tools include social sharing features, comment management tools, and media integration.

Squarespace is perfect for building a high quality creative blog or portfolio. Everything you need is built-in, including blogging features such as social sharing, multiple author support, geo-tagging, user likes, scheduled sharing, and customizable URLs.

Marketing

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

Wix 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.

Weebly offers lead capture, so you can add forms to your site in order to collect contacts and engage with visitors. You can also run email campaigns depending on which plan you’re on – this email marketing runs through the app Weebly Promote, which integrates with your Weebly website.

Squarespace has all its marketing features completely built-in, so you can run email campaigns, customize email layouts, and send out mobile optimized emails quickly and easily. You can also integrate your site with social media, set up newsletters, and use MailChimp to create mailing lists.

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.

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. Meanwhile, Weebly lets you easily add social icons to your web pages to link to your social media pages, while you can also add a Facebook Like button.

Squarespace allows you to link accounts from over 25 different social accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and Pinterest. Auto-post content to Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr, and encourage visitors to follow you with social links on your site.

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 200 apps on offer. There’s a mix of in-house and third-party apps, as well as both free and premium features.

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.

You can integrate apps with your Weebly website from the Weebly App Center. With over 300 apps, Weebly has an even bigger range to choose from than Wix!

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. This means Squarespace doesn’t have an app market – some may find this convenient and less hassle, while others may want the option to add extra features.

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.

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 beginner friendly 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.

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.

There are articles and videos in the Squarespace support pages 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.

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.

Wix has excellent support, including:

• phone support
• social media support
• email support
• an in-depth knowledge base

You even get helpful tips on-page while you edit your website, which is great when you’re just getting started! Simply click on the question marks to expand these help boxes and find out more.

This on-page help is really valuable, supporting you as you edit your website and saving you from having to go to a different page to solve your questions. If you do need a longer explanation, these help bubbles can direct you to the relevant support page in the knowledge base.

Weebly has a solid support system too. It provides:

• email support
• live chat support
• phone support
• social media help resources
• a Help Center with articles and guides

Weebly only offers phone support on its higher paid plans, but does provide live chat support where Wix doesn’t.

Squarespace has a small but mighty range of support options:

• 24/7 email support
• live chat support
• in-depth help center

While Squarespace doesn’t offer phone support, the services it does provide are extremely thorough and high quality. In the Help Center alone you will find guides, videos, an extensive community forum, and even the option to sign up to interactive webinars with Squarespace experts.

If you’re worried that all these amazing template designs, features, and support options are going to cost you, get ready to breathe a sigh of relief. Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace offer something for every budget, making website building affordable rather than belt-tightening.

Wix has seven price plans ranging from $13 to $49 per month, plus its 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 $13 per month to $39 per month:

• The Combo plan at $13 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 $17 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 $22 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 $39 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 – if you’re not happy, simply get a refund!

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

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

There will be Weebly ads on your site if you use the free plan, and you won’t be able to use your own domain name – instead it will include the “Weebly.com” subdomain. This would mean your website address would look something like this: www.mybeautifulwebsite.weebly.com.

If you want to remove adverts and connect your own domain, you’ll need to upgrade. The good news is, with its $5 per month Connect plan, Weebly has the cheapest starting price around!

Weebly has four pricing plans:

• The $5 per month Connect 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 Pro plan…
• The $12 per month Pro plan: this removes adverts, gives you unlimited storage, and offers extra features such as video backgrounds and ecommerce functions (up to 25 products).
• The $25 per month Business plan: has everything from the Pro plan, plus membership registration and more advanced ecommerce features such as inventory management.
• The $38 per month Performance plan: aimed solely at online sellers, has everything from the Business plan plus email marketing, abandoned cart emails, real time shipping rates, and digital gift card creation.

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.

Squarespace keeps things simple. It has four price plans – the $12 per month Personal plan and the $18 per month Business plan are designed for creating websites, while the $26 per month Basic plan and the $40 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 to 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 $6 more, but offers more than double the features, including ecommerce functions, promotional pop-ups, and advanced customization.

Although Squarespace’s prices are certainly higher than Weebly’s, its cheapest plan offers more than most. For example, Wix’s $13 per month Combo plan is more expensive, but only offers 2GB bandwidth and 3GB storage compared to the unlimited bandwidth and storage offered by Squarespace.