Wix vs Squarespace 2024: 9 Key Differences You Need to Know

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4.8

out of 5

4.7

out of 5

To get straight to the point, we recommend Wix over Squarespace – it performs better in our research and user testing, resulting in a higher rating of 4.8 out of 5. Squarespace wasn’t far behind with 4.7 out of 5 overall, but it falls behind Wix in some key areas, such as its website features and popularity among customers:

Best All-Round Website Builder

4.8

out of 5
Top Choice
Ease Of Use

4.4 out of 5 stars

Value For Money

3 out of 5 stars

Design Flexibility

4.6 out of 5 stars

Features

4.8 out of 5 stars

Help and Support

4.8 out of 5 stars

Customer Score

4.7 out of 5 stars

Best Design Orientated

4.7

out of 5
Ease Of Use

4.4 out of 5 stars

Value For Money

4.6 out of 5 stars

Design Flexibility

4.7 out of 5 stars

Features

4.6 out of 5 stars

Help and Support

4.8 out of 5 stars

Customer Score

4.5 out of 5 stars

Wix is better for you if your website needs expert features.

If you’re a beginner and don’t know where to start, Wix’s vast array of high-quality features makes it so you can add everything you want without ever learning a line of code. It has the best features of any website builder we’ve tested! Wix also excels for ecommerce websites that need good features and plenty of app functionality.

Try Wix Today For Free Today!

Squarespace is better for you if you want a really good-looking and great value website.

If you want a visually stunning website that will impress your visitors from the get-go, Squarespace is the choice for you, with a chart-topping design score of 4.7 out of 5 in our latest research. Its beautiful templates provide more structure than Wix’s, and it’s also better value for money – saving you dollars in the long run.

Sound Like You? Try Squarespace Out!

To help you find the right website builder, we identified the most important criteria for our readers, and put each platform through our thorough research process. In this case, we turned Wix and Squarespace inside out, testing their features, design flexibility, ease of use, value for money, and help and support.

But enough about us and our independent research methodology – this article is about pairing you with the perfect builder. Because while Wix may be best overall, it may not be right for you – so let’s get started, and find out whether you should pick Wix or Squarespace!

We’re pretty proud of our research process, because not many sites can say they’ve carried out such in-depth testing before making recommendations. Here’s how our in-house research team goes about finding the best website builders on the market.

Every single builder goes through our thorough research process. We investigate important areas such as:

  • Ease of use
  • Design flexibility
  • Value for money
  • Feature quality
  • Help and support
  • Customer satisfaction

This helps us rate and compare the builders fairly, focusing on important factors that users have told us matter most.

We even get groups of everyday people to test the builders out and give us feedback, which we then analyze. This helps us:

  • understand exactly how easy (or difficult) beginners find the builder
  • uncover any issues within the builder
  • judge customer satisfaction

We’ve applied this process to over 50 website builders so far – all so we can bring you the most accurate results and recommendations!

Still got questions? Read our report on How We Conduct Our Website Builder Research for a more detailed explanation.

Wix vs Squarespace: Quick Comparison

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

Wix Squarespace
Ease of Use
It's a Tie!
Wix is very beginner friendly thanks to its simple drag-and-drop editor. Wix ADI means you could have a website live in an afternoon. Squarespace has made massive improvements in its UX recently, increasing its score by 11.1%, meaning that it's now easier to use than ever.
Design Flexibility
Winner: Squarespace
Wix has over 800 templates to choose from. They’re attractive and easy to customize, but some aren’t as modern as they should be. You also can’t switch once your site is live. Squarespace has the best quality templates on the market. It has a smaller range than Wix, but the designs are consistently stunning.
Pricing & Value for Money
Winner: Squarespace
Wix has four price plans ranging from $16 to $159 per month (billed yearly). It also has a free plan which you can stay on for as long as you like. All paid plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee. Squarespace has four price plans ranging from $16 to $49 per month (billed yearly). It doesn’t have a free plan, but all paid plans have a 14-day free trial, with no payment details needed.
Features & Tools
Winner: Wix
Wix has a good number of built-in features covering customization, ecommerce, marketing, and more – it has the highest feature score out of all the builders we’ve tested. Plus, its huge app market is perfect for expanding your website's functionality. Most of Squarespace’s features are built-in, and they’re the best quality features on the market.
Apps & Integrations
It's a Tie!
Wix has a huge number of apps in the Wix App Market which you can install for extra functionality. Squarespace offers high quality 24/7 support on all plans including email, help center with guides, videos, webinars, and a forum.
Ecommerce
Winner: Wix
It’s easy to add an online store to your Wix website. By adding apps like Ecwid, you can add even more power to your site. Squarespace has all its ecommerce tools built-in, and is great for showing off products. You can add integrations to boost your store's functionality.
Blogging
It's a Tie!
Wix has basic blogging tools built-in, but its app store really lets you take your blog to the next level. Squarespace has an impressive range of blogging tools ready for you to use.
Marketing
It's a Tie!
Wix’s marketing tools include SEO, its own email marketing system, and its all-in-one business solution, Wix Ascend. Squarespace comes with marketing tools such as SEO, social media integration, and its own email platform.
SEO
It's a Tie!
Wix has built-in SEO tools, plus in-depth support resources to guide you through optimizing your website. Wix SEO Wiz is beginner friendly, interactive, and creates a personalized step-by-step plan to follow. Squarespace has built-in SEO tools to use, and has designed its pages to be SEO-friendly. It has in-depth support resources to help you, too, as well as a handy SEO checklist.
Help & Support
Winner: Squarespace
Wix offers all kinds of support including 24/7 priority support (phone and live chat). Upgrade to a higher plan for VIP phone support and skip the line. Squarespace offers high quality support service via live chat and email, plus a thorough help center with guides, videos, webinars, and a forum.
Are You Ready? Visit Wix Visit Squarespace

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

Ease of Use

Which Is More Beginner Friendly?
The Winner

It's a Tie!

Wix’s drag-and-drop editor and optional Wix ADI feature make it easy for beginners. Squarespace has come on leaps and bounds in terms of its ease of use, but may require a little more patience than Wix.
Visit Wix
Ease of Use
Wix Squarespace
Score 4.4/5 4.4/5
Coding knowledge needed?


Editor
Pure drag-and-drop: drag anything anywhere
Grid based drag-and-drop: less creative freedom
What did our users say?
“Wix is pretty simple to use and easy to wrap your head around! Plus I really love the customization available, the templates & pre-designed elements.” “Never thought I'd say this but I found it easier to use than Wix.”
Ease of use verdict
It’s a Tie!
Totally beginner-friendly
It’s a Tie!
Our users enjoyed its grid-based drag-and-drop

Drag-and-Drop Editor: No Need for Code

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

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

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

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

.

This means you simply select the element you want (such as text boxes, images, and maps), and drag it to where you’d like it positioned on your page. Drop it there, and hey presto – that’s just how it will look once your site is published.

The main thing to know about drag-and-drop is that it’s very beginner friendly, because it removes the need for coding. If you can use PowerPoint, you can build a website using drag-and-drop!

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

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

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

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

I started to work on my website, Ksenia Ponka, in March 2022. I had no experience in web design, so it was a challenge because I wanted a professional-looking site with multiple pages.
Firstly, I tried to use the Tilda website builder, but the number of free templates and the interface weren’t a good fit for my needs. So although it was a great choice to create a portfolio, a resume, or a personal blog, it didn’t work for me. I needed a more complicated design but with easy-to-understand layouts and tools to adjust it. I didn’t watch any guides and how-tos to start a website. I just opened the Wix manager and went on. It was intuitive and user-friendly with plenty of possibilities, including online bookings, request forms, galleries, and sub-pages. Moreover, I got a free voucher for a website domain upgrading to a business account, which helps avoid the service’s ad on your page. Nice touch!
Some in-built and third-party plugins cost extra, even if you’ve already paid for a business account. For example, you can choose a template with an online booking service, but if you want it to work, you need to pay, which is a bit frustrating if you already have a professional subscription. Also, even though Wix is a simple website builder for total beginners, some editor options can be intimidating at first.
When I announced the launch of my website, more than 20 people wrote to me, asking for contact from an agency that did the design. When they heard that it was only me, using Wix, they couldn’t believe it. So that’s why I would recommend this website builder to other users.
Ksenia Ponka Homepage

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

Users found that Wix is one of the easiest builders to use.

Find out more

Design Flexibility

Who Offers More Creative Control?
squarespace logo
The Winner

Squarespace has better design flexibility

Squarespace offers quality designs, tons of customization options, and flexibility in spades, scoring an impressive 4.7 out of 5 in our latest research. While Wix has over 800 attractive, customizable templates, not all its designs have the wow-factor that Squarespace’s template designs do.
Visit Squarespace
Design
Wix Squarespace
Score 4.6/5 4.7/5
Number of templates
800+ 153+
Can you switch later?


Mobile responsive?
✔️
✔️
Design verdict
Loser
Not all designs are as good as others
Winner!
The best designs on the market

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I first used Squarespace to build my website, Wellness Together, about a year and a half ago.
I like that Squarespace is user-friendly. This was really helpful when I initially started my business and had to create my own website, due to my limited budget. Fortunately, the user-friendly aspect allowed me to enhance my knowledge of web design.
If I could change one thing about Squarespace, I would change the access to templates once you’ve already created your website.
I would recommend Squarespace because I find it to be very user-friendly. Plus, it’s easy to access support, whether it be through the Help Center or by contacting a representative.
Wellness Together Contact

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

While both Wix and Squarespace have great-looking templates, you’re going to want to make them your own.

Wix makes this really easy with its simple drag-and-drop editor. You can replace text and images, add slideshows, and drop in contact forms aplenty, all with just a few clicks! However, as mentioned above, this can quickly become overwhelming if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want your site to look like.

Whilst providing more structured templates, Squarespace still gives you tons of creative freedom over your template. However, a lot of features do come included, so it’s a good idea to pick one that suits your website in addition to looking incredible.

If you want to really customize your site with Squarespace, you can! With Squarespace’s CSS Editor, for example, you can change fonts, colors and backgrounds to make them totally unique.

One of the biggest downsides of using Wix is that once you’ve selected your template and used it to publish your website, you can’t switch it. You’ll have to rebuild your content if you want to give your site a different look, which is time consuming and fiddly.

Squarespace used to let you switch your template, but its latest version (7.1) doesn’t. This is because it’s now designed to remove any need to switch – all templates can accommodate every feature and design element, making it easier to rebrand without starting from scratch.

While neither Wix or Squarespace let you switch templates, Squarespace has developed its templates to make changing your design easier. With Wix, it’s possible, but a lot more work.

Squarespace wins in our design flexibility research, scoring 4.7 out of 5.

Find out more

Pricing and Value for Money

Where Should You Invest?
squarespace logo
The Winner

Squarespace offers better value for money

Squarespace has four price plans starting at $16 per month. Since the recent pricing updates, both Squarespace and Wix offer the same starter plan price – but Squarespace overall knocks value out of the park. Even though Wix offers a free package, it still can’t beat Squarespace when it comes to value for money!
Visit Squarespace
Pricing
Wix Squarespace
Score 3/5 4.6/5
Free plan or free trial?
Free plan
14-day free trial
Number of plans
4 4
Starting price
$16 $16
Personal plans
Light: $16
Core: $27
Personal: $16
Business plans
Business: $32
Business Elite: $159
Business: $23
Ecommerce plans
Core: $27 (Basic ecommerce)
Business: $32 (Standard ecommerce)
Business Elite: $159 (Advanced ecommerce)
Business: $23
Basic Commerce: $27
Advanced Commerce: $49
Enterprise package
✔️ ✔️
Pricing verdict
Loser
Wix hasn't expanded its feature offering in line with its price increase.
Winner!
Squarespace offers better value for money.
*Prices reflect the equivalent monthly cost of annual plans. So Wix’s $16 per month plan is actually charged as an upfront fee of $192 for the whole year. Month-by-month plans are also available for both builders, but are more expensive.

Is Wix or Squarespace Cheaper?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Liking the sound of Squarespace? Here’s how you can save 10%… 

squarespace logoSave 10% when you sign up* for any Squarespace plan with our exclusive discount code! Simply enter code WBE at the checkout to claim your 10% discount!

*Valid for your first purchase or upgrade

Find out more

Ecommerce

Which is Best For Selling Online
wix logo
The Winner

Wix comes with better selling tools

With Wix, it’s super easy to add ecommerce functionality to your website, and you can install a wide variety of apps to support your operations. Squarespace is a great ecommerce option, but it has a smaller app store and loses this round.
Visit Wix
Ecommerce Features
Wix Squarespace
Sales Features Rating 4.4/5 3.4/5
Main Payment Options
Wix Payments
PayPal
Stripe
Square
PayPal
Stripe
Apple Pay
Product types
Physical
Digital
Services via the Wix Bookings app
Physical
Digital
Service
Subscriptions
✔️
✔️
Abandoned Cart Recovery
✔️
✔️
Transaction Fees
0%
0% - 3%
Product Limit
Unlimited
Unlimited
Stock Management
✔️
✔️
Automatic Tax Calculator
✔️
❌ (Requires TaxJar integration)
Ecommerce verdict Winner!
Scalable for small online stores
Loser
Less choice of ecommerce plans and tools

Both Wix and Squarespace come with built-in ecommerce tools, to help you build your ideal online store.

Wix ecommerce offers:

  • 0% commission fee
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Up to 50GB of storage
  • No Wix ads
  • Google Analytics
  • Wix ecommerce apps

Squarespace offers:

  • 0% transaction fees
  • Unlimited bandwidth and storage
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Gift card creation
  • Customer accounts

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

Good to Know…

Wix charges no transaction fees on any of its ecommerce plans, while Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee on its cheapest $23 per month Business plan. Once you upgrade to Squarespace’s $27 per month plan, you’ll enjoy 0% transaction fees.

Wix Squarespace
Ecommerce Pricing Plans (billed annually) •Core: $27/month (Basic ecommerce)
•Business: $32/month (Standard ecommerce)
•Business Elite: $159/month (Advanced ecommerce)
•Business: $23/month
•Basic Commerce: $27/month
•Advanced Commerce: $49/month

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

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

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

Wix is one of the best-rated builders for selling online.

Find out more

Features and Tools

What Will Your Site Be Able to Do?
wix logo
The Winner

Wix has better features

Wix scores the highest for features in our research out of all the builders we’ve tested. It has an impressive range of features, backed by the Wix App Market’s extra tools. However, although Wix scores higher, Squarespace’s in-house features are well designed, can save you hassle, and are a fantastic option too.
Visit Wix
Features
Wix Squarespace
Score 4.8/5 4.6/5
Storage
500MB+
Unlimited
Industry-specific features (e.g. menus, RSVP forms, etc.)
✔️
✔️
Edit from mobile?
✔️
✔️
Best For Small Businesses Portfolios
Features verdict
Winner!
Huge range of helpful features
Loser
High quality features, but more reliance on third party integrations

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

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

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

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

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

Wix has the best website features out of all the builders we tested.

Find out more

Apps and Integrations

Which Extras Are On Offer?
wix logo
The Winner

Wix has a more extensive app store

There’s really no competition here. Squarespace’s extensions are all high quality and carefully chosen, but compared to Wix’s in-house and third-party apps, they’ve still got a little way to go before having a chance of winning this round.
Visit Wix
Apps
Wix Squarespace
App market?
✔️
✔️
Number of apps?
200+
31
Integrations with third parties?
✔️
✔️
Apps verdict
Winner!
Huge selection of apps and integrations
Loser
Smaller selection of third-party apps and integrations

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

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

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

wix app market
The Wix App Market lets you add extra functionality to your website, without any hassle.

Wix has hundreds of apps to browse.

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

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

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

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

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

squarespace app extensions
Squarespace Extensions has a small, high-quality range of third-party integrations to help get more out of your website.

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

Blogging

Which Is Better for Posting Online?
The Winner

It's a Tie!

Both Wix and Squarespace have a wide range of sophisticated blogging tools. Squarespace offers stunning blogging templates, while Wix’s app store makes it easy to expand your blogging functionality.
Blogging
Wix Squarespace
Score 5/5 5/5
Scheduled posts
✔️
✔️
Multiple authors
✔️
✔️
Comments ✔️ ✔️
Blogging verdict
It's a tie! It's a tie!

Once upon a time, Squarespace would have won this category outright, but recent improvements in Wix’s blogging features mean that it’s virtually impossible to pick a winner from these two.

Both received a score of 5 out of 5 for blogging in our research, and for good reason. Wix now offers writer profiles, blog-specific analytics, and blog SEO, alongside an archive, social sharing, and the ability to schedule your posts.

Wix Blog
You can edit your Wix blog from the frontend editor, or your Wix dashboard

Squarespace remains unbeaten when it comes to its stunning template designs. It, too, matches many of the features that Wix has to offer, and more.

Its blogging tools come ready to support teams and multi-author collaboration. There’s even a workflow feature to help you and your team stay on schedule, which lets you flag drafts as Needs Review to keep everyone in the loop.

However, it doesn’t come with an outright search bar (although you can add search fields which can help site visitors), which lets it down somewhat.

Squarespace Blog Settings
You can manage your blog settings from the left toolbar in the Squarespace editor.

Find out more

Marketing

How Can You Grow Your Site?
The Winner

It's a Tie!

Both Squarespace and Wix are great if you want to put together an all-around marketing strategy. Wix offers a free email marketing tool, apps such as Social Media Icons and Visitor Analytics, and Wix Ascend, a powerful marketing suite. While Squarespace also has an Email Campaigns feature, third party marketing apps, and social post creator.
Marketing
Wix Squarespace
Email marketing
✔️
✔️
Branded newsletters
✔️
✔️
Social media integration
✔️
✔️
Marketing verdict
It's a tie!
Generous, customizable marketing features
It's a tie!
Great features, including a video studio

One of the things we like most about Wix’s marketing tools is how customizable they are. For example, one of Wix’s main marketing features is Wix Email Marketing, which lets you run email campaigns to promote your website, blog, or business. This includes features such as:

  • Customizable styles – change your font, background, and more
  • Contact integration – add and store your contacts’ details
  • Stats tracker – see how many people open, view, and click your emails
  • Social media tools – share campaigns across social platform
wix shoutout email marketing
Wix’s email marketing services let you create customized emails in just a few clicks.

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

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

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

Squarespace’s Marketing Tools

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

Squarespace email marketing page with a laptop and green plant
Squarespace’s all-in-one email marketing platform is designed to help you send beautiful, on-brand emails.

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

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

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

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

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

SEO

Which Will Rank Better?
The Winner

It's a Tie!

Wix and Squarespace are neck-and-neck in this category, with both providing comprehensive SEO support throughout the building process. Thanks to its SEO Wiz, Wix is excellent for beginners, while Squarespace has a great selection of built-in SEO tools, including keyword support, as well as a useful SEO Checklist feature.
SEO
Wix Squarespace
Score 5/5 5/5
Built-in SEO tools
✔️
✔️
SEO support
✔️
✔️
Tailored SEO suggestions
✔️

Keyword Support
✔️
SEO verdict
It's a tie! It's a tie!

What Is SEO? 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and refers to the processes that help your website rank higher up in Google’s search result pages.

All sorts of things go into optimizing your website, including setting keywords and meta titles. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of those – this is exactly where our website builders can help.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out more

Help and Support

Who Has the Better Helping Hand?
squarespace logo
The Winner

It's a Tie!

Squarespace’s customer support and the Wix help center are the very best help and support we’ve tested. Both score full marks in this category due to a wide range of help and support features, including email, live chat, and on-site editor help. Both have comprehensive help centers, the real cherry on top.
Visit Squarespace
Help & Support
Wix Squarespace
Score 4.8/5 4.8/5
24/7 support
✔️
✔️
Live chat
✔️
✔️
Phone support
✔️

Email support
✔️
Help & support verdict
It’s a Tie!
Good support, but no email support
It’s a Tie!
Good support, but no phone support

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

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

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

squarespace support
Squarespace has a range of support options – its help center has guides, videos, webinars and forums, or you can contact the support team via email or live chat.

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

Wix on-page hints and tips
You can find these little question marks throughout the Wix editor.

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

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

Expert Insights

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

Expert Insights

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

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

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

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

Expert Insight

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

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

Wix vs Squarespace: Our Overall Winner

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

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

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

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

Who Do We Recommend Overall?

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

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

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

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

Wix is our top-rated website builder, scoring 4.8 out of 5.

Wix vs Squarespace: FAQs

Wix is the winner in terms of ease of use. It’s a pure drag-and-drop website builder with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Squarespace isn’t hard to use either, and it’s made some huge improvements to its UX recently, but Wix definitely has the edge in this contest.

Compare ease of use and more in our review of the Best Website Builders.

Squarespace has the best designs. If you’re looking at numbers alone, Wix has more templates to offer than Squarespace, with over 800 template designs. But despite having a smaller offering, Squarespace’s templates are more flexible, customizable, and beautiful – perfect for any budding creative!

According to our research, Squarespace offers slightly better value for money than Wix. Wix might have a free plan, but you’ll have to put up with Wix ads on your site whilst using it. To get rid of these, you’ll need to upgrade to Wix’s cheapest plan at the very least, which costs $16 per month. Comparatively, Squarespace’s entry plan is also $16 per month but comes with more generous features. You won’t be able to use Squarespace for free, but you will have a 14-day free trial to decide whether it’s right for you.

It’s a close call on this one, but Squarespace comes out on top. Its knowledge center is second to none, and it offers multiple ways for you to get in touch, such as live chat and email support. It doesn’t have a phone line, but you can expect a response from its team in just one hour. If you’d rather speak to someone directly, Wix is your best bet.

Wix scores a strong 5/5 for SEO on our comparison chart, with Squarespace coming in at 4/5. In Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, Wix is mentioned next to WordPress as being search engine friendly, so you have assurance from the best that your Wix site can make it up the rankings!

Website Builder Expert aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight. Click here for further information.
Written by:
headshot of Sam Jagger
Being a Writer for Website Builder Expert isn’t just typing words on a laptop. Each day, I’m finding new and innovative ways to help you get online in a mode you feel comfortable with. And it’s a task I do with enthusiasm and gusto. Not only do I have experience building with all the providers we talk about - creating websites such as this Strikingly demo - but we also have our wonderful, constantly updated research fielded by our researchers, so you can be reassured that what we say is an honest reflection of our professional opinions. I’ve written articles and featured guest posts for apps like UXPin on web design in the modern age, as well as answered over 100 user comments on the site and delved into the world of choosing a domain name and adding Bitcoin payments to your site in my own pitched articles. All of this is to say that when I want to get you online - I mean it! Outside the office, I have attended the eCommerce Expo and built up a ton of industry knowledge through talks, workshops, and guided learning sessions with noted experts. The internet is made for everyone, so come online and let us help you get there.
Researched by:
natasha_willett
I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.
As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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