Wix vs Squarespace (2025): Which Website Builder Is Best for Your Business?

Choosing between Wix and Squarespace is not just about picking the easiest website builder — it’s about choosing a platform that can actually grow with your business goals.

Whether you’re launching a small service business, a portfolio, a blog, or a full e-commerce store, the differences between Wix and Squarespace can impact your site’s success.

In this detailed guide, we break down every key factor, with real data, examples, and use case recommendations, so you can make the best choice. We’ll compare the key features of Wix and Squarespace to help you make an informed decision.

4.7

(29)

Price – Starting from

Light

$17

/mo

14-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Pros

• Wix-powered websites are fast
• Has intuitive drag-and-drop design features
• Digital marketing integrations are super easy

Cons

• One paid plan (except Enterprise) for only one site.
• Wix branding on Free plan

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3.8

(4)

Price – Starting from

Basic

$16

/mo

14-day FREE trial

Pros

• You can create up to 1,000 pages
• In-built SEO tools
• Free SSL certificates

Cons

• You can not publish your professional website on the free trial mode
• No free plan, only free trail period

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Market Presence & Usage

• Squarespace was taken private in 2024 by private equity firm Permira in a $6.9 billion all-cash deal. 
• As of the latest data, Squarespace is used by ~1.9% of the top 10 million websites (per W3Techs).
• Wix vs Squarespace together power a large share of the “website builder” category — for example, one site reports they account for ~55% of builder-based sites.

In reviews and rankings of 2025, Wix often ranks at or near the top for all-purpose builders; Squarespace is lauded for design strength and consistency.

These numbers show both are major players; the decision is more about trade-offs than viability. Both Squarespace and Wix dominate the website builder market, offering users robust options for building and managing their sites.

Wix Overview

Wix is one of the most flexible and widely used site builders. Its strengths lie in giving users control, a large app ecosystem through Wix’s app market, and advanced AI tools like Wix AI and Wix’s AI suite to speed up creation. Wix supports many industries, from portfolios to e-commerce, and offers a wide range of Wix templates and Wix template customization options using the intuitive Wix editor with drag-and-drop capabilities. The Wix dashboard serves as the central hub for managing all features, including SEO, analytics, and integrations.

Wix lets users extensively customize templates, menus, and navigation to create tailored Wix websites. For advanced users or agencies, Wix Studio is available as a feature-rich builder designed for agencies and enterprises. Wix’s plans range from Wix’s free plan, which allows you to get started at no cost but displays Wix ads and has limited features, to business and e-commerce options like the core plan, Wix’s core plan, and the business elite plan for unlimited storage and advanced capabilities. Wix Payments is available as a native payment solution for online transactions. Wix websites benefit from robust security features and Wix customer support, including 24/7 assistance.

You can start with Wix’s free plan and expand as your needs grow, but note that the free plan includes Wix ads and Wix branding.

AI / Generative Capabilities

Wix integrates AI features such as:

• Site generation & layout suggestions via Wix AI (Wix ADI)
• AI content generation (text drafts, marketing copy) using Wix’s AI
• Image AI tools (editing, background removal, enhancement)
• Meta/SEO AI helpers powered by Wix’s AI
• AI chatbot and business tools as part of Wix’s AI tool suite

AI chatbot and business tools as part of Wix’s AI tool suite

Because AI is built in, it’s seamless to use, though customization beyond AI output still often requires user tweaking.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

• The Wix editor offers “free placement” — you can drag elements anywhere on the page.
• The flexibility is powerful but can lead to design inconsistencies if not managed.
• For SMBs, Wix often allows launching a decent site quickly, without deep tech resources.

Wix lets users customize every aspect of their site’s design and navigation, making it easy to tailor templates, menus, and features to specific needs.

Pricing & Predictability

Wix’s plans are structured in tiers, allowing SMBs to choose the right fit for their needs and growth stage. Wix’s core plan serves as the entry-level e-commerce option, providing essential online selling features for businesses just starting out.

For those requiring more, the Business Elite plan offers unlimited storage and advanced features, making it ideal for large-scale e-commerce or media-rich websites. Wix’s free plan allows users to explore the platform at no cost, but it comes with limitations, including Wix ads displayed on your site and restricted features. Some paid plans include a free domain for the first year and the option to connect a custom domain, which enhances your site’s professionalism. Add-on costs (such as apps, increased traffic, and advanced features) can accumulate.

Scalability & Limitations

• Wix’s infrastructure handles most SMB load levels.
• Wix also provides integrated tools for sales, marketing, and customer management, supporting business scalability.
• But as your site becomes more complex (custom logic, large databases, specialized integrations), you may bump into limitations in backend access or app architecture.
• Exiting Wix — migrating design + logic fully — is not easy.

Squarespace Overview

Squarespace focuses on e-commerce and design consistency, offering curated experiences and reducing decision fatigue for users. Its newer Fluid Engine (grid-based layout) gives more flexibility within structure, making Squarespace’s editor user-friendly and intuitive for layout customization.

Squarespace templates are professionally designed and curated for quality, with each Squarespace template providing a sleek, consistent look. However, there are fewer templates compared to Wix, which means less variety but more focus on design quality. When setting up a Squarespace site, users benefit from simplicity but may encounter limitations in features like multilingual support and pricing flexibility, unlike Wix.

The Squarespace plan structure includes several tiers, and choosing the right Squarespace plan is crucial for unlocking features such as ecommerce tools, marketing features, business features, and the built-in booking platform. Squarespace Basic and Squarespace’s basic plan serve as entry-level options, suitable for simple websites, though not necessarily Squarespace cheaper than Wix.

Squarespace Payments is the native payment gateway, supporting seamless transactions for online stores. Ecommerce features and ecommerce tools are integrated to support business growth, while generative ai tools assist with content creation and editing. Squarespace customer support is available through multiple channels, offering help via email, live chat, and a comprehensive help center.

Squarespace is ideal for a clean, polished site that’s easy to manage without extra apps.

AI / Generative Tools

Squarespace’s AI/automation tools include:

• Blueprint AI / Design Intelligence — guided onboarding to build site skeletons 
• Generative AI tools for content creation and editing, helping users simplify or tweak website text
• AI content generation (draft content, suggestions) 
• Workflow Triggers/automation based on patterns (e.g. user behavior)

The AI tools are helpful, though less “deep” than plugin ecosystems in more open platforms.

Ease & Onboarding

• Squarespace uses a structured, grid-based tool—Squarespace’s editor—which is user-friendly and helps ensure design consistency by snapping elements into place and preventing chaotic layouts.
• The onboarding via Design Intelligence asks brand/industry prompts to start you off with sections and styling. 
• Because templates and layouts are more constrained, it often reduces “decision overload” and helps maintain visual coherence.

Pricing & Cost

• The Squarespace plan structure includes several tiers, starting with Squarespace’s basic plan, also known as Squarespace Basic, which is the entry-level basic plan suitable for simple websites.
• Squarespace does not have a free forever plan; they offer a 14-day trial. All paid plans, including the basic plan, provide a free domain for the first year and allow you to use a custom domain for your site.
• Paid plans start around $16/month (when billed annually) for the Personal plan, which is the Squarespace Basic option.
• For e-commerce, higher Squarespace plans eliminate transaction fees or add advanced capabilities. While Wix is often considered more affordable, Squarespace cheaper pricing does not generally apply, as Squarespace is typically more expensive than Wix for similar features.

Scalability & Limitations

• Squarespace provides robust performance for many SMB sites, but deep customization (custom server logic, unusual APIs) is constrained.
• For service-based businesses, Squarespace includes a built-in booking platform, making it easy to manage appointments and reservations directly through your website.
• If your business evolves into needing heavy custom integrations, you may feel limited by the closed architecture.

Wix vs Squarespace: Quick Overview

Insight: For design flexibility and template variety, Wix wins with its extensive Wix templates and customization options, making it the winner Wix for users seeking creative control. Squarespace templates are ideal for those who prefer curated, polished designs and don’t mind fewer templates.

Wix vs. Squarespace Key Differences

1. Ease of Use

Wix

• True drag-and-drop: The Wix editor is a user-friendly, drag-and-drop tool that lets you move anything anywhere on the page.
• Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence): Auto-builds a site for you.
• Learning curve: Very low — users can publish in under an hour.
• Flexibility downside: Beginners sometimes make messy designs without guidance.
• Customization: Wix lets users customize every aspect of their site’s design, from templates to menus and navigation, making it highly flexible.

Squarespace

1. Structured editor: Squarespace’s editor is a structured, grid-based tool that keeps layouts clean and professional automatically.
2. No “blank canvas” freedom: More rigid but better for branding.
3. Learning curve: Slightly steeper, but less risk of poor-looking pages.

Insight: Wix is like a blank art canvas; Squarespace is like coloring inside beautiful lines.

💡 Insight: Wix is like a blank art canvas; Squarespace is like coloring inside beautiful lines.

2. Design, Templates, and Branding

Real-world numbers:

• Wix claims 200 million users globally (Source: Wix Investor Relations).
• Squarespace powers about 3.79 million websites (Source: BuiltWith 2025).

💡 Insight: If brand consistency and luxury feel matter most (especially for portfolios, agencies, and photography), Squarespace wins.

3. E-commerce Features: What You Can (and Can’t) Sell

Wix

• Best for small stores: Up to a few hundred products.
• Selling digital goods: Supported (music, ebooks, online courses).
• Multi-currency: Only via third-party apps.
• Subscriptions/memberships: Available with paid add-ons.
• Dropshipping: Supported via Modalyst, Spocket apps.
• Ecommerce tools and features: Includes a wide range of ecommerce tools and ecommerce features for online selling, such as product management, inventory tracking, and marketing integrations.
• Wix Payments: Offers Wix Payments as a native payment processing solution, supporting multiple payment methods and competitive fees.
• Wix’s core plan: The core plan allows you to accept payments and sell products, making it a solid entry-level option for new online businesses.

Squarespace

• Stronger inventory management: Good for selling 500+ SKUs.
• Selling services: Natively supported.
• Subscriptions: Built-in for recurring billing (ideal for SaaS, coaching).
• Gift cards: Available by default.
• Limited dropshipping: Limited integrations compared to Wix.
• Squarespace Payments: Uses Squarespace Payments as its native payment gateway, though it has more limited payment options compared to Wix Payments.
• Core plan: The core plan provides essential e-commerce features for starting an online store.

When comparing business features and marketing features, both Wix and Squarespace offer robust business features like SEO tools, social media integration, and analytics, as well as marketing features such as email marketing and automation to help grow your audience and business.

💡 Insight: Squarespace is much better if you plan on recurring revenue models (subscriptions, memberships).

4. SEO Capabilities

Both Wix and Squarespace offer strong SEO tools, but their philosophy is different:

Wix provides a built-in SEO checklist that guides users step-by-step through optimizing their site for better visibility in search engines. It also uses AI tools to automatically generate optimized meta descriptions for your pages, helping improve your site’s ranking in search engines. Additionally, Wix offers Google Search Console integration, allowing you to track clicks, impressions, and overall SEO performance directly from your dashboard.

Important stat:

Pagespeed heavily affects SEO. Squarespace sites often score 85–90/100 mobile performance on Google’s PageSpeed Insights out of the box, while Wix averages 70–80/100 unless manually optimized.

💡 Insight: Squarespace wins if you want SEO power with minimal manual work.

5. Blogging Features

💡 Insight: If blogging is critical to your marketing (content-heavy sites, personal brands, SaaS blogs), Squarespace is significantly better.

6. Pricing

Important:

• Wix: Has a free plan (Wix ads + Wix branding). Wix’s free plan lets you try the platform with limited features, but your site will display Wix ads and you cannot use a custom domain.
• Squarespace: Only a 14-day free trial, then mandatory paid plan. The entry-level Squarespace Basic plan is suitable for simple sites, but you must upgrade to a paid Squarespace plan to go live

Some paid plans on both platforms include a free domain for the first year and allow you to connect a custom domain for a more professional website.

💡 Insight: Wix is better if you want to start completely free with Wix’s free plan, but your site will show Wix ads. Squarespace offers more value at mid-level business plans (especially $36/month Commerce plan). When comparing costs, Squarespace is not cheaper than Wix at the basic plan level, but their features are similar. Note: Neither Wix nor Squarespace are the most affordable options for budget users.

7. Integrations and Extensions

💡 Insight: Wix gives you more flexibility (but sometimes more complexity); Squarespace offers simplicity at the cost of fewer outside tools.

8. AI Features: How Smart Are Wix and Squarespace?

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is becoming a big part of website building, helping users design faster, write content, and optimize marketing. Here’s how Wix and Squarespace compare when it comes to AI-powered tools:

9. Analytics & Business Insights

• Wix offers a centralized Wix dashboard that serves as the hub for analytics, business management, and access to integrated SEO tools. It provides traffic, user metrics, e-commerce stats, and seamless integrations with Wix Analytics & BI and third-party tools. Wix also includes a range of business features and marketing features—such as email marketing, automation, and analytics—to help you track performance and grow your site.
• Squarespace includes analytics dashboards, site analytics, and integration with external analytics (Google Analytics, etc.), along with various business and marketing features to support your website’s growth.
• While both give basic business insights, the depth and flexibility are less than what more open systems allow. But for many SMBs, these built-in dashboards are sufficient.

10. Customer Support and Service

When it comes to customer support, both Wix and Squarespace aim to help users get the most out of their website builders, but their approaches differ significantly.

Wix offers a robust support system, including 24/7 phone support, live chat, and email assistance. This means that whether you run into a technical issue late at night or need quick advice during business hours, Wix’s team is just a call or chat away. Their extensive knowledge base and community forums also make it easy to find answers on your own.

Squarespace, while also providing high-quality service, focuses on 24/7 email support and live chat, but does not offer phone support. This can be a drawback for users who prefer speaking directly to a support agent. Squarespace’s help center is well-organized and their written responses are thorough, but the lack of phone support may slow down urgent troubleshooting.

Overall, Wix offers a more comprehensive and accessible support experience, making it a better choice for users who value immediate, multi-channel assistance. Both Wix and Squarespace deliver reliable service, but Wix’s customer support stands out for its responsiveness and range of options.

11. Website Performance and Uptime

Website performance and uptime are crucial for any business relying on a website builder. Both Wix and Squarespace deliver strong reliability, with Wix boasting a 99.99% uptime rate and Squarespace offering a 99.98% uptime rate. While these numbers are nearly identical, Squarespace is often praised for its consistently fast loading speeds and efficient caching, which can enhance user experience and search engine rankings.

Wix’s performance can vary depending on how complex your Wix website is and how many features or apps you add from the Wix App Market. Heavier sites may experience slower load times, so it’s important to optimize your content and features.

Squarespace, on the other hand, maintains steady performance across different types of sites, making it a solid choice for businesses that prioritize speed and reliability.

On the SEO front, both website builders offer essential SEO tools, but Wix takes the lead with more advanced features. Wix’s integration with Google Search Console, automatic sitemap creation, and detailed SEO settings give users more control over their site’s search engine visibility. If advanced SEO tools and integration with Google Search Console are priorities, Wix is a strong contender.

12. Membership Sites and Multilingual Support

For businesses looking to build membership sites or reach a global audience, both Wix and Squarespace offer relevant features, but with notable differences. Wix’s membership site capabilities are more advanced, allowing you to create multiple membership levels, offer exclusive content, and provide discounts to members. This flexibility is ideal for businesses that want to monetize content or build a community.

Squarespace offers membership site features as well, but they are somewhat more limited in terms of customization and tiered access. However, Squarespace still provides a streamlined way to create members-only content and manage subscriptions, making it suitable for simpler membership models.

When it comes to multilingual support, Wix stands out with its ability to create fully translated versions of your website and even automate content translation. This makes it easier to reach international customers and manage multiple language versions from a single dashboard. Squarespace offers multilingual options, but they are less advanced and may require more manual setup.

If your business needs robust membership features or plans to serve a multilingual audience, Wix offers more comprehensive solutions than Squarespace.

13. Mobile App and Mobile Optimization

Managing your website on the go is essential for modern businesses, and both Wix and Squarespace offer mobile apps to help you stay connected.

Wix’s mobile app is particularly feature-rich, allowing you to edit website content, manage online store orders, track analytics, and even interact with site visitors—all from your smartphone. This makes it easy to keep your business running smoothly, no matter where you are.

Squarespace also provides a mobile app, which covers the basics like editing content and managing orders, but it’s not as comprehensive as Wix’s offering. Still, it’s a solid tool for making quick updates or checking in on your site’s performance.

In terms of mobile optimization, both website builders provide responsive templates that automatically adjust to different devices and screen sizes. However, Wix takes mobile optimization a step further by letting you create separate mobile versions of your site and fine-tune content specifically for mobile users. This level of control can be a big advantage for businesses that want to deliver a seamless experience on every device.

For those who prioritize mobile management and advanced mobile optimization, Wix offers more flexibility and features than Squarespace.

Final Recommendation: Who Should Choose Wix vs Squarespace?

Bottom line:

• Use Wix if you want the easiest, freest way to start, especially if your site is mainly informational or smaller e-commerce. When it comes to design freedom and business features, Wix wins, making it the winner Wix for users who value flexibility and app integration.
• Use Squarespace for a gorgeous, brand-first site with serious blogging or e-commerce capabilities. Unlike Wix, Squarespace offers built-in advanced blogging tools and elegant templates tailored for creatives.
• Both Squarespace and Wix provide strong core features, reliable security, and customer support, making them top choices for most users.
• However, neither Wix nor Squarespace is the most affordable option, and neither platform offers automated migration, so budget users may want to consider alternatives.
• Best for Beginners: Wix
• Best for Polished Design: Squarespace
• Best for Growing an Online Store: Squarespace
• Best for Testing Free: Wix
• Best for Serious Blogging: Squarespace

Wix vs Squarespace FAQ

1. Is Wix or Squarespace better for beginners?

Wix is better for beginners who want total creative freedom without coding. Its drag-and-drop editor is intuitive and easy to learn, while Squarespace’s structured editor has a slightly steeper learning curve but keeps designs polished.

2. Can I sell products on both Wix and Squarespace?

Yes, both platforms support online selling. Wix is great for small stores and selling digital products, while Squarespace offers stronger built-in tools for larger stores, subscriptions, and scaling e-commerce businesses.

3. Does Wix have better SEO than Squarespace?

Both offer strong SEO tools, but Squarespace usually provides faster page load speeds and cleaner default site structures, which can give it a slight SEO advantage out of the box.

4. Which platform has a better free option?

Wix offers a free forever plan (with ads and Wix branding), while Squarespace offers only a 14-day free trial. If you want to start completely free, Wix is the better choice.

5. Can I switch from Wix to Squarespace later?

It’s possible, but not automatic. You’ll need to manually rebuild your site on Squarespace since there’s no direct import tool between Wix and Squarespace.