Wix vs Squarespace: Which Website Platform Should You Choose?

Wix vs Squarespace: Which Website Platform Should You Choose?
  • By Maddy Osman
  • August 23, 2020

Who wins between Wix vs Squarespace? It’s hard to say without knowing your specific use case.

Measured by the number of users, Squarespace is the closest competitor to Wix in the website builder space.

According to BuiltWith, there are currently more than three million active websites running on Wix and approximately two million being supported by Squarespace.

That’s a lot of users who turn to these two platforms for their website needs.

Many web hosting companies offer some type of website builder component as a complementary service to standard hosting packages. Website builders have grown in popularity because they allow non-technical business owners to build their own websites quickly and efficiently.

Wix and Squarespace are the most popular managed website platforms on the market and each has fairly earned its place.

If you’re conflicted regarding which one to use for your new website, that’s probably for a good reason. On the surface, the differences between Wix vs Squarespace seem negligible.

On average, Wix is rated as the more beginner-friendly alternative of the two website builder tools — offering more freedom in terms of customization and usability.

Using Wix, you can start working on your website after lunch and have it running by dusk.

Of the two, Squarespace is praised as being the more modern website building platform and many experts agree that it offers some of the most aesthetically pleasing design options on the market.

As a downside, Squarespace takes some getting used to because it’s not as straightforward and easy to use as Wix.

While both Squarespace and Wix can be great website builders for certain projects, it’s clear that they represent completely different product experiences.

Let’s take a look at the major differences between Wix vs Squarespace.

Wix vs. Squarespace: Determining Your Best Fit

Before you try to make the major decision to go all-in on one website building platform, you have to know what you’re looking for, feature-wise.

This list of must-have items will help you determine which platform is better for you in terms of Wix vs. Squarespace. We’ll evaluate the most important aspects of functionality and ultimately, which builder checks more boxes.

So what are you looking for?

A primary consideration is that you want the pricing to be right. Clear information about available plans and corresponding features will allow you to decide if any given tool is within budget. But besides being able to afford your website building tool of choice, you also want it to be easy to use.

Your ideal tool should allow you to create a website that’s uniquely yours, with a custom design, and not get in the way of SEO best practices. Because your website is an important lead generation tool (or order processing tool), you want to be assured of stand-by technical aid in case there are ever any issues that compromise your website.

Many modern business owners also want the option to create a blog. And even if you’re not ready for it right away, you may also want the option to eventually launch ecommerce functionality.

It’s important to know what you want going into the process so that you can find a website builder that can scale with you.

In summary, the major parameters to compare Squarespace vs. Wix are:

  • Pricing
  • Editing process
  • Customization options
  • SEO capabilities
  • Access to support
  • Blogging functionality
  • Ecommerce functionality

Here’s how Wix vs. Squarespace compare in terms of these various elements:

Wix vs. Squarespace: Pricing

Both Wix and Squarespace offer multiple different packages for various needs and business stages.

Wix pricing is as follows:

Wix vs Squarespace — Wix pricing plans

There are additional plan offerings for businesses with bigger needs or those that have a desire to implement ecommerce functionality:

Wix vs Squarespace — Wix pricing plans

Squarespace pricing is as follows, with a more narrow breadth of plan options:

Wix vs Squarespace — Squarespace pricing plans

Comparing Squarespace pricing versus Wix pricing, there’s not much of a difference. If you wanted to go with the cheapest option regardless, Squarespace is the winner at $12/month, paid annually.

But rather than shopping purely by price, you must compare plans based on the features most important for your business website.

Both Squarespace and Wix offer a free custom domain for a year but only Wix makes the distinction that the domain is free for this limited time frame. It’s also worth noting that Wix prices plans with consideration to various storage/bandwidth limits but Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, regardless of the plan.

Note that neither Squarespace nor Wix can accommodate a multi-level navigation structure. You’re limited to just one sublevel under your homepage, which means neither will be a great fit for enterprise websites or websites with a large number of pages.

Both Wix and Squarespace offer SSL certificates included, to enable HTTPS (which is a confirmed Google ranking signal).

Squarespace vs Wix: Ease of Use with Website Edits

Wix has what is referred to as an unstructured editor while Squarespace’s is structured.

To be more specific, Wix gives you a blank canvas and lets you import elements. It allows you to drag any element to any point on the screen. This setup is also referred to as a drag-and-drop editor.

Wix vs Squarespace — Wix site builder
Source

For those not well-versed in what functional design is supposed to look like, this level of freedom can result in designs that are neither beautiful nor functional. Though this type of editor gives the user creative freedom, problems can occur when elements overlap.

Correcting these issues can be tedious — especially when you’re negotiating the difference between something that looks good on a desktop computer versus a mobile device.

The nature of this site builder leads to a lot of code bloat, which means it’s hard to optimize Wix in terms of website performance.

Wix does offer another option for creating a functional and aesthetically pleasing design: Wix ADI. Wix ADI uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help users lay out pages according to design best practices.

In contrast, instead of a blank canvas of drag and drop elements, Squarespace offers a selection of web page design elements called Content Blocks.

You can move these Content Blocks across the page but there are limits to their movements. Squarespace confines users to a particular guiding structure. If you’re not a designer by trade, you may find that these restrictions actually help you flourish when it comes to creating a professional website design.

One particularly useful content block is the Menu Block. The unusual formatting of restaurant menus make them a challenge for creation within website builders. Squarespace fixed this issue for its users by creating a markup language that helps them create stylish menus automatically.

Here’s a look at the setup:

Wix vs Squarespace — Squarespace menu block

And the resulting formatting:

 

Wix vs Squarespace — Squarespace menu block

Wix has a larger selection of page elements but the variety of choice might be overwhelming to the user.

For more on why too many choices is rarely a good thing, make sure to watch Barry Schwartz’s TED talk: The Paradox of Choice:

Squarespace vs Wix: Design Customization

Themes provide a foundational template for the unique customization of your website.

While Wix offers more than 500 flexible theme designs, Squarespace offers a narrow selection of 70+ curated templates.

The advantage to Squarespace is that these designs can all be described as having premium quality. They are neat and modern, best suited to showcase stunning photos. They are also built with best practices for mobile design.

Wix vs Squarespace — Squarespace design options

Wix allows so much freedom that you can customize it to the point of creating your own theme on the platform. However, design customization on Wix makes it difficult to migrate into a new template in the future.

Wix vs Squarespace — Wix design options

To change to a new design, you’ll have to give up all of your content. To avoid that possibility, you’ll want to be pretty sure that the theme you choose is the one you want for the long-term.

Squarespace’s customization tool is more efficient, flexible, and straightforward to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU4IC7RVbc4

For further customization, Wix offers an App Market with over 200 free and paid apps. With Squarespace, all the features the platform has to offer are already integrated with the builder — there’s no need to go searching for additional solutions. The Squarespace Extensions marketplace empowers you to connect your website with third-party services.

Wix vs Squarespace: Built-in Support for SEO

Both website builders offer built-in SEO tools that claim to help your site rank better.

Wix has an SEO Guide with lots of information to help beginners and the Wix SEO Wiz that prescribes a personalized process to follow.  In general, they’ve made a lot of progress with support for SEO since their early days, but there’s still a lot missing in terms of Wix SEO.

Squarespace’s capabilities can be demonstrated through the implementation of their SEO Checklist, as well as access to other built-in tools and features. Its pages are designed to be SEO-friendly. However, it’s not as beginner-friendly as Wix and doesn’t offer personalized help.

Squarespace vs Wix: Technical Support

Wix and Squarespace are both committed to helping their customers navigate the complex process of website building. Their help centers offer plenty of useful resources on demand, such as articles and guides.

Wix users can also request support through email, social media, forums, the Help Center, and over the phone from 6am to 5pm PST.

On-page help while you make website edits is one of the Wix support features that stand out from the competition. If you need help at any time, all you have to do is click a question mark on your screen.

Squarespace does not offer support within the editor. Instead, it offers a resourceful help center with webinars, videos, and a community forum. There’s no phone support but there is a live chat function you can use from 3am to 8pm EST during business days. Additionally, a 24/7 email response team guarantees you a reply within one hour.

Wix vs Squarespace: Blogging Functionality

The option to add a blog is included with every Wix plan and activating a basic blog is a very straightforward process.

Wix offers a number of useful built-in blogging features including the ability to send related email campaigns and RSS feed functionality. If you’re planning to maintain a multi-author blog, note that this is a standard Wix feature. More advanced blogging functionality can be implemented with the Wix App Market.

One thing worth mentioning is that you can’t use all H1-H6 headings on a Wix or Squarespace blog, to define subtopics (and subtopics of subtopics). This is a missed opportunity for those wanting to share longform content with easily scannable section titles.

Squarespace’s blogging features are built-in by default. Users’ favorite features include scheduled sharing and multi-author support. Squarespace’s designs are ideal for blogs that incorporate lots of visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMOsuJGuPykhttp://

Squarespace vs Wix: Ecommerce

If you want to make sales through your website, you’ll need your website platform to offer some ecommerce features.

Wix sells three ecommerce plans, with tools and guidance for how to set up your store. If you require further customization options or ecommerce capabilities, you can find more complementary tools on the Wix App Market.

Squarespace’s designs make it especially ideal for showcasing products. Three of its plans support ecommerce functionality. The base level ecommerce plan is designed for standard websites that need to sell a narrow variety and quantity of items (like a handful of digital products) while the other two levels are more ideal for building complex ecommerce stores.

Between the two, Wix offers a slightly cheaper monthly plan price for access to ecommerce functionality.

There’s no clear winner when it comes to ecommerce on Squarespace vs Wix, as neither are the perfect fit for a business primarily focused on ecommerce.

With that in mind, if the main purpose of your website is ecommerce, you might want to look beyond Wix and Squarespace for a solution. BigCommerce and Shopify, for instance, are much better managed ecommerce platforms touted for their ease of use.

If your needs are simple, both Squarespace and Wix can handle the basics. It’s certainly better to launch a basic ecommerce shop than to obsess over the details to the point that you never get your store live.

Wix vs. Squarespace: Is There a Clear Winner?

Wix and Squarespace are great website builders and even greater competitors. However, you might have noticed that their unique capabilities make them suitable for completely different users and businesses.

Wix, with its beginner friendly editor and creative freedom gives anyone a chance to test their imagination without worrying about technical ability. Squarespace, on the other hand, offers sophisticated designs that act as a solid foundation for a creative with a clear plan.

Understating the differences between both tools helps you determine which one best suits your situation. But ultimately, the decision you make should be based on your unique needs.

In general, Wix is for you if you’re a beginner and want to get your website live quickly. Squarespace is great for you if you’re a creative with some degree of technical confidence and are willing to spend some time mastering the tool.

How Does WordPress Compare to Squarespace and Wix?

If you don’t know the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, the gist for the sake of this article is that WordPress.com is a managed platform and WordPress.org offers more flexibility thanks to the fact that you can host it on any platform that can support it.

While Wix and Squarespace are website builders, WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS), and quite a successful one too. WordPress powers 35% of the internet and the platform is still growing, with a market share that rose from 58.8% to 61.8% between 2016 and 2019.

Before website builders became as popular as they are today, WordPress was a go-to platform for building a website.

WordPress is not as straightforward to use for beginners than Wix or Squarespace. Though some people prefer simpler solutions, this doesn’t mean people have turned away from WordPress.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite situation, as more than 500 websites are built on WordPress every day, compared to 80 sites per day built on platforms such as Wix and Squarespace.

Despite not being as easy to use as Wix or Squarespace, WordPress offers an advanced level of control that many people value. With a background in coding and access to various theme designs and plugins, this means total freedom to customize (and also full responsibility for the result).

Final Thoughts: Which Website Platform Should You Choose?

Both Wix and Squarespace offer an easier alternative to building a website, with the former designed to help complete beginners and the latter curated for more guided use.

On the other hand, WordPress, although not as easy to use as its competitors, offers website design freedom on a whole new level.

If you’re a beginner and want to publish your website as quickly as possible, Wix is a great choice. If you’re a creative and want a website where you can showcase your work in a professional way, you might want to dedicate some time to learning how to use Squarespace. The benefits the platform offers your website outweigh the learning curve when compared to Wix.

Lastly, if you have coding experience or the budget to hire someone who does, you can create a more robust website on WordPress.

Used/using either Wix or Squarespace? Thoughts?

Wix vs Squarespace: Which Website Platform Should You Choose? 1

Maddy Osman is an SEO Content Strategist who works with clients like AAA, Automattic, Kinsta, and Sprout Social. Her background in WordPress web design contributes to a well-rounded understanding of SEO and how to connect brands to relevant search prospects. Learn more about her process and experience on her website (www.the-blogsmith.com) and read her latest articles on Twitter (@MaddyOsman).

Keep reading the article at WinningWP. The article was originally written by Maddy Osman on 2020-08-23 11:02:26.

The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the product, We may receive an affiliate commission.

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