Building a website is a long process already as it requires you to figure many things out. Now, add that to knowing which website builder to use. The whole process gets even much more complicated. Website builders have differences ranging from the editors to the themes. The choice for most people boils down to either Wix or Squarespace and understandably so, as we shall see here.
Combined, Wix and Squarespace power 55% of the websites on the internet. There are several no-code website builders in the market, but our two builders stack up well, as you can see more in this detailed comparison. Wix gives you a functional site at no charges, whereas with Squarespace, the service is free for only the first 14 days of using the builder.
To decide which is best for your needs, it is essential to know their features – and that’s what’ll focus on in this article.
Ease of Use
Both of these builders are easy to use except that they achieve this using slightly different approaches. They have a drag-and-drop editor, but Wix lets you control everything – good and bad alike. You literally get almost-complete creative freedom with Wix, which can be beneficial if you know your way around it or messy if you don’t. The Wix ADI comes in handy in making layout decisions.
Squarespace only gives you significant but not total control. You can drag the content of any kind to any region on the page, but these regions are predefined. This means you can’t realign them as the builder has less raw flexibility.
Templates
Wix offers you over 500 website template categorized into different groups. These groups help significantly simplify the work for you when choosing a template. Seeing as the editor gives you massive control, you can customize these templates to your liking.
The downsides here? You’re stuck with a template after choosing it. Also, the templates aren’t mobile-responsive. Instead, you get a mobile version that you can tweak in a separate editor. You are forced to rebuild your site from the get-go if you want to switch to another template.
Squarespace gives you some templates, but they are just variations of each other in a way (at least starting from version 7.1). The advantage is that you can customize the template you choose without losing progress or switching to an entirely new one.
Apps and add-ons
Here, I’ll need you to pay a little bit more attention. Squarespace seamlessly integrates service, whereas Wix basically has apps to extend functionalities. No matter the plan you are subscribed to, Squarespace provides various additional services such as audio/video embedding, Apple News, Google AMP, social media integration, and Map blocks. Note that some services, such as marketing and e-commerce, are limited to the business plan.
Wix, contrarily, gives you a marketplace where Wix apps are available. A percentage of these apps, however, aren’t developed by Wix, and as a result, you may experience issues with aesthetic compatibility. That said, there are still many useful apps.
Pricing
No one, or so I think, hates the idea of getting good services for free. “Free” can, however, be tricky when it comes to website building. We advise looking at this from all possible angles while factoring all additional costs because the basic pricing can be misleading.
Wix has four plans on both website-level and business-level. Squarespace has four different plans, as well. You can check on the respective website for the features of each plan. Here is a breakdown:
| WIX | SQUARESPACE | |
| WEBSITE- LEVEL | BUSINESS-LEVEL | |
| Combo – $13 | Basic – $23 | Personal – $12 |
| Unlimited – $17 | Unlimited – $27 | Business – $18 |
| Pro – $22 | VIP – $49 | Basic commerce – $26 |
| VIP – $39 | Enterprise – $500 | Advanced commerce – $40 |
The above is per month rates when billed annually.
E-commerce
Note to sell either short; both builders have good e-commerce options. They all provide features such as automatic tax calculations, appointment scheduling, digital & physical products, import catalog, and accepting payments. They also work in similar ways – both have separate interfaces for store management. Besides, they also give you a variety of layout options to choose from.
Blogging
You can achieve a fully functioning blog using either builder, but there exist minor differences. The blog system is analogous to both. For Wix, though, the blog post editor is an entirely different interface. Squarespace gives you a satisfactory look at how your post will appear to site visitors – in this case, readers.
Marketing
Wix and Squarespace offer you the essential marketing tools, including email marketing, Google/Facebook ads, Logo makers, Social posting & sharing buttons, Google Analytics, and built-in analytics. In terms of numbers, Wix has a lot more marketing tools & apps.
SEO
Not to take anything from Squarespace, both do have SEO, but Wix does it better. Both give you the relevant tools to make your site rank highly. Wix offers more SEO-friendly page redirects and SEO-focused patterns, which allow you to change tags and URLs. You also have the option to use third-party SEO applications. Apart from that, you can optimize your site using Wix’s AI tool Wix SEO Wiz.
Generally, choosing between Wix and Squarespace comes down to the features and functionalities as listed above. With the differences as illustrated above, you should be in a better place to choose.