Wix vs. Squarespace – A Detailed 2023 Comparison

Wix and Squarespace have strong footholds in the website builder space. That's why I've closely watched these giants since they stepped into the zone. With experience using both to build simple and eCommerce sites, it's time to share the goodies.

In this advanced age, having a professional website is a MUST for any business to survive. After all, the audience lands on your website and forms their first impression of you. Hence, your website has to be visually pleasing, easy to navigate, and informative. Many website builders exist to facilitate building business websites.

Being leaders in their own right, each affords easy-to-use editors with built-in templates, making the website-building process easy and fast. Although both are solid website builder options with similarities, they are actually quite different in certain senses.  

Knowing which website builder fits you is crucial before building your online presence. Here’s how Wix and Squarespace compare:

Comparison Summary

Subscription Plans & Pricing

Verdicts: It Depends

• The final decision depends on your current and future business needs.
• Wix is cheaper for non-eCommerce users and comes with a free plan.
• Squarespace doesn't come with a free plan.

Wix Offers Overall Cheaper non-eCommerce Plans

Although both Wix and Squarespace are competitive, I find that Wix is ahead by a little in the non-eCommerce plans. Squarespace’s cheapest plan, Personal, at $16/month compared to the similar Wix’s Unlimited plan at $12.50/month. 

While Wix offers 10GB storage, Squarespace gives 30 mins video storage only. Other categories are comparable. Wix takes the lead at a lower price.

As for the eCommerce plans, the highest plan for Squarespace is $49/month, but Wix’s most expensive eCommerce plan is $35/month, which is way cheaper. That said, Squarespace charges a 0% transaction fee for the top two eCommerce plans, a costs saver. 

A processing fee applies for each payment you receive through Wix Payments. Squarespace leads here with its more sophisticated features in its eCommerce plans with a 0% transaction fee, although at a higher price.

Squarespace Plans are Less Complex

Also, Squarespace’s paid plans (although fewer) are less complicated than Wix's. Perhaps, what makes Squarespace stand out is its plans are overall more resource-rich when compared to Wix. I like that a toggle at Squarespace’s pricing page top informs you that the displayed pricing are annual figures. However, Wix chose to mention the same as a fine print at the bottom, which can be misleading.

Squarespace does not have a free plan, although they offer a 14-day free trial. Wix’s free plan (although with basic tools and features) is more than good enough for testing and even launching a simple blog. 

Comparing the similar non-eCommerce plans for both, I find that Wix has a little edge ahead of Squarespace due to its lower price with good enough features and resources to grow. However, Squarespace's eCommerce plans entice. 

The final decision depends on your current and future business needs.

Website Creation & Editing

Verdict: Wix Wins

• Wix supports traditional drag-and-drop website editing (Wix Editor) and A.I. powered site-building (Wix ADI).
• Wix offers total creative freedom; while Squarespace website editor is more structured and limited.

The Wix Editor is Powerful and Robust

What makes or breaks a website builder is its editor. Wix makes for a pure drag-and-drop by pixel editing. Since Wix is an unstructured editor, you can freely move anything to any space on the page. Wix’s editor is intuitive and powerful. There are many customization options to design your website exactly how you want.

However, such freedom and flexibility may be overwhelming for non-designers. Akin to giving you a blank canvas with everything you need on hand, Wix affords vast open-ended opportunities. Hence, Wix is preferred for an experienced web designer to harness Wix’s unlimited creative design freedom.

Learn how to create a website using Wix.

Squarespace Editing is More Structured

Conversely, Squarespace has a more structured drag-and-drop approach. Unlike Wix’s drag-and-drop anywhere feature, you can drag elements where you want but only drop them into specific columns and rows where they snap into Squarespace. 

Don't get me wrong – you still have customization options with Squarespace. However, you’ll have a more inherent and sensible structure that you must abide by with Squarespace.

With Squarespace’s Editor, you won’t enjoy as much creative freedom as Wix offers. That said, the grid-based design (although with less creative freedom) does the job well enough, making Squarespace suitable for newbies.

Although Wix can give you sensory overload, this can be good, especially when you’re experienced. I’d choose Wix over Squarespace because of its editor's unlimited creative design freedom. 

Pre-built Website Templates

Verdict: Wix Wins

• Squarespace has a couple of hundreds of templates, and Wix, on the other hand, has an impressive over 800 templates for you to choose from. 

Wix Offers Tons of Attractive Templates

Both Wix and Squarespace bring to the table tons of quality website templates. They are beautiful, professional, modern, and mobile-responsive. However, beauty is very subjective. Hence, some of you may prefer Squarespace templates over Wix’s, and others will swear by Wix’s templates. 

That said, Squarespace is known for its clean, modern, and carefully catered to the industry templates; overall, they are consistently good. On the other hand, Wix’s templates may not always be commendable. That said, while Squarespace has a couple of hundreds of templates, Wix has an impressive over 800 templates for you to choose from. 

Wix offers quantity and good-enough quality templates, while Squarespace provides quality ones. I would pick Wix as the winner because, with so many templates, my choices are numerous, and the chances of landing on an attractive and quality template suited to me are high.

eCommerce Features

Verdict: Squarespace Wins

• Squarespace excels in its overall eCommerce features, including checkout on your domain, advanced merchandising features, limited availability labels, advanced shipping, and discounts.

Squarespace Offers Sophisticated eCommerce Features

Wix and Squarespace allow physical and digital products. Both have built impressive eCommerce features lineups with good online sales experience. While Wix allows accepting payment from your clients in person, and through other offline methods such as bank transfers or cheques, Squarespace does not. 

Squarespace excels in its overall eCommerce features, including checkout on your domain, advanced merchandising features, limited availability labels, advanced shipping, and discounts. In general, Squarespace’s eCommerce features are more sophisticated than Wix's.

SEO & Marketing

Verdict: Wix Wins

• Wix supports diversified marketing and offers a much better SEO capabilities.

Wix Supports Diversified Marketing and SEO

Wix and Squarespace are good in their rights when helping you streamline your business efforts. You can find stunning mobile-responsive email layouts in Squarespace to suit your targeted audience. Squarespace Email Campaigns is an add-on feature to send branded marketing email campaigns from your website. 

Also, all Squarespace plans offer SEO features for site visibility and Video Maker (create and share pro-level videos to grow your audience and drive sales). All Squarespace eCommerce plans come with promotional pop-ups and banners too. 

Wix offers a range of promotion options, including email marketing campaigns, Facebook ads, discount coupons, and free promotional videos. Wix claims their email marketing boosts sales up to 149% higher revenue on average. Also, you can easily create Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns from your Wix dashboard. 

Customizable coupons and captivating pop-up banners are among the few to market your business to boost sales through Wix. Wix’s SEO Wizard kick-starts your SEO strategy via an SEO setup checklist customized just for your business. While Wix Photo Studio enhances your images, Wix Video Maker creates videos for you. Also, integrate with Google Business Profile for local search visibility. 

I would go with Wix due to its diversified marketing and SEO capabilities. 

Additional Apps and Integrations

Verdict: Wix Wins

• Wix offers a dedicated App Market with over 300 web apps.
• Squarespace’s extensions are of high quality, they are much less than what Wix has to offer.

Wix offers a dedicated App Market with over 300 web apps, services, and features to expand your website and grow your business. There are in-house (Wix Stores, Wix Blog, and others) and third-party apps; most of them are free to use. However, some premium apps require a premium upgrade. Most apps are mobile-optimized and can be added through several clicks. 

Squarespace offers extensions, aka plugins, and third-party tools to enhance your website. You connect them on Squarespace Extensions. The extensions are by third parties and not Squarespace. 

Although Squarespace’s extensions are of high quality, they are much less than what Wix has to offer; this makes for a more restricted website enhancement on Squarespace.

There's an obvious winner here. Wix takes the trophy. 

Final Thought: So Wix or Squarespace?

Here comes the golden question. Would you go with Wix or Squarespace? You must know what you want and need, choosing between Wix and Squarespace. Wix gives you everything on the plate with much customizability every step of the way. You also have tons of templates to peruse, lots of apps to enhance your website and oceans of drag-and-drop editing options.

Squarespace gives you some flexibility, customization options, and sophisticated eCommerce features. That said, you’ll be somewhat restricted when designing since it is a structured editor. However, this makes everything simple and understandable; you won’t need to crack your head much. 

While both are good for business websites, Wix excels in its in-depth customization editor with rich features, loads of templates, and others.

More Details About Wix

Wix has garnered over 200 million customers worldwide; this is not surprising given its highly customizable drag-and-drop website builder and comprehensive features. You can have a professional website up within hours with zero coding knowledge. Many commented that the website builder was streamlined and easy to use. The many powerful apps help extend website functionality.

Wix Business and eCommerce Plans

More Details About Squarespace

Squarespace offers a straightforward path to building your website through its industry-leading structured editor. Unlike Wix, Squarespace offers much fewer templates. However, their mobile-friendly templates are stunning and customizable. They are crafted to match the respective industries well. Squarespace excels in its advanced and unique eCommerce features. 

Squarespace eCommerce Plans

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