If you are looking for a website builder, you likely have come across Wix and Squarespace. Both are leading website builders worldwide and for new business owners, it is often hard to determine which one to choose. If you're weighing whether a Wix vs Squarespace website is right for your business, we've got you covered.
When it comes to market share, Wix beats Squarespace hands down. According to Baclinko, the number of active users for Squarespace by the first quarter of 2021 was 3.79 million. On the other hand, a stats report published by ThriveMyWay shows that Wix crossed the 200 million users milestone in 2021.
The decision is likely not easy to make since both offer significant value overall to the user, but in a 30-second decision, we'd say Wix bests Squarespace by a very thin margin as it is simply easier to use and provides a more robust solution across multiple types of websites and use case. That being said, it is so close that Squarespace bests Wix if you're looking for a cheaper price or more features.
Category | Winner |
---|---|
Features | Squarespace |
Ease of Use | Wix |
SEO | Wix |
Ecommerce | Wix |
Pricing | Squarespace |
Overall | Wix |
But, the number of users should hardly ever be the deciding factor when it comes to choosing the best website builder for your business. Additionally, any comparison by the number of users might not be accurate as Wix offers a free plan while Squarespace offers a free trial only.
Wix vs Squarespace Overall Winner
Our in-house research and our use of both website builders thoroughly have concluded that when it comes to Wix vs Squarespace, Wix slightly outperforms.
We built both a Wix website and a Squarespace site, and the information below is based on this use. Let's dig into the key areas of comparison and let you decide which website builder is best for your needs.
Wix vs Squarespace – Features
Templates
Wix has over 800 templates, while Squarespace has only 138 templates. Users can find more website templates in Wix than in Squarespace, but how do they compare when it comes to quality, which is likely more important to most users?
When it comes to quality, Wix lacks the aesthetic feel that Squarespace offers with its templates. The templates offered by Squarespace are visually more appealing and modern-looking. Since the selection offered by Squarespace is less, it can be easier for a user to find a template that fits their needs in Squarespace.
Mobile Responsiveness
The templates of Squarespace are much more mobile responsive than Wix. The elements in Wix don't change position in the mobile version, while Squarespace follows a structured system that makes it responsive across all devices.
While designing with Wix, you have to work both on the desktop and mobile versions so it looks appealing to the users. To be fair, not all the elements need adjustments on the Wix mobile version. But, when it comes to mobile responsiveness, Squarespace easily outperforms Wix.
Switching Templates
Unfortunately, both Squarespace and Wix do not allow users to switch templates. Other website builders like WordPress and Shopify make it easy to switch templates even after installing one for a website.
Since the templates are more responsive in Squarespace, Wix users will likely face more issues with the template-switching restriction. It is comparatively easier to customize templates on Squarespace than on Wix.
Logo Maker
The Wix logo maker is very easy to use. Before creating the logo, the Wix logo maker will ask questions that make the process of logo creation easy. You don't need great editing skills to make a logo with Wix. Regarding editing features, Wix offers more editing capabilities to the images than Squarespace.
The Squarespace logo maker mainly offers three things you can edit: the tagline, the shape of the logo, and the brand name. The Wix logo maker allows for customization within the letter spacing, alignment of shapes, and many more areas. The font gallery of Wix is also considerably larger than that of Squarespace.
Content Management
It is very easy to import content into a Squarespace site. You can import text from other systems like WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr. it is also very easy to upload products from a CSV file in one go if you are running an online store on Squarespace.
With the Wix editor, you can use a CSV to import digital products to your Wix store. Regarding importing, Squarespace provides a better experience and an easier process. Squarespace lets you export up to 10,000 products, which is double Wix's 5,000 product export limit.
Images and Video Uploads
Uploading images from multiple social media accounts to a Wix website is possible. It is also possible to edit the images in many different ways, including an auto cut-out feature. Similarly, uploading images to a Squarespace site from various sources is easy.
Wix makes it painless to embed videos on your website. All you need to do is add a video element and copy-paste the link to the source. The player can be modified in Wix. Squarespace goes a step further when it comes to video uploads. While Wix only offers video embedding, you can actually upload your video to Squarespace.
Website Editor
Wix has three types of editors, while Squarespace has two different versions: 7.0 and 7.1. The Wix ADI lets a user create a website within minutes. The user has to answer some basic questions, and then the ADI automatically populates the website with content for the user.
The Wix website editor is easy to use, and many elements are available for the user to build a website from scratch without any coding knowledge. It is easy to customize a website template using the Wix editor. As a step up, the Velo editor offered by Wix allows developers to use custom JS to create websites.
While it is a bit harder to use the Squarespace editor, the website you are able to build with Squarespace requires fewer adjustments later. The websites that you design with Squarespace are typically cleaner and more responsive.
Stock Photographs
Both website builders allow using stock photographs sourced directly within their platforms. While Wix partnered with Shutterstock and provides one image for $3, Squarespace offers every image for around $10 from Getty.
In terms of pricing, Wix wins by a significant margin. But you can use free images from other stock photography websites anytime. Squarespace and Wix have a massive collection of free stock photographs you can use without paying a dime.
Need free images for your blog? Check out the best free image websites.
Custom Coding
If you know how to code, you might want to use your skills to make the website more appealing or add more functionality. Unfortunately, both Squarespace and Wix restrict users from getting full access to alter HTML and CSS.
However, with Squarespace, you can “play” more with the HTML and CSS than with a website developed on Wix. In the website builder market, having the ability to customize the HTML or CSS code is a great feature.
Even though Wix doesn't provide a CSS editor, you can use the HTML editor to input inline CSS code into your website.
Wix Pros
Flexible Price Plans
Wix provides users with nine pricing options, while Squarespace only offers four. You can build a free site using the Wix editor, which allows you to explore the interface before buying one of their paid plans.
You can choose to start with some of the basic or mid-range Wix plans when you are ready to take your business live but are not willing to spend on premium Wix plans just yet.
Wide Range of In-House Apps
Wix offers many advanced apps for free that let you create forms, and events, chat in real time with your visitors or allow users to place orders. All apps are easy to add to your Wix site. They are very customizable and easy to manage.
While most of the apps are free, you can choose premium apps from the Wix app market to meet your advanced business requirements. It is uncomplicated to run an online store using Wix. You can manage your inventory from one place.
Easy to Use
Wix makes it incredibly easy to start building your website within the first hour, even if you have never used a website builder before. Wix comes with a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to select and edit various elements from the panel.
The Wix editor is crisp and clean. You won't need to know HTML code to design a website using Wix. You won't need to know how to code for website building within Squarespace, either. But, for a beginner, Wix definitely is the best option.
Robust Backup Features
Your website designs are updated in Wix in real-time. You can easily create a backup of your Wix website. Wix also creates several restore points, which you can access from the settings of your website.
It is possible to manually create restore points so you can revert back to that point if anything goes wrong. This feature saves you from any unfortunate disasters and unforeseen events.
In-House Email Marketing Solution
Wix provides a built-in email marketing solution that can help communicate to your subscribers or improve the sales of your online store. Setting up campaigns and sending welcome emails to your customers is easy.
You can track how your emails are performing in the Wix dashboard. Wix lets you view critical email campaign signals like CTRs, which helps you know which of your emails are being read by the users.
Wix also comes with the option to chat live with your customers and integrate your brand with your social media networks on your website and within your emails.
Extensive Third-Party App Integration
The Wix app market has a whopping 200+ applications, including native and third-party apps. All the apps will help satisfy your website's need for added functionality. For example, you could use the Wix forum app to create and manage a forum to encourage peer-to-peer sharing of information on your website.
You could use the Wix bookings app to allow appointment booking within the site and the Wix events app to create and manage events. Using Wix apps will enable you to handle any online business needs.
Phone Support Available
Wix provides customer support through various mediums like emails, forums, and social media integration. When users need an urgent solution, they can call their phone support and talk to an agent directly.
Wix Cons
Very Limited Free Plan
Although it is better to have a free plan than not have it at all, there are only so many things you can do with the Wix free site plan. You can't get a custom domain name for your business or integrate payments, and you have to deal with Wix ads that look very unprofessional.
Any startup with a decent business plan needs to switch to Wix's paid options very soon.
Lacking Aesthetic Templates
The design of your website is very crucial in this modern age. Wix's templates simply feel underwhelming and lack the sophistication that most modern templates have. When it comes to templates, Wix has over 500 to choose from.
Quantity might not seem like a problem at first glance. But users might get confused when bombarded with the number of templates Wix has. Better designs might remain hidden from the eyes of the users, frustrating them even more.
Unresponsive Templates
Another problem with Wix's templates is their unresponsiveness. You have to adjust the template for the mobile version again if you make any changes to the desktop version and vice versa. The reason behind this is the unstructured template system that Wix offers which is great for creativity but kills synchronization among various devices.
Squarespace Pros
Amazing Squarespace Templates
Squarespace follows a quality-over-quantity approach when it comes to templates. There are only about 70 Squarespace templates, but you can easily find what you are looking for. Squarespace has the perfect template for any kind of business that you can own.
It is also easy to replace one template with another if the users choose to do so later. Squarespace templates are easy to customize with the Squarespace editor, and you would enjoy playing around with them even though some learning curve is involved.
Structured Templates
Unlike Wix, the templates in Squarespace are structured, meaning that every element is enclosed in blocks. This is why Squarespace doesn't have a drag-and-drop functionality. This might restrict Squarespace users to unleash their full design creativity but saves them from the trouble of realigning the website for multiple devices.
It is very easy to add CSS codes to a Squarespace site, meaning the templates are more customizable if you know how to code.
Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage
Unlike Wix, Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth and storage even with its lowest plans. However, Squarespace also limited video storage based on their various plans. Wix doesn't offer unlimited bandwidth with their starter plans and unlimited storage with any of their plans, making running online stores very difficult.
Limited but Practical Apps
Squarespace doesn't have an extensive collection of apps like that offered in the Wix app market. But, the Squarespace extensions offer users well-planned in-house apps to take care of every need of running an online business.
For the features not available on Squarespace extensions, third-party apps are available to meet those needs. Even with only 23 apps combined, there is hardly anything that you can't do on a Squarespace site.
Better Data Management
While both Wix and Squarespace have in-built apps to collect data about their users, Squarespace gives you more data storage options. With Wix, you can only store the data in a spreadsheet or send the data to an email address.
Squarespace allows you to integrate the data collected into their built-in email marketing tools. Squarespace also offers integration with MailChimp and Zapier if you don't want to use their in-built email automation software.
Squarespace Cons
Lacks drag and drop feature
Squarespace doesn't allow users to simply drag and drop an element as the Wix editor does. This can be intimidating for new users who are not that technical. It takes longer for them to learn how to make a website with Squarespace.
Limited Payment Integration
You can get over 70 payment gateways with Wix, while Squarespace only offers PayPal and Stripe. PayPal and Stripe are not available in many countries and may not be a choice you would want to go with.
Reduced Multilingual Capabilities
It would be a hard task to accomplish if you want to create a Squarespace site in multiple languages. Squarespace lacks the dedicated tools that Wix offers. Although you can hire a developer and buy multiple domains to work around this problem, it can be costly and time-consuming.
Wix vs Squarespace: Which one is easier to use?
Wix ADI, also known as Wix artificial design intelligence, makes creating a website like filling up a form. You can have your website ready to go by answering a few questions. The site created by Wix ADI doesn't need any tweaking for other devices.
For a new user, building a website in Wix would be easier than in Squarespace. The drag-and-drop feature of Wix makes it very easy to customize any Wix template or build a website from scratch. That being said, Squarespace has more modern templates that can be customized with some learning.
Verdict
Our honest answer would be that for a new user, it is easier to build a website using Wix. At the same time, a more tech-savvy user would opt for Squarespace as their website builder of choice.
Wix vs Squarespace: Which one is better for SEO?
Every website wants to dominate the SERPs and get organic traffic from search engines like Google. The only way to do that is to perfect the search engine optimization game. Both Wix and Squarespace offer decent SEO tools.
None of them offers anything close to WordPress, but they both get the basics right. You can add headings, create meta descriptions, optimize URLs, and make 301 redirects on both Wix and Squarespace.
One of the SEO tools Wix offers is the SEO wiz tool. The Wix SEO wiz tool guides beginners about the basics of search engine optimization. Squarespace SEO tools, after massive improvements, are now considered suitable for beginners.
Wix has SEO support apps, and SEO prompts, which Squarespace does not support. However, both Wix and Squarespace sites can be integrated with Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Verdict
Regarding a Wix vs Squarespace comparison for SEO, We believe Wix is slightly better than Squarespace. Both SEO and Squarespace are far from perfect for SEO, but if done right, you can manage to rank your website on the SERPs.
Wix vs Squarespace: Which one is better for blogging?
Creating useful blogs is one of the best ways to generate traffic for a website. Wix and Squarespace offer various blogging features like scheduled posts, categories, tags, and multiple authors. The user interface of Wix looks a bit old, but you can manage your blogs pretty well from there.
One of the blogging features that Wix focuses on and Squarespace doesn't is the autosave feature. On the other hand, Squarespace's blogging features include comment moderation which is not included in Wix. Since both Wix and Squarespace can be integrated with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, better statistics can be obtained for ranking the blogs directly from Google.
Google Ads can also be run seamlessly to initially divert paid traffics to the blogs to get some attention.
Verdict
Considering the blogging tools of both Wix and Squarespace, we conclude that it is a tie for the Wix vs Squarespace blogging shootout. However, both Wix and Squarespace would likely never be the ideal choice for the sole purpose of blogging.
Wix vs Squarespace: Which one is better for Ecommerce?
When it comes to building your online store, both Wix and Squarespace have magnificent eCommerce features. Wix certainly has more payment gateways to choose from, and it doesn't charge transaction fees, while Squarespace charges from 0% up to 3% transaction fees.
Both Wix and Squarespace allow you to sell physical, digital, and service-based products on your online store. Ecommerce features like POS, recurring payment products, and custom email receipts are available in both website builders.
You can also use both for dropshipping products, as integrations exist with dropshipping supplier software to automatically push products into the platforms.
When it comes to pricing for eCommerce plans, Squarespace has the advantage. The cheapest eCommerce plan starts at $18 per month for Squarespace, while for Wix, it starts at $23 per month. However, you have to pay 3% transaction fees on the Squarespace plan, which can be brought down to 0% if migrated to the $26 per month plan.
Verdict
Undoubtedly, Wix is the undisputed champion of this Wix vs Squarespace eCommerce brawl. Ecommerce features like multiple options for Wix payments and 0% transaction fees give Wix a far superior edge over Squarespace.
Wix vs Squarespace: Which one is better for Podcasting?
Wix and Squarespace offer podcast players, but Squarespace takes it a step further by allowing users to syndicate podcasts. Syndicating podcasts is a very important feature as it allows users to submit their podcasts to Spotify and Apple podcasts.
Verdict
If you want to make a podcasting website, Squarespace should be the website builder of choice.
Wix vs Squarespace Pricing
Even though Wix comes with a free plan, there are many limitations a free user has to face. The Wix free plan doesn’t include custom domains, and Wix will constantly display an ad on your website with the free plan.
Wix has two ranges of pricing plans. One range of plans is for professional websites to showcase their portfolio, while the other is for eCommerce and other Enterprise level businesses wanting to accept online payments. Wix pricing plans vary based on location.
On the other hand, Squarespace has 4 plans, and you can save 30% if you decide to go for an annual subscription. The lowest plan starts at $23 per month and goes up to $65 for the advanced commerce plan.
Key Differences To Note in Wix vs Squarespace Pricing
While both website builders share similarities, like a free custom domain with any of their yearly plans and a starter plan of $14/month, they have many differences.
Wix provides a free plan, while Squarespace only offers a 14-day free trial.
- Unlimited bandwidth is only available for the expensive paid plans in Wix, while Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth in all 4 plans.
- Wix does not offer any monthly payment plans. Their plans must be purchased annually, while Squarespace gives users monthly and annual payment options.
- Wix offers their eCommerce plan at a starting price of $27, while you have to pay $33 to get similar features on Squarespace.
Which website builder gives the most value for money?
Wix certainly offers a wider range of plans. Wix's free plan is suitable for businesses to try the platform out but is useless as the free plan doesn’t offer a custom domain, online payments, or unlimited bandwidth.
Even though the starting plan of both website builders costs the same, Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth. Wix offers only 2GB bandwidth on its combo plan, which means your website might crash if over 100 people start visiting a day.
The business VIP eCommerce Wix plan is $16 cheaper than the advanced commerce plan on Squarespace. But when it comes to overall value, Wix takes the crown.
Winner – Wix
So, we have concluded that Squarespace is better when it comes to beginner pricing plans, but Wix is better for advanced plans when it comes to value for money.
Wix vs Squarespace Wrap-up
Okay, so now it is time to choose the best website builder. Let's summarize Wix vs Squarespace.
Wix offers more templates, but Squarespace offers better ones.
- Wix ADI makes website building easy for beginners, but Squarespace makes more responsive websites.
- Squarespace offers better value on starter plans, while Wix does that for advanced plans.
- Wix provides better SEO and eCommerce features compared to Squarespace.
- Wix's platform runs much faster than Squarespace's in performance and speed testing.
Considering all our research and in-house testing, we conclude that Wix wins the final fight. For most business owners Wix would be the best choice. However, that being said, Squarespace would be more suited for some business owners based on their website requirements.
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