Wix and Squarespace have a 53% market share as website builders, powering over 7 million websites. For those who want to build beautiful websites, these two are some of the top choices. But, how can you choose between Squarespace vs Wix?
You should consider so many factors when choosing a website builder for your business.
If you’ve narrowed down your choice to Squarespace vs Wix, you’ve come to the right place.
This Squarespace vs Wix review will cover all Wix and Squarespace pros and cons, so you can finally understand which is better - Wix or Squarespace. Let’s look at the most important factors like pricing, design features, SEO capabilities, and much more.
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Overview
To help you easily compare Wix and Squarespace, we’re going to discuss 11 features for each platform, give points to the winners, and finally decide the winner. Spoiler alert - Wix is the winner, but Squarespace might be overall better suited for your needs, so keep on reading.
The Squarespace website builder solution is more design-oriented, while Wix gives its users more flexibility. Anyways, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, let’s talk about website builders, plus what Squarespace and Wix are used for.
Explaining the website builder solution
If you want to build a website, you can either build it yourself, hire a developer, or choose the golden middle - a website builder. Website builders, such as Squarespace and Wix help you create your site without the need for hefty investment.
Ultimately, you get a drag-and-drop editor from your no-code website builder. With Wix and Squarespace, what you see is what you get.
Describing each platform
Before getting to the differences between Wix and Squarespace, let’s talk about each platform separately. So, what is Wix, and what is Squarespace?
Wix is the most popular website builder out there. It’s easy to use, offers a plethora of features, and even works great for small ecommerce shops.
Squarespace is a design-oriented website builder with amazing templates and powerful features.
Since the two platforms are more similar at their core and purpose, you can expect this Squarespace vs Wix comparison to be a close battle.
Note: Is Squarespace owned by Square? Many wonders, but the answer is no. They just happen to share a part of their names. In reality, they are two separate companies.
Scalability
In terms of scalability, these website builders offer both beginner-friendly and advanced features.
Although it’s a close call, Wix is known to be the more scalable solution. Still, this may not be a dealbreaker, so pay attention to other features before you make your choice.
Ease of use
The first thing we will discuss in this Squarespace vs Wix review is the ease of use. How beginner-friendly is each platform, and what is the difference between Wix and Squarespace in terms of their learning curves.
Wix is known to be more beginner-friendly than Squarespace. Although they aren’t TOO different, Squarespace might take a little longer to figure out.
The main difference between Squarespace vs Wix is their website builder format. Wix has a more free-flow layout, while Squarespace’s structure is based on rows and columns.
Wix also provides version backups, so if you make a mistake or want to go back to an older version, you can do so.
And the winner for ease of use between Squarespace vs Wix is… Wix.
Build time
Next up, let’s talk about build time. How fast can you build a website on Squarespace vs Wix? Well, if your goal is to create a site as fast as possible, Squarespace templates can’t beat the Wix ADI, which builds you a site in seconds (after you answer a couple of questions).
This is not to say that building websites with Squarespace is too slow. You can create a website with your desired design, even create a small ecommerce store in just 3-4 hours. Considering how easy it is to get the hang of Wix, this giant takes the cake on this one.
And the winner for build time between Squarespace vs Wix is… Wix.
Design and themes
As we already mentioned, Squarespace is a more design-oriented solution with fantastic templates. Its editor is better suited for beginners and leaves very little space for errors. This is not to say that Wix doesn’t have amazing design features either. Let’s take a look at how design and themes compare between Squarespace vs Wix.
Design Flexibility
Squarespace features a structured editor, so your widgets are going to be placed in blocks with exact rows and columns. On the other hand, Wix has an absolute drag-and-drop editor that lets you place any widget in your desired position.
The difference between Wix and Squarespace editors doesn’t necessarily mean that one is good and the other is bad. If you know what you’re doing, Wix can work for you, but it might mess with the mobile responsiveness of your design. Squarespace’s editor gives you less flexibility but holds your hand and guides you through what’s right and wrong.
Mobile Responsive Designs
One of the main cons of Wix is that its designs aren’t always responsive on mobile. So, you’ll have to manually edit and fix your site’s layout for mobile versions.
As for Squarespace, all their designs are mobile responsive. The widgets will automatically resize to fit any device that visits your site.
Knowing how crucial it is to cater to mobile users, this Wix flaw shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Template Availability
Wix offers over 800 different design templates for any type of website or ecommerce store. Although Squarespace offers only 110+ templates, Wix templates can’t compete with the quality of templates Squarespace has to offer.
Squarespace features modern websites that improve retention, appeal to the eyes of visitors, and help you achieve your business goals. With Wix, finding the ideal template can be tough to find.
If you’re ever stuck and want to know, for example, how to change a template in Squarespace, both of these platforms feature help centers where you’ll find all the answers.
Knowing how big of a role design and layouts play in determining your website’s performance, one of these giant platforms is clearly doing a better job.
And the winner for design and themes between Squarespace vs Wix is… Squarespace.
Sales features
Both of these platforms are simple website builder solutions. Nevertheless, both of them also offer features to turn your static site into an ecommerce store. From integrating with other sales channels to shipping and managing inventory, these platforms do a pretty good job of supporting small stores.
If you want a website to start selling up to a couple of hundred products, how do you choose between Squarespace vs Wix? Let’s look at 7 different Wix and Squarespace sales features to see who wins.
Multichannel Selling
Squarespace enables you to integrate your store’s products into Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. These additional sales channels can be game-changers. After all, you should take all that you can get.
Wix supports third-party integrations with Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon, but they take it a step further and also support selling on eBay. So, in this subcategory, Wix takes the cake.
Shipping
Both Wix and Squarespace feature diverse shipping options. Squarespace partners with USPS, FedEx, and UPS to help you with international shipping and live carrier cost calculations. As for Wix, they work only with USPS and Correios (Brazil).
It’s important to note that both Wix and Squarespace feature various shipping apps and integrations available on their app stores. If you’re willing to pay a little extra, you can get more advanced shipping options from both platforms.
With regards to shipping, Squarespace wins just by a margin.
Dropshipping
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, dropshipping is a business model whereby the seller doesn’t store any inventory but rather ships products to the buyer directly from the manufacturer.
Since both Squarespace and Wix aren’t native ecommerce platforms, it’s expected that they won’t have too many built-in features. Luckily, there are lots of apps and integrations that can power your dropshipping business on these platforms.
You can use integrations like Modalyst, Spocket, and 365 Dropship to run a dropshipping business on Wix. There are also other Wix dropshipping apps that can help you improve even further, get analytics, and much more.
In terms of Squarespace, you can integrate with third-party apps like Printful and Spocket to run your dropshipping business.
When it comes to dropshipping features, it’s a tie between Squarespace vs Wix.
Tax Settings
Now, let’s discuss one of the most important global selling features - tax settings. How do Wix taxes compare to Squarespace taxes?
If you want to run your ecommerce store efficiently, you’re going to need location-based automated sales tax rate calculations.
Wix's automated sales tax features are pretty straightforward. Wix comes integrated with Avalara, but the con is that there’s a limit on the number of transactions. Even using their Business VIP package, you get only 500 transactions/month.
With Wix, you can also set different VAT rates for various categories. This feature is not available for Squarespace users.
As for Squarespace, automated sales tax is calculated with TaxJar. One of the limitations of Squarespace tax settings is that TaxJar only works in the US. If you’re planning to only sell in the US, you won’t have any issues.
Multilingual Capabilities
You can create a multilingual website on both Wix and Squarespace, but there are some SEO rules you should follow.
Wix has a built-in translator that uses Google Translate and duplicates the pages of your website into your desired language. The downfall is that no modifications are made to the URLs.
Note: As a best practice, ecommerce platforms add “/es” (for Spanish) or other language codes to URLs for SEO purposes.
Squarespace, unfortunately, doesn't have a built-in translation feature, but you can use powerful tools like Weglot to get what you want. In the case of Squarespace, these pages are separate, and you can update titles and URLs for each.
Inventory Management
Both Squarespace and Wix enable inventory management through their platforms. Both of them also have Point-of-Sales (POS) accessibility, so you can sync inventory across your online and offline stores.
Thanks to powerful apps, you can strengthen your website’s ecommerce capabilities even further. Wix multiple product pages are available, and Squarespace’s apps mostly revolve around ecommerce.
In this regard, it’s a tie between Squarespace vs Wix.
Donations
Here’s an example where Squarespace features go above and beyond - Donations! If you want to accept donations through Wix, it’ll take you to a separate PayPal page. But that’s not what we’re looking for.
If you want to create a dedicated website to accept donations, Squarespace is the way to go. They feature donor-specific checkouts, suggested amounts, and donor email receipts. These are some of the biggest benefits you can get for your nonprofit’s website.
All in all, is Wix good for ecommerce? Definitely! However, this doesn’t mean that Squarespace does a bad job. If we’re looking at Wix vs Squarespace pros and cons, they each excel in separate categories. Still, there can only be one winner.
And the winner for sales features between Squarespace vs Wix is… Squarespace.
Apps and Plugins
Just like many other website builders and ecommerce sites, both Squarespace and Wix have their own apps and plugins stores. It’s no secret that Wix is the biggest player in the market. So, it won’t come as a surprise that it features many more apps.
Wix’s App Market gives users access to over 250 apps (only 54 dedicated to ecommerce). In contrast, the Squarespace Extensions marketplace features only 28 apps (mostly ecommerce-related). Squarespace definitely goes for quality over quantity and doesn’t charge for its extensions.
Keep in mind that the Squarespace Extensions marketplace launched only in 2019, while Wix’s App Market has been around for much longer. Maybe one day in the near future, Squarespace can beat Wix, but not today.
And the winner for apps and plugins between Squarespace vs Wix is… Wix.
Marketing Tools
We don't need to tell you how important marketing for a business is, right? Whether you're going to use it for brand awareness, nurturing your leads, generating more sales, or simply bringing in more traffic to your website, you'll need some tools.
Squarespace and Wix come with integrated marketing tools, so let’s take a look at how they compare in terms of email marketing, social media integrations, and blogging.
Email Marketing
Let’s get one thing out: Squarespace and Wix have built-in email marketing features.
Wix allows you to send 3 emails per month to 5,000 people. You can integrate the' Ascend tool if you need more advanced features and want to reach more people. That way, you can send email campaigns to 9,500-1,000,000 people by paying only $9.5-$23/month. You can also set up automations and triggers for emails to be sent out. Finally, you can segment your contacts into different groups and send them different emails.
In the case of Squarespace, email marketing is done through their ‘Squarespace Email Campaigns’ feature. It costs anywhere from $7-$68 and has no limit on your number of contacts. Plus, their email campaign templates are just as gorgeous as their website designs. Unfortunately, their automations are limited to simple auto-responses, nothing more advanced. Another limitation of Squarespace Email Campaigns is that you can’t segment your contact lists.
It’s evident that Wix takes the cake for email marketing features. It’s less expensive and has more advanced features than Squarespace.
Social media integrations
Social media integrations with Wix and Squarespace are relatively similar. You can integrate your store into your Facebook, Instagram, and other accounts, just like you can source content from social accounts into your website.
Regarding social media integrations, it’s a tie between Squarespace vs Wix.
Blogging
Here's yet another major factor that can sway your decision either way. Blogging is crucial not only from an SEO standpoint but also for establishing your brand as a thought leader and showcasing your expertise.
Another spoiler alert - Squarespace has some of the best blogging features out of all the website builders. Some say it could even compete with WordPress.
This is tough to beat, so we don’t blame Wix. In fact, Wix has all the standard features that your blog page needs, including a blog editor, scheduling, post tags, categories, drafts, comments, etc. Nevertheless, Squarespace takes it a couple of steps further.
Aside from your blog's standard features, Squarespace also features a collaboration capability. You can have different roles, such as content editors, moderators, etc.
Comparing the main marketing tools between Squarespace vs Wix, it’s tough to choose a side. Ultimately, it’ll come down to your needs and preferences. If you’re a killer at email outreach, give this point to Wix. On the other hand, if blogging is your forte, Squarespace would work better for you.
And the winner for marketing tools between Squarespace vs Wix is… it’s actually a tie!
Payment Options and Transaction Fees
Payment options and transaction fees play a massive role when choosing between Squarespace vs Wix. Let's talk about Squarespace fees vs Wix fees.
First and foremost, there are 0% Wix selling fees on all pricing plans. Unfortunately, Squarespace will take 3% of every transaction you make unless you’re using their $26/month “Basic Commerce” plan or above, in which case Squarespace selling fees are 0%.
When you’re starting off, 3% is a hefty price to pay.
As for payment options, Squarespace supports Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Apple Pay. Wix supports Wix Payments, Square, Stripe, Paypal, and much more.
And the winner for payment options and transaction fees between Squarespace vs Wix is… Wix.
SEO
It goes without saying that SEO is one of the biggest drivers of traffic to your website. Whether you build an informative site or an ecommerce store with multiple product pages and a blog section, you will need powerful SEO tools. SE Ranking website audit software makes a quick health checkup, evaluates product pages optimized for search engines, and finds any technical SEO issues that impact ecommerce site performance. After all, who needs a website that nobody will see?
This Squarespace vs Wix review couldn’t forget about the SEO capability differences between Squarespace vs Wix. So, let’s dive in and find the winner.
Editing meta tags, such as meta titles and descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions appear in search engines when someone finds a page on your website. Both Squarespace and Wix enable you to edit them. Keep in mind that it may take some time for the changes to appear on Google.
Editing URLs
This is a pretty standard feature that all website builders should offer. Luckily, Squarespace and Wix aren’t staying behind. Whether it’s for aesthetic, readability, or SEO purposes, you can edit the URLs of all pages on your site.
Unfortunately, both Wix and Squarespace are flawed in creating clean URLs. They add category tags like “/posts/” or “/products/,” which is not ideal for SEO.
Hide pages from search engine result pages on-demand (no-index)
If, for whatever reason, you want to hide a certain page from appearing in search results, both Squarespace and Wix allow you to do so on-demand.
With Wix, all you have to do is change the settings of a page. As for Squarespace, you can add a no-index tag in 2 ways - 1. Change it from the SEO settings of a page, 2. Add the tag to the code with code injection.
Availability to edit the robots.txt file
The robots.txt file of your website tells crawlers where to go and where not to go. If you want to stop crawlers from going over certain pages, you can do it with Wix, but not with Squarespace.
Navigate to the SEO settings on your dashboard, and you’ll figure out how to edit the robots.txt file on Wix.
It's not surprising that Squarespace doesn't allow users to modify the robots.txt file, given that they like to retain control. This isn't necessarily bad because it can stop you from making mistakes.
SEO plugins diversity
Both Wix and Squarespace features enable 301 redirects, Google AMP for blogs, alt-text editing for images, and much more. You can always integrate new plugins and connect with Google Analytics and Google Search Console if you want to go all out.
Neither Wix nor Squarespace has built-in Yoast SEO features, but Wix makes it a little better by offering some helpful resources through SEO Wix.
PageSpeed
Websites made with Wix aren’t particularly speedy. Squarespace websites aren’t slow, but they’re not the fastest. We’d call this a tie between the loading speeds of Squarespace vs Wix.
And the winner for SEO capabilities between Squarespace vs Wix is… it’s a tie!
Security
Squarespace and Wix have hosted platforms, meaning that you won’t need to rent it from elsewhere, then integrate it into these solutions. The main difference between Wix and Squarespace hosting is that Squarespace provides unlimited storage, while Wix has many limitations.
Even their biggest pricing plan, "Business VIP," which costs $35/month, is limited to 50 GB of storage space.
Let’s see how other basic security measures compare between Squarespace vs Wix.
SSL Certificate
Regarding security, both Squarespace and Wix websites come with an SSL certificate. This means that your website's identity will be verified, and you can ensure an encrypted connection.
PCI-DSS Compliance
All ecommerce stores that accept credit or debit card payments need to comply with standard rules called PCI-DSS. Both Squarespace and Wix’s payment gateways are PCI-DSS compliant, so you don’t need to worry.
And the winner for security between Squarespace vs Wix is… Squarespace with its unlimited storage.
Customer support
If you’re new to website builders or ecommerce platforms, you’ll probably need some help figuring it all out. Imagine you’re trying to add a widget and encountering a problem. If they make you wait 24-48 hours for an answer, your website will take months to build. But don’t worry, Squarespace and Wix will answer you faster than 24 hours, maybe even immediately.
Let’s look at the quality and availability of Squarespace customer support vs Wix customer support to figure out the better option.
Live support
If you need a quick answer to a question, you can contact Wix and Squarespace via email and live chat. Additionally, Wix offers phone support via callback. One of the limitations of Squarespace live support is that they don’t offer it via phone.
Squarespace 24/7 live chat is available only in English, while Wix offers it in 3 languages, plus five other languages, during specific work hours.
Materials, FAQs, and Guides quality
Being complicated platforms, Squarespace and Wix naturally have comprehensive help centers, FAQs, guides, and tutorials.
You can access Wix customer support materials in 9 languages, while Squarespace only offers materials in 6 languages. Plus, Wix makes it harder for you to reach their live support. Their goal is for you to find your answers in the help center.
Overall, it’s a tie between Squarespace vs Wix regarding the quality of customer support. On the other hand, Wix help is available in more languages.
And the winner for customer support between Squarespace vs Wix is… Wix.
Pricing
Comparing the pricing models for these 2 giants is going to be tough. Each platform has its major advantages and disadvantages. In other words, they provide different kinds of value for money.
Let’s take a look at the pricing packages these website builders offer and see who wins between Squarespace vs Wix.
Wix has 2 categories of packages - “Website Plans” and “Business & Ecommerce Plans.” Since we’re looking at the sales features of Squarespace vs Wix as well, let’s discuss their business and ecommerce solutions. You can choose between 3 ecommerce plans for your store (with annual billing):
- Business Basic - $17/month
- Business Unlimited - $25/month
- Business VIP - $35/month
All these packages feature standard and advanced capabilities, although Wix still puts a 50GB limit on storage, even on the biggest package. Their smallest package is very poor in features. It doesn’t include subscriptions, selling in multiple currencies, and much more.
The good news is that Wix features a free plan and a 14-day money-back guarantee on paid plans.
Moving on to Squarespace, there are 3 ecommerce packages you can choose from (with annual billing):
- Business - $18/month
- Basic Commerce - $26/month
- Advanced Commerce - $40/month
Note: Squarespace nonprofit pricing starts at their Business package for $18/month.
Regarding pricing plans, Squarespace vs Wix is as close as possible. All the ecommerce packages have similar features and similar pricing.
Ultimately, Wix is the winner vs Squarespace thanks to its free plan and 14-day money-back guarantee.
And the winner for pricing between Squarespace vs Wix is… Wix.
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Final Scoring
Now that we’ve looked at all the major features that these two website builders have to offer, it’s time, to sum up this Squarespace vs Wix review.
Wix was the best in ease of use, build time, apps & plugins, payment options, and transaction fees, customer support, and pricing categories.
Squarespace took the cake for design and themes, sales features, and security categories.
The platforms are tied to marketing tools and SEO categories.
The final score is - 8:5, with Wix being the final winner!
Although Wix is the overall winner, it does mean Squarespace is not worth your while. If you’re still struggling with choosing the right platform for your business, let’s take a look at these 4 scenarios. Hopefully, one of them will match your case.
- If you’re starting a business that wants to scale slowly but surely, Wix is the website builder for you.
- If you already have an established business and want to upgrade your designs, Squarespace should be your best choice.
- If you have experience with website builders and want a little more flexibility with the design, Wix has you covered.
- If you’ve never built a website before and want someone to hold your hand while you figure it out, go with Squarespace.
