Wix vs. Squarespace: Which Is the Best Website Builder?
Pricing and Plans
Wix is one of the few companies that offer a free tier , which is a feather in its cap. It helps you save money and prevents you from making a potentially costly commitment. It can be difficult—if not impossible—to move your site's information to another builder if you decide to migrate, so sample Wix before fully diving in. Free Wix comes with trade-offs, such as ads and limited tools. However, you can remove those restrictions by opting for a paid tier.
Starting at $24 per month ($17 per month, billed annually), Wix's Light tier supports two collaborators and 2GB of storage, and includes a free domain for a year and a lightweight marketing suite. The $36-per-month ($29 per month, billed annually) Core plan increases storage to 50GB and includes e-commerce for monetizing pages. For $46 per month ($39 per month, billed annually), the Business tier introduces stronger e-commerce features long with 100GB of storage. At the highest end is the $172-per-month ($159 per month, billed annually) Business Elite tier, which targets enterprises. It includes many advanced tools for marketing, analytics, and e-commerce. Business Elite also includes unlimited storage for 15 collaborators. All paid plans include unlimited monthly data transfers.
Squarespace lacks a free tier (though a two-week free trial is available). The upside? You don't need to worry about the typical limitations of free website builders. It has four pricing tiers: Basic ($25 per month or $19 per month, billed annually), Core ($39 per month or $29 per month, billed annually), Plus ($65 per month or $49 per month, billed annually), and Advanced ($139 per month or $99 per month, billed annually). Higher tiers let you add more contributors to your site and access extra e-commerce features. Everyone, from individual site owners to business organizations, should find something that suits their needs. That said, you should avoid it if you want no-cost hosting . All Squarespace plans also offer unlimited data transfers and storage.
Wix wins here by offering the best of both worlds: a capable free tier for sampling the service and powerful paid upgrades when you're ready to dive deeper.
Winner: Wix
Template Choices
To help speed up the creation process, Wix and Squarespace offer prefab templates. They typically feature a site theme, such as a blog, a photography portfolio, or a restaurant menu. However, you can customize them with your content.
Wix has nearly 1,000 templates. Many look good, especially the ones with modern, responsive templates.
Squarespace doesn't beat Wix on template quantity (it has slightly more than 100), but it tops its rival on quality—Squarespace's templates are more attractive. In addition, its templates automatically look terrific on desktop and mobile, whereas Wix sites may need some slight adjustments. Check out our favorite Squarespace templates to get started.
Just note that neither site builder lets you switch templates once you've chosen one. You must rebuild your site from scratch.
Winner: Squarespace
Design Options
Website builders have custom interfaces designed to make website creation far more intuitive for people who don't know how to code. The goal is to keep things simple while including the necessary tools to create a site that matches your vision.
Wix's basic editor lets you easily rearrange site objects, tweak photos, and customize your page's layout. Even better, the awesome Wix Studio tool offers nearly Photoshop -level customization.
Squarespace's Fluid Engine is a great editing interface that lets you freely add and adjust elements across your site while keeping everything aligned and organized. Unfortunately, you can only use it with certain newer templates, anything compatible with the 7.1 update. Editing older templates feels more rigid and dated by comparison.
Winner: Wix
AI Tools
Wix and Squarespace both include AI tools to speed up the site creation process.
Wix's tools let you enter prompts to generate text blocks or work with an AI chatbot to build your entire site around a specific subject. You can then edit the results to further personalize the site design. Even free users can sample Wix's AI tools, albeit with a limited amount of credits per day.
Squarespace's AI tools, included with all plans as part of its Design Intelligence initiative, generate images and text via prompts. It can also edit existing text, offer different layout options, and, crucially, keep your site consistent with your brand theme.
Wix gets the win because its tools create entire sites, not just specific features, but we still strongly recommend against AI site-building features in general because they strip websites of vital human creativity.
Winner: Wix
E-commerce Tools
You can add extra capabilities to your site via integrations and widgets, but the most important ones for business are e-commerce tools.
Wix and Squarespace are evenly matched in this department. Wix introduces e-commerce features in its Core tier, while Squarespace includes them in its Business package (note that both services lock advanced e-commerce functionality behind more expensive plans). If you subscribe to the proper tier, the available tools turn your site into a full-on online store. You can sell digital and physical products, accept payments, and leverage email marketing features. You won't go wrong with either platform.
Winner: Tie
Customer Service
Customer service is essential if you run into trouble building your site. Wix lets free and paid users ask chatbots for advice, submit a ticket, or quickly speak with real customer support reps by phone 24/7.
Squarespace offers useful email and live text chat support, as well as informative forums, but lacks phone support.
Winner: Wix
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