Comparing Wix and Squarespace: Which is Best in 2024?

Both Wix and Squarespace stand tall in the website builder arena, each offering a unique approach to cater to diverse user needs. Wix, with its versatile editors and extensive template library, provides unparalleled customization options. On the other hand, Squarespace takes the route of simplicity, ensuring a straightforward path to a beautiful and fully functional small business website.

In this comprehensive review, we delve into the intricacies of Wix and Squarespace. From features and customization to performance, customer support, and price-to-value ratio, we leave no stone unturned. By the end, you'll be equipped to make a well-informed decision, choosing the website builder that aligns perfectly with your goals.

Squarespace Overview:

Squarespace is an innovative website construction tool, caters to the visionary minds and digital proprietors aiming to fashion extraordinary online domains. Its prowess lies in facilitating the creation of remarkable websites without necessitating any proficiency in coding. A mere investment of time unleashes the potential to craft a visually captivating website, replete with integrated eCommerce checkout tools, a bespoke domain, and fortified with SSL certificate protection.

The inception of Squarespace unfolded in 2003 within the confines of Maryland, United States. Originating as a modest blog hosting service, its evolution surpassed humble beginnings, culminating in a substantial entity. By the culmination of 2006, it had already amassed a commendable revenue exceeding $1 million.

Although accessible to all for website design endeavors, Squarespace is inherently tailored for the creative realm, attracting designers, artists, photographers, and like-minded individuals.

Initiating the journey with Squarespace is a straightforward process. Creating an account, selecting a template that resonates with your vision, and commencing the customization journey is all it takes. The expansive repertoire of design choices inherent in Squarespace underpins its ascendancy, rendering it one of the preeminent choices in the expansive landscape of eCommerce and commercial transactions.

Wix Overview:

Wix stands out as a robust website builder that requires no coding expertise, offering a spectrum of business tools to craft anything from a straightforward personal blog to a sophisticated, enterprise-level online business hub. Its repertoire includes built-in features for eCommerce, marketing, scheduling, branding, and a myriad of other functionalities. As a stalwart presence in the website domain, Wix has consistently held a leadership position in web design and has been an early adopter of emerging technologies, including AI for website creation.

Consider Wix for Advanced Website Features

For newcomers seeking a user-friendly website building experience, Wix stands out with its extensive range of top-notch features, eliminating the need to delve into coding. Its intuitive platform allows you to effortlessly incorporate a myriad of elements. In our testing, Wix emerges as a website builder with unparalleled features. Particularly noteworthy is its excellence in catering to the requirements of e-commerce sites, offering not only robust features but also an abundance of app functionality to enhance your online business presence. Whether you're a novice or an experienced user, Wix provides a seamless and feature-rich solution for crafting your digital presence.

Squarespace Is Best for a Visually Stunning and Cost-Effective Website Design.

Choose Squarespace for an Impressively Designed Website that Captivates Visitors Instantly. Our latest research awards Squarespace with an outstanding design score of 4.7 out of 5, solidifying its position as a top-tier choice. Setting itself apart from Wix, Squarespace offers beautifully crafted templates with enhanced structural integrity. Moreover, our analysis reveals that Squarespace not only excels in aesthetics but also provides superior value for money, potentially saving you significant costs in the long term. Elevate your online presence with Squarespace, where stunning design meets economic efficiency.

In our quest to assist you in selecting the ideal website builder, we meticulously evaluated key criteria through an extensive research process. Our focus centered on dissecting Wix and Squarespace, thoroughly testing aspects such as features, design flexibility, user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, and the quality of help and support.

But let's shift the spotlight away from our independent research methodology – this article is dedicated to matching you with the perfect builder. While Wix may excel overall, it might not necessarily align with your specific needs. So, without further ado, let's embark on the journey of determining whether Wix or Squarespace is the right choice for you!

Wix vs. Squarespace Quick Check

Short on time and need immediate insights? No worries – consider this rapid reference table for a swift side-by-side comparison. It's designed to assist you in determining whether Wix or Squarespace better aligns with your specific requirements.

Wix Vs SS	Wix	Squarespace
Ease of Use:	Ease of use is a standout feature of Wix, owing to its straightforward drag-and-drop editor. With Wix ADI, crafting a website and making it live becomes a breeze, potentially achievable in just an afternoon.	Squarespace has undergone significant enhancements in its user experience (UX) recently, resulting in an impressive 11.1% increase in its usability score. This transformation ensures that Squarespace is now more user-friendly than ever before.
Design and Flexibility:	Wix offers a selection of more than 800 templates, each blending attractiveness with ease of customization. However, it's worth noting that while many templates are modern, some may not meet the latest design standards. Additionally, once your site is live, Wix doesn't allow template switching.	Squarespace boasts the highest-quality templates available in the market. While its range may be more limited compared to Wix, the designs are consistently stunning, ensuring a visually impressive and cohesive appearance for your website.
Pricing and Value for Money:	Wix provides four pricing plans, with costs ranging from $16 to $159 per month when billed annually. Notably, Wix offers a free plan with no time constraints, allowing users to stay on it indefinitely. Additionally, all paid plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee, ensuring satisfaction for users exploring the platform's premium features.	Squarespace offers four pricing plans, spanning from $16 to $49 per month when billed annually. While there isn't a free plan available, all paid plans come with a 14-day free trial, and no payment details are required during this trial period.
Features and tools:	Wix boasts an extensive array of built-in features that span customization, e-commerce, marketing, and beyond, earning it the highest feature score among all the builders we've tested. Additionally, its vast app market provides an ideal platform for enhancing and expanding your website's functionality	Squarespace distinguishes itself by incorporating the majority of its features directly into the platform, and these features are widely recognized as the highest quality available in the market.
Ecommerce:	Adding an online store into your Wix website is a straightforward process. With the option to integrate apps such as Ecwid, you can further enhance the capabilities and power of your site.	Squarespace sets itself apart by having all its ecommerce tools integrated directly into the platform, providing an excellent showcase for displaying products. Additionally, the flexibility to add integrations allows you to enhance and extend your store's functionality according to your specific needs.
Blogging:	Wix comes equipped with fundamental blogging tools integrated directly into the platform. However, for those looking to elevate their blogging experience, the extensive app store offers a multitude of options to take your blog to the next level.	Squarespace offers an impressive array of ready-to-use blogging tools, providing users with a comprehensive suite of features to enhance their blogging experience.
SEO:	Wix comes with built-in SEO tools, complemented by extensive support resources that offer guidance on optimizing your website for search engines. The user-friendly Wix SEO Wiz stands out for beginners, providing an interactive experience and generating a personalized step-by-step plan to streamline the optimization process	WSquarespace offers built-in SEO tools and designs its pages to be inherently SEO-friendly. Additionally, the platform provides comprehensive support resources and a convenient SEO checklist to assist users in optimizing their websites for search engines.
Marketing:	Wix's marketing toolkit encompasses a range of tools, including SEO capabilities, a proprietary email marketing system, and the comprehensive all-in-one business solution known as Wix Ascend.	Squarespace Comes with a set of marketing tools, including features such as SEO, seamless integration with social media platforms, and its proprietary email platform.
Help And Support:	Squarespace delivers high-quality support services accessible through live chat and email. Additionally, their extensive help center features guides, videos, webinars, and a forum, providing users with a comprehensive resource for assistance.	Wix provides comprehensive support options, including 24/7 priority support through both phone and live chat. Users can opt for VIP phone support with faster assistance by upgrading to a higher plan, allowing them to skip the support queue.

Read on our in-depth comparison to uncover the distinct reasons behind Squarespace's superior designs, why Wix earns our recommendation for beginners, and which platform boasts the edge in terms of marketing tools.

Easy of use: Which platform is more user-friendly? 

Wix and Squarespace both operate as drag-and-drop website builders. In our evaluations, Wix maintains a strong score of 4.4 out of 5 for ease of use, attributed to its smooth drag-and-drop editor. Squarespace, with a similar score of 4.4 out of 5, has notably enhanced its user-friendliness by introducing a grid-based design.

Squarespace's grid-based approach, while somewhat limiting creative freedom, excels in organizing page layouts neatly. The platform's editor has become more beginner-friendly, marked by a notable 11.1% increase in its overall ease of use score.

Wix, being a "pure" drag-and-drop builder, allows maximum freedom in placing elements wherever desired. On the other hand, Squarespace's structure is more guided, making it slightly less intuitive initially. However, Squarespace compensates with a grid-based layout that aids in element placement precision.

For those pressed for time or lacking confidence in building a website from scratch, Wix offers an Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) option. This feature generates a website based on your responses to a few straightforward questions, providing a convenient alternative.

Design And Flexibility 

Wix boasts an extensive array of over 800 templates, offering a diverse selection that forms a solid foundation for creating professional-looking websites. These templates are not only attractive but also designed to be mobile-responsive, with a dedicated mobile editor for customizing both desktop and mobile views.

However, with such a vast template library, there may be a few that don't quite hit the mark. In our assessment, we observed that while most of Wix's templates are visually appealing, there might be occasional outliers that fall short in terms of design aesthetics.

Squarespace emerges as the unparalleled champion in template design. With a focus on quality over quantity, Squarespace templates are consistently modern, professional, and meticulously tailored for various industries. Squarespace secures an impressive design functionality score of 4.7 out of 5, reflecting its commitment to delivering stunning and contemporary designs across the board.

Wix, closely trailing behind with a score of 4.6 out of 5, has made a significant 4.5% improvement in its design rating. Despite having a slightly larger range of templates than Squarespace, Wix excels in customizability. However, the abundance of creative freedom can be a double-edged sword, potentially leading to designs that lack the refined polish seen in Squarespace sites.

Ultimately, Wix is an excellent choice for those seeking creative freedom, but users should be mindful of maintaining a cohesive design. In contrast, Squarespace's consistent focus on high-quality templates ensures a sleek and polished appearance for your website.

Pricing

Wix and Squarespace share a similar starting price of $16 per month (billed annually) for their basic plans. However, as you explore higher-tier plans, Squarespace becomes slightly more cost-effective, offering an ecommerce-enabled plan for $23 per month compared to Wix's $27 per month option. Notably, Wix also provides a free plan, while Squarespace does not.

It's important to note that relying on Wix's free plan for the long term is not recommended. This is due to the use of a Wix subdomain and the presence of Wix ads throughout the site. To establish a growing and professional online presence, upgrading becomes necessary. However, when transitioning to a paid plan, Wix tends to be pricier compared to Squarespace.

Despite the general trend of increasing prices across all website builder plans, Wix has experienced an 11.8% decrease in its value score. Wix scores 3 out of 5 for value for money, while Squarespace secures the top spot with a value score of 4.6 out of 5. Impressively, Squarespace is the only builder that has improved its value score since the previous year, registering an impressive 15% increase.

Squarespace's entry-level plan stands out for its excellent value, offering features like unlimited bandwidth and storage right from the $16 per month Personal plan. In contrast, Wix reserves unlimited bandwidth for its $27 per month Core plan, and unlimited storage is exclusive to Wix's higher-tier plans.

In conclusion, Squarespace provides better value for money, offering a robust set of features even at its lowest price point.

Ecommers:Which Platform is Optimal for Online Selling?

Wix and Squarespace have actively enhanced their ecommerce capabilities in recent years, both putting up a commendable performance in comparison to Shopify, the leading ecommerce builder. While both platforms excel in covering the essential aspects of online stores such as inventory management, discounts, product variations, taxes, and more, Squarespace stands out with a slight edge in certain crucial areas.

Both platforms offer a comprehensive set of features, including support for digital products, custom email receipts, integration with print-on-demand services, point-of-sale systems, Instagram shop tagging, automated cart recovery, recurring payment products, gift cards, back-in-stock notifications, and low stock notifications.

However, Squarespace tends to introduce more sophisticated features. Notably, it allows users to incorporate advanced forms into products, providing the flexibility to gather additional information during the checkout process. Squarespace's form options encompass various field types, such as dates, radio buttons, phone numbers, text fields, and file uploads.

 Wix allows the addition of form fields to products, but its capabilities are more limited, restricted to text fields.

Moreover, Squarespace demonstrates superiority in areas like inventory management, shipping, tax settings, and product editing – the latter including its comprehensive page editor for additional information.

In summary, while both Squarespace and Wix offer essential features for small online stores, Squarespace's ecommerce capabilities are distinguished by their sophistication and attention to detail, making it the preferred choice for those seeking a more advanced ecommerce solution.

Features And Tools

In the evaluation of these platforms, the distinction becomes apparent in the realm of functionality, where Wix surpasses Squarespace in both quantity and quality of features. This disparity is notably underscored by their respective category ratings, with Wix securing a commendable 4.8 out of 5. This represents a marginal 1.3% dip from its previous year's score, indicating a persistent excellence. In contrast, Squarespace exhibits a noteworthy improvement, elevating its rating from 4.4 to 4.6, a substantial 4% enhancement. While Wix maintains its superiority in features, the advancements in Squarespace demand vigilant observation for potential future developments.

Wix boasts an array of functionalities, including a membership app, live chat integration, donation capabilities, booking systems, and seamless social media incorporation. The versatility of Wix extends to contact forms, facilitating effective customer communication. Notable enhancements over the past year involve the integration of Semrush, simplifying the visibility of keywords during the website-building process.

Conversely, Squarespace offers memberships and live chat features, albeit requiring a higher payment tier or reliance on third-party applications. Squarespace mirrors Wix's capacity for donations, bookings, social media integration, and contact forms. Recent upgrades include the refinement of third-party applications, enabling scheduling, CRM, and marketing support.

The overall comparison between Wix and Squarespace reveals a closely contested competition. Wix maintains a feature-rich environment, whereas Squarespace prioritizes quality by seamlessly integrating third-party tools to augment its feature set.

Further differentiating the two, Wix encompasses an extensive set of features within its platform. Notably, Wix Events simplifies ticket sales seamlessly integrated into its structure, acting more than an app in function. This distinction alleviates the need for users to integrate third-party solutions, streamlining the user experience for those who do not necessitate this specific feature.

Blogging:

In a bygone era, Squarespace would have effortlessly clinched victory in this category. However, recent enhancements in Wix's blogging capabilities have created a scenario where selecting a definitive winner between the two proves to be a formidable challenge.

Our research awarded both platforms a perfect score of 5 out of 5 for blogging, a commendable recognition. Wix has undergone a transformative evolution, now providing writer profiles, specialized analytics for blogs, robust blog SEO tools, an archive function, social sharing capabilities, and the convenience of scheduling posts directly.

For Wix Blog users, the editing process unfolds seamlessly, offering options through the frontend editor or the Wix dashboard.

Squarespace, meanwhile, maintains its supremacy with visually striking template designs, standing as a testament to its unyielding commitment to aesthetics. It not only aligns with many of Wix's features but goes a step further.

Squarespace's blogging toolkit is tailored for team collaboration and multi-author engagement, emphasizing a workflow feature that ensures teams adhere to schedules. This includes the ability to flag drafts as "Needs Review," fostering transparency and collaboration within the team.

However, Squarespace encounters a setback by lacking a dedicated search bar, a notable omission. Despite this, users have the option to integrate search fields, providing a workaround for site visitors seeking specific content.

In the contemporary landscape, the competition between Squarespace and Wix in the realm of blogging features stands as a testament to the innovation and evolution within website-building platforms.

Marketing

What stands out most about Wix's marketing arsenal is its exceptional level of customization. Wix Email Marketing, a flagship feature, empowers users to conduct email campaigns for website, blog, or business promotion. This tool boasts a plethora of customizable styles, enabling users to tweak fonts, backgrounds, and more. The integration of contacts is seamless, allowing users to effortlessly add and store contact details. Wix Email Marketing also provides a comprehensive stats tracker, offering insights into email engagement metrics such as opens, views, and clicks. Social media tools further enhance its functionality, enabling the easy sharing of campaigns across various platforms.

An additional gem in Wix's marketing crown is Ascend by Wix, a robust all-in-one marketing suite catering to businesses. This feature-rich suite encompasses a customizable email editor, automation capabilities, advanced analytics, SEO tools, social integration, a video maker, live chat functionality, forms, and invoicing. While a limited free version exists, Wix offers three paid plans ranging from $9 to $45 per month, providing users with a spectrum of choices to suit their needs.

Squarespace, too, excels in the realm of email marketing with its offering, Squarespace Email Campaigns. This integrated platform seamlessly aligns with websites, delivering a cohesive brand experience. Unlike Wix's free version for email campaigns, Squarespace Email Campaigns opts for a trial period, allowing users to send out three campaigns with a generous 50,000 sends per campaign. Subsequently, users can choose from paid plans ranging from $5 to $48 per month when billed annually.

 Squarespace's email marketing platform offers a range of features, including the ability to import website content into email drafts, send automated emails to subscribers, select from over 30 starter layouts, engage in mobile editing for on-the-go management, and track campaign success through integrated analytics. While the cost is evident, Squarespace ensures quality service. For those seeking alternatives, Squarespace's Extensions Store presents five sales and marketing apps, or integration with MailChimp remains a viable option.

Squarespace's commitment extends beyond email marketing, allowing seamless connection to various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The platform further enhances user experience with built-in analytics, empowering users to assess marketing impact and refine their strategies effectively.

SEO

What Is Seo:

SEO, an acronym for Search Engine Optimization, encompasses a set of practices aimed at elevating your website's position within Google's search result pages.

The optimization journey involves a myriad of elements, ranging from the strategic selection of keywords to the crafting of compelling meta titles. If terms like keywords and meta titles sound unfamiliar, there's no need for concern – this is precisely where the expertise of our website builders becomes invaluable.

Which Platform Is Best For SEO?

Both Wix and Squarespace come equipped with integrated SEO tools designed to enhance your website's ranking. These tools encompass crucial elements such as mobile-responsive pages, mobile-friendly interfaces, optimized headings, SEO guidance, and alt text for images. Let's delve into a comparative analysis of the key SEO features.

Remarkably, both platforms receive a perfect score of 5 out of 5 for SEO, indicating comprehensive offerings essential for achieving favorable positions in search engine rankings. The shared SEO features include customizable meta titles, meta descriptions, image alt attributes, dedicated SEO apps, prompts for SEO optimization, keyword support, Google integrations, SSL certificates, headings, and personalized SEO suggestions.

These robust tools not only cater to algorithmic requirements but also prioritize user experience (UX), garnering a 5 out of 5 score. Google places significant emphasis on user-centric experiences.

Wix takes a user-friendly approach to SEO, placing a strong focus on ease of use. Its SEO Wiz serves as an invaluable guide, imparting the basics of SEO during the website-building process. Users can benefit from best practice prompts while constructing their websites. Wix's commitment to a positive UX extends to an expanded template offering with a UX-centric approach, prioritizing website navigation, overall appeal, and sustained visual appeal.

Squarespace, known for its fantastic UX design, has further refined its SEO tools to cater to users of varying expertise levels. Previously considered advanced for beginners, Squarespace now provides a checklist to ensure no crucial steps are overlooked. The platform also offers keyword support and an extensive array of SEO articles within its knowledge center. Best practice prompts are integrated into the building process, aligning with the user-friendly approach seen in Wix.

In conclusion, both Wix and Squarespace demonstrate excellence in SEO tools and prioritize a seamless user experience, aligning with the ever-evolving landscape of search engine optimization.

Help And Support

Both Wix and Squarespace share the top spot, each boasting an impressive score of 4.8 out of 5 for customer support, making them joint leaders alongside Ionos. Wix has embraced a multi-faceted support approach, engaging users through forums, social media channels, live chat, and a 24/7 callback service for phone support. Notably, Wix's dedicated Support Center has undergone significant enhancements, contributing to a remarkable 10.5% increase in its help and support score.

Squarespace, while maintaining a forum, also provides a live chat function available from 3 am to 8 pm EST, Monday through Friday, and ensures a 24/7 email response team. Despite the slight dip from its previous 5 out of 5 support score to the current 4.8, Squarespace distinguishes itself by responding to all emails within one hour, demonstrating a commitment to swift customer assistance.

Wix sets itself apart with an exceptional on-page help feature integrated into the editing process. Users can easily access information by clicking on question marks on their screens when encountering challenges or uncertainties. Squarespace, although making strides in onboarding support, hasn't reached the same level of helpful prompts as Wix.

However, Squarespace's Knowledge Center emerges as a standout feature, contributing to its 4.8 out of 5 support score. The comprehensive Knowledge Center serves as a valuable resource, providing users with a wealth of information, often resolving issues before the need arises to contact a Squarespace advisor directly.

In summary, both Wix and Squarespace exhibit a commitment to robust customer support, with Wix excelling in on-page assistance, and Squarespace leveraging its extensive Knowledge Center to provide comprehensive guidance to users.

Which one Is The Best For Mobile Apps?

The Wix Owner app offers a multitude of features for managing one or multiple websites. It's important to note that editing site elements such as the menu, page architecture, and design from a mobile phone is exclusive to sites created in Wix ADI. However, content creation, including blog posts and new product listings, remains accessible.

The Dashboard on the app provides convenient shortcuts to key features, including Contracts, Orders, Subscriptions, Blog Posts, Analytics, Products, and Marketing Campaigns. Some notable highlights include:

Analytics and Reports: Enables users to set alerts for significant changes in traffic or sales.

Blog Section: Allows the creation and editing of posts, management of page settings, and monitoring of traffic.

Inbox: Displays messages from site members and customers.

On the other hand, the Squarespace app also allows website creation, login, and management of existing sites. However, the app's interface is more straightforward. Unlike Wix, Squarespace permits direct modification of all pages from the app, although a drag-and-drop option for rearranging page order within the menu would enhance usability.

The Squarespace app features a drag-and-drop option in Analytics, facilitating easy rearrangement of cards displaying information such as traffic overview, activity log, visits by country, traffic sources, and popular content. The commerce section is basic, showing orders (pending, fulfilled, or canceled) and inventory.

For support on Squarespace, users can navigate to "Settings" in the bottom menu and then select "Help" to access user guides and support tickets.

In terms of preference, the "Pages" section in the Squarespace app stands out for its efficient editing of both content and settings on each page. However, the Wix app boasts an appealing aesthetic and a richer set of features, making it the overall winner in this comparison.

Wix vs. Squarespace: Which is right for your business?

Wix is Ideal for Businesses That:

• Operate in fitness, hospitality, or event ticket sales.

• Seek to design a custom app for their specific needs.

• Have sufficient staff resources for dedicated website design and management.

• Prefer the flexibility to choose their payment processor.

Squarespace Suits Businesses That:

• Focus on selling exclusive content.

• Prefer a straightforward website builder, even with a slightly higher cost.

• Prioritize simplicity in the website creation process.

 In essence, Wix offers versatility for various business models, while Squarespace provides a streamlined solution for businesses emphasizing simplicity and exclusive content.

Conclution:

In conclusion, Wix stands out as a beloved and continually evolving platform that has successfully addressed its shortcomings, presenting a website builder that seamlessly combines user-friendliness with an abundance of features. The platform's back-end Dashboard adds value for small business owners, offering a suite of tools to efficiently manage their digital operations.

Wix's intuitive interface makes it an excellent choice for non-technical users, providing a user-friendly experience. For seasoned developers, Wix Corvid presents an intriguing proposition, facilitating rapid build times and offering robust capabilities in database and dynamic page creation.

Squarespace, a tried-and-tested platform, excels particularly in catering to blogs, portfolios, and simple stores. Its stylish and mobile-responsive templates, coupled with a developer portal, make it a versatile choice suitable for both programmers and non-programmers.

The comparison between these two web heavyweights is challenging, as both have crafted elegant website-building solutions, consistently enhancing their products year after year. For those seeking a visually stunning website, either option will not disappoint. However, if a choice must be made, Wix is recommended for its user-friendly approach and continuous innovation.