Wix vs Squarespace: Which Is the Best Website Builder?

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Wix and Squarespace are both highly rated in our 2025 rankings, but who comes out on top when comparing the website builders side-by-side?

After over 300 hours of testing, we can confirm that Wix is the better all-in-one builder for most users, with its easy drag-and-drop editor, powerful features to help promote and manage your business, and great sales tools so you can sell products online.

Comparing Wix vs Squarespace

I’m here to help break down these two builders so you can find the right fit for your business. I’ll go into more detail about key areas, such as pricing, user experience, and support, but you can get a quick summary from the table below:

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Wix

Squarespace

Overall Rating
4.8
Overall Rating
4.5
Starting from
Starting from
Free plan or free trial

Free plan

Free plan or free trial

14-day free trial

Number of templates

900+

Number of templates

180+

Free custom domain
Free custom domain
AI website builder
AI website builder
Standout features
  • AI chatbot builder
  • Branded email marketing
  • AI image editing
  • Personalized SEO support
Standout features
  • Great booking tools
  • Easiest editor to use
  • Stunning templates
  • Blueprint AI builder
Areas to improve
  • Storage space
  • Changing templates
  • Loading speed
Areas to improve
  • Autosave functionality
  • Phone support
  • In-person selling
Recommended for

Businesses promoting their online presence

Recommended for

Creatives, portfolios, and service-based businesses

View Wix View Squarespace

Key Takeaways 🔍

  • Wix’s website features are unmatched, outperforming every builder we’ve tested this year
  • Squarespace’s editor and interface are the easiest to use
  • Both Wix and Squarespace provide AI website builders to help you get online quickly and without fuss
  • Squarespace is cheaper, but Wix’s plans are better value for money since you get greater functionality for the price you pay (and Wix has a free plan)
  • You’ll need to upgrade your plan to sell online – ecommerce pricing starts from $29 per month with Wix and $23 per month with Squarespace
  • Both builders offer 24/7 help and support
  • Wix has 900+ templates, but Squarespace’s smaller template library has better quality options

Best for Pricing: Wix

Want to get the best deal for your money? Wix is better value for money than Squarespace, but I’ll break down each builder’s plans below:

How Much Does Wix Cost?

Wix’s pricing ranges from $17 to $159 per month (billed annually). You can choose between four premium plans:

  • Light – $17 per month
  • Core – $29 per month
  • Business – $36 per month
  • Business Elite – $159 per month

To accept payments and sell products, you’ll need Wix’s Core plan – an option that’s slightly more expensive than Squarespace’s cheapest ecommerce plan. That said, Wix offers more sales tools at this price point, such as abandoned cart recovery.

➡️ Get 10% off your Wix plan with the code “TAKE10” at checkout.

Wix free plan preview showing banner encouraging users to upgrade their plan
The preview mode in Wix’s editor includes a banner encouraging users to upgrade their plan, so I could easily see where visitors would see Wix ads on the live pages. Source: Website Builder Expert

How Much Does Squarespace Cost?

Squarespace’s pricing ranges from $16 to $52 per month (billed annually), divided between four premium plans:

  • Personal – $16 per month
  • Business – $23 per month
  • Commerce Basic – $28 per month
  • Commerce Advanced – $52 per month

I recommend Squarespace’s Personal plan as a starting point if you’re looking to build a simple website without the need for ecommerce tools or advanced functionality, like promotional pop-ups. You’ll need to opt for at least the Business plan if you’re looking to sell online.

➡️ For 10% off your Squarespace plan, use our exclusive code “WBE10” at checkout.

Can I build a website for free with Wix or Squarespace?

Wix has a free plan that you can stay on for as long as you’d like, but it comes with ads and limited features, such as 500MB of storage and no custom domain name. I recommend upgrading as soon as possible to remove ads and unlock additional features to help your site grow – not only will this make your site appear professional, but you’ll have better tools, such as a full marketing suite, to manage and promote your business.

In comparison, Squarespace only offers a 14-day free trial to test out the builder. You don’t need to enter any card details at this stage, and the two-week window does give you plenty of time to see whether Squarespace is the right fit for you.

wix logo
The Winner

Wix has better pricing than Squarespace

Despite Wix and Squarespace having similar starting prices, you’ll get more bang for your buck with Wix’s premium plans. Plus, Wix has a free plan which is a great option for personal sites and budget-conscious businesses who want to test things out before committing to a plan.

Easiest To Use: Squarespace

I tested both Wix and Squarespace hands-on to see what signing up and editing a website is like for users.

Setting Up

The onboarding process is the first experience you’ll have with your chosen website builder, and it can really set the tone.

With Wix, I chose the recommended path by using its AI chatbot builder. The conversational AI tool asked me a few questions about my website needs and business before generating a site profile and template based on my responses.

My experience with Wix...

During my tests, I was impressed by how personalized the questions became following my answers. For example, I set out to create a website for a bookstore, and Wix’s AI chatbot asked: “Do you have any additional goals for your website, like gathering newsletter subscribers or promoting book events?”.

Of course, the AI tool isn’t without error – I named my bookshop “Bookmark”, and the chatbot focused heavily on that word when building the site profile, resulting in “bookmarking needs” as a goal. That said, I’d recommend using the AI builder, as opposed to just picking a template, if you want a more personalized experience. You’ll get more control over the outcome.

Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma Ryan Lead Writer
Wix AI chatbot asking questions to create custom website
I was impressed by how Wix’s AI chatbot adapted to my website needs. Source: Website Builder Expert

On the other hand, Squarespace’s onboarding process presented me with two options: choose a template or build with Blueprint AI, a guided web design solution.

Using Blueprint AI involves a five-step process where you select from various designs, add pages, and choose colors and font types. Although it takes a bit longer than Wix’s AI builder since you need to browse and select the design options yourself, I was still able to create a website in under 10 minutes.

Build your homepage section of Squarespace Blueprint
I found it easy to build a site with Blueprint AI and I loved exploring the different design options. Source: Website Builder Expert

My experience with Squarespace...

To compare it with Wix’s AI chatbot, I tried Squarespace’s Blueprint AI to build my bookstore’s site. It first asked me for my website’s name – a standard starting point when building with AI. I could then choose from a list of sections and layouts to add to the homepage, such as the “Products section” or “Social section.” 

While this makes it easy to pull a website together quickly, you get a greater variety of sections and elements if you choose to edit a pre-designed Squarespace template in the editor, instead of using Blueprint AI. 

Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma Ryan Lead Writer

Editing Your Website

Squarespace is the easiest website builder to use. It creates a user-friendly experience, offering stylish designs, intuitive features, and structured editing support when building a site.

Both Wix and Squarespace have drag-and-drop editors. While Wix provides total creative freedom, it can feel a little overwhelming for beginners due to the sheer number of editing tools available. In comparison, Squarespace provides a helping hand with a grid structure – this keeps your site looking professional and helps you avoid clutter on the page.

For this reason, I highly recommend Squarespace for beginners, since it’ll be a challenge to create a bad-looking site with the editor. That being said, if you’re an experienced builder, you’ll also enjoy Squarespace’s sleek UX and library of design elements.

Squarespace's drag and drop website editor
I found Squarespace's grid lines in the editor really helpful when dragging new elements on to the page. Source: Website Builder Expert
squarespace logo
The Winner

Squarespace is easier to use and beginner-friendly

Both builders help you get online quickly and easily, but Squarespace’s Blueprint AI and editor offer additional guidance. I felt incredibly supported throughout the onboarding process, and I loved the flexibility and stylish designs available in Squarespace’s editor. I could simply place and rearrange elements to my liking, and the grid overlay helped me keep sections aligned with one another.

Best for Selling Online: Wix

If you’re looking for an ecommerce website builder to build an online store, Wix is the stronger choice for selling online. You’ll gain access to powerful sales features with Wix Ecommerce, such as:

  • A robust backend for managing your store and inventory – you can sell a variety of physical and digital products, but only up to 50,000 products
  • Seamless integration between in-store and online sales thanks to Wix’s POS products (this is something Squarespace lacks)
  • Advanced shipping options, including free shipping and local delivery – customize your settings to suit your business needs
  • Unlimited storage space (on the Business Elite plan) – you’re restricted on cheaper Wix plans, which offer between 2GB and 100GB of storage space
  • Multichannel selling to help your business target customers across social media and marketplaces, such as Amazon and Facebook
Wix product backend dashboard
I could add, edit, and manage both physical and digital products from Wix’s dashboard. Source: Website Builder Expert

Squarespace is also a capable website builder for selling online, especially if you’re looking to offer services, such as consultations or classes. Squarespace’s Acuity Scheduling tool is a great built-in feature, helping you create appointments and set availability from a dedicated dashboard. And, unlike Wix, Squarespace offers unlimited storage and unlimited products across all plans.

Squarespace Acuity Scheduling homepage showing form to add new appointment type
I had no trouble adding new appointments to the Acuity Scheduling dashboard, including 1:1 sessions and group classes. Source: Website Builder Expert

That said, Wix remains the better choice for online stores, providing room for growth, a suite of built-in sales features, and access to a large app market. However, I still wouldn’t recommend either Wix or Squarespace for a large online store, since both builders lack the ecommerce capabilities and power of Shopify, our top-rated ecommerce website builder.

wix logo
The Winner

Wix is the better option for online stores

Wix provides great sales features and scalability if you’re thinking about selling online. Its high-quality ecommerce plans offer room to grow your business, and its ecommerce tools, such as abandoned cart recovery and shipping options, help you service your customers effectively.

Best Website Features: Wix

It doesn’t matter how easy a website builder’s editor is if the platform lacks basic functionality. You need powerful features, such as email marketing and SEO, to improve visibility and promote your business to your target audience. And, based on our 2025 research, Wix has the best tools to help you manage and grow your business.

Marketing Tools

While both Squarespace and Wix offer built-in email marketing tools, Wix is the better option. For example, Wix provides scalable email marketing features based on your premium plan, and you can make use of its third-party integrations, such as Mailchimp.

This helps you grow subscribers, send out newsletters or website updates, and organize automations, such as welcome emails.

Wix's newsletter editor to share latest business updates
Like Wix's website editor, I found it really easy to edit and design my email campaigns. Source: Website Builder Expert

Blogging

Wix is also my recommended choice if you’re looking for a blogging platform. Both Wix and Squarespace have dedicated blog sections to make it easy for you to add content to your website. You can even set up blog-specific SEO, schedule posts, monetize your pages, search blog content, create categories, and collect comments.

Author's notes

I tried Wix’s AI writer to generate blog content for my test website, which is really handy if you need to churn out a high quantity of blog posts. It was really simple to use, and it created a detailed and well-structured blog post for me based on a headline prompt. I could even request different post types, such as a listicle or how-to guide, as well as the number of images and desired tone of voice. Of course, I always recommend reviewing any AI-generated content for errors and to add a human touch before publishing, but it’s a useful starting point for your blog.

Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma Ryan Lead Writer

However, Squarespace is a little let down by its lack of blog analytics and archive functionality – both are features offered by Wix. That said, Wix’s advanced functionality for blogging won’t be necessary for casual bloggers. Instead, I recommend Wix’s blogging tools for businesses and online stores. Squarespace is a better option for media-focused and creative blogs.

New blog post in Wix's website builder
Wix’s dedicated blog dashboard made it easy for me to add new posts, set categories and tags, and optimize my content for SEO. Source: Website Builder Expert

SEO

When it comes to SEO features, Wix and Squarespace are evenly matched, but Wix provides a better SEO website builder experience overall. Both builders include standard free SEO tools, such as mobile optimization and 301 redirects, but Wix goes beyond the SEO basics.

When testing Wix’s SEO, I was impressed by the personalized SEO checklist it created for my website – this is especially useful for beginners, since it helps you identify issues and areas to optimize. In comparison, Squarespace’s SEO settings are fairly tame, and it was much easier to find Wix’s SEO tools than Squarespace’s, which are tucked away under the “Marketing” sidebar.

Wix also helps you generate and analyze keywords with its Semrush integration, ensuring your content caters to both search engines and readers. And, Wix’s AI meta tag creator deploys AI to support your SEO efforts by automatically generating optimized title tags and meta descriptions.

Personalized Wix SEO setup checklist
Wix generated a custom SEO setup checklist for my test website based on some business information and target keywords. Source: Website Builder Expert
wix logo
The Winner

Wix's website features are unmatched

Wix is a thorough all-in-one solution for building, managing, and growing your online presence thanks to its excellent website features. Wix’s suite of built-in tools can help you monetize your blog content or improve your site’s visibility in search results. And, if you need extra functionality, Wix’s app market offers hundreds of third-party apps, whereas Squarespace has under 50 possible integrations.

Best Designs: Squarespace

Squarespace is a design powerhouse, offering everything you need to create a stunning website. In addition to its Blueprint AI, Squarespace has over 150 templates – all are high-quality and professionally designed. If you run a creative business or want to build a portfolio website, Squarespace is the obvious choice.

In contrast, Wix outnumbers Squarespace with its library of over 900 templates, covering a broad spectrum of industries and business needs, from “Real Estate” to “Blog.” Although Wix beats Squarespace when it comes to quantity, Squarespace has the best quality templates.

Did You Know? 💭

Unfortunately, you can’t swap your template once your site is live with either Wix or Squarespace (if you’re using Squarespace’s 7.1 editor). This means that any intense design updates can be time-consuming, since you need to edit everything from scratch.
Squarespace template library
Squarespace's templates are incredibly well-designed, modern, and professional. Source: Website Builder Expert
squarespace logo
The Winner

Squarespace offers high-quality designs

While Wix has more template options to choose from, Squarespace can’t be beat when it comes to the quality and professionalism of its designs. They’re sleek, modern, and intuitive to navigate around.

Best Support: Wix

Everyone needs a helping hand now and again, and Wix has the best help and support out of all the website builders I’ve tested. You can find expert guidance and resources from these channels:

  • 24/7 phone support
  • Live chat, available Monday to Friday (between 2AM and 6PM EST)
  • Social media
  • Support within the editor, such as video guides and a tour of the editor’s features (including a new AI theme assistant to help with designing your website)
  • Knowledge center full of guides and tutorials
  • SEO Learning Hub for specialized support and interactive courses to help optimize your content and improve your knowledge
  • A community forum so you can hear from real Wix users

In comparison, Squarespace offers email support, but it lacks phone help, online courses, and a dedicated SEO resource like Wix’s. So, Wix can offer you help through a wider variety of support channels.

wix logo
The Winner

Wix offers 24/7 customer support

I found Wix’s contact options, such as the 24/7 phone support and live chat, to be more responsive and accessible. Plus, Wix provides a lot of expert guidance in the form of its SEO Learning Hub, video guides, and interactive online courses.

How We Test Website Builders

When comparing two of the top website builders, like Wix and Squarespace, we carry out regular testing to guarantee that our recommendations and judgments are accurate.

After over 300 hours of data analysis and hands-on testing with each builder, Wix and Squarespace have been awarded a star rating out of five for each core area of investigation in our research process:

  • Website Features: 30%
  • Design Features: 25%
  • Pricing: 15%
  • User Experience: 15%
  • Help and Support: 10%
  • Reputation: 5%

I sat down and built websites with both Wix and Squarespace myself, so you know that any insights I share on using the builders are based on real, first-hand experience. I’ve included tips and screenshots of my testing throughout this comparison to help you decide which is the best platform for you.

Final Verdict: Should You Use Wix or Squarespace?

It’s a close race between our two top-rated website builders, but Wix is the best website builder overall. It provides strong features to support selling, promoting your site, and optimizing your pages.

My Testing Summary

Wix is a great option for a variety of website needs and industries due to its broad range of templates and tools. Because of this, I recommend Wix to everyone, but particularly small businesses looking for a central hub to manage and grow their brand. It’s really the best all-in-one resource for website owners.

Squarespace sits just behind, providing a beginner-friendly editing experience, stunning templates, and great booking tools. As a result, I recommend Squarespace to creatives and service-based businesses who want an aesthetically pleasing site.

If you’re deciding between Wix or Squarespace, you’re guaranteed a top-quality builder. The biggest advice I can offer is to make use of Wix’s free plan or Squarespace’s 14-day free trial to test out the builder for yourself and see if it’s a good fit for your business. 

Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma Ryan Lead Writer
Written by:
Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma is Lead Writer at Website Builder Expert, having first joined the team in 2022. She manages the website's topical content strategy to help website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Emma also specializes in following the development of leading website builders Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, through hands-on testing and research. Her work and expertise have been featured in Startups.co.uk, Digiday, TechRound, Industry Today, and Digital Information World.
Researched by:
Headshot of Ollie Simpson
Oliver Simpson is a Senior Research Executive at Website Builder Expert, providing objective, in-depth research and ratings on website builders and ecommerce platforms that underpins the recommendations we make across the website. Every website builder review and recommendation you read on Website Builder Expert has been informed using Oliver’s unique research methodology. Whether running first-hand testing with writers or conducting in-depth research into audience needs, industry trends, and product features, Oliver is driven by a relentless pursuit of improvement and results.

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