Wix vs Squarespace 2024 – customization or simplicity?

Both Wix and Squarespace have lots to offer, and different users will find both providers great for different purposes. However, there are a few aspects to consider if you want to make a more conscious decision.

For this Wix vs Squarespace comparison, the Cybernews team and I tested and evaluated both website builders in several categories like pricing, ease of use, templates, and more. Continue reading to see which one would suit your website needs better in 2024.

Note: This comparison is based on my own experiences with both website builders and reflects my subjective views and evaluations.

Wix vs Squarespace: overview

• Wix – my top website builder for all kinds of sites ranging from portfolios and blogs to online stores and business landing pages.
• Squarespace – I recommend Squarespace for eCommerce sites and visual portfolio projects.

Wix is a more flexible website builder for building any site

Based on extensive testing and reviewing, Wix is my top website builder in this Wix vs Squarespace comparison. Not only does it offer a free version and more affordable entry-level prices, it also allows for more flexibility. Essentially, you are not limited to one kind of site – numerous Wix templates, customization options, and plugins provide ways to build any site you want, in any way you like.

Winner

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Squarespace vs Wix: pricing

Wix and Squarespace are similar in pricing and the features they offer. However, one of them offers lower entry-level plans and even has a free version. Take a look at the price breakdown below:

Wix and Squarespace each offer 4 paid plans, ranging from personal to business and commerce. Both providers include more or less the same resources, although Squarespace doesn’t limit the storage space with any of the plans. On the other hand, unlike Squarespace, Wix offers a basic free version, and its two entry plans are cheaper than Squarespace’s.

Additionally, while Wix is more focused on personal and business sites, Squarespace provides plans more suited for eCommerce. With the business plans, Wix offers marketing suites, site analytics, developer platforms, and eCommerce features. Meanwhile, Squarespace’s most expensive plans include only a marketing tools suite and eCommerce tools.

For more detailed pricing overviews, feature comparisons, and best value plans, you can take a look at Squarespace pricing breakdown and Wix pricing review.

Wix offers more resources for similar prices as Squarespace

Between Wix and Squarespace, the best value is in the Wix Business ($18.00/month) and Squarespace personal ($16.00/month) plans. Both providers include a good amount of storage, collaboration options, and features to manage audiences, marketing, and eCommerce. Nevertheless, for almost the same price, Wix includes more advanced eCommerce and marketing features than Squarespace.

Winner

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Wix vs Squarespace – a case study

To fully test and compare Wix and Squarespace, I created mock-up sites and tested all available features. From the editor to additional features aimed to help you grow your website and its audience.

Here’s the website I created using the Wix website builder:

And this is what Squarespace website builder had to offer:

So, how easy was it to create these sites? And which builder is better? Continue reading to find out all about building your website with Wix and Squarespace.

Wix vs Squarespace: ease of use

Wix and Squarespace are popular among both beginners and professionals because of how user-friendly both web builders are.

Now, let’s take a closer look at what you can expect from both Wix and Squarespace in terms of ease of use.

Using Wix

Using Wix is pretty easy and straightforward. Therefore, no matter whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, you’ll manage to build your website quickly and easily.

Starting with Wix ADI:

• Start by picking what website you’re going to make and what features you’ll need.
• Then pick a design template and edit it to fit all your needs. The editor is very easy to use, but it is limited. Therefore, you will be quite restricted with the changes you can make.

On the other hand, the regular editor allows for a lot more freedom:

• You start by picking one of the over 800 templates available.
• Then you move on to the editing part – this is a classic drag-and-drop editor, so customizing the look will be really easy. There are hundreds of various elements that can be added, mixed, matched, and combined on your Wix site.

Overall, using Wix can be a bit of a sensory overload. But there's a good reason for that – there's just so much you can do. With two different editors, hundreds of themes, and abundant design customizability, you get a lot of freedom and flexibility. And once you get used to the editor, things start looking pretty intuitive.

Using Squarespace

Squarespace, unlike Wix, uses only one website editor, making the setup process a little less hectic:

• Start by picking a template that fits your website idea. Even on a free trial, you can choose however many websites and templates that you like.
• After picking your template, answer a couple of questions to set up your site. You are asked to share the site name and the pages required. There’s also a short tutorial on how Squarespace works.
• In the editor, you can customize your site’s appearance. Squarespace is not a drag-and-drop builder like Wix. Everything here falls into one simple grid. The entire Squarespace editing system is built out of sections, going one after another. And then, there are blocks that fill in the sections with content.
• Choose from several pre-made sections. They're all made to suit the template you pick in terms of style, fonts, and colors.

This system makes Squarespace a lot less customizable than Wix, but that’s perfect for beginners and more straightforward projects. Moreover, Squarespace’s approach ensures that the final website looks good on all types of devices.

Wix vs Squarespace: templates and design

Wix offers 800 templates in multiple design categories, ranging from portfolios to stores, and many more. Squarespace includes 160+ templates from 15 categories like fashion, food, fitness, and more. Both providers' templates are responsive and well-designed.

Wrapping up

Wix offers quantity, while Squarespace offers quality. But really, amazing themes can be found on both platforms. Squarespace offers a simple experience, while Wix offers more choice and variation.

Winner

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Let’s dive deeper into what kinds of templates Wix and Squarespace can offer.

Templates on Wix

To start, Wix offers over 800 templates available that cover any possible theme you could think of. Better yet, two editors are also available – Wix ADI and Wix Editor. The former allows you to build your site by asking you specific questions and then creating the site based on your answers. The latter is more of a classic drag-and-drop editor, allowing you to customize the existing templates to your liking.

With so many different template options, you can find the one that fits your needs easily – whether you need a classic-looking site or a modern one. In addition, the grouping by different topics allows for easy navigation.

Templates of Squarespace

Squarespace offers around 160 templates, while Wix has over 800. There are fewer topics to choose from, too. With 15 options, there are templates for Photography, Food, Events, and everything in between.

There is also a section for My Favorites, allowing you to find a template you’ve used before very quickly.

Squarespace also uses a simplistic section-based editor. This doesn’t give you too many customization options, but it’s very simplistic to use, even for a beginner.

Better yet, with this simplistic editor, you can always be certain that your website’s design will not vary too far from the template and will stay modern and professional.

Business features

To build a successful and attractive business website, both Wix and Squarespace offer various useful business features. From general website builder features like free SSLs and custom domain names to more advanced tools like eCommerce features – both of these providers have you covered.

Wix and Squarespace offer a variety of features enabling you to build a professional-looking business website. Here’s a comparison table of all the business features that Wix and Squarespace offer:

Wix offers more SEO and Analytics tools than Squarespace

With advanced SEO tools like Google Search integration, as well as analytics tools like traffic and user behavior monitoring with personalized improvement suggestions, Wix offers more opportunities to grow your site. On the other hand, Squarespace handles social media and email marketing a little better, with more advanced tools like email campaign analytics and the option to sell products directly through Instagram or Facebook.

Winner

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Performance – Squarespace is faster

Not all websites are built to be fast and optimized, but they should be – a fast website is crucial for a positive user experience.

For the last Wix vs Squarespace test, I checked the performance of the two websites I created using the builders. To test the performance, I used GTmetrix, which measures the page's and platform's overall speed and optimization.

Here are Wix GTMetrix results:

And here are Squarespace GTMetrix results:

From the first look, Squarespace looks better than Wix. It loads faster, at 2.8 seconds vs 8.4, and it has a better overall optimization score (B), compared to Wix (D).

But there’s more than meets the eye – while visiting the test websites, I didn't notice a major difference between the two. The data actually backs this up: it takes around 1.5 seconds for Squarespace to display the top portion of the site, compared to around 2 seconds for Wix.

Both of these results are well within the industry standard. So, while Squarespace has a massive advantage in performance tests, real-life differences aren't all that drastic.

Customer support

Both Wix and Squarespace offer various customer support channels:

Overall, it’s clear that Squarespace concentrates more on written responses, which can be great in certain situations. On the other hand, Wix favors direct support via phone and live chat.

Wix offers faster support via more channels

Wix offers more immediate customer support, and the provider also provides personalized support in 10 languages, including English, Japanese, and Spanish. While the provider only offers 24/7 callback support in English, it’s great to see a provider ready to support clients from different parts of the world.

Winner

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Final verdict – which one is better?

When choosing between Wix vs Squarespace, it's very important to know exactly what you're looking for. Wix gives you more than 800 templates, tons of apps, and great business tools, which is why it’s the winner in my book.

On the other hand, Squarespace is great at making everything simple and understandable. Gone are the massive libraries of themes and plugins. Everything from site-building and management to running an entire business can be pulled off by virtually anyone.

So, which one's the right fit for you? The right choice between Squarespace and Wix depends entirely on your project and goals. While both providers can help you build personal and small business websites, Wix offers more customization, a feature-rich suite, more varied subscription plans, and better customer support.

Winner

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More Wix comparisons you might want to read

• Wix vs GoDaddy
• Wix vs Weebly
• Wix vs Shopify

More Squarespace comparisons for you to check out

• Squarespace vs GoDaddy
• Squarespace vs Shopify
• Squarespace vs Weebly

Wix vs Squarespace FAQs