The article will help you know and compare Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace to help you pick the right platform that helps meet your needs.
In the process of understanding each platform better, let us walk you through the crucial areas of successful website development such as ease of use, design, pricing, and many other aspects, and how each of these website builders performs on these scales.
Selecting the right website builder can be cumbersome as plenty of options are available in the market. The job gets even more difficult when you have to compare Wix, Squarespace & as all of them are excellent.
Website builders are quite helpful for almost everyone from developers to the new site owners. This is because for everyone building their web presence is the key.
Many people have this misconception that website builders are not meant for beginners, but this is not true. It can help everyone including professionals to save time without compromising on quality.
In short, website builders & templates can help you complete your task within less time without any hassles.
If you are a little confused about which website builder to choose to build your website for business or entertainment, then we help you choose from the 3 Wix Vs Squarespace Vs WordPress best websites builders.
- Wix
- Squarespace
- WordPress
It is vital to know where you would get the best templates, meet hosting requirements and which is the best website builder for blogging.
Well, Wix and Squarespace have almost the same features while WordPress comes with a different layout.
WordPress is a self-hosted and open-source platform that saves your money on web hosting. On the other hand, Wix & Squarespace are new giants in the market that have their individual hosting services. Here, you just need to sign-up to their website and start building a website without touching the main software.
Wix
Helps you build simple websites with professional appeal and functionality.
Squarespace
Helps create simple, modern, and attractive websites.
WordPress
Perfect for building simple to complex websites with flexibility and extensive features.
Ease of use
Wix
Wix is known to be the powerful and cost-effective drag & drop unique page builder that helps you build impressive and functional websites.
The sign-in process with Wix takes just a few minutes. The next step is to select a template to begin with customizing the content available on a pre-built website using an interactive drag & drop builder.
Out of all Wix is the simplest website builder to use. With the help of drag & drop design, it becomes easy to customize your site without any issues. The interface is transparent and it is a perfect builder for tech beginners too.
Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) you can develop a site in a few minutes. Isn’t it amazing and super simple?
Wix scores 4.8 stars here out of 5. It offers attractive designs, domains and hosting under one roof. You can sign-up and get started with Wix.
Squarespace
Talking about Squarespace, it is a wonderful website builder that is easy to use and comes with interesting e-commerce & marketing features necessary for trainers.
Certainly, it won’t take much effort to learn this platform and Squarespace walks you through step-by-step guides to learn how to use it.
As compared to Wix, it is a bit tricky to use in the beginning, but also consists of sleek designs to use. Ideally, it is for those who love to play with designs and are ready to learn even about a tiny curve in the process.
With some trial and error, you can learn this platform as no coding knowledge is required to do so. It is a perfect tool that takes a little more time to learn and use.
Well, designing a website using Squarespace would take a bit more time as compared to Wix, but you would enjoy the final design of the website. You would be able to design a website like a professional with Squarespace.
Squarespace scores 4.7 out of 5. It offers elegant designs for beginners to advanced users.
WordPress
WordPress is a robust CMS (content management system) ideal for business owners who are looking to grow with the business.
WordPress is completely customizable and you can utilize built-in WordPress tools for editing. Also, you can install some amazing web page builders.
With WordPress, you don’t need to hunt for a hosting service for your website as WordPress is a self-hosted platform. Everything can be customized using code. You may find it to be the most difficult platform to use but worth it.
Certainly, WordPress is for those who possess technical knowledge and want to have liberty as far as customization is concerned. The platform is for those who love coding and can spend hours together to learn coding & hosting.
Yet another factor that makes it even more complicated is that there is no support team for this platform. It means if you come across any issues, you need to handle them by yourself. To resolve the issue you can approach WordPress developer.
WordPress gets 4.4 out of 5 here. We cannot deny the fact that more than a quarter websites are built on WordPress. It offers more flexibility and complete control over your site.
 | 4.8out of 5 | Ease Of Use |
Winner for Usability
Wix wins the race as it is a more user-friendly website builder than the other two. On the other hand, Squarespace is little tricky and WordPress is for those having coding knowledge.
Design
You need an impressive website design to attract visitors.
Wix
Wix provides more than 510 + themes to select from. It comprises 16 different categories that include CV, Business, portfolio, etc.
The themes available on this platform are 100% mobile responsive. It means they appear as appealing as on a laptop screen.
Wix scores 4.9 stars out of 5. Wix offers the right platform for more cautious customers to experiment with their ideas to bring their vision to reality. Wix offers landing pages that can be customized swiftly even when your site is under construction. It helps your visitors know that your site will be live soon.
Squarespace
Squarespace also offers attractive designs. You can pick from a collection of beautiful templates that look like professional designs. You can browse through different categories to pick the template design of your choice.
Well, Squarespace offers better designs as compared to Wix, but it has limitations in terms of scope for modifications that can be done by the user.
As the work is done in blocks, it is not possible to just drag a few things wherever you want. However, it is possible with Wix. Squarespace takes care of the professional look of the designed template which is of course a good thing.
Squarespace scores 4.8 stars out of 5 for stunning designs it offers for your site. With plenty of page configurations available, you can add, move or delete your content to make it look unique.
WordPress
When you use WordPress to design a website, you will find it a little different. You will get thousands of WordPress themes to select from and customization has no limits. If you have extensive tech knowledge, you can start adding plugins and use code to design each theme according to your preferences.
You may not find the themes as attractive as with Squarespace, but you are free to customize your site to the fullest.
WordPress scores 5 out of 5. In terms of functionality, themes, and plug-ins, you can go beyond boundaries with WordPress while designing a website.
 | 4.8out of 5 | Design Flexibility |
Winner for Design Flexibility
Here Squarespace wins the race due to its drag & drop facility for editing whereas Wix inspite of offering flexible editing, the modifications cannot be done after making your site live. WordPress is flexible but can’t beat Squarespace.
Tools & Features comparison of Wix Vs Squarespace Vs WordPress
Wix
Ecommerce
Wix has 3 e-commerce price plans. All of these plans offer extra storage, power to sell without any transaction fees, and more than 20 distinct payment gateways.
Wix is one of the best website builders that comes with excellent e-commerce functionality.
Wix caters to the needs of businesses in different categories like Restaurant, Hotels, Musicians etc. Here Wix get 4.8 out of 5.
Blogging
For blogging, Wix offers a quick fix. You can add galleries, comments and integrate absolutely free Wix Blog App to make use of additional features.
Wix gets 4.2 out of 5 for its free blogging features.
Marketing
Wix makes your marketing effortless. You can create newsletters, execute email campaigns or include banners with a few clicks. Wix also helps you embed marketing apps such as Wix Shoutout, or choose a 3rd party option from the app market underneath ‘Marketing apps‘.
Here Wix scores 4 out of 5. Ascend by Wix helps automate business operations and reach your potential customers.
Squarespace
Ecommerce
As far as e-commerce functionalities are considered, Squarespace has a genuine quality that comprises
- coupon generation
- product image zooming
- abandoned cart recovery
- zero transaction fees
Squarespace scores 4.2 out of 5. The storefronts created using Squarespace are amazing but offer limited features.
Blogging
Squarespace is one of the versatile blogging platforms you would have come across. It has everything that you need to build and run a successful portfolio or blog which includes user likes, social sharing. and author support.
Squarespace gets 3.5 out of 5. It is not an economical option for bloggers.
Marketing
If you want to include marketing features like Facebook Pixel or Mailchimp then you have to move to their premium plan.
Squarespace scores 4.3 out of 5 due to its MailChimp functionality and it is an all rounder platform to run email campaigns.
WordPress
Ecommerce
Now, when it comes to what WordPress does, it is a little different in how it functions. You won’t find anything built-in on this platform and the same applies to e-commerce functionality too. You would need to include a separate plugin.
WooCommerce is a particular plugin used for WordPress. It doesn’t provide more features as Wix or Squarespace does. However, it offers one-click refunds and features to integrate products on various store pages.
WordPress gets 4.4 out of 5. It offers high-quality eCommerce plugins and payment integrations.
Blogging
WordPress is quite popular for its blogging abilities. It is adopted by many to start their blogs online. The fact that it supports 24% of the websites, we cannot overlook the impressive data. This is because of the amazing blogging functionalities of WordPress.
It is a self-hosted platform and you can customize everything using code and include any plugin you wish to. It is the right platform for bloggers who are technically sound and can deal with complex platforms.
Marketing
WordPress is contrary to SquareSpace. Here, everything required for sharing and promoting needs to be embedded using a plugin. There are thousands of plugins available for effective marketing with marketing apps such as Keap & Disqus.
WordPress scores 5 out of 5 for providing infinite plug-ins and tools to optimize your site. Undoubtedly it is world’s number 1 blogging platform.
 | 4.7out of 5 | Tools & Features |
Winner for Tools & Features
It is a tie between Wix, Squarespace and WordPress as Wix & Squarespace offer effective & built-in tools and features and WordPress offers a range of widgets and plug-ins.
Scalability of Wix Vs Squarespace Vs WordPress
Wix
If you wish to create a standard hobby site or portfolio, Wix is an ideal option. In case you are expecting a lot more then Wix may not be for you.
It is a tie between Wix & Squarespace as both the platforms offer effective & built-in tools and features that WordPress doesn’t.
Squarespace
As far as scalability is considered with Squarespace, there is not much scope to make your site a profitable one from a content & design point of view.
As Squarespace is not loaded with plugins or add-ons, they can be added using code snippets. Due to this aspect, Squarespace can be the ideal choice if you wish to build an attractive but simple site that helps people know about you and your product/services.
Squarespace provides unlimited bandwidth and storage through its affordable plan.
WordPress
WordPress offers a great level of customisation and good number of useful plugin, so any functionality can be scaled optimum way.It provides countless plug-ins for seamless customization which helps optimize the website to the fullest.
With no restrictions over plugins you can use, WordPress offers higher flexibility.
| 4.8 out of 5 | Scalability |
Winner for Scalability
Wix is ahead of Squarespace and WordPress as you can do a lot more with Wix for simple and hobby sites.
Search engine optimization
Wix
Talking about SEO, Wix doesn’t have more in the kitty to offer. It allows basic optimization which makes ranking on top position in search results challenging.
Wix and Squarespace offer basic features to improve the SEO of your website which includes
- Updating URLs – for users to find your web pages without any hassles
- Customizing meta descriptions – content displayed by Google displays on the results page
- Editing image alt tags – Allows Google to make out what an image is and the way it should be categorized
Wix gets 4 out of 5 and it covers the basics aspects of SEO like keywords, meta tags etc.
Squarespace
Here, you can write search metadata for your home page. The other pages will be auto-generated using your content.
Well, Squarespace lacks SEO-oriented apps & best practice prompts that are offered by Wix.
It means if you wish to scale your site on search engines effectively, stick to Wix.
Squarespace scores 4 out of 5 and it has enhanced it’s SEO to a large extent.
WordPress
Basic WordPress installation comes with SEO as a default feature. Also, you will get some wonderful and effective plugins that will help boost your SEO efforts.
With WordPress you get the liberty to optimize your site for SEO provided you have technical expertise. The customization is limitless to boost the SEO performance of your site.
WordPress gets 5 out of 5 for its flexible and easy SEO with effective plugins like Yoast.
| 4out of 5 | SEO |
Winner for SEO
Wix stands first again as it offers basics of SEO to boost your site rankings.
Customer support
Wix
Wix offers a strong and dedicated Help Center. Here, Non-VIP customers can also connect to the support by submitting a ticket while VIP customers can connect via phone support as well.
Talking about technology, errors are bound to occur. You may face some issues while developing a site. To resolve the issues you need dedicated support to manage your website easily.
Out of other platforms, Wix offers great customer support. You can reach out to their customer care via
- Phone and email
- Social media
- The Wix Help Center
Wix scores 5 out of 5 as far as customer support is concerned.
Squarespace
Getting support from Squarespace is not easy like Wix. It offers limited options to seek customer support like
- Live chat
- 24/7 email support
- A comprehensive Knowledge Base
Squarespace earns 4 out of 5 due to its multiple support options.
WordPress
With this you will face issues with customer support as they don’t have dedicated support. There is no email support, call center, or live chat.
Well, you can find an excellent support community that consists of guides, FAQs, tutorials, etc.
WordPress gets 3 out of 5 as it may not have a dedicated support team to resolve your issues, but they have a large community that can be helpful to resolve your issues.
| 5out of 5 | Customer Support |
Winner for Customer Support
Here Wix leads with its distinct support options whereas Squarespace lacks phone support and WordPress offers support through a forum only.
Website management
Wix
The technical aspect of Wix will never disappoint you. It helps you with security, hosting and even allows you to register your domain.
Squarespace
Squarespace controls the technical end of your site that is email, hosting, and domain.
WordPress
Since WordPress is not a “hosted” website builder you can choose your domain and hosting account.
You can search for reliable hosting services where you can keep your website up and running.
| 4out of 5 | Website Management |
Winner for website management
Wix wins the race in terms of website management whereas Squarespace is also very close to Wix.
Pricing comparison of Wix Vs Squarespace Vs WordPress
Wix
Its free plan is quite popular. If you want your website to be more professional with added features like e-commerce functionality, own domain, extra bandwidth, then you will have to upgrade to one of the seven different premium plans available. These plans range from $14-$49/month.
Wix gets 4.3 out of 5 for its unbeatable free plan, an attractive feature for those who want to get started.
Squarespace
You will not get a free plan with Squarespace, but you can opt for a trial offer of 14 days at no cost. If you find Squarespace to be a suitable platform to meet your needs, you can upgrade after trial periods is over
4 Core premium plans are it offers
- Personal – $12 per month
- Business – $18 per month
- Basic – $26 per month
- Advanced – $40 per month
With any of the above plans, you can design your website elegantly but for selling your products online you will need a basic or advanced plan.
Squarespace get 4 out of 5 and may not find its place among cost-effective website builders
WordPress
It can be quite confusing when you calculate WordPress cost as it varies for everyone. The platform is free to use, but the web hosting will cost you around $10 per month, plugins, and SSL certificates.
WordPress pricing varies but talking about Squarespace and Wix, they have stated their pricing clearly and can be managed easily.
WordPress gets 5 out of 5 for its free and long term plug-ins, cheap themes etc.
| 4.3 out of 5 | Pricing |
Winner for Affordable Pricing
Wix and WordPress win the race as they are free whereas Squarespace offers paid plans only.
Pros and Cons – Wix Vs Squarespace Vs WordPress
Wix
Pros
- Easy drag & drop user interface saves time invested in creating a website.
- No special coding skills are required to use the Wix website builder.
- Wix provides an array of impressive free templates
- Easy to use blog editor having blog features with SEO features embedded to improve SEO rankings.
- Integrating plugins is easy and you can find them under one app store which helps you include these plugins easily to your website.
Cons
- The drag & drop design functionality is limited and many developers may not find it impressive.
- The web and mobile view of the website need to be edited individually which can take a lot of your time to attain a professional feel.
- Blogging comes with limited features. If you want something highly customizable then a post editor may not be the option you are looking for.
- You may not find themes to be fully customizable for a business brand which restricts you to experiment with designs.
Squarespace
Pros
- Squarespace is available on mobile platforms like iOS and Android and also as an app.
- It is the perfect choice for blogging websites. In case you just want a perfect blogging website, you would find the right features, multiple authors and automated scheduling for your post.
- Squarespace presents 100+ templates and themes with responsive design.
Cons
- The website speed may slow down a bit due to heavy pictures and themes enclosed and it can directly impact SEO rankings.
- Restricts you to build small websites having basic navigation menus.
- After each edit, you need to click to save the setting. There is no auto-save feature included.
WordPress
Pros
- Extensive variety of plugins & extensions provided
- Website data offers more flexibility and is easy to manage
- The entire website can be customized using a few plug-ins to meet the website requirement and attract more visitors
- Offers scalability and premium customization features
Cons
- Storage can be a problem if you need more space. You will have to opt for a paid plan to get extra space.
- To integrate completely functional features like SEO, you need to install a plug-in.
- Some coding knowledge is necessary to resolve the issues that you come across while using this platform.
What type of websites can you build?
Wix
As compared to Squarespace, Wix is quite flexible in terms of what type of websites you can develop, but not flexible like WordPress.
Wix can prove to be the best option for
- Portfolios
- Business websites
- Lightweight eCommerce stores
Wix will not allow you to accept registration & limit content. It means you can create an online course or membership site. On the other hand, you get more flexibility with WordPress.
Also, Wix is not strong enough as far as blogging is concerned, though it helps you create your blog.
Squarespace
Although Squarespace may not be as easy as Wix, but offers plenty of creative and professional websites suitable for different businesses. Also, it won’t take much time to learn this website builder. It needs a little more patience and time as compared to Wix.
Squarespace has innovative template designs with loads of features to boost up your website.
Squarespace is the ideal option for
- Portfolios
- Business websites
- Lightweight e-stores
- Blogs
WordPress
This platform introduced itself as a blogging platform only. Some people have this misconception that it is just a blogging tool which is not true. But that doesn’t mean that it is not ideal for blogs. Well, it emerged as a complete website builder and is nowadays used for almost any type of site.
Considering the other two platforms, WordPress proves to be highly flexible as far as the different types of sites you can develop.
WP is best for
- Blogs
- Portfolios
- Membership sites
- Business websites
- eCommerce stores
- Social networks
- Forums
- Landing pages
- Online courses
When e-commerce is considered, both Wix and Squarespace are the perfect options for a e-commerce store.
| 4.3out of 5 | Built Distinctive Websites |
Winner for distinct websites built
WordPress Development wins the race as it offers complete customization and helps you build the website. It needs coding knowledge but still if you don’t know coding, you can seek help from WordPress developers to make the most of this platform.
How can the functionality of the website be extended?
Wix
Wix Apps can be used to extend the functionality of your website. You can get 3rd party as well as official apps for all types of features like
- Image galleries
- Event management & ticketing
- Pop-Ups
- Email marketing forms
- Live chat
- AdSense ads
- Social media integrations, including Facebook likes/ comments
All apps can be accessed from Wix App Market.
Wix App Market can be accessed from Wix Editor and you can install an app from there. You just have to click on- Add button to include an app on your website.
Squarespace
Squarespace doesn’t let you use 3rd party apps or plugins like Wix and WordPress. Well, it consists of its ready-made integrations for a lot of external services and it can be accessed automatically.
Although Squarespace is not as flexible as Wix and WordPress in terms of extensibility, for basic sites this aspect may not matter. In case you want to embed with a service that Squarespace doesn’t have integration for, it can be quite annoying.
WordPress
The WP plugins can be used to extend the website’s functionality.
Talking about WP themes they focus on the website design whereas WordPress plugins let you add more features to your site. Certainly, plugins allow basic modifications like integrating a contact form/popup or some big changes like changing WordPress into a flexible eCommerce platform or helping you offer online courses.
In the case of its themes, it has a huge collection of apps or plugins of almost any tool.
Visit the official website of its to find WordPress.org plugin directory, where you can get 56,000 plus free plugins that enable different features. You can navigate through these free plugins from the WP dashboard and then install them using a few clicks.
Overall, plenty of plugins can be accessed with WP, and hence it makes it a flexible platform.
| 4.3 out of 5 | Extensibility |
Winner for extensibility
Wix and WP win over Squarespace as Squarespace hasn’t developed its integrations.
Conclusion of Wix Vs Squarespace Vs WordPress
This is where we reach the comparisons between the three platforms.
Now that you are familiar with each platform in terms of different parameters like scalability, ease of use, customer support etc, you can decide which platform suits your needs the best, let us recap which platform wins the battle in which areas.
| Category | Winner | Wix | Squarespace | WordPress | Verdict |
| Usability | | 4.6out of 5 | 3.2out of 5 | 3.2out of 5 | Wix wins the race as it is a more user-friendly website builder than the other two. On the other hand, Squarespace is little tricky and WordPress is for those having coding knowledge. |
| Design Flexibility | | 4out of 5 | 4.8out of 5 | 4out of 5 | Here Squarespace wins the race due to its drag & drop facility for editing whereas Wix inspite of offering flexible editing, the modifications cannot be done after making your site live. WordPress is flexible but can’t beat Squarespace. |
| Tools & Features | | 4.7out of 5 | 4.7out of 5 | 4.7out of 5 | It is a tie between Wix, Squarespace and WordPress as Wix & Squarespace offer effective & built-in tools and features and WordPress offers a range of widgets and plug-ins. |
| Scalability | | 4.8out of 5 | 3.2out of 5 | 3.2out of 5 | Wix is ahead of Squarespace and WordPress as you can do a lot more with Wix for simple and hobby sites. |
| Search Engine Optimization | | 4out of 5 | 3.5out of 5 | 3.5out of 5 | Wix stands first again as it offers basics of SEO to boost your site rankings. |
| Customer Support | | 5out of 5 | 4out of 5 | 3out of 5 | Here Wix leads with its distinct support options whereas Squarespace lacks phone support and WordPress offers support through a forum only. |
| Website Management | | 4out of 5 | 3.5out of 5 | 3.5out of 5 | Wix wins the race in terms of website management whereas Squarespace is also very close to Wix. |
| Affordable Pricing | | 4.3out of 5 | 2.4out of 5 | 4.3out of 5 | Wix and WordPress win the race as they are free whereas Squarespace offers paid plans only. |
| Distinct Website Built | | 4out of 5 | 4out of 5 | 4.3out of 5 | WordPress wins the race as it offers complete customization and helps you build the website. It needs coding knowledge but still if you don’t know coding, you can seek help from WP developers to make the most of this platform. |
| Extensibility | | 4.3out of 5 | 4out of 5 | 4.3out of 5 | Wix and WordPress win over Squarespace as Squarespace hasn’t developed its integrations. |
Looking at the table above we can make out that Wix excels in terms of themes. Certainly, Wix proves to be the best website builder for beginners with little or no technical knowledge.
In terms of design, Squarespace stands in second place. It means you can opt for Squarespace if you are looking for a sleek website with templates having a professional layout.
WP isn’t for all. This platform needs expertise in web hosting and coding. Well, when you need to have vast technical knowledge, you get complete freedom in return. So, you can choose to build the a that matches your vision.
So, WP is the best option for tech-savvy people who like to have complete control of their website and its functions. Even if you are not technically sound, you can hire a WordPress developer from to build a website.
The comparison between Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress is a tricky affair, isn’t it? We compared these 3 platforms based on different criteria but we know that Wix wins the race.
