Wix vs Squarespace: What’s the Best Builder in 2024?

Wix vs Squarespace: Final verdict

Wix and Squarespace both offer robust website building platforms, but they cater to slightly different audiences.

• 
  Wix (Overall Grade: 8.5/10)
  
  stands out for its user-friendly interface, extensive customization options, and advanced AI capabilities. It is ideal for users who prioritize ease of use and design flexibility. Wix offers a wide range of templates, powerful website editors, and comprehensive marketing tools, making it a versatile choice for various website types. When comparing Wix vs Squarespace, Wix excels in providing a more intuitive and creative website building experience.
• 
  Squarespace (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  , on the other hand, is known for its professional templates and strong focus on design aesthetics. It is perfect for users who seek a polished and visually appealing website. Squarespace offers robust ecommerce features, reliable hosting, and excellent customer support. Considering Wix vs Squarespace, Squarespace is a great choice for those who prioritize design quality and a seamless user experience.

Which one is the best for ecommerce: Wix or Squarespace?

Verdict

: Squarespace slightly edges out Wix in the ecommerce sector, offering a more robust set of features for online stores.

• 
  Wix
  
  : Known for its user-friendly interface, Wix is ideal for small to medium-sized online stores. It offers a range of customizable templates and basic ecommerce tools, making it a good choice for beginners. However, when comparing Wix vs Squarespace, Wix may fall short in terms of advanced ecommerce functionalities.
• 
  Squarespace
  
  : With a score of 8.2, Squarespace provides a more comprehensive ecommerce solution. It offers secure payment processing, built-in marketing tools, and a diverse selection of templates. Squarespace is well-suited for businesses looking for a more polished and professional online store.

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, both Wix and Squarespace are strong contenders. However, Squarespace slightly edges out Wix with a score of 8.4 compared to Wix’s 8.3, making it the preferred choice for those seeking a polished, professional look with robust security features.

• 
  Wix
  
  : Wix is a versatile website builder that offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of customizable templates. It excels in ease of use, making it ideal for beginners. With its drag-and-drop editor and Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool, users can create visually appealing websites without any coding knowledge. Wix also provides extensive plugins and integrations, enhancing its functionality for various business needs. However, while Wix is excellent for creative freedom and ease of use, it slightly lags behind Squarespace in terms of security and overall polish.
• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace is renowned for its sleek, professional templates and robust security features. It offers a comprehensive Help Center, video tutorials, and live webinars, making it easier for users to learn and adapt. Squarespace’s editor allows for easy drag-and-drop website creation, and its hosting quality is reliable with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. While it may not offer as many plugins and integrations as Wix, Squarespace’s focus on data privacy and security, along with its polished design options, makes it a strong choice for businesses looking for a professional online presence. When comparing Wix vs Squarespace, Squarespace’s slight edge in security and overall polish makes it the better option for informational and business websites.

Wix vs Squarespace: Detailed comparison

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Winner: Wix.

Wix offers a wider range of highly customizable templates suitable for various website types, not just ecommerce. It also provides more creative freedom in design, appealing to a diverse user base.

Wix stands out with its wide range of highly customizable templates suitable for various website types, not just ecommerce. It offers creative freedom in design, appealing to a diverse user base. While Wix doesn’t have a premium template marketplace, it has 3-rd party theme shops that allow you to get more sophisticated design choices.

Wix Themes

On the other hand, Squarespace boasts an impressive variety of website templates, offering over 120 pre-designed options to choose from. These templates cater to a wide range of needs and industries, from creative portfolios and sleek online stores to professional business websites and personal blogs.

Squarespace Themes

🏆 Winner: Wix

. With an ease of use score of 9.0, Wix stands out for its exceptional user-friendliness, featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and an Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool for effortless website creation. Squarespace, scoring 8.3, is also user-friendly with a drag-and-drop editor and straightforward navigation, but falls slightly short when compared to Wix.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Squarespace goes a step further with its comprehensive Help Center, clear video tutorials, live webinars, an informative blog, and an active community forum. This makes it easier for users to learn and adapt to the platform.

When it comes to ecommerce, both Wix and Squarespace offer a range of features to help businesses set up and manage their online stores. However, Squarespace slightly edges out Wix with a score of 8.2 compared to Wix’s 8.0.

Wix ecommerce features:

• Intuitive store builder
• Wix Payments and various gateways
• Basic inventory tools
• Multi-channel sales options
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Basic analytics and SEO tools

Squarespace ecommerce features:

• Intuitive interface
• Secure payment processing
• Built-in marketing tools
• SEO optimization
• Website analytics

Ecommerce themes & templates

Wix provides around 120 free templates for ecommerce. However, these templates are not fully responsive and may need manual adjustments for mobile display. Wix allows for flexible website design but has limited options for in-depth customization using HTML or CSS. For advanced users, Wix Velo offers more detailed customization possibilities.

On the other hand, Squarespace provides a diverse selection of around 50 ecommerce templates, catering to various industries like fashion, beauty, home goods, and technology. These templates range from clean and minimalist to bold and colorful, accommodating different brand aesthetics and product types. Offering unique layout elements such as product sliders and featured collections, these templates enhance visual interest and engagement.

Product page customization

Wix permits the inclusion of six options per item with a total of 1000 unique variations for products. However, the potential complexity of having customers choose six attributes for a single item is acknowledged, and it is recommended to consider splitting products with extensive options into different listings for a more user friendly experience. Wix stands out for its ease of customization, allowing users to add features like ribbons, size charts, wishlists, and more. While Wix supports product videos in its themes, incorporating 3D models on Wix requires coding.

Customizing Squarespace product pages offers options for layout, design, and interactive elements. Choose templates, customize colors, fonts, and content. Enhance engagement with features like customizable buttons, wishlists, comparisons, reviews, and related products. Advanced options include custom code injection and third-party app integrations. Limitations include fixed core page structure and the need for technical expertise. Free templates have fewer customization options than premium ones.

Payment processing

Wix provides versatile payment options, generally around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, without additional commission fees. This makes Wix an attractive option for businesses using diverse payment processors. Wix Payments allows Wix users to manage transactions directly on their site, also supporting various payment methods and currencies.

Squarespace provides flexible payment processing for online stores with integrated gateways like Stripe and PayPal. External gateways can be set up for specific needs. Transaction fees may apply depending on the plan and payment method. Security measures include PCI compliance and fraud prevention. Additional features include payment links, support for subscriptions, and the ability to accept international payments in various currencies.

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Winner: Wix

. Wix, with a score of 8.5, offers multiple editors catering to different user needs. Its standard editor is renowned for its drag-and-drop simplicity, allowing for extensive customization without needing to code. Additionally, Wix provides the ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) editor, which creates a personalized website based on user responses to a few questions, and the Corvid by Wix editor, which allows for advanced web development with JavaScript and Wix APIs.

Squarespace’s editor, scoring 8.3, allows easy drag-and-drop website creation without coding. With visually appealing templates and customization options, it caters to beginners and pros alike. The real-time editing experience ensures instant previews. Prioritizing content, it’s mobile-responsive and offers functional features like forms, social media integration, and online stores. Squarespace seamlessly integrates with tools for extended capabilities.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Wix

. Both Wix and Squarespace offer mobile apps for managing and editing your website, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Wix’s mobile app stands out with its user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to edit various aspects of their website with ease. It is particularly beginner-friendly, making it easy for users with no prior website building experience to create and manage their website.

Squarespace’s mobile app, on the other hand, allows for content editing, website analytics, online store management, and social media scheduling. However, it lacks the full range of functionalities available on the desktop editor, making it less versatile compared to Wix’s mobile app.

In summary, Wix receives a higher rating due to its versatility in general website editing and a more beginner-friendly interface, while Squarespace provides essential features but lacks the comprehensive editing capabilities of Wix’s mobile app.

Overall Result

:

Wix wins

. Wix scores 8.1 in product testing options, while Squarespace scores 7.4. Wix offers a free plan with basic features for an unlimited duration and occasionally offers opportunities to test premium features through promotions or limited-time trials. Squarespace, on the other hand, provides a 14-day free trial, but some premium features like custom code, premium integrations, and removal of Squarespace branding are not available for testing.

Wix and Squarespace both offer a range of price plans, but Wix has a slightly higher price score and offers a larger discount on annual subscriptions.

Winner: Wix

. Wix offers a variety of hosting plans to suit different needs, including a free plan with limited features. It uses a multi-cloud infrastructure and has 10 global data centers. However, it does not offer an uptime guarantee. On the other hand, Squarespace offers proprietary cloud-based hosting included in all of their plans and guarantees an uptime of 99.9%. Despite this, Wix has a higher hosting quality score.

🏆 Winner: Wix

Both Wix and Squarespace prioritize website performance and page speed, but Wix has a slight edge in terms of website speed optimization.

Wix has significantly focused on enhancing website performance and page speed, integrating tools like the Site Speed dashboard with Google PageSpeed Insights to provide a holistic view of website performance metrics. Emphasizing media optimization, code simplification, content distribution networks, lazy load techniques, and mobile-first designs, Wix’s infrastructure includes globally distributed CDNs, improving content delivery. Successfully improving Core Web Vitals (CWV) scores, Wix saw a 25% increase in sites with good CWV scores over a year. Real-world performance analysis of 909 Wix websites showed a wide range of page speed scores from 34/100 to 98/100, averaging 81.9/100, with the Largest Contentful Paint an important metric for website loading, ranged from 0.8 seconds to 3.5 seconds, with an average of 1.6 seconds.

Squarespace, like Wix, places a strong emphasis on website performance and page speed. Squarespace’s approach to enhancing site speed includes responsive design, image optimization, CDN, code minification, and lazy loading of images. This approach leverages Squarespace’s fast servers and CDN network to boost load speed. Analysis of three Squarespace sites showed a range of Squarespace speed scores from 20 to 93, Google PSI scores from 20 to 93, and load times varying from 0.7 seconds to 9.1 seconds, with an average of 2.9 seconds. Continuous maintenance and optimization are essential for keeping Squarespace sites fast.

🏆 Winner: Wix.

Wix scores 8.2, offering over 500 apps in its App Market, covering a wide range of functionalities. These apps come with various pricing options, including free, paid, freemium, and one-time payment models. Wix’s plugins and integrations extend its functionality across various domains, including advanced ecommerce tools, SEO optimization, social media integration, email marketing, website analytics, appointment scheduling, customer support, enhanced media galleries, blogging features, custom forms and surveys, diverse payment processing options, website localization, improved security measures, and the addition of custom widgets. Wix’s top integrations include Google Analytics, Mailchimp, social media platforms, Wix Stores, Wix Bookings, Wix SEO Wiz, Wix Blog, Wix Forms, PayPal, Wix Chat, Wix Events, Zapier, Wix Video, Wix Music, and Google Ads.

Squarespace, with a score of 6.8, lacks an official app store but supports integrations and extensions through custom code injection and third-party tools. With over 20 official partner integrations in categories like analytics, marketing, commerce, and social media, Squarespace offers seamless functionality. Squarespace’s top integrations cover email marketing with Mailchimp, comprehensive SEO optimization through Yoast SEO and Rank Math, user behavior analytics with Hotjar, and varied payment options with Stripe, PayPal, ShipStation, and Afterpay. For analytics and tracking, essential tools include Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Kissmetrics, and Hotjar for valuable user behavior insights.

Wix Applications

Squarespace Applications

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Overall Winner: Wix

. Wix edges out Squarespace with a slightly higher marketing features score. Both platforms offer a comprehensive set of marketing tools, but Wix stands out with its advanced social media integration and sophisticated ad campaign management.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. When comparing Wix vs Squarespace, Wix takes the lead in customer support with a score of 8.2. Wix offers a variety of support channels, including 24/7 live chat in multiple languages, phone support via callback service during business hours, and a large community forum. This ensures users have access to assistance whenever they need it.

Squarespace, with a customer support score of 7.8, provides robust support options, including live chat and phone support on weekdays, 24/7 email support, and a comprehensive help center. While Squarespace’s support is highly regarded, it doesn’t match the round-the-clock availability of Wix’s live chat, making Wix the better option for users needing constant support.

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Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace edges out Wix in terms of security with a slightly higher score. Squarespace prioritizes data privacy and security through secure server storage, encryption, strict access controls, and compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. They also offer additional security measures like vulnerability scanning and malware detection.

Wix also prioritizes website and data security through secure servers, encryption, and compliance with privacy regulations. They have strict access controls, regular security audits, and additional features like two-factor authentication. However, Squarespace’s comprehensive approach to security gives it a slight advantage.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. With a score of 8.7, Wix’s AI capabilities are more comprehensive and user-friendly. Wix ADI is a standout feature, offering a personalized and intuitive website creation experience. Its AI-powered ecommerce features and content generation tools also contribute to a streamlined and engaging online presence.

Squarespace, scoring 7.5, offers various AI-powered features, particularly in ecommerce and content generation. However, it lacks a fully automated AI website builder, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to Wix.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Managing your online team with Wix and Squarespace involves different approaches to website editing access.

• Wix allows unlimited editors regardless of the plan, but caution is needed with 50+ editors to avoid potential
  backend performance issues. It excels for large, collaborative teams.
• The number of users with editing access on your Squarespace website varies by plan. The Personal Plan allows one owner, Business and Commerce Plans permit 2 collaborators with different access levels, and the Enterprise Plan offers unlimited users, each with customizable access privileges, from full administrators to restricted contributors.

Both platforms support simultaneous editing. Wix uses avatar icons to indicate co-workers, while Squarespace displays a warning for concurrent editing, preventing accidental overwrites.

Wix User Roles and Access Levels:

Squarespace User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

Wix vs Squarespace: User Feedback

Wix, though well-regarded, caters to a diverse set of website requirements beyond just ecommerce. This inclusive strategy attracts a broad user audience but might not align as closely with individuals prioritizing advanced ecommerce features. Its user-friendly interface and range of templates make it a popular choice for those looking to build and manage their online presence with ease.

Squarespace is well-liked for its easy-to-use interface and versatile tools, making it ideal for those who aren’t tech-savvy. It offers various features like website creation, SEO, and online selling, catering to different users. Customers appreciate its good customer support and visually appealing templates, creating a professional online presence. However, some users find issues with domain transfer/setup, limited customization options, and consider the pricing slightly higher. There are also occasional concerns about customer service and technical limitations like template rigidity and missing features.

Wix vs Squarespace: FAQ