Wix vs Squarespace

The biggest difference between Wix and Squarespace is the page editor.

Wix has a highly customizable, unstructured editor. Whereas Squarespace’s editor is structured and easy to use.

Wix’s Unstructured Editor

With Wix, you can move any element anywhere on your page—even by one pixel if you want. It’s an unstructured editor.

Being able to drag and drop elements anywhere on a page feels freeing on paper. However, it can (and often does) lead to frustrating problems, especially for non-designers.

Here’s a simple example showcasing a typical scenario:

We added three sections, removed the middle one, and switched the position of the first and third. Notice the difficulties and inconsistencies in both the desktop version and the mobile version.

These are some major and minor frustrations you’ll see in the minute-something video of us using the Wix editor:

1. We clicked the “Add Strip” icon below the second strip. Yet, the block appeared in front of the second section (Yes, it’s not a “strip,” but we nevertheless wanted it below the second section). Also, it’s unclear whether the third section can fit between the second section and the footer.
2. We had to resize the map on the mobile device.
3. When we deleted the middle section, the third section didn’t snap in its place like you would expect.
4. We switched the position of the two remaining sections on the desktop device. The process itself was not ideal. Plus, the changes didn’t automatically reflect on the mobile version — that’s frustrating! This means you’ll have to design pretty much the whole website for both desktop and mobile separately.

Besides, Wix gives almost too many options:

• The editor has a lot of icons and buttons. It can be confusing.

Icons and buttons on the Wix editor.

• Users can choose fonts, sizes, colors, and everything about each individual text block. It’s nice to have these options if you know what you’re doing playing with them — otherwise, you’ll either ruin the website or waste your time. Here’s a rule of thumb when dealing with so many options: You want to maintain a consistent look and feel across your website. Ideally, a heading and a paragraph should have the same size and weight throughout the website.
• Wix gives many strip choices, each with different typography, design, and colors. It’s easy to choose a strip that looks awesome individually but doesn’t quite fit the website as a whole.
• You have the option to move things out of the gridline. But if you move something out of the gridline, it may not be accessible/visible on some devices.

Overall: Giving someone Wix is like giving someone a blank canvas with all the colors, the paintbrushes, and all other painting supplies. If that someone is a web designer/painter, the result will be a great website/painting. But that much open-endedness is a lot of responsibility to hand off to a user not quite adept at web designing/painting.

Squarespace’s Structured Editor

Squarespace doesn’t run into the same problems—because Squarespace has a structured editor, and it’s among the easiest to use.

In Squarespace, you can’t move an element anywhere on a page. Instead, Squarespace’s Fluid Engine editor only allows you to drag elements (called Content Blocks) into rows and columns of a section. It’s still a visual, drag-and-drop editor; it’s still very customizable — but there’s an inherent and sensible structure that you stay within.

Let’s try to make the same simple web page we made with Wix with Squarespace:

Notice how you don’t face the same problems you’d face with Wix. Also, notice the intuitiveness of the Squarespace editor!

Winner: Squarespace

Overall, we recommend Squarespace’s structured page editor over Wix’s unstructured page editor.

Wix’s unstructured editor may give you more flexibility, but it introduces a cascade of knock-on problems—such as having to make the same edit twice.

In terms of volume, Wix has significantly more templates than Squarespace: Wix has 900+ templates, and Squarespace has 160+ templates. But you need just one template at the end of the day, and Squarespace’s templates are better!

Squarespace Template Examples

Squarespace has the best templates of any website builder. This is subjective to a degree, but honestly, there’s no other website builder that matches Squarespace’s clean, modern templates:

The 'Noll' template.

The 'Beaumont' template.

The ‘Carmine’ template.

The ‘Clune’ template.

Squarespace Templates Are Consistently Good

These are the last three templates on Squarespace’s ‘All Templates’ page:

Wix Template Examples

Wix’s best templates aren’t quite as nice as Squarespace, and their worst templates can be…corny and dated.

Wix template example — beautiful.

Another Wix example template — it’s quite good.

Another example Wix template— though this one feels pretty outdated.

Wix’s Template Quality Is Inconsistent

One primary reason behind Wix’s always-increasing number of templates is that Wix never deletes its outdated templates (Squarespace does). Therefore, not all Wix templates are good.

For example, these are the templates from the last page of Wix’s “All Templates” category:

Almost all templates are outdated.

They all look from the early 2010s because they likely are!

Moreover, many of the new templates just add to the “number of templates” factor but aren’t actually notable. For example, half of the newest 12 templates are just “coming soon landing page” templates:

Note: In both Wix and Squarespace, you can’t switch your template once you’ve chosen it.

Template Customization

Squarespace also has better template customization. For example, it’s much easier to apply your brand colors consistently. Basically, you choose a palette that then applies throughout your website. If you want to get more specific and choose colors for individual elements, you can do that too. Here’s how it works:

Applying a new color palette with Squarespace.

Frankly it’s confusing and difficult to do this with Wix. You can technically sort of do it…. but it’s just way, way more complicated. I would be very surprised if many users took advantage of this complicated system:

Applying a new color palette with Wix. Notice how the About section doesn’t change with the sitewide palette change.

There are core features that every website builder just needs to have—for example:

• Photo galleries
• Maps
• Forms
• Audio players

Both Wix and Squarespace have these core features covered.

In recent years both Squarespace and Wix have aggressively moved beyond websites and into online presence—each launching their own online booking features, ecommerce, and email marketing.

It’s really only when you move beyond these core features that the differences become clearer. Overall, I would characterize it like this: Wix has more features, but Squarespace tends to do a better job of features.

Features Wix Supports (And Squarespace Does Not)

For example, below is a list of features that Wix supports out of the box (you have to add them from the App Market, though). The only way to get these features with Squarespace would be to integrate with a 3rd party provider or custom code.

Then there are features that Wix supports and Squarespace simply doesn’t. Some examples:

• Wix lets you autoplay videos; Squarespace doesn’t — this means you’ll need to use GIFs if you want to autoplay something on Squarespace.
• You can’t upload WebP images or WebM videos to Squarespace — that’s disappointing in 2024!
• Wix allows you to build landing pages with no header and footer, even on the free plan; Squarespace requires you to have a Business or above plan.
• Wix autosaves pages as you edit and gives access to site version history. Squarespace doesn’t autosave — that’s disappointing, to say the least!

Important Note: All the Wix apps are labeled “free to install” on the Wix App Market. It’s true, but most of them have paid versions, and Wix doesn’t mention the pricing on the app landing page.

Also worth noting: Wix’s app store (Wix App Market) is superior to Squarespace’s app store (Squarespace Extensions). You can install 500+ web apps from the Wix App Market compared to 30-something on Squarespace Extensions.

Squarespace Often Does A Better Job On Features

Squarespace may not match Wix on every feature, but they often do a better job at the features that they do match.

Here are some examples.

1. Restaurant Menus

Here is what editing a restaurant menu looks like on Wix— watch how many clicks it takes to edit one item:

Spoiler! It takes 10 clicks

That’s just takes way too long.

I’m sympathetic to Wix— restaurant menus are deceptively hard to format for websites. It’s why many restaurants just link to a PDF menu. But this also shows you how much more thoughtful Squarespace’s restaurant menu editor is.

For restaurant menus, Squarespace invented a simple markup language. You follow the formatting patterns and can write your menu in real time. It’s really clever and intuitive:

For restaurant menus, Squarespace invented a simple markup language— you follow the formatting patterns and write your menu in real-time.

Much easier, right?

2. Ecommerce Donations

Another example of Squarespace doing a better job of features is donations.

Wix can technically accept donations, but it’s just a basic donation button that sends visitors to Paypal. It is not a full donation system.

Squarespace, on the other hand, has an excellent, fully-featured donation system— it’s much better:

I used to work for a non-profit, and these three features are critical. You don’t want donors to have an ecommerce experience, and you’ll find suggested amounts on every major non-profit— it’s a best practice.

Setting a suggested amount for donations.

3. Podcasts

Finally, here’s one last example: podcasts.

Wix offers a Podcast Player, but it doesn’t syndicate podcasts. Syndicating is critical to a podcast website—it’s what allows you to submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Squarespace is the only website builder that can syndicate podcasts. It’s another example of Squarespace taking the time to get a feature right.

Similarly, Wix doesn’t have many other features required to make a good podcast website. Wix user Jessjoyce lists a few of them in an app review:

Jessjoyce writes: “VERY simple podcast player, doesn't allow for each episode to have its own page (what!) nor modify where the sharing buttons are or add in transcripts or links within the content.”

Tip: Both Squarespace and Wix integrate with Zapier— and you’ll want to take advantage of this. Zapier let’s you create automations based on visitor activity. So for example, you could tell Zapier to send you a text message or create a new Trello card every time someone fills out a form. It’s a very handy way to create features unique to you.

Winner: Both (Maybe Wix)

Squarespace doesn’t have as many features as Wix. But the ones it does have are well-thought-out and plenty for most users (from artists to accountants and service businesses to ecommerce).

Wix’s features are also great and worth considering…if a feature you need isn’t available on Squarespace (many aren’t — even some important ones!).

Wix and Squarespace have both aggressively built ecommerce features over the last few years. We have compared both with Shopify - the best overall ecommerce builder, and both fared quite well. Squarespace was a bit better in some important aspects, though.

Both cover the fundamentals of a store (inventory management, discounts, product variations, taxes, etc.) and also have advanced features too:

But I’ve also found Squarespace tends to build more sophisticated features.

For example, Squarespace lets you add sophisticated forms to products— so that you can ask for additional information when a customer checks out. You can choose from a variety of field types: dates, radio buttons, phone numbers, text fields, file uploads, and more:

Squarespace let's you attach sophisticated forms to certain producst.

Wix technically let’s you add form fields to products— but you can only add text fields:

Wix has more limited form builder attached to products.

Similarly, Squarespace’s inventory management, shipping, tax settings, product editor (that includes its whole page editor for additional information), and more are better than Wix. Learn more here.

Winner: Squarespace

Both Squarespace and Wix cover the core features needed for small stores. But Squarespace’s ecommerce features are more sophisticated than Wix.

Squarespace has the best blogging of any website builder. If the primary purpose of your site is blogging, just use Squarespace.

Both Wix and Squarespace support fundamental blogging features:

• Tagging
• Categories
• Drafts
• Comments
• User roles
• Google AMP support
• SEO (Slug, Title, & Description)
• RSS Feed
• Social Sharing
• Etc.

But beyond these core features, Squarespace goes a step further:

• You can have multiple authors on a single post,
• You can set a separate social image for when you share on social media,
• The Squarespace blog editor lets you add Instagram feed, galleries, newsletter forms, scrolling, event tickets, restaurant menus, and more.

Squarespace's blog editor.

Wix blog editor

Winner: Squarespace

You’ll find core blogging features on both Squarespace and Wix. But Squarespace blogs look more beautiful because of the superior blog editor.

Fun fact: Squarespace started as a blogging platform!

Squarespace and Wix both have mobile apps for android and iOS devices. And boths’ apps do a solid job of allowing you to handle your website/business from your phone!

Wix Mobile App

Wix mobile app screens

The Wix mobile app lets you see reports and analytics, chat live with visitors, create and send email campaigns, create and share social media posts, manage your blog, and manage your online store.

However, you can’t build web pages through it because Wix has an unstructured editor.

Squarespace Mobile App

Squarespace mobile app screens

The Squarespace app allows you to create content, manage your store, and grow your business anytime, anywhere (as long you have a smartphone and internet connection, of course). You can do almost anything with it ⁠— including editing your whole website (because of its structured editor), adding products, checking analytics, keeping an eye on inventory, adding SEO descriptions, and more.

Note: I found the Squarespace app a bit buggy last year, but new updates have removed the bugs.

Winner: Squarespace

Squarespace and Wix give access to pretty much all native website builder features through their mobile apps. However, Wix doesn’t (and can’t) allow building web pages from its app — Squarespace does! So another point to Squarespace.

Wix and Squarespace are (the top two!) closed website-building platforms. This means both companies take care of everything, including security and maintenance of the platform and sites on it.

And they do a fabulous job by employing all these security features:

• SSL certificates: Domains connected with Wix or Squarespace are automatically protected with free SSL certificates. This means any information passed by a visitor to you (like their email id, credit card details, phone number, etc.) is encrypted and secure.
• PCI DSS compliance: PCI compliance (payment card industry compliance) refers to a set of 12 security standards businesses use to secure customer card data. Both platforms comply with the highest PCI standards.
• Rigorous development process: It goes without saying these giant website-building platforms follow all security best practices during development.
• Third-party app security: Wix and Squarespace have strict policies and programs to ensure no third-party app or app update with safety threats is published.
• Security monitoring: Apart from having a secure core, both platforms monitor all sites to catch security attacks.
• Bug bounty program: It’s impossible to have an unhackable platform. If an expert hacker has ill intentions, there’s always a teeny-tiny possibility they will succeed. But both platforms minimize the risk to a high degree by having a bug bounty program. In other words, they pay independent security researchers a bounty for finding and reporting bugs on the platform.

Winner: Both

The two top closed platforms ensure a high degree of security for their users!

A few notes to help you compare pricing plans:

Who Has The Lower Price?

Overall, Squarespace is cheaper than Wix.

The cheapest Wix plan Light costs $16/month (annually), and the cheapest Squarespace plan Personal also costs $16/month. However, Wix doesn’t offer as much as Squarespace in the cheapest plan (more on it below). Plus, Squarespace’s most expensive plan is just $49/month compared to Wix’s $159/month plan.

Wix Plans & Pricing

Squarespace Plans & Pricing

Be Careful: Misleading Pricing

It’s common for website builders to advertise their annual plan at a per-month cost. Which doesn’t make sense. You aren’t paying $16/month. You’re actually paying $192/year.

Squarespace at least makes this clear on their pricing page:

Even though Squarespace advertises their annual plans as a per-month cost, at least this toggle shows you the difference.

Wix does not make this clear at all on their pricing page:

Wix explains this.... in the fineprint.

So just remember that when you are comparing prices!

Wix Storage & Bandwidth Limitations

All Squarespace plans have unlimited storage & bandwidth. But, besides the most expensive plan, all Wix plans have storage limitations. For example: Light, Wix’s cheapest plan, has a 2 GB limitation.

Winner: Squarespace

Overall, Squarespace is cheaper and a better value for money than Wix.

In the end, I recommend Squarespace over Wix. Here’s how I would summarize:

• Squarespace structured editor is much more stable— you may prefer Wix’s unstructured editor, but I would suggest you keep in mind some of the frustrating things an unstructured editor introduces.
• Wix has more features, but Squarespace tends to do a better job of features.
• Squarespace has better templates and template customization.
• Squarespace is cheaper and mostly better, making it a superior value-for-money platform.

It’s worth mentioning that this doesn’t mean Wix is bad. It’s more about how good Squarespace is. There are plenty of worse options than Wix.

And ultimately, the difference could be about preference: Wix’s unstructured editor offers a high degree of control, while Squarespace is much more curated.

I hope you found this helpful— thanks for reading!