Wix vs Squarespace – Which is the Best Website Builder?

Which is better, Wix or Squarespace? We’ve thoroughly evaluated each, and we’ve included all of our findings in this exhaustive comparison. So keep reading to learn more about two of the most popular website builders on the web and decide which is best for your website or online business.

Let’s start with a big question…

What are Wix and Squarespace?

Wix and Squarespace are website-building platforms for people who don’t know how to code and wish to design and maintain a website.

Both programmes are’software as a service’ (‘SaaS’) tools, which means you pay a monthly charge to use them, but they include all of the essential tools you’ll need to construct and maintain your site.

When you buy a Wix or Squarespace plan, you get a lot of stuff.

• a web address (i.e., yourwebsitename.com)
• templates
• a system for managing content
• hosting
• aspects of e-commerce (depending on plan).

Wix, which was created in 2006, has more clients than Squarespace, which was founded in 2004. Wix is estimated to have 4.6 million live websites on the web, compared to 2.7 million for Squarespace, according to internet data company BuiltWith. Wix is also the largest of the two companies, with roughly 5,000 people compared to Squarespace’s 1,100.

Because of Wix’s greater user base and corporate size, it’s a slightly safer option as a platform to construct your site on — that is, it’s a little less likely to go out of business and take your site with it.

However, given that Squarespace is a well-established firm with a huge number of clients, this shouldn’t have too much of an impact on your decision. It’s unlikely that either company will go out of business very soon!

1. Pricing

Wix pricing

Wix plans and prices differ per country, however most nations have a similar pricing structure.

There are now nine Wix plans available in the United States. The following are some of them:

• It’s completely free – there’s no cost for a month.
• $14 per month for the combo
• $18 per month for unlimited
• $23 per month for Pro
• $39 per month for VIP
• Basic Business – $23 per month
• $27 per month for Business Unlimited
• $49 per month for Business VIP
• Enterprise is a negotiable term.

If you pay in advance for a year or more of service, you can get a discount on the paid plans, with the exact discount varying depending on the plan and the time period involved.

Wix will usually send you an offer a few days after you sign up for its free trial, or will announce special incentives on its website. (However, the ’emailed’ discounts are usually more substantial.)

With all Wix premium plans, you also get a free domain.

The most important thing to remember about Wix’s pricing structure is that only the ‘Business’ and ‘Enterprise’ plans allow for e-commerce; the rest don’t (they are more basic website plans that let you showcase content, but not take payment for goods).

The main distinctions between the other plans are as follows:

• what kind of file storage do you get?
• the option to publish and monetize video content on your website
• premium support — the more you pay, the more of each you get.

Wix Enterprise is aimed at corporate users and includes more dedicated support and account management. This is a negotiable price.

Squarespace pricing

There are four primary Squarespace plans to choose from:

• PERSONAL — MONTHLY FEE OF $16
• $26 per month for a business.
• $35 per month for Basic Commerce
• $54 per month for Advanced Commerce

If you pay on an annual basis, these plans are significantly less expensive ($12, $18, $26, and $40 each month, respectively). A 14-day free trial is provided to help you decide whether Squarespace is the correct product for you.

The main distinctions between the Squarespace plans are as follows:

• the ability to use e-commerce features
• whether or not you’ll be able to use custom CSS and JavaScript
• third-party application integrations
• the maximum number of contributors you can have on your site

As you might think, as you move up the pricing ladder, you gain additional functionality in all of the above areas.

If you’re on one of the two ‘commerce’ plans, you’ll also avoid transaction fees – more on that later.

If you pay for your Squarespace account annually, you’ll also get a free custom domain.

There are two other Squarespace options to choose, ‘Squarespace Select’ ($4,900 per year) and ‘Squarespace Enterprise’ (negotiable pricing), in addition to the primary Squarespace plans described above.

These, like Wix’s ‘Enterprise’ subscription, offer more personalised assistance and consultancy and are geared toward businesses. However, the vast majority of customers will be satisfied with one of the less expensive programmes.

Key differences between Wix and Squarespace pricing

In terms of pricing, the most noticeable difference between Squarespace and Wix is that Wix offers a totally free plan, whilst Squarespace only gives a limited-time free trial.

The Wix free plan is a good way to try out the platform, but it is ad-supported, doesn’t support e-commerce, and doesn’t allow you to connect a domain to your site.

It also lacks limitless bandwidth, which would limit the number of visitors who may see your site, unlike most premium Wix plans. Wix’s free plan is fine if you need a website for a birthday party, wedding, or yard sale; however, due to a lack of capabilities, it’s not really an option for professional users.

The following are some of my other important observations about Wix vs Squarespace pricing:

• Wix (via its ‘Business Basic’ plan) offers a cheaper method to access e-commerce features than Squarespace if you pay monthly: it starts at $23 per month. This is $3/month less expensive than Squarespace’s ‘Business’ plan, which costs $26/month.

• Wix offers abandoned cart recovery, a crucial e-commerce feature, for a significantly reduced cost. Wix’s cheapest e-commerce plan, which costs $23, allows you to recover abandoned carts; Squarespace, on the other hand, reserves this capability to its most expensive plan, the $54 per month ‘Commerce Advanced’ option.

• Squarespace has no file storage limits, whereas Wix does (the amount you get varies considerably by plan).

However, price isn’t the only factor to consider when deciding between Squarespace and Wix. So, starting with templates, let’s compare and contrast the two products’ essential features.

Summary:

Wix offers seven different pricing options, ranging from $14 to $49 per month (billed yearly). Wix offers a free plan that you can use for as long as you like. A 14-day money-back guarantee is included with all paid plans.

Squarespace offers four different pricing options that range from $12 to $40 each month (billed yearly). It doesn’t have a free plan, but all paid plans come with a 14-day free trial that doesn’t require any financial information.

2. Templates

Quantity and quality

Wix wins a template shootout in terms of quantity, with around 800 templates compared to Squarepsace’s 140 or so.

However, there is certainly something special about the design of Squarespace templates, and I’d probably give them the advantage over Wix’s in terms of aesthetics.

In short, Squarespace’s template offering is “all killer, no filler,” whereas Wix’s 800 templates have a considerable amount of filler.

However, Wix offers a variety of attractive templates, and the sheer number of themes accessible means you should have no trouble choosing something professional-looking that matches your demands.

Template design features

Video backgrounds

Video backdrops may be added to both Wix and Squarespace themes. Squarespace, on the other hand, is a little more flexible in this regard, allowing you to use either an embedded video or one that you upload yourself to create a video background. You can only utilise and upload video on Wix.

Parallax scrolling

Support for parallax scrolling — a visually pleasing technique in which the site background scrolls at a different pace than the foreground — has been eliminated with the release of Squarespace 7.1.

So, if you’re a big admirer of this design aspect, Wix might be a better fit for you. (However, there are workarounds to add parallax scrolling to Squarespace using custom code.)

Stock photography

Both Squarespace and Wix get a thumbs up for incorporating stock photography libraries into the proceedings – you can browse a selection of free photographs and embed them into your website, or you can buy stock photography directly from both platforms (through Shutterstock on Wix, Getty on Squarespace).

Wix, on the other hand, charges less for stock pictures (about $3 per image vs. $10 on Squarespace).

Typefaces

Squarespace currently has a larger range of typefaces, with over 600 Google and 1000 Typekit fonts to choose from. Wix limits you to 96 typefaces in this category.

Wix, on the other hand, makes it easier to add custom fonts to your website – whereas in Wix, it’s as simple as uploading a font file, the procedure in Squarespace needs some coding.

Behaviour of templates on mobile devices

When it comes to the performance of Wix vs Squarespace on mobile devices, Squarespace comes out on top. This is because Wix sites show information using a technique known as ‘absolute placement,’ but Squarespace sites are fully’responsive.’

Your site’s design will automatically alter to fit whichever device it’s being viewed on, which is known as responsive design. Responsive design has two major advantages versus absolute positioning.

For starters, that implies you’ll be doing less work. Because Wix uses absolute positioning, you’ll need to make two versions of your website: one for desktop and one for mobile. To be fair, Wix does a decent job of automatically generating a reasonable mobile version from your desktop material, but I’ve found that some editing is almost always required.

The second advantage of responsive design is SEO: Google encourages responsive design for mobile versions of websites and may offer these sites preferred treatment in search results if they utilise it. However, there is one area where I believe Wix trumps Squarespace in terms of mobile site flexibility.

You can’t alter any feature of your Squarespace mobile site using the Squarespace editor since the latest version of Squarespace was released; you’ll have to resort to custom coding to do so. Wix, on the other hand, gives you a lot of flexibility over how your site looks on different devices.

Overall, Squarespace comes out on top when it comes to mobile-friendliness, although it would be nice if it gave customers a little more control over how their sites look on mobile.

Is Wix’s ‘Editor X’ a means to create responsive websites?

Wix’s ordinary version does not allow you to construct responsive websites, but the business recently launched a BETA version of a new edition of their platform called ‘Editor X.’ that does.

Editor X is now targeted at agencies and developers, but some of the mobile-friendly features it offers should make their way into other Wix versions shortly.

Accessing CSS and HTML

Wix and Squarespace both give you limited access to CSS and HTML — the coding needed to personalise your site in more unique ways — but Squarespace is a little more versatile with CSS.

Although Squarespace does not allow you to alter the complete CSS stylesheet, you can use a specialised CSS editor to add your own lines of CSS to your site. This allows you to make visual modifications that Squarespace’s normal controls do not allow.

Wix doesn’t have a dedicated CSS editor, but there is a workaround: you can use the tracking tool code editor (which is more commonly used to add analytics pixels, cookies, and other features to your site) to inject some CSS into the header of your site.

In terms of HTML, both Wix and Squarespace allow you to incorporate HTML code blocks into your site’s pages. This comes in handy when you want to add widgets or code from other apps to your site.

Switching templates

Surprisingly, neither Wix nor Squarespace enable you to change templates once they’ve been put on your site! This is in contrast to platforms like as Shopify or WordPress, which make it relatively simple to do so.

Because all Squarespace designs act the same way, the absence of template swapping capabilities is less of an issue than it is with Wix – you can manually change colours and fonts to mimic the look of another template with Squarespace.

While this isn’t ideal, it does mean that if you want to alter the template, you won’t have to rebuild the entire project, which is something you’ll have to do if you use Wix to create a website. Let’s take a look at Wix and Squarespace’s content management systems to see how easy they are to use and which is better for novices.

Summary:

You can’t change your template once you’ve picked it in Wix or Squarespace. However, Wix provides more varieties of templates compared to squarespace

3. Content management and ease-of-use

Ease of use

When comparing the ease of use of Squarespace and Wix, it’s important to remember that there are several different versions of the platforms to compare.

Squarespace is available in two different versions: 7.0 and 7.1.

Both are very similar, but Squarespace 7.1 is the default and the version that the firm plans to continue developing (and hence the version on which we’re basing our Wix vs Squarespace comparison).

Wix is available in three different versions:

• Wix AI (Artificial Intelligence) (ADI)
• Editor for Wix
• Wix’s ‘Velo’ (For Wix, it was once known as ‘Corvid’)

There are more variations between these versions than there are between Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1.

Wix ADI is without a doubt the most user-friendly. It automatically populates your website by asking you a few simple questions and gathering whatever information is available from an online search of your company.

The information and layout that Wix generates can then be easily modified (see below video for a brief overview of how all this works).

Working with Wix Editor requires some basic computer abilities; it’s about as difficult as laying up a newsletter in Microsoft Word. However, compared to ADI, this edition of Wix provides you significantly greater flexibility in changing the look of your site.

Velo by Wix is geared at developers and allows you to automatically construct a large number of web pages using a template filled with data from a spreadsheet. It also allows you to design custom page behaviours using javascript and Application Program Interfaces (APIs).

Wix’s ease of use varies greatly depending on which version you’re using.

Wix ADI vs Squarespace

The ADI (‘Artificial Design Intelligence’) edition of Wix is the most user-friendly of the three.

To set up your site, you’ll use a basic ‘wizard’ method, and then it’s just a matter of pointing at the content you want to update and clicking a ‘edit’ button to make the changes. Different types of’sections’ (team images, testimonials, galleries, content, careers, and so on) can be inserted into a page and moved up and down as needed.

Basic design tweaks are also possible — all you have to do is point to the content you wish to change and then click the ‘design’ button to change its appearance.

In terms of how Wix ADI compares to Squarespace in terms of user-friendliness, the two are pretty comparable in that you’re dealing with simple, editable blocks that you can move around the page.

Importantly, I discovered that the Wix ADI-created mobile version of your site doesn’t require much (if any) editing.

However, Wix ADI’s functionality is limited, which may encourage future Wix customers to use Wix Editor instead (or Velo, which uses the same page builder as Wix Editor).

Wix Editor vs Squarespace

A ‘drag-and-drop’ interface is at the heart of both Wix Editor and Squarespace content editing, allowing you to move material around pages as you see fit.

Although none of these drag-and-drop editors is especially difficult to use — and which you prefer may come down to personal preference — in my opinion, Squarespace’s is the more intuitive of the two.

Wix Editor, as previously mentioned, uses a ‘absolute positioning’ approach to site layout, which means you may drop or move content wherever on the page. A more structured,’snap-to-grid’ style method is used with Squarespace.

While this increases Wix’s flexibility, it also makes things more fiddly. And, probably more importantly, it raises the potential for design problems, such as misalignment of text and graphics.

Another thing to keep in mind when using Wix Editor’s absolute positioning is that it means you’ll be constructing two sites: one for desktop and one for mobile.

Although the mobile version of your site that Wix Editor generates for you is frequently excellent, the result is not always ideal. As a result, you may find yourself having to create — or at the very least test — two different versions of your website.

Squarespace’s page editor, on the other hand, makes it simple to align content pieces neatly to one another — everything just appears to fall into place more easily — and its completely responsive template design eliminates the need to create distinct mobile and desktop versions of your site.

In overall, the Squarespace interface is cleaner and more contemporary; I’ve also found it to be significantly less slow than Wix. Overall, I believe Squarespace is the better alternative — by a significant margin — when it comes to content editing.

On Squarespace, there’s a method to save money.

Squarespace is presently providing a 10% discount on its plans if you’re interested in using it. This can save you a lot of money, especially if you choose one of its ‘commerce’ plans.

This offer is only valid for a limited time; to take advantage of it, click here.

• Use this link to visit the Squarespace website.
• When purchasing a plan, use the code PARTNER10.

Summary

Wix’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it ideal for beginners. With Wix ADI, you could have a website up and running in an afternoon. Wix is more technical to use than Squarespace. It takes longer to become acclimated to, therefore patience and/or technical confidence are required.

4. CMS features

Importing and exporting content

When it comes to importing content, Squarespace does a decent job, allowing you to import text from WordPress, Blogger, and Tumbler.

In terms of products, Squarespace has ‘wizards’ that can import data from Shopify, Etsy, and Big Cartel. You can also import products using a CSV file.

Squarespace makes it simple to export products, albeit digital goods cannot be exported and there is a 10,000 product export limit. Certain material from your Squarespace site can be exported to WordPress format. Some aspects, such as blog posts and static pages, will export, but not all. The import/export options offered in Wix are dependent on the version of the interface you’re using.

When it comes to imports,

• Wix ADI doesn’t allow you to import any content.
• Wix Editor allows you to import items and blog entries in CSV and WordPress formats.
• You can import sites, goods, and blog articles with Velo (but note that you may need development skills to do so).

Wix ADI and Wix Editor both allow you to export products, albeit there is a 5,000 product limit. Wix pages and posts, on the other hand, aren’t really exportable – Velo gives you some alternatives, but if you need to export content from Wix ADI and Wix Editor at a later date, you might have to make do with copying and pasting.

Text and headings

Wix has a little more leeway with headings, allowing you to utilise up to six levels (H1-H6), whilst Squarespace only allows for four (H1-H4). However, for the most majority of users, the latter should suffice.

Both systems allow you to set three different paragraph styles.

Images and galleries

Both Squarespace and Wix make it simple to upload and manipulate photos. Wix outperforms the competition when it comes to picture sources: you can connect the platform to a variety of social network accounts and import content directly from them.

You may also apply a wider selection of effects to your images and use a ‘auto cut out’ feature to remove backgrounds from photos (this can be useful for headshots). Squarespace, on the other hand, excels in optimising photographs for use across many platforms by allowing you to define a ‘focus point’ for your images (see screengrab below).

When your image is automatically cropped for viewing on smaller displays, this focal point guarantees that the most important section of your image is foregrounded. Both Wix and Squarespace offer a wide number of gallery options, including carousel, grid, and masonry styles, among others. Wix, on the other hand, has a larger selection of gallery formats.

Blogging

Blogging is essential for increasing traffic, and both Squarespace and Wix have built-in blogging features.

While neither Squarespace nor Wix’s blogging tools will ever surpass those of WordPress, they aren’t awful. They both support numerous authors, give RSS feeds, and allow you to use categories and tags, unlike other competing website builders.

The primary issue with Squarespace’s blogging tool is that it lacks autosave and revision history functionality. When you’re in the middle of writing a blog article and your computer crashes, it can be quite frustrating.

(You can get around this by writing your posts in Google Docs and then copying and pasting them into Squarespace, but this isn’t ideal!)

Wix, on the other hand, does offer these autosave options, thus Wix comes out on top when it comes to blogging.

Managing media

Wix slightly outperforms Squarespace when it comes to handling files and photos that you’ve added to your website.

Although both platforms now provide a media library — a central location for all of the content you’ve contributed to the site – Wix allows you to arrange content into folders and edit it more simply.

Autosave and content versioning

Wix trumps Squarespace in one critical area: autosave. Wix automatically stores your site content and allows you access to older versions of your site on a regular basis. If necessary, these can be restored.

As previously said, this functionality includes blog entries, which is maybe the most practical application.

If you care about version history, this is yet another gain for Wix.

Storage

When deciding between Squarespace and Wix, keep in mind that Wix has a storage limit.

The specific limits are determined by your Wix plan, with the more expensive Wix plans being more generous.

On the other hand, all Squarespace plans have limitless storage capacity.

Adding widgets and scripts

Squarespace and Wix both allow you to add HTML blocks to your site, allowing you to include custom scripts and third-party widgets.

However, if you want to inject code on every page of your site (for example, to install Google Tag Manager), you’ll need to be on the ‘Business’ plan or above in Squarespace.

Mobile apps

Squarespace and Wix both provide Android and iOS apps that you can use to manage your store on the road, thereby turning it into a mobile content management system.

Wix only requires one app to be installed on your smartphone: ‘Wix Owner.’ You may use this to manage content, reservations, e-commerce orders, and design, as well as examine analytics. You can also utilise it to communicate with new clients and respond to business inquiries.

There are three Squarespace mobile apps to consider:

• ‘Squarespace’
• ‘Administrative Scheduling’
• ‘Client Scheduling’

The main software you’ll need to manage your Squarespace site from a smartphone or tablet is the ‘Squarespace’ app, which enables you modify pages and posts, see analytics, and manage e-commerce orders.

E-commerce features

To sell online with Wix or Squarespace, you must be on one of their more expensive plans, such as the $26 per month ‘Business’ plan or higher on Squarespace, or the $23 per month ‘Business Basic’ plan or higher on Wix.

Let’s take a closer look at what both platforms have to offer in terms of e-commerce.

Transaction fees

Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee for online payments unless you’re on one of its more expensive ‘Basic Commerce’ or ‘Advanced Commerce’ plans (on top of any credit card processing fees).

If you choose a Squarespace Basic or Advanced Commerce package, you’ll simply have to worry about the Stripe or Paypal processing fees (the two main payment gateway options available to you in Squarespace). These differ depending on the country.

Wix doesn’t charge a transaction fee on any of its plans, which is great news – you only have to pay credit card processing fees.

These fees will vary depending on which payment gateway you use with Wix – the default option, Wix Payments, charges 2.9 percent + 30c per transaction in the United States (cheaper rates are available for some other territories).

Note that Wix Payments is not yet available in all regions; you may need to use a third-party payment gateway to accept credit cards depending on where you are.

And, on that note…

Payment gateways

Wix has a larger selection of payment gateways (software that processes credit card transactions). Wix allows you to utilise roughly 70 different payment processors, however Squarespace only allows you to use two: Stripe or Paypal.

As a result, Wix gives you additional options when it comes to credit card rates and where you may accept credit card payments.

Wix and Squarespace, on the other hand, do not allow you to utilise Google Pay as a payment processor. If you need this payment processor, you’ll need to look into another platform, such as Shopify.

Sales channels

Both Wix and Squarespace allow you to use key third-party sales channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon, to sell products on your website. Wix, on the other hand, has a little more variety in this area because to its interaction with Ebay.

Types of goods you can sell

You can sell both physical and digital things (e-books, albums, etc.) on Wix and Squarespace, and you can also provide services and subscriptions.

Both platforms allow you to construct members areas that your site visitors can pay to access — Wix requires the purchase of a ‘Pricing Plans’ app, while Squarespace requires the purchase of a’members area’ add-on.

Wix, on the other hand, is superior for selling video material, as its ‘video hours’ function allows you to simply sell or rent video content to your site users, something Squarespace does not allow.

Number of products you can sell

You can sell an unlimited number of products on both Squarespace and Wix.

Product options and variants

When it comes to product selections and variants, Squarespace and Wix are both generous – even more so than other prominent dedicated e-commerce systems, such as Shopify.

Wix allows you to create up to 6 product options (size, colour, etc.) and display up to 1,000 variants (i.e., combinations of these — a large blue t-shirt, a tiny red one, and so on).

You can build up to 6 product options and 250 product variants with Squarespace.

Point of sale functionality

Both Wix and Squarespace offer point-of-sale (‘POS’) capability, which allows you to sell goods in a physical location (retail shop, market stall, etc.) and sync your inventory with your online store.

Squarespace makes this possible by utilising the Square platform and mobile card readers.

Wix is more adaptable in this area, with three POS solutions to choose from. You can make advantage of

• ‘Wix Retail POS,’ its own new built-in POS system
• Square
• SumUp

Squarespace merchants who want to use POS can only do it if they’re based in the United States right now. Wix, on the other hand, allows you to utilise POS in a far wider selection of countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and many European nations. (For the time being, Wix’s ‘built-in’ POS solution is only available to users in the United States.)

So, of the two platforms under consideration, Wix is unquestionably the more adaptable solution for POS.

Dropshipping in Wix and Squarespace

Dropshipping is a fulfilment method in which you take an order, pass it on to a supplier, and they ship the products to the customer. Because you don’t have to pay for any stock up front, it’s an appealing option to start a firm.

While Squarespace and Wix’s dropshipping possibilities aren’t quite as good as Shopify’s, both platforms have lately added features that allow you to sell products via this method of fulfilment.

When you sign up for a Wix Business ‘Pro’ or ‘Unlimited’ account, you’ll get a dropshipping app called Modalyst. You can pay extra to utilise a dropshipping ‘extension’ like Spocket or Printful in Squarespace.

The Shopify dropshipping starter kit is a great way to get started with dropshipping.

If you’re interested in dropshipping, I recommend checking out Shopify’s dropshipping beginning kit, which includes 14 days of free Shopify access as well as a slew of materials and tools to help you create a successful dropshipping Shopify store.

Abandoned cart savers

Wix and Squarespace both have abandoned cart features. This allows you to send a reminder email to visitors who begin but do not complete a purchase on your site.

Wix’s abandoned cart saver function is a little better than Squarespace’s because you can customise your reminder email a little more and choose when you want to send it — Squarespace, on the other hand, only allows you to send it 24 hours after the cart was abandoned.

Furthermore, Wix allows you to set up a second reminder email.

Perhaps most importantly, Wix offers access to its abandoned cart emails at a far lower cost — it’s included in any of its $23+ e-commerce services. To use this functionality on Squarespace, you must be on the most expensive $54 ‘Advanced Commerce’ plan.

On Squarespace, there’s a method to save money.

Squarespace is presently providing a 10% discount on its plans if you’re interested in using it. This can save you a lot of money, especially if you choose one of its ‘commerce’ plans.

This offer is only valid for a limited time; to take advantage of it, click here.

1. Use this link to visit the Squarespace website.
2. When purchasing a plan, use the code PARTNER10.

Selling in multiple currencies using Wix and Squarespace

If you sell in the currency that your website visitors use, you’ll get more sales.

If you’re selling in various countries, it’s helpful to be able to let potential consumers choose their own currency (or, better yet, to automatically offer your products in the currency of your site visitors).

Wix goes a long way toward promoting multi-currency selling by allowing customers to see prices in their own currency. However, it does not allow consumers to check out in their own currency.

Some Squarespace developers offer special coding services to display prices in multiple currencies; however, they can be costly or template-specific.

Finally, if multi-currency selling is extremely crucial to you, you should consider BigCommerce or Shopify, both of which handle it far better (BigCommerce especially so).

Automatic tax calculations

One of the difficulties of selling online is that you may end up making sales in a range of countries with varying tax rates, which you must account for in your product pricing.

This is especially important for merchants in the United States, Canada, and the European Union, since different areas have varying tax policies.

Wix and Squarespace both struggle a little in this area.

Wix allows you to calculate tax rates automatically (using the Avalara app), but there are some rather lenient limits on the amount of transactions you can do this for per month; even the most expensive ‘Business VIP’ plan only allows for 500 tax calculations per month. Avalara, on the other hand, may be used in a wide range of countries, which is convenient.

Taxjar provides Squarespace’s automatic tax computation feature, although it is only available in the United States.

So, Squarespace or Wix, which is better for e-commerce?

When it comes to e-commerce, I’d give Wix the edge because

• There are no transaction costs to be concerned about.
• It has a larger selection of payment gateways than Squarespace.
• There is an app that displays pricing in multiple currencies.
• Wix offers abandoned cart capabilities for a lot less money, and it’s also a little better.

Summary:

Squarespace is frequently superior in terms of features. Squarespace may not equal Wix on every feature, but they regularly outperform Wix on the ones they do.

5. Integrations and add-ons

If you want to enhance the functionality of your Squarespace or Wix website, you’ll be happy to know that both platforms interact with a variety of third-party services. In Squarespace, this may be done in a couple of ways.

To begin, a few ‘out of the box’ connectors are available, which cater to major players such as Mailchimp, OpenTable, and Amazon. To get these, you’ll need to be on a ‘Business’ or higher plan.

Second, there’s a tiny but growing library of ‘Squarespace extensions,’ which are paid-for programmes that enhance your website’s functionality.

You’ll need to use Zapier — a sync service that lets you construct ‘zaps’ that let apps share data with each other — for any integrations that aren’t available out of the box or via an extension in Squarespace.

While this normally entails a monthly cost and some setting, the end result is that Squarespace may be used in a variety of ways with a wide range of third-party applications.

Finally, Squarespace plugins — simple code snippets that you add to a Squarespace site to make it behave in ways that aren’t normally achievable out of the box — are another option to add functionality to a Squarespace site.

Wix has an app store — the Wix ‘App Market’ — that you can use to add functionality or integrate third-party applications. There are over 250 apps and integrations available, far outnumbering Squarespace’s 25 or so extensions.

Of course, using an HTML block and copying and pasting code from third-party services is another option to integrate services. This is something that both Wix and Squarespace let you to do.

Summary:

The Wix App Market contains a large variety of apps that you may install for additional functionality. Because most of Squarespace’s features are designed in-house, its app store, Squarespace Extensions, has a limited selection of connectors than Wix’s.

6. Forms and data capture

Forms

Squarespace and Wix both make it simple to develop basic data gathering forms.

You can construct either a ‘form block’ or a ‘newsletter block’ in Squarespace. The first option allows you to create your own forms from scratch with your own fields, whereas the second is a straightforward affair that merely catches your name and email address.

When it comes to forms, Wix gives you additional alternatives. The free Wix forms app offers a variety of form types, including contact forms, job application forms, and subscriptions, as well as a variety of templates, giving you more form design flexibility than Squarespace (in Squarespace, you can’t change form design much unless you add your own CSS to your site and style them yourself).

Wix also allows you to install a number of other form apps, each with its own set of features. For example, POWR’s popular ‘Form Builder’ tool lets you utilise conditional logic, personalise autoresponder emails, add file attachments, and more.

You may use a third-party form builder tool like Jotform or Wufoo and install it using an HTML block to get more advanced form capability in Squarespace (again, this involves an additional fee).

Although there isn’t much in it, I’d say Wix is the clear winner when it comes to forms.

Data capture

After you’ve established a form in Squarespace or Wix, you’ll need to decide where the data it collects will be sent.

You can submit your data to the following addresses in Squarespace:

• Squarespace Email Campaigns (Squarespace’s in-house email marketing platform — more on that later)
• Google Sheets is an online spreadsheet programme.
• Mailchimp
• a contact email address
• Zapier is a platform that allows you to connect (allowing you to hook up your forms to a variety of email marketing tools, such as Getresponse or Aweber).

You can send the contents of your Wix forms to the following addresses using the standard Wix forms app:

• a valid email address
• a spreadsheet that can be seen through the Wix interface

If you want to connect your form to Mailchimp, you’ll need to look for an app in the Wix app store.

On the data collection side, Squarespace is likely to prevail because you can send your form data to more destinations more simply.

Email marketing in Wix and Squarespace

Wix and Squarespace are unique among competing website builders in that they both have built-in email marketing capabilities, allowing you to generate e-newsletters right away.

Wix is really rather generous in this aspect, allowing you to send up to 5,000 subscribers three free e-newsletters per month.

Upgrading to Wix’s ‘Ascend’ tool is required if you want to undertake more complex email marketing.

Ascend allows you to send out more emails per month and employ automations, which are emails that are triggered in various ways by visitor actions on a Wix site (purchases, form completions, live chat etc.).

Pricing for Ascend is strangely not publicly available on Wix; you must log onto your Wix account to see this information. When I did this, the monthly prices for sending 9500, 50000, and 1,000,000 emails each month were $9.50, $11, and $23, respectively.

You’ll be dealing with Squarespace’s aptly named ‘Squarespace Email Campaigns’ function.

This is more expensive than Wix Ascend — rates range from $7 to $68 per month — but it’s still a decent deal for folks who have large mailing lists (there’s no limit on how many subscribers you can add). The e-newsletter templates are just as good as the Squarespace website templates.

When it comes to marketing automations, Squarespace Email Campaigns is fairly rudimentary — simply a very basic autoresponder feature is available (you can send follow-up emails automatically when a user subscribes to your list, or buys something from your site).

Furthermore, unlike Wix, you are unable to partition your email addresses into distinct categories, making it more difficult to target your mailings to the most responsive audiences.

All of this adds up to a victory for Wix in the email marketing department.

If you’re looking for a simple and cost-effective way to send out periodic e-newsletters, Wix’s free, built-in email marketing tool is hard to beat; and some of the premium automations, as illustrated in the Wix Ascend promotional film, are actually handy (below).

SEO features

It doesn’t matter how appealing or effective your website is if it doesn’t appear high in search results and receive organic traffic.

So, how do Squarespace and Wix fare when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO)?

Both tools, on the other hand, allow you to execute the essentials flawlessly, i.e.,

• include headings
• rename the pages
• URLs for pages can be changed
• Meta descriptions should be added
• add alternative text
• 301 redirects should be created.

Furthermore, both systems allow you to display your blog entries in AMP format, which helps speed up delivery in mobile search results (something Google approves of thanks to its’mobile first’ approach to indexing content).

‘SEO Wiz,’ a specific set of SEO resources, is also available through Wix. However, both products have some shortcomings in terms of SEO.

First and foremost, neither provides you with any Yoast-style SEO tools that allow you to assess how well your content is optimised.

Squarespace also makes it needlessly tough to update alt text (the text that search engines and screen readers use to explain photos) — it’s possible, but it’s a lengthy process.

Wix’s primary flaw is how mobile versions of its site are shown – as previously mentioned in our comparison, Wix builds a different version of your site for desktop and mobile, rather to following Google’s preferred approach, responsive design.

Wix and Squarespace could both do a better job with URL construction – Google prefers URLs to be as ‘clean’ and relevant as possible, but both systems add prefixes to your URLs in specific situations (for example, Wix adds ‘/posts/’ to your URL while Squarespace adds ‘/blog/’). More flexibility in this area would be beneficial.

Finally, neither platform fares exceptionally well in Google’s new ‘Core Web Vitals’ testing. These are a set of goals for a website’s speed, responsiveness, and visual stability; sites that meet these goals will have their search ranks boosted slightly.

When it comes to Core Web Vitals, research from Search Engine Journal suggests that Squarespace is now the higher performing option of the two platforms under consideration.

It’s crucial to remember that SEO isn’t only about the technical components of a website; it’s also about properly employing keyword research tools, providing high-quality content, and building links to your site.

But, purely from a technical standpoint, I believe Squarespace is now the winner in a Wix versus Squarespace SEO shootout.

Summary:

Wix SEO Wiz is simple to use, interactive, and generates a tailored step-by-step strategy for you to follow. Squarespace features built-in SEO tools and has optimised its pages for search engines. It provides many support resources to assist you, which may be intimidating to a first-time user.

7. GDPR compliance

Because I am not a lawyer, the following observations should not be construed as legal advice. That said, I’ll try my best to explain some of the significant GDPR difficulties that Squarespace and Wix site owners are dealing with below.

As a result of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) legislation implemented by the EU in 2018, business and website owners now face a slew of new legal obligations.

As a site owner, you’ll need to accomplish the following:

• On your website, include proper privacy and cookie notices.
• Securely process and store data
• Obtain specific permission from people who sign up for mailing lists to send them e-newsletters.
• Provide a way for visitors to opt in or out of the use of non-essential cookies on a website (and to log that consent).

Meeting the first three prerequisites using Squarespace or Wix is now rather simple. Meeting the fourth condition, on the other hand, can be difficult using Squarespace.

When you use non-essential cookies on your website, such as a Facebook Ads pixel or a Google Analytics script, you must provide EU users the opportunity to disable them.

A cookie consent banner built into Wix allows you to block cookies for a variety of popular marketing companies before they are launched. It could be better, but depending on the cookies involved, it will work for some users.

However, on Squarespace, there is no analogous ‘out-of-the-box’ option to provide GDPR cookie consent for third-party scripts, which means that many Squarespace users infringe the law as soon as they add a non-essential cookie to their website.

To go around this issue in Squarespace, you’ll need to include a third-party cookie banner tool in the process. There are a lot of them out there; when we build Squarespace sites for our clients, we use a software called CookieYes.

The bottom line on GDPR is that it is possible to make a Wix or Squarespace site GDPR-compliant, but it will always need additional work (and continuing payments if you employ a third-party cookie banner solution).

Other platforms, such as BigCommerce and Shopify, do substantially better in terms of GDPR compliance (BigCommerce provides a built-in cookie consent feature that meets GDPR requirements, and there are various apps available for Shopify which provide one).

Customer support

When it comes to customer service, Wix can be reached via phone or email. You can contact Squarespace via live chat or email.

Before being given the opportunity to contact the support service, you must often seek for a solution to your problem in both platforms’ help centres.

In terms of support quality, I’ve had a lot more experience with Squarespace’s support team than with Wix’s because we develop Squarespace sites for clients.

Squarespace’s customer service has ranged from excellent (on SSL difficulties) to dreadful (on other issues) (on issues relating to Squarespace and GDPR).

If being able to talk to someone is highly important to you, Wix has a minor advantage over Squarespace in terms of customer service. You can also pay more for premium support, which some users may find beneficial.

Finally, Wix assistance is offered in more languages than Squarespace – 9 languages against 6 for Squarespace (and you should note that live chat support for Squarespace is only available in English).

Wix vs Squarespace: conclusion

Overall, I don’t think there’s a clear winner in a Wix vs. Squarespace battle – both products are quite evenly matched. Wix and Squarespace, on the other hand, have features that make them a better ‘match’ for particular types of users and situations.

Squarespace, in my opinion, outperforms Wix in terms of user friendliness; I prefer Squarespace’s interface to Wix’s. It’s also easy to construct mobile-friendly sites with its templates because they’re all fully responsive (and is technically a better platform from an SEO point of view). Wix’s absence of responsive templates is, in my opinion, the most compelling argument to choose Squarespace over it.

Wix, on the other hand, is more flexible in many ways: there are more templates to choose from, and you may customise your website’s look to the nth degree using its editor. Its e-commerce plans are likewise more feature-rich than Squarespace’s, and it offers additional free email marketing options.

In a nutshell, I’d use Squarespace without hesitation if I wanted to create an appealing portfolio site, music site, or small business site that performed well on all devices — especially one that didn’t require any complicated e-commerce capabilities.

Wix is a solid all-arounder with a lot of good e-commerce features at a reasonable price — but if I were constructing an online store, I’d probably prefer to use a dedicated (and more feature-packed) e-commerce platform like Shopify.

Below is a description of the benefits and drawbacks of each site builder, as well as why and when you would want to use one over the other.

Wix is a better option than Squarespace for a variety of reasons.

• There is a completely free plan available.
• It’s a little less expensive to use, especially if you pay monthly.
• A larger selection of templates is now accessible.
• Wix stores your content automatically and makes it simple to restore prior versions of your website.
• Wix has a searchable media manager, however Squarespace does not have one.
• Wix has a far higher product variant limit than Squarespace, at 1000 vs. 250.
• Wix ($23 vs. $54) offers a major e-commerce feature, abandoned basket saving functionality, at a significantly lower pricing range.
• Wix allows you to use a broader selection of payment gateways.
• Wix has a larger selection of apps and connectors than Squarespace.
• Wix’s free email marketing options are extensive, and its commercial email marketing features are more advanced than Squarespace’s.
• Wix allows you to display prices in several currencies (but checkout in the local currency is not possible).
• Wix has phone help available.

Wix is available to try for free here.

Reasons to use Squarespace over Wix

• Wix’s templates are not entirely responsive, whereas Squarespace’s are.
• Squarespace’s UI is more attractive than Wix’s, and its drag-and-drop editor is more easier to use – the learning curve for Squarespace is not steep.
• You can more simply import and export content into and out of Squarespace.
• Squarespace has a larger selection of typefaces.
• Squarespace sites allow you to add CSS more simply, giving you additional customization possibilities for your templates.
• All Squarespace plans include unlimited bandwidth and storage.
• On any e-commerce-enabled Squarespace subscription, you can sell an unlimited number of products; this is not the case with Wix.
• Squarespace has a higher product selection limit.
• Squarespace forms allow you to send data to a variety of storage alternatives, including Mailchimp; Wix is more limited in this area unless you’re willing to pay extra for an appropriate forms app.
• Squarespace’s SEO capabilities are slightly better than Wix’s (chiefly because its templates are responsive).

Alternatives to Wix and Squarespace

When it comes to website builders, Wix and Squarespace are by no means your only options. Platforms like Jimdo, Weebly, and Moonfruit are worth a look if you’re searching for a cheap and cheerful way to establish a business.

We prefer Shopify or BigCommerce for e-commerce sites since they include all of the e-commerce capabilities found in Squarespace and Wix, plus a lot more (including advanced point of sale features, more payment gateway options, currency conversion and more). For additional information on both options, see our Shopify review and our BigCommerce evaluation.

Big Cartel and GoDaddy are worth a look if you’re on a tight budget and want basic selling tools. For more information on these platforms, see our Big Cartel review, Big Cartel versus Shopify comparison, and Shopify vs GoDaddy comparison.

Of course, online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy may be extremely effective shops; our Amazon vs Shopify and Etsy vs Shopify comparisons look at how you can sell online using these platforms.

Finally, you have the option of using WordPress, which requires more configuration to set up but allows you to create whatever type of website you want. For more information about how it compares to using Wix, see our Wix vs WordPress comparison.

Summary:

Wix provides support via phone, email, and social media, as well as an on-page editor. Its information centre, on the other hand, isn’t as thorough as it could be. Squarespace provides excellent customer service via live chat and email, as well as a comprehensive help centre that includes manuals, videos, webinars, and a forum.

Wix vs Squarespace Frequently Asked Questions

Wix versus Squarespace: which is easier to use?

Squarespace is probably easier to use than Wix because its interface is less cluttered and uses a’snap to grid’ technique to avoid adding material to your website that isn’t aligned correctly. Furthermore, Squarespace templates are completely responsive, which means your site will automatically appear correctly on mobile devices, unlike Wix requires you to create and manage two unique versions of your site, one for desktop and one for mobile.

Wix or Squarespace: which is better for SEO?

When it comes to SEO, Squarespace is undoubtedly the superior option because its templates feature mobile-friendly responsive design, whereas Wix’s do not. Google places a high value on mobile user experience, and sites that adopt responsive design can be rewarded with higher rankings in search results.

Wix versus Squarespace: which is better for e-commerce?

Wix is now the more feature-rich e-commerce platform. Wix, unlike Squarespace, has no transaction fees on any of its plans, offers a wide selection of payment gateway alternatives, and allows you to show product prices in local currencies. Additionally, its abandoned cart saver function is less expensive and allows you to send several reminder emails.

Wix versus Squarespace: which is better for blogging?

Because it autosaves entries and preserves a revision history, Wix is a little better choice for blogging than Squarespace.