Wix vs Squarespace: Comparing the best website builder in 2024

Wix and Squarespace are undoubtedly two of the most popular website builders in the market. Both of them provide an intuitive and professional-looking experience. After all, I wouldn't recommend them if they weren't on top of my list. 

But choosing the second but ain't going to cut it, especially when you're looking for feature-rich options and inexpensive plans. If you're facing problems choosing the right one, this article is perfect for you. 

After using these two website builders, I thought of writing a thorough Wix vs Squarespace review. I will help you know whether Wix or Squarespace will benefit your needs. Let's gets started. 

Wix vs Squarespace: Quick comparison

Let's take a look at the Wix vs Squarespace comparison table first. It will help you know the basic differences between them.

Now that the basic comparison is sorted, it's time to focus on the core parts. While you will notice some significant differences between these two, remember that they are both highly capable. Let's get started.

1. AI website building

Creating a professional website shouldn’t take a lot of time and effort. Both Wix and Squarespace offer seamless website creation processes. As both platforms have implemented AI capabilities, you need to determine which is more effective than the other. 

Wix’s AI capabilities can greatly improve your website design and creation process. It uses user input and industry trends to ensure you get the most desirable results. 

The WIX ADI can create highly professional and custom websites with excellent designs. This way, users will get the best results. Even if you don’t like the designs, you can still edit the Wix templates. 

Now, you can also use the advanced AI for other purposes. For example, the AI can help you with image enhancement, AI text generation, and SEO meta-description. In short, it can cater to various needs and create a website. 

Wix also has excellent photo editing skills. This includes background removal, object erasing, and generative images. 

Now comes the Squarespace AI. I really like Squarespace's simplicity in terms of its AI capabilities. The whole process was butter smooth, with no complications. 

For example, when you create an account, Squarespace will ask if you want to use AI to build a website or do everything manually. I chose AI website creation, and trust me; the process was smooth. 

The AI will give you numerous options to create your website. For instance, the AI will let you choose from Squarespace templates, pages, options, etc. This way, you can make your website more eye-catching. 

Many people assume that they cannot change the elements once they have been chosen. However, this is not true. You can edit and customize anything you want. 

But there’s one thing you must know. Unlike Wix’s ADI, the Squarespace AI is less capable. I mean, the capabilities will seem less than that of Wix. 

For example, Wix will ask you through proper chatbots to understand your queries. You can give any website-related command, and Wix AI will do it. But that’s not the same with Squarespace AI.

2. Design and customization features

While AI can help you get started with your website-building process, the true capabilities of an AI website builder are determined by its editing and customization features.

Let’s say you’ve chosen an AI website builder and created a fancy website. But you want to customize the font, template, page, and other elements. Failing to do so will make you question the reliability of the web builder. 

I wouldn’t compare Wix vs Squarespace only because of their AI capabilities. Wix also has a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop interface to help you create websites seamlessly. 

This helps users place elements anywhere they want without any coding knowledge. However, this feature works slightly slower. But that wouldn’t be an issue. 

Now, I should really talk about Wix’s templates. It gives you 800+ templates across different genres to choose from. Whether you need a professional template for your Saas business or restaurant business, you can find something suitable for your needs. 

If you ask me, the templates are the best way to get started. Instead of using blank templates, where you need to include every element manually, the templates will create a base. 

The onboarding process for beginners is also quite easy to understand. Whether you’re a professional or a beginner, there’s no need to worry. There are various tutorials and suggestions to ensure you don’t face any roadblocks. 

Unlike Wix, Squarespace has a grid-based design layout. While this interface is slightly more restrictive, the aestheticism is clean and consistent. 

You will also get high-quality templates. They are design-friendly, so you can customize anything you want. However, the number of available templates is lower compared to Wix. 

Despite the lower availability of templates, they are highly customizable. I doubt you need to change anything drastically, as they are all beautifully crafted. 

3. Ecommerce

Writing a comparison blog on Wix vs Squarespace means I need to focus on their eCommerce features. People who want to sell online should pay close attention to what I’m about to say. 

Both Wix and Squarespace can help you sell products and services effectively. But everything depends on pricing, features, and usage limits. 

When you choose Wix, you will be impressed with its comprehensive eCommerce capabilities. I believe you will never face any problems selling physical and digital products. 

The interface will allow you to manage product listings effectively. This includes images, detailed descriptions, and variations like color and size. However, make sure you pay close attention while adding new products. 

Wix can integrate shipping solutions directly within the platform to sell your physical products. Not to mention, it also supports various shipping rules and rates, including international shipping options. Thanks to integration with payment gateways, you can ensure safe digital and physical transactions. 

Wix can also handle your business’s orders and interact with your customers. It comes with helpful tools that can benefit you in terms of tracking orders, managing customer accounts, and sending automated emails. 

This way, you can maintain communication with the customers when they buy or receive their orders. Such a helpful thing if you ask me. 

Wix eCommerce web designs offer specific tools to create efficient sales funnels for sales optimization. Users can incorporate email marketing campaigns, create landing pages, and utilize upselling options while checking out. Wix also successfully addresses cart abandonment by offering automated emails. 

Furthermore, Wix's AI powers may also be used to create excellent product descriptions, which boost product page SEO and conversion rates.

Wix also comes with eye-catching eCommerce analytics, which can help you make informed decisions for your company. You can gather relevant data on sales trends, consumer behavior, and other topics. 

Squarespace is equally capable of providing eCommerce websites to its customers. Thanks to the streamlined inventory management, you can easily add and edit products. 

Moreover, Squarespace offers various shipping options. This will prove super beneficial when you’re selling physical products. These include carrier-calculated fees, flat rates, amd free shipping. 

Selling digital items is also simple on Squarespace, as the platform will ensure your customers receive the files securely. Apart from supporting various file types, you can ensure your customers receive the digital files only after completing their payments. 

Another excellent feature is an AI text generator. This feature will help you create the product descriptions effortlessly. While this can optimize the content for various products, remember that it’s not optimized specifically for eCommerce. 

Squarespace excels at managing orders and communicating with customers. The platform offers quick access to consumer analytics, automated customer notifications, and comprehensive order summaries. Its integrated CRM capabilities foster tight customer relationships by improving the shopping experience.

Effective sales funnels may be created with Squarespace's sales funnel add-on. Users can create personalized landing pages, including product videos, and use email tool integration for direct marketing. 

Squarespace's abandoned cart recovery program assists retailers in recouping lost revenue from customers who abandoned their carts.

Similar to Wix, Squarespace provides comprehensive eCommerce-specific data. These offer useful information on website traffic, customer interactions, and sales performance—all of which are essential for business optimization. Additionally, Squarespace includes integrated email marketing capabilities.

Now that you know the eCommerce features, I believe you can decide which one can benefit more based on your needs. Moving along, let's discuss the SEO and marketing features.

4. SEO and marketing

SEO is extremely important for modern websites. Not only is there more rivalry among websites, but Google and other search engines are making massive changes to their algorithms at the quickest rate ever. Both platforms meet important SEO requirements by including custom URLs, meta descriptions, and the ability to add alt text to pictures.

Wix automatically creates and refreshes XML sitemaps, which are sent to Google for speedier indexing. In the advanced SEO settings, users may specify canonical URLs for each page to avoid duplicate content concerns. It also supports Hreflang and multilingual web pages. 

Wix interacts with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Users can link Google Analytics and Google Search Console by putting the property IDs into the site's settings.

Wix's email marketing platform is ideal for producing a variety of emails, including newsletters and eCommerce-related emails. With all Wix subscriptions, you may send up to 200 emails each month for free. If you need to send more, Wix offers premium email marketing solutions starting around $10 per month for 500 emails. 

Squarespace SEO and Marketing Features Squarespace also make it simple to create meta descriptions using the SEO tools for each page. Squarespace users may add alt text to pictures by choosing the image and putting the alt text into the image configuration settings. 

Squarespace allows each website to create a sitemap.xml file. These automatically update, and search engines are notified of any changes. Squarespace manages canonical URLs for its pages to avoid SEO concerns caused by duplicate content. It offers fewer alternatives for multilingual websites (third-party apps are required). 

Like Wix, Squarespace lacks a built-in keyword tool. Users use external keyword and content-scoring tools to insert them into their website content manually. However, it does have some great marketing tools.

5. Blogging

Without effective content creation strategies, you cannot promote your online store. In fact, informative blogs and articles are one of the best ways to generate organic traffic to your website. 

Thus, you should not overlook the best blogging features when choosing a website builder. It’s the key to your engagement and website optimization. 

Wix provides a basic set of blogging capabilities for the right website builders. It does not provide custom post kinds. However, you may use multiple Wix applications from the App Market to generate more complicated content categories. 

For example, you can utilize Wix Forums or Wix Events to create unique post-like features. Content on Wix blogs may be easily organized using categories and tags.

Bloggers can arrange content to improve user experience and SEO. Wix's built-in commenting system is minimal yet useful. Bloggers looking for additional communication methods with their audience may prefer WordPress, which offers more options.

Wix makes publishing blog entries on social media easier, increasing their visibility. The blog editor is part of the wider Wix editor and uses the same drag-and-drop capabilities, making creating articles with multimedia features simple. 

Despite its numerous design and functionality capabilities, this platform may not offer a distraction-free writing experience comparable to other blogging platforms.

Squarespace, like Wix, allows you to arrange your blog entries using categories and tags, which improves navigation and SEO. Squarespace has a built-in comments system. 

This approach makes it simple to regulate comments. Users may link in with their social media accounts to make commenting even more convenient. 

Squarespace website builder can quickly publish posts on social networks and include symbols and buttons that let readers share information. 

Its blogging experience is straightforward and tidy, making it less distracting than Wix. Squarespace's rich text editor is simple yet powerful, providing all the tools to produce visually stunning and easily accessible content.

6. Pricing

Now comes one of the most interesting parts. I have seen many businesses facing financial problems after choosing an expensive website builder. The process and pricing should work in your favor. 

It's true that you can migrate to another website builder later, but that involves a migration cost. Many website builders state that they offer free migration, but most of them don't. And oh boy the migration charges are expensive. 

Wix provides a completely transparent pricing plan on their website. They also provide a free Wix plan but with ads. The free plan will help you get started right away. 

But if you're not a fan of ads and Wix branded domains, you need to upgrade to a premium plan. Here's the pricing structure of Wix:

As I've mentioned on my Wix pricing plan blog, most users will find the Light plan helpful unless they want to create an online store. It has all the essential features and lets you connect to your custom domain. But, if you want eCommerce features, you need to upgrade to the Core or Business plan. 

While Wix's pricing plan is transparent, Squarespace plans are more straightforward. They provide four pricing plans:

Unfortunately, unlike Wix, Squarespace doesn't offer any free plans. Yes, you can create and test a website with a 14-day free trial, but that timeframe is too short. 

Keep in mind that you may face some technical problems while making payments on Wix. I read a couple of reviews where users state that the payment methods failed abruptly.

Wix vs Squarespace: Who's the winner?

Unlike Squarespace, Wix lets you customize your website to a great extent. With its excellent website editor, you can rearrange any website element you want. Out of these two website builders, I'd say Wix is the best option. 

However, that doesn't mean Squarespace is avoidable. In fact, I recommend Squarespace for dedicated bloggers. Their approach ensures you receive a great and professional-looking website. 

What's your opinion on my Wix vs Squarespace blog? Do you find it helpful? Make sure you express your opinions and thoughts in the comments below. 

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