4 Key Differences You Should Know
When comparing Wix vs Squarespace, on the surface it may appear that both website builders are similar.However, if we take a deeper dive, you’ll see that they are actually quite different in a lot of ways.
Whether you pick Wix or Squarespace (or any other website builders), choosing the right website builder is important to you as the last thing you want to do is invest months building a website, then discovering that you need to switch to another builder.
In this Wix vs Squarespace review, we’ll show you where some of the biggest differences between them.
In this comparison review, I will compare Wix and Squarespace in 4 different aspects, plus our conclusion, to see which one is better.
Click on the following to see the specific sections regarding Wix vs Squarespace:
We also have in-depth reviews on Wix and Squarespace where we break down all the features and pros and cons of each website builder
1. WIX VS SQUARESPACE – TEMPLATES
Here is a quick snapshot of the difference between the templates provided by Wix and Squarespace:
Squarespace Templates
- Responsive designs (great for mobile phones and tablets)
- Over 40 polished and beautifully designed templates, and over 20 Cover Page designs
- You can change templates for your website at any time (no content will be lost)
Click to see Squarespace’s templates
Click here to see our detailed review of Squarespace’s templates
Wix Templates
- 510+ templates for you to choose from across different industries
- Very professionally looking
- Once you pick a template, you cannot change it without rebuilding your website (so pick carefully!)
- Not mobile responsive, but they have a dedicated, advanced mobile editor
Click to see Wix’s templates
Click here to see our detailed review of Wix’s templates
Our Thoughts
Although Wix’s templates are not bad by any means, in fact, they are quite attractive and they have templates across a lot of different industries so you can quite easily find one that will work for you, I just can’t help but admire Squarespace’s templates.This is a classic case of “Quality Over Quantity”.
Squarespace has a lot fewer templates than Wix, but they are all designed by professional designers. If you look at some of them, you can tell that the Squarespace team has invested a lot of time and effort into crafting these templates.
Mobile Ready Websites – Each Has Its Pros & Cons
Squarespace’s templates are not only are they beautiful, all of them are also responsive templates. What this means is that no matter where you are looking at the website (be it on your desktop, mobile phone or tablet), the layout and design will always look great.
All of Squarespace’s templates are Responsive (mobile ready)
Each has its own pros and cons.
With a mobile responsive template (from Squarespace), your design is automatically optimized for mobile devices and there isn’t much more you need to do.
With Wix’s dedicated mobile editor, you have some advanced tools to pick and choose what content to display or hide. So you do have a bit more control over your visitors’ mobile experiences.
You can also insert a Mobile Action Bar, which clearly displays buttons / icons on the mobile website, which enables your visitors to email, call, locate your address on a map, or see your social network profiles with just a single tap.
Wix – Cannot Change Templates
One of the biggest downsides of using Wix is that once you’ve selected your template and start using it to build your website, if you decide to change your template to give your site a different look, you will have to rebuild your content. At the moment, Wix doesn’t allow you to transfer your existing content into a new template. Bummer.For Squarespace, if you pick a template and change your mind later, you can just switch to a new template in their control panel. Your existing content will be automatically transferred into the new template, so you don’t need to rebuild your content. You will probably have to make some styling updates to “dress up” your website, but that’s not a huge hassle as rebuilding all your content.
So from this perspective, Squarespace is definitely a lot more flexible for you over the long term.
| Summary | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Template Designs | Wix has over 500 professional looking, trendy template designs across a broad range of industries. They are mobile ready and you can edit your mobile site through a dedicated mobile editor. | Squarespace has over 40 design templates and they are all mobile responsive. Although they have a lot fewer designs, they are much more polished and high-end. |
Wix vs Squarespace Comparison Table – If you prefer a table / chart based analysis, click here to see it.
2. WIX VS SQUARESPACE – CUSTOMER SUPPORT
One of the biggest concerns that most website builders have, is what type of support they will receive. This is an important consideration for you, as the last thing you want is running into issues and have no one to turn to. Wix and Squarespace approach their customer care / support in different ways, but both are very supportive:
- Wix – Provides support through forums, their Support Center, also email and phone (available from 6am to 5pm PST). Currently, there is no live chat functions available.
- Squarespace – In addition to providing a forum and knowledge center for you, they also have live chat (from 3am EST – 8pm EST Monday through Friday), and a 24/7 email response team. It is also Squarespace’s policy to respond to all emails within 1 hour – that’s impressive.
Our Thoughts
It’s hard to determine which of Squarespace or Wix is better here. Squarespace offers very rapid email responses and Wix offers phone support. So you can get fast turnaround support times with either website builder.I think that phone support and email support can both come in handy under different circumstances. Phone support is great if you need a bit more hand-holding, or when you are faced with more complex challenges. But when / if you just want more straight forward support, email might be sufficient.
Even though you do get to speak with a live person on the phone, sometimes when support desk gets busy, you might be on hold for a while, so a simple email may work better such circumstance (so you can move on to focus on other things while waiting for an email response).
Although the phone support is only available from 6am to 5pm PST, you can also schedule a call for one of their support team members to call you. If you are subscribed to Wix’s VIP plan, you get direct access to their “VIP Team” support.
| Summary | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Support | Wix provides phone, email, forum, and a support center where you can find a lot of tutorials. You can even setup a phone call appointment with them. | Squarespace provides email, live chat, forum, and support center. |
Wix vs Squarespace Comparison Table – If you prefer a table / chart based analysis, click here to see it.
3. WIX VS SQUARESPACE – PRICING
Pricing is also a very important consideration for you. Before we dive into our analysis of their pricing plans, let’s take a look at what they are offering in terms of monthly packages. Let’s start with Squarespace.
Squarespace offers 4 premium pricing plans. The higher the plan, the more features become available to you:
Squarespace Plans – Prices are based on annual plans.
| Squarespace Pricing Plans | Monthly Plan ($/month) | Annual Plan ($/month) | Savings (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $16 | $12 | 25% |
| Business | $26 | $18 | 31% |
| Basic (eCommerce) | $30 | $26 | 13% |
| Advanced (eCommerce) | $46 | $40 | 13% |
Click here to see a more detailed analysis of Squarespace Pricing Plans
Wix’s premium plans off you 5 different packages. The higher the plan, the more features and support you receive:
Wix Plans – Prices are based on annual plans.
If you sign up for a 1-year or 2-years plan, you can save from 18% to 43% per year, depending on which package you select:
| Wix Pricing Plans | Monthly ($/month) | 1-Year ($/month) | Savings (%) | 2-Years ($/month) | Savings (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connect Domain | $7.00 | $4.50 | 36% | $4.00 | 43% |
| Combo | $12.00 | $8.50 | 29% | $8.00 | 33% |
| Unlimited | $16.00 | $12.50 | 22% | $11.50 | 28% |
| eCommerce | $20.00 | $16.50 | 18% | $15.00 | 25% |
| VIP | $3o.00 | $24.50 | 18% | $23.00 | 23% |
So on the surface, if you are very price sensitive, Wix might be the better pick for you.
However, you should look beyond just dollars and cents when comparing their pricing plans, as just looking at the price per month might not tell the whole story.
They key here is which website builder gives you better value, and more stability over the long run. We’ll break things down in the following categories:
Wix – Available for Free (but at a cost)
One of the biggest differences between Wix and Squarespace is that Wix is actually available to you for free, while all the Squarespace plans are paid.Initially, this sounds like a no-brainer to go with Wix. But before you jump to conclusion, just know that if you choose to use the free version of Wix, there are a few trade-offs:
- There will be a very visible Wix advertisement at the top of your website so all your visitors can see it
- You will not be able to use your own custom domain name, and so your website address with always have “wix.com” in it
- Wix gives you limited storage space and bandwidth. So Wix limits how many images, videos or audio files you can upload to your site, and also limits how many visitors you can allow on your site every month.
For Squarespace, you get a 14-day risk-free trial to test them out to see if you like them. If you do, you can sign up with their monthly payment plans which do not have any of the restrictive features that Wix has. But to be fair, when you start paying for Wix, you will have a lot less restrictive features as well.
Bandwidth Limitations (Squarespace = More Bandwidth)
Bandwidth is something that’s not easy to explain, and almost impossible for you to measure.Simplistically, think of bandwidth as how much power it takes for Wix or Squarespace to allow your visitors to look around your website. Everything from loading of images, video, text, etc takes up bandwidth. So the more content you have on your pages, the bigger your website, the more bandwidth it will use up when your visitors look around your site.
It’s extremely difficult for you to figure out how much bandwidth your website will use, as it depends on so many different things such as how many visitors you get, how many pages they visit, how much content you have, etc.
Here’s what we know, though – Wix has a lot more bandwidth restrictions than Squarespace.
Wix Bandwidth (Less than Squarespace)
Here’s a breakdown of what Wix offers you in terms of bandwidth:
- Connect Domain Plan ($4.50/month) – 1GB
- Combo Plan ($8.50/month) – 2GB
- Unlimited Plan ($12.50/month) – Unlimited bandwidth
- eCommerce Plan ($16.50/month) – 10GB bandwidth
- VIP Plan ($24.50/month) – Unlimited bandwidth
Wix Bandwidth Allowance
Squarespace Bandwidth (more than Wix)
- Personal Plan ($12/month) – Unlimited bandwidth
- Business Plan ($18/month) – Unlimited bandwidth
- Basic Store Plan ($26/month) – Unlimited bandwidth
- Advanced Store Plan ($40/month) – Unlimited bandwidth
Squarespace Bandwidth Allowance
What exactly does 1GB worth of bandwidth give you (such as Wix’s lowest plan)? How many visitors can that handle? I’m not really sure, to be honest. But what I know is that once you hit 1GB, your site will no longer be able to handle any more visitors.
So if you’re building a website for the long term and that you’re planning on growing your visitors, I would suggest selecting a website builder and a plan that won’t hold you back. Squarespace gives you a lot more bandwidth, and potentially growth for you.
Customer Support (Squarespace = Slightly Better Value due to 24/7 Support)
As discussed above, Squarespace provides you with 24/7 support where one of their customer care representative can answer your emails within 1 hour, or you can chat with them on live chat on any weekday from 3am – 8pm EST. You should factor this into Squarespace’s pricing plan.Although Wix offers phone support, it’s not 24/7 and is only available from 6am – 5pm PST. Outside of that time frame, you can schedule a call for Wix to call you back. So if you are a night-owl (you know who you are!) and enjoy working on your website late at night, you may not be able to reach a live support person at say 2am (though Wix’s team is answering emails throughout the night).
To be honest, Squarespace’s monthly prices are not that much different than Wix’s monthly prices. When you start to consider the differences in customer support packages, it becomes clear that you get slightly more value in terms of hands-on support from Squarespace.
The last thing you want is to be stuck with something and having no one to turn to during late hours. With Squarespace, they will answer your specific question within an hour of emailing them.
This support offering in itself is pretty good value, especially when it’s in the middle of the night and you need some immediate support. Technology is painful, so getting that extra personal attention from Squarespace goes a long way.
| Summary | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Wix’s pricing plans range from $4.50 to $24.50 per month. Wix’s premium plans are lower than Squarespace’s. Also, you can build and publish a website for free with no time limits. | Squarespace’s pricing plans range from $12 to 40 per month. They offer a 14-day trial period and you’ll have to decide to upgrade or not. |
Wix vs Squarespace Comparison Table – If you prefer a table / chart based analysis, click here to see it.
4. WHO IS MORE POPULARITY?
It’s really hard to gauge which website builder is more popular, as there isn’t a whole lot of concrete data to assess this. But here are some interesting observations and data points that we’ve put together for you, which you might find helpful. Here is a chart which will show you how widely searched are the search terms “Wix” and “Squarespace”:
Click to see the latest trend graph
This also suggests that Wix has a much stronger brand than Squarespace.
You should also note that Wix is a publicly listed company, so they do disclose how many registered users and paying customers they have. A paying customer has upgraded to a premium plan, which is the best metric to see users are happy with the website builder (as people vote with their wallets, so to speak).
Registered Wix users grew 27% every year. Paying Wix users grew 39% every year.
As mentioned, people tend to vote with their wallets (why would you pay for something you’re not happy with?). So this data suggests that Wix users are happy with their services.
The downside with observing this piece of data is that Squarespace does not disclose exactly how many paid users they have at the moment, so it makes it challenging to compare the growth rate of paying customers between Wix and Squarespace.
Based on Squarespace’s website, they have over 1 million paying customers, which is less than Wix’s 2.47 million. This comparison is not perfect, but it does suggest that both website builders are reputable website builder.
We’ve compared the pros and cons of Wix vs Squarespace above, and you should definitely test out both platforms to see which one you like better.
| Summary | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Popularity | Wix has 100 million registered users and over 2.47 million paying customers. Google Trends shows that Wix is searched much more often than Squarespace. | Squarespace has over 1 million paying customers. However, they are not a publicly listed company so information is scarce in this regard. |
Wix vs Squarespace Comparison Table – If you prefer a table / chart based analysis, click here to see it.
5. WIX VS SQUARESPACE – CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION
As a recap, here is a summary table of our comparison above. We’ll have some final thoughts below the table:
| Wix vs Squarespace | Wix.com | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Template Designs | Wix has over 500 professional looking, trendy template designs across a broad range of industries. They are mobile ready and you can edit your mobile site through a dedicated mobile editor. | Squarespace has over 40 design templates and they are all mobile responsive. Although they have a lot fewer designs, they are much more polished and high-end. |
| Customer Support | Wix provides phone, email, forum, and a support center where you can find a lot of tutorials. You can even setup a phone call appointment with them. | Squarespace provides email, live chat, forum, and support center. |
| Pricing | Wix’s pricing plans range from $4.50 to $24.50 per month. Wix’s premium plans are lower than Squarespace’s. Also, you can build and publish a website for free with no time limits. | Squarespace’s pricing plans range from $12 to 40 per month. They offer a 14-day trial period and you’ll have to decide to upgrade or not. |
| Popularity | Wix has 100 million registered users and over 2.29 million paying customers. Google Trends shows that Wix is searched much more often than Squarespace. | Squarespace has over 1 million paying customers. However, they are not a publicly listed company so information is scarce in this regard. |
Understanding the differences between Wix and Squarespace is important in helping you decide which website builder to use.
While both web design software is good and easy to use, I highly recommend that you test both of them out so you can decide which website builder is better suited for you unique needs.
Some people find that Squarespace’s design templates better than Wix’s so they end up using Squarespace. Some people find Wix’s ability for you to place any content anywhere on the website more important, so they end up using Wix.
Some people pick a website builder purely based on the fact that they enjoy their user interface more. So it really is a very personal choice and you can only find out which one is better for you if you give them each a test drive.
From a user interface and friendliness perspective, even though we think that both are not difficult to use, we feel that Wix is easier to use than Squarespace. Also, Wix is a pure drag and drop website builder, meaning that you can insert content literally anywhere you want to on your website.
Both support systems are generally effective. Wix offers you phone support, and Squarespace offers you live chat and rapid email turnarounds.
Both are good website builders, and both will give you different experiences (templates, user interfaces, customer support). At the end of the day, I’d encourage you to test out both website builders to see for yourself which one you prefer.
Wix is free to sign up, and Squarespace offers you a 14-day risk-free trial (no credit card information is required to test them for free).
While both web design software is good and easy to use, I highly recommend that you test both of them out so you can decide which website builder is better suited for you unique needs.
Some people find that Squarespace’s design templates better than Wix’s so they end up using Squarespace. Some people find Wix’s ability for you to place any content anywhere on the website more important, so they end up using Wix.
Some people pick a website builder purely based on the fact that they enjoy their user interface more. So it really is a very personal choice and you can only find out which one is better for you if you give them each a test drive.
From a user interface and friendliness perspective, even though we think that both are not difficult to use, we feel that Wix is easier to use than Squarespace. Also, Wix is a pure drag and drop website builder, meaning that you can insert content literally anywhere you want to on your website.
Both support systems are generally effective. Wix offers you phone support, and Squarespace offers you live chat and rapid email turnarounds.
Both are good website builders, and both will give you different experiences (templates, user interfaces, customer support). At the end of the day, I’d encourage you to test out both website builders to see for yourself which one you prefer.
Wix is free to sign up, and Squarespace offers you a 14-day risk-free trial (no credit card information is required to test them for free).
