Squarespace vs Wix
Squarespace and Wix both suit a small business that builds a site once, yet they get there by opposite routes. Squarespace narrows your choices so the result looks good almost regardless of who built it, and has no free plan. Wix lets you drag anything anywhere, adds apps from its market and can stay free, with Wix ads.
Niels AbrahamsenAnalyst, Security & Infrastructure
Sebastiaan Smits
Hannah ReiterVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
Choose Squarespace ifyou are not a designer, want hosting, templates and selling included from the entry plan, and would rather accept a template's limits than risk an inconsistent site.
Choose Wix ifyou want to start on a free plan, expect to need functions from an app market, and plan a small site that will be built once and then left alone.
Squarespace and Wix side by side
| Squarespace | Wix | |
|---|---|---|
| Our website builder rank | #9 of 12 | #10 of 12 |
| Established in | United States | Israel |
| Pricing | Per month by plan, published; 14-day trial only | Free tier with ads; paid plans per month billed yearly, published |
| List price, 30 September 2026 | Basic: €12 per month billed annually, or €17 paid monthly (no free plan, 14-day trial) | Light: $17 per month on a yearly subscription (USD reference price, varies by location); free plan available |
| Free tier | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | A small business that wants a good-looking site with no decisions | A small business site built once and left alone |
| Not for | A site that needs custom structure or a real CMS | A site you expect to still be growing in three years |
Both are reviewed in full in our website builder ranking: Squarespace and Wix.
Where they differ
Squarespace 3 · Wix 1 · open 1- 01
Guardrails or a blank canvas
Squarespace's templates are the strongest in this category and hard to spoil, which protects an owner with no design training. Wix gives drag-and-drop freedom that makes the first page quick and, by our assessment, the twentieth page inconsistent. For someone who cannot judge layout themselves, the constraint is the safer bet.
Edge: Squarespace
- 02
Range of functions
Wix lists more than 2,000 templates and an App Market with hundreds of apps, many free, covering bookings, events, restaurants and more. Squarespace answers with Extensions, a smaller set of third-party connectors it describes as its equivalent of plugins, and only opens custom CSS and JavaScript from the Core plan. When the requirement list is long or unusual, Wix covers more of it.
Edge: Wix
- 03
Where the bill starts
Wix has a free plan with no expiry: 500MB of storage, 1GB of bandwidth, Wix ads and a wixsite.com address. Squarespace has no free plan, only a 14-day trial without a credit card. Paid entry is Light at $17 a month on a yearly subscription for Wix, and Basic at €12 a month billed annually, or €17 monthly, for Squarespace.
Depends on the buyer
- 04
Taking payments on the entry plan
Squarespace Basic already lets you sell products and services, with a 2 per cent store transaction fee that drops to zero on Core. Wix Light does not take online payments; Wix says that starts with Core, listed at $29 a month on a yearly subscription. A business that needs a checkout from day one gets it on the lower Squarespace tier.
Edge: Squarespace
- 05
Two or three years on
Both are weak here, in different ways. Squarespace exports an XML file made for WordPress that carries layout pages, text, images and one blog, but not store pages, styles or custom CSS. Wix states that a site runs on its proprietary technology and cannot be hosted elsewhere, so leaving is a rebuild. Taking some content with you gives Squarespace the edge.
Edge: Squarespace
When neither fits
If you expect the site to keep growing, or want a realistic way to move it later, neither fits. WordPress.com lets content and structure move to self-hosted WordPress intact, and Webflow gives a designer full layout control with static code that can be exported.
Squarespace or Wix: questions
4 answersIs Squarespace or Wix easier for someone with no design experience?
Squarespace is the safer choice for that person. Its templates are hard to make ugly and there are few decisions to get wrong.
Wix is quick for a first page, but its drag-and-drop freedom makes it easy to end up with pages that do not match one another.
Can I move my site away from Squarespace or Wix later?
Not as a working site. Squarespace produces an XML export intended for WordPress that includes text, images, layout pages and a single blog, while store pages and styling stay behind.
Wix says its sites must run on Wix servers and cannot be moved to another host, so you rebuild.
Is Wix cheaper than Squarespace?
Only Wix can be used free indefinitely, with Wix ads and a wixsite.com address.
For paid plans, Wix lists Light at $17 a month on a yearly subscription as a US dollar reference price, and Squarespace showed Basic at €12 a month billed annually. Prices differ by country, so compare both in your own currency.
Does Squarespace have a free plan like Wix?
No. Squarespace states that it has no free plan; every site starts with a 14-day trial that needs no credit card.
Wix lets you publish on its free plan for as long as you like, and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee on Premium plans instead of a trial.
Sources
Checked 30 September 2026- Squarespace pricing page: Squarespace plan prices, no free plan, 14-day trial, 2% store fee on Basic, CSS and JavaScript from Core, Extensions.
- Squarespace help: Exporting your site: what a Squarespace export does and does not contain.
- Wix plans page: Wix plan prices on yearly subscriptions, 2,000+ templates, 14-day money-back guarantee.
- Wix blog: Wix Premium plans: Wix Light at $17 and Core at $29 per month billed annually; online payments start at Core.
- Wix help: Building a website for free: Wix free plan limits: 500MB storage, 1GB bandwidth, wixsite.com address, hundreds of apps.
- Wix help: Wix Premium plan pricing: Premium removes Wix ads; no free trial for Premium; prices vary by location.
- Wix help: Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere: a Wix site must be hosted on Wix servers.