Squarespace vs. Wix: Comparing 10 Key Features of These Simple Website Platforms

Your website is your brand's digital identity. It's how you tell your story and connect with people. So, how it functions is critical. After all, 88% of people are less like to return to a website after a bad experience, eConsultancy reports. But doing it right takes a lot of time and energy.

That's why simple web-building platforms like Squarespace and Wix are so popular. If you're eager to create a professional site but anxious about the workload, these options help.

Which is right for you? At Zoe Marketing & Communications, we've helped clients find the best digital marketing solutions for 15+ years. We'll draw on that expertise to explore the differences and similarities of 10 key features of Squarespace vs. Wix, including:

1. Overall back-end user experience

2. Templates and design

3. E-commerce for products and services

4. Blog options for content marketing

5. SEO features

6. Mobile responsiveness

7. Customer support

8. Integrations for external apps

9. Storage

10. Pricing options

By the end of this blog, you'll better understand the details of two of the industry's leading simple content management system — or CMS — platforms. And you'll feel more confident about picking the one that fits your needs.

Ready to Reach More Customers?

Connect with your best prospects — and drive more conversions — with a custom mix of digital ads, content, email, streaming ads, SEO, creative services and more.

1. Overall back-end user experience

Let's start high level. You'll find intuitive, drag-and-drop experiences with both Squarespace, which started in 2003 in Baltimore, and Wix, which dates to 2006 in Israel. Each website builder requires no coding knowledge, or at least very little.

• Squarespace is known for its modern, minimalist design and interface. While it has fewer templates, its design is sleek and geared toward publishing a professional site fast. Pages use a simple editor that makes it easy to add and modify elements.

• Wix up the ante when it comes to templates, offering eight times as many, and even more customization. Choice is good, but learning to navigate it all may increase your learning time. If you're looking for more control over design and functionality, though, Wix nudges ahead.

The user experience verdict

For clean, quick and easy, Squarespace delivers. Wix gives more customization and templates.

2. Templates and design

The numbers tell a story: Wix offers over 800 templates, while Squarespace supplies 100. While that gap looks great for Wix, it depends on your needs.

• If you're looking for variety and more customization options, Wix comes out miles ahead. It offers templates tailored to 24 different industries, from business to travel and tourism.

• Squarespace's templates are limited but boast award-winning design and a slick aesthetic. Professional services and local businesses are among its options.

In both cases, a simple drag-and-drop editor lets you customize templates. You'll find plenty of options for tweaking font and photos, adding videos, animations and more. Both also offer artificial intelligence (AI) that can design your website based on answering a few questions.

The template and design verdict

If you're looking for more selection and customization options, Wix is the winner. If you prefer a polished site "out of the box" without much tweaking, try Squarespace.

3. E-commerce for products and services

You can sell physical or digital goods or services with either CMS. That includes managing inventory, processing payments and tracking orders. You can also book appointments.

• Wix packs in a variety of apps and options, from accepting offline payments to drop shipping and donation buttons. It supports 19 payment providers, like its own Wix Payments and popular options like PayPal, Klarna, Stripe and Authorize.net. And its Wix Bookings service has plenty of built-ins, including sending appointment reminders.

• Yet again, Squarespace is simplified. You can only connect 3 options: Stripe, PayPal and Square. Squarespace Scheduling lets you set up appointments and sync with Google Calendar and others.

The ecommerce verdict

Squarespace is straightforward, with fewer features. Wix has more options and customization.

4. Blog options for content marketing

Creating content is a crucial way to help your prospects find you. Here's where we'll find a few distinct differences.

• Squarespace shines with advanced features. You can categorize posts, schedule them by date and time, and have multiple blogs. There are 110 customizable blog templates and multiple sidebar options. A content "inset" option that gives text and images a more stylized look.

• Wix scales back a bit in this area. It has about 70 templates. You can create categories, but options like tags and subcategories are missing, which can cause organizing challenges. And you can publish by date but not by specific time or timezone.

The blogging verdict

If content is integral to your marketing plan, Squarespace will make life easier. If blogs are a perk vs. an imperative, Wix will get the job done.

5. SEO features

You'll find all the basics you need for search engine optimization with either choice. They both cover the bases with customizable page titles, meta descriptions, URL slugs and image alt tags. They also provide sitemaps and integration with Google Analytics.

Need to know what some of that is or why it matters? Tap into the included SEO support:

• Wix's built-in SEO Wiz is a wizard-style, step-by-step guide to help with SEO. It mainly covers on-page optimization. It's worth noting that its SEO settings are spread among menus and settings, which can take some getting used to.

• Squarespace offers an SEO checklist covering on-page SEO, technical SEO, backlinks, mobile optimization, and more. It tends to get more detailed, and its SEO tools are centralized in one space.

The blogging verdict

Squarespace offers a deeper, more intuitive approach to SEO. That said, Wix is proficient, and its wizard tool is integrated right into the site.

6. Mobile responsiveness

Any simple CMS can transform the desktop version of your website into a mobile version (which is vital for SEO and user experience). The specs are different for these two options, though.

• Squarespace creates fully "responsive" sites. This means it automatically re-flows your site to appear seamlessly on a mobile device. Of course, you can always make further adjustments. It also offers a mobile "information bar," which can spotlight key details or a call-to-action at the top of your mobile site.

• While Wix also shifts content into a digestible mobile view, it's not fully responsive. You'll likely need to tweak some elements to display correctly. Its mobile view editor helps. But it's a little fussy and could also ding your SEO a bit (since it puts higher value on fully responsive sites).

Both provide mobile editing options for on-the-go changes, too.

The mobile responsiveness verdict

Squarespace offers a better fully-responsive mobile experience (little surprise, as it leans more heavily on design). Wix's mobile version is solid, but you'll need to play with it more.

7. Customer support

Need help? You'll find plenty of it on both platforms thanks to AI bots, email and live chat, along with loads of articles, videos and webinars to guide you.

• Wix offers a solid array of 24/7 support, including live chat, email/tickets and even phone callbacks. Its Wix Domain Assistant bot is also always available.

• Squarespace offers customer support via live chat 4 a.m.-8 p.m. ET Monday-Friday, along with 24/7 email/tickets and help from the Squarespace Support Assistant chatbot. It doesn't offer phone support. 

Each option includes robust help centers and community forums to drill down into issues by topic, product and more.

The customer support verdict

Wix and Squarespace are neck-and-neck in this realm. Wix's live chat is always on, but Squarespace's hours are ample. Wix also offers phone support, if that's important to you.

8. Integrations for external apps

Both Squarespace and Wix deliver a range of integrations with third-party tools. At a glance:

• Squarespace has 31 official extensions, including LiveChat, GoDataFeed and MailChimp Commerce. On top of that are about 60 integrations, from social media and video platforms to commerce.

• Wix also has a mix of apps and native integrations, putting its total number at 300 options. Its Wix App Market makes linking to its proprietary apps straightforward.

In both cases, you can connect with Zapier to access 5,000+ more apps (and counting).

The app integration verdict

You'll have access to various thoughtfully curated apps on either platform, though Wix has more (and a collection specific to its site). Zapier can fill any gaps.

9. Storage

Over time, your site will host a lot of content, images, videos and more. Here's how both offerings shake out:

• With Wix, depending on your plan (see #10), you'll get either 2G, 5G, 50G or 100G worth of storage (for more, you'll need to talk to a sales rep). You'll also have 30 minutes to 5 hours of video space, again, depending on the plan. Max file upload sizes are 500MB, but you can use a third-party solution to expand that.

• Squarespace allows unlimited storage on all plans, but it has some restrictions. You only get 30 minutes of video on any plan, but creating a membership site can unlock up to 50 hours. Uploads are limited to 20MB.

Both platforms do daily system backups, though Squarespace also lets you do manual backups.

The storage verdict

Squarespace's universal "unlimited" storage is a perk, but Wix is more generous with its video footage and upload sizes. Either way, you can spend more to get more.

10. Pricing options

Finally, let's look at the bottom line for each platform. Keep in mind both offer extra features and add-ons that can increase the cost of your plan.

Squarespace pricing

Find four plans, plus a free trial option. You'll save money with annual billing.

1. Personal Plan: It's $16/month if billed annually ($23/month if billed monthly). Includes a custom domain, templates, unlimited storage/bandwidth, SSL security and 24/7 support.

• Business Plan: It's $23/month if billed annually ($33/month if billed monthly). Adds on advanced analytics, promo pop-ups and the ability to sell unlimited products.

• Basic Commerce Plan: It's $27/month if billed annually ($36/month if billed monthly). Adds on the ability to sell subscriptions, accept donations and create customer accounts.

• Advanced Commerce Plan: It's $49/month if billed annually ($65/month if billed monthly). Adds on advanced shipping and tax rules, abandoned cart recovery and more.

• Free 14-day trial: Available to try with no credit card required.

Wix pricing

It provides three pricing categories with 10 total choices, plus a free trial option.

Website plans

Geared at showcasing a professional website. It includes some free options.

• Free Plan: Includes heavy Wix branding, limited storage/bandwidth and no custom domain ("wix" will appear in your URL). Good only for a lay of the land.

• Combo Plan: It's $18/month and includes a custom domain, 3GB of storage and 2GB of bandwidth.

• Unlimited Plan: It's $22/month and adds unlimited bandwidth and 10GB of storage.

• Pro Plan: It's $27/month and adds a professional logo and social media logo files. Wix touts this as its best value.

• VIP Plan: It's $45/month and adds priority support and a personalized SEO plan.

• Free 14-day trial: Supply a credit card to try out many premium features.

Business and ecommerce plans

These options are "essential" for accepting online payments, Wix notes.

• Business Basic: It's $27/month and allows you to accept online payments.

• Business Unlimited: It's $23/month. Listed as the "most popular" option, it's designed to help grow your business. (most popular)

• Business VIP: It's $59/month and lets you access the full suite of options.

Enterprise plans

They're built for larger-scale businesses and require talking with a sales rep.

The pricing verdict

Whether you choose Wix or Squarespace, prices run comparably. Your better deal with Squarespace is to pay annually, and Wix layers on more options.

What are my next steps for optimizing my website?

Plenty of factors go into choosing the right website for your business. So, in the Squarespace vs. Wix choice, which of these simple CRMs is better? It depends on your needs.

In this article, we compared the two. Wix is a winner when it comes to choices and customizability. Meanwhile, Squarespace pulls ahead with design, blogging and SEO.

Ready to leverage your website for your digital marketing efforts? Talk to us. Zoe Marketing & Communications is ready to put our 15+ years of experience to work for you.

Still exploring your website options? Keep learning with these two essential blogs:

• The 12 best features of a good website

• What is a good landing page to send people to, from an ad?