Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress are popular options to build a website. While the former two are website builders — some of the best, mind you, WordPress is a CMS. However, all three have one thing in common: designing, building, and managing websites.
This is pretty much the only point of intersection. Everything else is vastly different. From the initial website setup to website design, templates, potential costs, and so on. After testing them for months, we liked Wix more than Squarespace and WordPress. Here’s your answer.
But, before you rush and get Wix, we implore you to stay with us and keep reading. This Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress three-way battle contains some nuances worth exploring. In the end, you’ll know which one is right for you, based on our testing and observation.
Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress: A Quick Comparison
| Wix | Squarespace | WordPress | |
| 📋 Our current ranking | #1 | #2 | TBD |
| 🤑 Starting price | $17/mo | $16/mo | Free |
| 🆓 Free Domain | Yes | Yes | No |
| 🔐 Free SSL | Yes | Yes | No |
| 🏞️ Number of themes | 900+ | 180+ | 13,000+ |
| 💲 Transaction fees | 2.9% + 30c | 0-3% | 2.9% + 30c (WooCommerce) |
| 📧 Email marketing | Yes (200 free emails) | Yes ($7/mo) | Yes (5,000 free emails with Creative Mail) |
| ⚙️ Ease of use | Easy to use | Very easy to use | Not beginner-friendly |
| ☎️ Support | Chat, email, forum, knowledge base | Chat, email, forum, knowledge base | Forum, online resources |
Squarespace vs Wix vs WordPress: Initial Setup
The initial setup in Wix and Squarespace is pretty much identical. As easy-to-use website builders, immediately after signing up, you can start making a website. Whether you go for Wix or Squarespace, you’ll be able to use a template or go with an AI to make things simpler.
In the latter case, you’ll have to answer a few questions to help the AI grasp what you want. Shortly after, it will design the website based on your answers. If you don’t like it and/or would like to personalize it, you can switch over to the editor and do your thing. Simple stuff.
Build a Website With Squarespace
With WordPress, the situation is a bit different. As a free CMS, naturally, you have to install it on a server. Which server? The hosting server you get from a hosting provider. For this WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace comparison, we used Hostinger, but you can use any other.
In this case, we signed in to our account, went to the Website section, and picked the Auto Installer tool. After selecting WordPress from the given list, we followed the steps to install WordPress on our website. It takes circa 2-3 minutes, so the setup isn’t time-consuming.
If you’re curious to learn more, we have an article that outlines the steps to create a website with WordPress.
After that, we were ready to pick the theme and start designing our website.
However, bear in mind that you must have a server to install WordPress since it doesn’t offer hosting. Wix and Squarespace, however, offer hosting plus website-building features. Oh, and they also come with free domains, letting you choose a custom domain from the get-go.
The initial setup shouldn’t pose a problem even for newbies. Wix and Squarespace are slightly simpler than WordPress, which requires a hosting server to work. That’s why we give these two the advantage, even though you’ll rarely run into hurdles when installing WordPress.
Website Templates: Which is the Best?
In this Wix vs WordPress vs Squarespace comparison, we detected some major differences in the template selection. After sifting through what seemed like thousands, WordPress emerged as the best option. Coincidentally (or not?!), it also has the most templates.
To be accurate, which we always try to achieve, we’ll immediately spill out their numbers:
- Wix has 900+ templates, and all are free
- Squarespace has about 180+ templates: again, they’re free
- WordPress has 13,000+ templates, with only ~200 free
Wix and Squarespace have insane-looking templates. I mean, we found like 5-6 that we didn’t like in each website builder. Everything else is pure majesty, plus, each template is highly customizable, which is further enhanced by advanced categorization.
This means you can find specific templates for, let’s say, wedding websites or blogging platforms. In Wix, you can narrow your search and find templates for particular industries, like architecture, law, etc. WordPress is a clear winner because its selection is humongous.
With over 13,000 templates, despite most being paid, you have a lot more to pick from. Its paid templates aren’t too expensive; besides, you’re paying a one-time fee. This fee usually ranges from $20 to $200, and you can buy WordPress themes from third-party sites, too.
We prefer Theme Forest, but you can even get some from the WordPress official website. Just be aware that free WordPress themes are usually very basic. Also, be aware that some themes don’t support heavy customization, unless you know how to bypass that with coding.
There’s no doubt who wins this round — WordPress. The next is Wix, and then Squarespace, which has the least number of website themes. While most WordPress themes are premium, you’re paying a one-time fee, making them an insignificant investment.
Site Editing: Wix vs WordPress vs Squarespace
Once you pass the initial setup and choose the template, it’s time to launch the website editor and adapt the website to your brand. Now, which website builder is the easiest to use? We’d say it’s Squarespace, but let’s examine them to elaborate on our verdict.
Wix & Squarespace
Wix and Squarespace are website builders, which means they function very similarly. That’s why we grouped them in this comparison. Both allow you to start with a template or use an AI, plus, their editors are similar, although Wix offers a tad more freedom, while Squarespace is simpler to use.
For example, Wix is extremely customizable, and its drag-and-drop functionality lets you mess up place buttons and other elements wherever you want. With a high degree of customization, you can transform the chosen template from top to bottom, which is great.
However, given Wix’s design freedom, it’s easy to sometimes mess up the page if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s not a section-based editor, as is Squarespace. Squarespace is customizable, and you can really amp up your editing game, but within given constraints.
What does this mean?
You have pre-determined sections where you can add elements and edit them. Squarespace is very easy to use, which we highlighted as an advantage in our review of this website builder. Both Squarespace and Wix contain responsive themes automatically optimized for mobile.
The difference is, in Squarespace, you can switch templates as much as you want without losing website data. In Wix, once you choose one, there’s no going back. If you want to switch to another, you’ll have to forge the website from scratch.
WordPress
WordPress is a different ballpark. You can use it as a traditional website builder. I mean, you can edit/add blocks of text, change some colors, and insert new elements into the pre-defined blocks/sections. Surprisingly, WordPress offers very little freedom in this regard.
You won’t get a drag-and-drop menu, for example.
This comes down to the fact that most WordPress themes aren’t very customizable to begin with. We were surprised to see that you can’t edit buttons and fonts, as they’re determined by your theme. The only way to get around this is through coding — are you familiar with it?
If you possess HTML or CSS knowledge, you’re all set. If not, you’ll have to select the theme that resembles the final look of your website most closely. Otherwise, you’ll be annoyed by limited site-editing capabilities.
Squarespace is the easiest-to-use website builder out of the three. Wix offers more customization options, while WordPress lacks a drag-and-drop editor and doesn’t allow for heavy template customization unless you rely on CSS/HTML coding.
Which One is Best for E-commerce?
In this Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress comparison, we had to compare their e-commerce features. Again, we found that they offer vastly different experiences, although we ended up preferring Wix. Here’s why.
Wix vs Squarespace vs Wix E-commerce Features
Let’s start with their features. Wix and Squarespace are famous e-commerce platforms, so they offer a plethora of sales tools in their packages. However, their cheapest plans aren’t e-commerce-friendly. You’ll have to spend at least $29/mo or $23/mo to sell online with Wix or Squarespace, respectively.
Some of the features you’ll get are:
- Multi-channel selling
- Dropshipping access
- Discount codes
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Customer accounts (with customer reviews)
- POS (Point of Sale)
- Automated tax and shipping calculation
- Customizable shipping
While Wix lets you sell up to 50,000 products, Squarespace offers unlimited. However, Wix is superior in inventory management for larger stores, plus, it offers a handy Store Translation tool, which lets you translate your store in multiple languages. Squarespace has always been weak in this aspect.
WordPress has no e-commerce tools, but if you use WooCommerce, which is a WordPress plugin, you can get right into it. On paper, WooCommerce is free, but reality sings another song. For example, physical and digital products can be sold for free, but here’s the kicker.
To sell subscriptions and digital memberships, you’ll spend $17/mo! Not to mention, WooCommerce doesn’t have many built-in tools out of the box and mostly relies on plug-ins, almost all of which are premium. It’s easy to rack up dozens of them — you’ll need them, after all!
Now, imagine the final annual price in that case. Crazy, right?
Transaction Fees
In terms of transaction fees, we did find some similarities.
- Wix and WooCommerce take 2.9% + 30c for most payment methods
- Squarespace takes 0% to 3%, depending on the plan
Of course, there’s some nuance to this, because not all payment methods yield the same fees. For example, Wix’s PayPal payments come with a fee of 4.99% + 49c. In WooCommerce, you’ll also find some payment vendors taking their “share” independently.
Squarespace tasks 3% in its Business plan, but picking any of the Commerce plans reduces fees to 0%. However, again, third-party vendors might take their share, especially PayPal, which is notorious for this. Payment methods are plentiful on all three sides, though.
WooCommerce and Wix offer around 70 vendors through their in-house payment systems. The same goes for Square, which lets you receive money via Clarna, credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, Stripe, and many other vendors.
So, Which One Should You Choose?
Fully decked-out WooCommerce will likely beat Wix and Squarespace, but to equip it with all the useful plug-ins, you’ll have to spend a lot. Those starting an online store usually don’t operate with such a budget, making WooCommerce great only for large online stores.
Squarespace is excellent, only lacking more robust inventory management and store translation tools. Finally, there’s Wix, with an excellent feature set, relatively low fees, and many built-in sales tools suitable for small and mid-sized online shops.
With everything said, we think Wix comes out on top as the best e-commerce option. It’s easy to set up and start selling at a moment’s notice. Squarespace is amazing, especially in Commerce plans with 0% fees, while WooCommerce is mostly geared towards larger online shops and costs way more.
What About Marketing and SEO?
Running a business is all about strong SEO and marketing. Unsurprisingly, WordPress offers the most in this aspect, followed by Wix and Squarespace.
SEO & Marketing With Wix and Squarespace
These two have plenty of built-in tools. Wix is a bit more equipped because it supports more third-party integrations, some of which are SEO-inclined. We love that Wix allows you to edit your Robots.txt file, while Squarespace doesn’t allow the user to access it at all.
Both have SEO Checklists to guide you through vital SEO steps for your website. Advanced website analytics are there as well, and both website builders will automatically generate a sitemap, which is important for SEO, and when done manually, is actually very time-consuming.
Squarespace and Wix also leverage AI for SEO, so you’ll get additional help when needed. This makes optimizing meta descriptions, alt texts, and other aspects a walk in the park. On Wix’s side, we’ll mention two integrations: Google Analytics and Semrush (read our review of Semrush here).
They vastly extend your SEO prowess, both through first-hand Google-fetched data and the ability to research keywords using Semrush.
Marketing is mostly better in Wix, as it includes an email marketing tool with 200 free email sends monthly. Other marketing tools are on the App Market if you need more features. Squarespace Email Marketing starts at $7/mo — there’s no free plan, and you get way fewer marketing tools within its App Center.
SEO & Marketing With WordPress
WordPress in its “vanilla” state doesn’t offer much. To be frank, nothing!
It relies on third-party plug-ins, and the good news is that most, if not all, of them have free plans. Yoast SEO is a good example. We’ve been using it for years, and even the free version is amazing for basic SEO analysis and detection of some critical issues.
Yoast SEO is just the tip of the iceberg. You get virtually hundreds of SEO plug-ins for WordPress. But then, there’s email marketing. If you get WooCommerce, you can install Creative Mail in seconds and send 5,000 emails for free. That’s far better than Wix’s 200.
After exploring WordPress plugins online, we found no shortage of them, and we don’t say that only for marketing/SEO. While Wix’s App Market is robust, it’s nowhere near WordPress, whose endless supply of plug-ins delivers a serious blow to Wix and Squarespace combined.
With everything said, WordPress takes the title here with the most SEO and marketing tools on offer. Wix is better than Squarespace, which fails in some customization aspects and doesn’t offer a large enough App Center to provide more advanced tools.
Price Comparison: Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress
Can you compare apples to oranges? Or dogs to cats? You can, but at the end of the day, it boils down to what you like more. Wix and Squarespace are apples, but WordPress is an orange — or vice versa. Doesn’t matter.
Here’s how much you’ll spend on Wix in 2026:
Now, let’s see how much Squarespace is:
When we tested Wix, we were impressed with its value for money. The same goes for Squarespace. Both include a free domain for a year in all plans, with collaborators, mobile-friendly templates, etc. Squarespace is cheaper for selling online, for example.
It’s actually less expensive overall, but it lacks a free plan, which Wix has. Squarespace also includes unlimited storage in all plans, while Wix keeps it only for the Business Elite plan at $159/mo. If we compare their best-value plans only, we can conclude virtually the same.
For us, Wix’s best plan is Business at $36/mo. Our favorite Squarespace plan is Commerce Basic at $28/mo. As you can see, there’s a roughly 20% difference in favor of Squarespace.
WordPress: Is It Free?
Yeah. The same way WooCommerce is free. Without plug-ins, your website is dead on arrival, and guess what? Plugins cost money! WordPress is a CMS, so naturally, there’s no free domain. Getting a domain right away usually costs more than $20/year, depending on the extension.
You can opt for a free domain workaround with Hostinger, for example, in which case, you’ll spend only on web hosting. We mentioned that most WordPress themes aren’t free, so add another $20 to $200 on top of everything. Things can pile up in WordPress rapidly.
The more you invest, the more you get, but again, you have to be willing to splurge on plugins. If you want to simply “get by” and not pay a cent, you’ll find WordPress incapable of basic things, let alone SEO, marketing, and that sort of stuff.
Squarespace is the cheapest website builder here, with Wix costing roughly 20% more when comparing their best plans (in our opinion). WordPress has no defined pricing structure, which makes it impossible to compare it to the other two. Pick whichever best suits your financial possibilities.
Which is Best for Website Performance?
We rarely compare website builder speeds because they’re usually not great compared to the fastest web hosting services. When it comes to WordPress vs Squarespace vs Wix, the latter two will likely be slower than WordPress because you’ll have to rely on a hosting service for your WordPress website.
It’s hard to say how fast WordPress is, in general, as most of the performance depends on your hosting provider. We mentioned earlier that we rely on Hostinger, in which case, we get considerably better performance than Wix and Squarespace. They’re not built for speed.
A good comparison would be FLT, or Fully Loaded Time. Our WordPress site, hosted on Hostinger, displays a Fully Loaded Time of about 2.5 seconds. Wix and Squarespace display a Fully Loaded Time of roughly 5 seconds.
Get the best speeds with Hostinger
This part of the WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace comparison is half resolved. Wix is usually a tad faster than Squarespace in our tests, while WordPress sites are usually faster, as a result of relying on a dedicated hosting provider, rather than low-cost, built-in hosting from website builders.
Customer Support
Before we wrap up, let’s glance at their customer service. This usually isn’t a deciding factor, but given their differences, we felt obligated to give you our two cents. Wix and Squarespace offer standard support means: chat, email, and community forum. All three are great.
You also get on-site resources, such as FAQs, knowledge bases/help centers, etc. Since we still use both Wix and Squarespace, we can tell you firsthand that we have no issues with the support teams. Both are friendly, helpful, and interested in your problems and questions.
Not to mention their community forums, both of which are active daily, with a heap of experienced users ready to tackle your issues. Now, WordPress doesn’t have chat and email support, so getting help is possible only through the WordPress forum. It’s a bit tricky.
There are thousands of articles and topics to read through. You can ask questions if needed, and if you’d rather find help on your own, you can rely on countless internet guides, some of which are outdated. In short, this is the “makeshift” level of support because you’ll have to be witty enough to find some specifics.
Wix and Squarespace shine on the customer support front, while WordPress, given its nature, is expectedly lacking. This is one of the reasons WordPress isn’t as beginner-friendly and requires a bit of patience and experience to run properly.
Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress: Closing Remarks
Drawing from our experience with all three, Wix provides the best overall experience. It’s relatively inexpensive, but offers more than enough templates, advanced SEO/marketing functions, an easy-to-use editor, e-commerce features, and excellent customer support.
Squarespace is dangerously close, as you’ve noticed. It’s less expensive, with unlimited storage in every plan, an even more intuitive editor, and creative templates. Its SEO and marketing tools are immaculate, while it also has 0% transaction fees in certain plans.
Finally, we have WordPress, which is in a different universe. It offers a head-spinning number of themes and plugins, leaving all aspects of the website in the user’s hands. It’s not beginner-friendly and can often be costly if you include more than a few WordPress plugins.
So, the entire WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace comparison can be summed up like this:
- Pick Wix for website design freedom, robust e-commerce tools, and AI tools
- Use Squarespace if you want beautiful templates, cheap prices, and low transaction fees
- Go for WordPress for full control over your site, if you don’t mind potentially higher costs of plugins
In case you opt for WordPress, you’ll likely need proper hosting. Explore our favorite managed WordPress hosting options here and pick one. If not, pick Wix or Squarespace and begin your adventure immediately.