Wix vs. Squarespace: Which website builder is best? [2025]

Web design isn't what it used to be. In 2003, I spent weeks hand-coding an HTML website. (With a physical copy of HTML for Dummies next to my keyboard, of course.) In 2016, I spent days designing a client's website in WordPress. Last weekend, I spent 60 seconds watching an AI tool create a website for me.

Site-building tools have made incredible leaps over the last two decades. While pre-designed templates have long existed as a way to make the web design process less painful, the real paradigm shifts have come from recent advances in AI. Website building apps are also increasingly comprehensive, including not just design tools but also support for eCommerce, lead generation, marketing, and analytics.

Wix and Squarespace are two of the most popular website-building apps. To test them, I created multiple websites using each tool. In this article, I'll explain the pros and cons of Wix and Squarespace so you can decide which makes sense for you.

Table of contents:

• Wix vs. Squarespace at a glance

• Squarespace's onboarding is slicker, but AI makes both easy to use

• Wix has more templates, but Squarespace's designs are more professional

• Both have strong eCommerce features, but Squarespace is better for creators

• Wix's all-in-one marketing suite is more comprehensive

• Squarespace is slightly more affordable

• Wix offers more integrations, but both connect with Zapier

• Wix vs. Squarespace: Which is best?

Wix vs. Squarespace at a glance

Here's a quick summary of the differences between these two site-building apps.

• Wix is best for small businesses. With Wix's robust all-in-one marketing suite, you can create websites (with the help of AI), organize leads, send emails, run ad campaigns, and manage social media. If your business only has basic marketing needs, you can run your entire digital operation from the Wix dashboard.

• Squarespace is best for brands and solopreneurs. With attractive designs and AI tools that speed up the website creation process, Squarespace makes it easy to quickly create a professional web presence. It also has a comprehensive set of eCommerce features, including creator-friendly tools for selling subscriptions and online courses.

Squarespace's onboarding is slicker, but both have AI features that make it easy to get started

Going from "zero to website" using Wix or Squarespace has always been straightforward due to pre-built templates, but both apps now have AI tools that make it easier than ever. As you go through the onboarding process with each app, you'll be offered the option to use AI or choose a template. Unless you have a specific template in mind, AI is a better choice since it streamlines a lot of the initial setup.

Wix's AI tool is called Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI), and it comes in the form of a chatbot. It's a novel way to put a website together: it feels like a "website coach" is nudging you through the process. As you type, Wix distills your answers into a site profile, including essential details like your business's category, location, and goals.

Once you initiate the AI site-building process, it's fun to watch Wix work: it automatically generates a site brief along with a preview of your website. Once your site is generated, you can confirm it and move forward, use AI to make tweaks, or regenerate the whole thing from scratch for an entirely different look.

Squarespace's AI tool, known as Blueprint AI, looks different from Wix. There's no chatbot, so Squarespace's onboarding feels more old-school, with traditional dropdown questions like "What's your site about?" Based on your answers, Squarespace starts to make assumptions about the kind of site you need: whether you need an appointments integration or eCommerce features, for example. You can then accept or modify those assumptions.

Squarespace also prompts you to choose a color scheme and fonts during the onboarding process. While Wix saves time by auto-generating those choices for you, Squarespace's approach makes it more likely that you'll like the first AI-generated output it presents.

When I tested Squarespace's onboarding process a year ago, Blueprint AI offered a one-click option to populate your site with AI-generated content. Unfortunately, I didn't see that option this time around. You can still add text with AI section-by-section when you edit the site, but for now, it seems to be absent from the onboarding process.

Wix has more templates, but Squarespace's designs are more professional

Squarespace and Wix are site-building pioneers: they've been refining their templates and drag-and-drop tools since the 2000s. Through decades of competition, their core design features have essentially converged. (For example, Wix was first to launch an AI design tool in 2016; Squarespace followed suit in 2023). As a result, many differences between Wix and Squarespace are more about style than substance.

The essential stylistic difference is this: minimalism versus maximalism. Wix has significantly more templates, integrations, and features than Squarespace. Most of Wix's features are integrated into a series of menus accessible from the editing interface, making it easy to find what you need; as a result, though, the jumble of menus, features, and buttons can make Wix feel cluttered.

By contrast, Squarespace's signature minimalistic interface is full of white space. Its default editing mode is Full Screen, reducing distractions so you can focus on your design. As with Wix, you get classic drag-and-drop functionality: it's easy to do all the web builder functions you'd expect, from adding rows to deleting or replacing images. (If you're technically inclined, both Wix and Squarespace also allow you to dig directly into the code that powers your website.)

Squarespace's minimalistic user interface can occasionally hurt its usability. For example, to add AI-generated text, you have to select the paragraph you want to edit and click on an unmarked bubble symbol, which then expands to give you AI rewrite options. And to add elements to your design, you need to first click the Add Blocks button, which then expands into a pop-up menu.

As spiffy as Squarespace's and Wix's new AI features are, old habits die hard: most users are accustomed to interacting with website builders via templates. Wix is the definite winner when it comes to quantity: with 2,000+ templates, you can find pre-built options for every niche. (I even found a Wix template for a fish supply store.)

Wix has also been improving the quality of its templates. While its oldest templates are fairly clunky, you can sort by "newest" and find trendy gems like this template aimed at AI startups.

Squarespace, with 180+ templates, has fewer options than Wix. One reason for this is that old templates are removed over time, which means the few that remain tend to be trendier and bolder. (Even designs for niche businesses, like plant supply shops, are thoughtful and professional.) Wix is catching up, but the average Squarespace template is still more polished than the average Wix template.

Both have strong eCommerce features, but Squarespace is a better choice for online creators

To test each platform's eCommerce capabilities, I created a test shop called Monster Mugs ("Our mugs are scary good") and went through the process of creating an online store using AI.

Wix understood my store's concept without a problem. In addition to designing a site and adding text, it also populated the backend of the site with a series of relevant sample products, making it easier to visualize what the final outcome might look like. (Squarespace doesn't do this.)

One limitation I ran into is that adding new products with Wix is relatively slow because of all the boxes you need to check before publishing: product name, image, description, category, product options, inventory, and more.

Squarespace makes the initial product upload easier: you can just add a product image, and Squarespace AI generates a product name and description based on that. Then, you can go back later and figure out the rest of the details.

You can also add products directly from Squarespace's editor by clicking Create New Product. Wix only lets you add products from the backend, which means more jumping back and forth and context-switching.

Each time you add a product, Squarespace automatically gives the product its own page, which users can navigate to for more details. It's easy to set product parameters for each item, like the quantity of stock, product variants, shipping options, and whether there's a sale or not. You can also promote related products, highlight customer reviews, and create upsales for specific items (something Wix doesn't offer natively).

Wix and Squarespace both allow you to accept online payments for services, set up recurring subscriptions, and sell digital products. Online creators may find Squarespace a better fit: unlike Wix, it offers the ability to host and sell access to courses, and also streamlines the process of creating a membership site or a paywalled blog. While anyone with a Squarespace website plan can create a course, serious creators will want to upgrade with a digital products add-on (starting at $14/month). Without upgrading, the default transaction fee is 9% and video storage is limited to 30 minutes.

Both Squarespace and Wix have roughly comparable analytics features, and both are more user-friendly than dedicated analytics apps like Google Analytics. For example, with Squarespace, you can quickly jump to common eCommerce-related analytics, like Sales by Product, without having to fiddle with custom reports.

Wix is equally easy to use, with a comprehensive Sales Overview dashboard and the ability to access detailed data through reports like Sales by channel, Sales by currency, and Average order value over time.

Wix's all-in-one marketing suite is incredibly comprehensive

Getting people to your sparkling-new Wix or Squarespace site is just the first step. Next, you need to nurture a relationship with them so they'll eventually be more primed to buy. Website builders have traditionally offered sparse marketing features, leading users to integrate services like Mailchimp or ConvertKit to fill in the gaps. But this is changing. Wix and Squarespace are increasingly becoming one-stop shops: you can now use either platform to manage leads, create segments, and send email blasts.

Wix has a more robust marketing offering than Squarespace. It's a complete marketing hub: you can collect leads, send emails, manage social media posts, and coordinate ad campaigns—all from the Wix dashboard. Wix also offers a unified inbox to consolidate customer messages from Facebook, email, and live chat. You can even use built-in tools to set up a referral program for customers.

I was particularly impressed by Wix's email automation features, which are included in all of its plans; Wix's library of pre-built automations reminds me of more sophisticated tools like ActiveCampaign.

If you're not sure where to start, you can use Wix's new AI marketing agent to guide you through the process and make recommendations. Like Wix's AI website building tool, it works via a chat interface and asks you questions about your goals in order to recommend next steps.

Once you've generated your marketing plan, Wix's marketing agent helps you execute it. It can write blog posts, send email campaigns, generate social media posts, and optimize Google Ads campaigns—you just need to review and approve the content before it takes action.

Compared with Wix, Squarespace has a relatively sparse set of native marketing features. While its email automation suite is impressive, you'll need to pay extra: it starts at $10/month (500 emails/month) and goes up to $96/month (250,000 emails/month). Squarespace's marketing features also include a promotional pop-up, an announcement bar, and a URL builder to help create trackable campaigns.

Squarespace is slightly more affordable

It's cheaper to get started with Squarespace: you'll pay $14/month for Squarespace's Personal plan, while Wix's Light plan costs $17/month. Pricier plans unlock eCommerce tools and other advanced features. Squarespace's entry-level eCommerce plan—Commerce Basic—costs $22/month, while Wix's comparable Core plan costs $29/month.

Each app has plan-based limitations to keep in mind. Wix restricts your website's storage space and the number of collaborators you can have, while Squarespace sets no limits. Meanwhile, Squarespace only allows access to abandoned cart recovery emails—an essential eCommerce feature—if you subscribe to the highest-priced plan. (Wix offers abandoned cart emails on its entry-level eCommerce plan.)

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, while Wix offers a 14-day money back guarantee. You can test either app for free.

Wix offers more integrations, but both connect with thousands of apps via Zapier

Wix features a built-in App Market with hundreds of free and paid apps in categories like SEO, social media, and appointment scheduling. (The selection is enormous: there are 80+ apps just related to shipping and delivery.) While some apps are built directly by Wix, many are offered by third parties.

Squarespace Extensions is a similar app marketplace run by Squarespace. It doesn't have nearly as many apps as Wix; the 45+ apps it features tend to be high-profile SaaS companies, like Mailchimp and Taxjar, rather than apps by independent developers.

But you're not limited to the listed integrations for either of these apps. With Zapier, you can connect both Wix and Squarespace to thousands of other apps, so you can orchestrate all your business workflows in one place. Learn more about how to automate Wix and how to automate Squarespace, or get started with one of these pre-built workflows.

Wix vs. Squarespace: Which is best?

Still not sure which website builder is right for you? Here are some final thoughts to keep in mind.

• Choose Wix if you're looking for an all-in-one marketing suite. It's easy to spin up a personal website or eCommerce shop, and there are a huge variety of templates and apps to customize your online presence. But the real advantage is Wix's marketing features, which let you send emails, manage social media, and run paid ad campaigns—all from the Wix dashboard.

• Choose Squarespace if an attractive, professional design is your top priority. With hundreds of slick website templates and a great AI site-building tool, Squarespace makes it easy to create designs that don't look like they were made by a drag-and-drop app. It's also a good choice for eCommerce brands and anyone selling digital products or courses.

Related reading:

• Shopify vs. Squarespace: Which is best?

• Squarespace form blocks: How to set up forms on Squarespace

• Wix vs. Weebly: Which website builder is best?

• Webflow vs. Squarespace: Which should you use?

• The best Squarespace alternatives

• Wix vs. WordPress: Which should you choose?

This article was originally published in July 2024. The most recent update was in July 2025.