Squarespace vs Wix Comparison Review

upqode | Sep 8th, 2022

Having a great website is essential for success, regardless of the kind of business or brand you have. Customers want your online presence to be both aesthetically pleasing and informative.

That’s why it’s important to use a website builder that enables you to adjust the elements as you build your website. Squarespace vs Wix is an excellent option for anyone wishing to design their website.

Wix wins the prize for easing the website creation process. Anyone may easily create a website using its drag-and-drop interface, hundreds of apps, and flexible pricing options.

Although Squarespace offers a larger variety of design templates, using its personalization options requires more technical expertise. Wix’s blogging and e-commerce facilities function slightly better than Squarespace’s, but Wix is more customizable and offers something for everyone.

Wix is a beginner-friendly website builder with fully customizable templates. Squarespace is just as modern but isn’t quite as user-friendly. The free plan and the vast array of additional apps are two of Wix’s key advantages. Compared to Wix, Squarespace has a stronger blogging tool and provides top-notch support.

Let’s compare them in this Wix vs Squarespace review to help you decide which is best for you.

Is Squarespace Easier to Use Than Wix?

The ease of use is the key distinction. Wix is somewhat more user-friendly for beginners, especially since they also include Wix ADI, a special beginner-focused editor. Unlike Wix, Squarespace themes are entirely responsive, allowing the website to adjust to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets instantly. You might need to make a few more adjustments with Wix.

Building a website is simple and intuitive with Wix. 

This is how:

  • An industry-leading drag and drop website builder is available on Wix. Both coding expertise and development experience are not necessary.
  • With 100% customizability, Wix provides over 800 templates created by designers.
  • Wix Artificial Design Intelligence is the platform’s replacement for the classic Wix Editor (ADI). Simply respond to a few questions, and Wix ADI will produce a unique website with content and graphics for you.
  • Wix takes care of hosting and SSL certificates, making it simple to get going.
  • Simply enter your email and start using Wix immediately after signing up.

The choice between connecting to your custom domain or using the free Wix.com name will be presented to you.

To utilize a custom domain name, such as www.sunny-flowers.com, you must sign up for one of the more expensive plans.

The drawback of having these customization choices is that if you change your mind, it might be difficult to alter the appearance and feel of your website. Unlike Squarespace, switching between templates with a single click is not available.

Compared to its predecessor, Squarespace 7’s interface has been updated to be more user-friendly. Most elements can be edited and styled by clicking on them. By clicking on the panel on the left side of the page, you may add the content block you want to the page and then style it using the WYSIWYG editor.

squarespace vs wix
Source: Wix

Wix has grown in functionality, but because there are so many possibilities, it does take some expertise to get the most of it. The Wix Arena has hundreds of qualified designers and coders on standby if you should need to employ one.

Squarespace is really easy to use; however, for more complex work, it might be difficult, and you might require assistance from a Squarespace Specialist.

By no means is Squarespace a technical headache. It only recently launched the Fluid Engine editing system, which matches the editing interface with Wix’s (you can now drag and drop the content to pretty much anywhere you like).

 But generally speaking, more clicks are required to achieve the same outcomes as Wix. For instance, since adjustments are not instantly saved, you must click “Save” for every tiny change you make.

Since Squarespace’s knowledge base is honestly somewhat complicated, even the seemingly simple chore of managing the hierarchy and structure of your navigation will certainly require a look into it.

Additionally, there is no backup and restore feature. They advise pasting your content into Google after copying it, which isn’t easy.

Which is Better for Ecommerce, Wix or Squarespace?

Both platforms include point-of-sale (POS) integration and let users sell both physical and digital goods. Wix provides a comparable set of functionality in its e-commerce packages, and Squarespace allows this same sale of services. On the other hand, Wix enables customers to collect payment upon delivery and offline sales, but Squarespace does not.

For e-commerce plans, there is a small price difference between Squarespace vs Wix, with Squarespace charging $26 per month and Wix charging $23.

You should evaluate Wix Combo to Squarespace Personal if you’re seeking a simple website devoid of ads and with a custom domain name. You’ll see that Wix costs a little higher. The best option for ecommerce is undoubtedly Wix Business Basic. It costs the same as Squarespace Online Store Basic, but there is a significant distinction: Wix doesn’t apply transaction fees.

Squarespace has more ecommerce options than Wix, but if you merely subscribe to its basic plan, you won’t profit as much.

Basic ecommerce capabilities on Squarespace’s Business plan cost $18 per month, whereas its Wix counterpart costs more at $23 per month (Basic Business plan). However, because Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee until you upgrade, you won’t save as much money with a basic plan.

If you don’t have the $40/month Advanced Commerce Plan, you won’t be able to use other essential features like abandoned cart recovery.

Which Is Better For SEO: Wix or Squarespace?

SEO, which uses optimized keywords and compelling content to rank higher, is what propels your website to the top of search engines. Users of Wix have complete control over meta titles, descriptions, and custom URLs thanks to the “SEO Wiz” function integrated into the platform. Only premium plans include Google Analytics.

squarespace seo
Source: Squarespace

Additionally, Squarespace gives users control over meta descriptions, titles, and custom URLs. All plans come with Google Analytics, but some older Squarespace themes can be troublesome and don’t let customers change their page titles.

To help your content rank highly on Google, Wix has its strategy. Wix does a terrific job of organizing all of its tactics so that consumers may learn SEO on their own and enhance their web presence. Even if you’ve never heard of SEO before, The SEO Wiz contains step-by-step tutorials, accomplishment updates, and a tonne of additional learning resources so you can start enhancing the visibility of your website.

Wix offers all the SEO tools a website needs to perform better in search engine results. You can use the Wix SEO Wiz to aid your rise in the rankings. A customized SEO plan is developed when you respond to a few simple questions about your company and the markets you are targeting. 

It will go live when you connect your website to Google according to the step-by-step instructions. It offers simple and advanced SEO tools, including integrating a search console and sitemap production.

Additionally, Wix provides the following SEO/Analytics apps in its Wix App Market:

Site BoosterAssists in increasing your visibility by helping you appear on a Google search results page.
Visitor analyticsThis tool enables you to gather insightful statistics and graphs about the performance of your website and your users’ habits and attributes (such as IP addresses).
wix app market
Source: Wix

Previously, Squarespace’s SEO tools might have been too complex for a newbie. Still, the platform has made significant advancements to ensure that optimizing your website for search isn’t too difficult. 

The excellent knowledge center now offers a checklist to ensure you haven’t overlooked anything, along with keyword support and a huge selection of SEO resources. In contrast to Wix, it does not offer any recommendations for best practices while the building is being done.

Whats Cheaper Squarespace or Wix?

Both Wix and Squarespace are moderately priced website builders.

You can pay for your website with Wix monthly, annual, or bi-annually. You may get started immediately with a free trial, and there is a free plan with Wix ads.

wix premium plans
Source: WIX

Website Plans

  • Combo ($16 a month)
  • Unlimited ($22 a month)
  • Pro ($27 a month)
  • VIP ($45 a month)

Ecommerce Plans

  • Business Basic ($27 a month)
  • Business Unlimited ($32 a month)
  • Business VIP ($59 a month)

The prices are based on yearly plans.

Most users should be fine with the Combo plan unless you want to set up an online store. It allows you to utilize a custom domain name and has all the required features. Depending on your feature requirements, either Business Basic or Business Unlimited is the ideal plan for e-commerce sites. It’s also important to note that there is a 14-day money-back guarantee for paid plans.

The pricing for Squarespace is considerably simpler. There are just 4 plans available, and you can pay for them monthly or annually. These consist of:

  • Private ($14 per month)
  • Business ($23 per month)
  • Online Store Advanced ($49 per month) 
  • Online Store Basic ($27)

There is no free plan for Squarespace, which is a bummer. If you sign up for at least a year, Squarespace vs Wix website builders includes a free domain name for the first year.

In this round, Squarespace vs Wix pricing, the winner is a draw. Squarespace only offers a 14-day free trial, but Wix offers a free plan. If you ever decide to cease making payments for your website, your Squarespace site will disappear from the internet. It is still possible to do so with Wix, which is a great benefit.

With Squarespace’s Business plan, e-commerce is less expensive, but keep in mind that there are transaction costs. The pricing will remain the same if you decide to cancel those fees.

Why Shouldn’t You Use Wix or Squarespace?

1. Cookie-cutter Site

Every element of a website specifically created for your company is tailored to your business, your goals, and the consistency of your branding. Sites using pre-built templates simply cannot accomplish this. They can only let you add text, a logo, and your images instead of the stock ones. A website created using one of these tools will always have a bland and uninspired quality. A DIY site that is pre-built has no modification options.

What’s worse, you’ll probably end up with a website that resembles your rivals or other businesses in your industry. Wix and Squarespace frequently feature one or two templates for every industry. The likelihood of appearing unoriginal is very high.

2. Ineffective SEO Tools

Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace allow you to perform some basic SEO (search engine optimization), but they lack the same robust tools as open platforms like WordPress. Your company could suffer if you didn’t rank as highly on search engines like Google and Bing.

3. Migration is Difficult

Small business owners who have utilized DIY website builders in the past, realizing they are trapped in the platform, have selected one of the most frustrating things. When utilizing Wix, Squarespace, or comparable platforms, there are no options for moving your site to another provider. It has a “take it or leave it” approach. These provide you no ownership over the website that serves as a representation of your business.

A professionally developed website, however, can be transferred to another hosting company using an open source platform, such as WordPress. Any qualified web designer or developer can make changes to it. You don’t feel constrained, and your site may adapt to your company’s demands as they change.

4. Professional Web Designers Are Better?

A qualified designer will interview you to discover what distinguishes your business from competitors. A qualified designer can best match user behavior with the outcomes you want from a website.

 A skilled web designer can optimize a site to operate well and generate results, from content strategy to clever calls-to-action to the images and color choices. This involves more than just making a website seem pretty (although they undoubtedly will do that) and instead involves having a solid understanding of what people will be looking for, how to get the greatest results, and how to make a website an investment that will pay off for your company.

Squarespace vs Wix For Portfolio

Websites are a great platform for showcasing your work. Whether you are a small company owner, fashion blogger, photographer, designer, or any other type of creative professional, building a website to display your Squarespace vs Wix for portfolio will help you connect with more people. Today, there are various website builders for portfolios that make it simple to launch your site quickly.

Squarespace 

Website builders like Squarespace are renowned for producing beautiful, mobile-friendly websites. Because of its reasonably priced monthly premium plans and lovely, design-conscious themes, it is well-liked among photographers and artists.

Squarespace is clearly above the competition when it comes to design functionality.

Its templates are clean, minimalistic, and brimming with white space, giving your portfolio a high-end vibe that can set you apart from your competitors.

Callum Stacey
Source: Callum Stacey

If you want to create an online marketing portfolio, Squarespace is a great choice. All Squarespace designs are mobile-responsive, guaranteeing that your work appears fantastic whenever and wherever it is viewed.

Additionally, the portfolio templates provided by Squarespace include helpful elements like a blog, an about page, and contact forms so potential customers may quickly get in touch with you.

Photographers, filmmakers, fashion designers, and visual artists are drawn to the simple, minimalist style because it puts their work front and center.

Wix

Wix is a flexible and user-friendly website builder. It is incredibly economical and offers a user-friendly editor that makes it easy to create a stunning portfolio website rapidly. It also offers excellent support for SEO newbies, making it simple to expand your audience. 

Additionally, Wix is a top-rated ecommerce builder enabling you to showcase and sell your work.

Making a website for your portfolio on Wix is highly recommended. It offers more than 500 templates, 41 of which were built exclusively for portfolios.

You may personalize your portfolio using Wix’s drag-and-drop editing tools; since you can move anything around, you have complete creative control over your website. 

Christina Vanessa
Source: Christina Vanessa

Some people relish this level of autonomy, while others struggle to maintain a consistent aesthetic across their entire website.

Wix has a free plan, which is a terrific place to start, but if you want to leave a lasting impact, you should consider investing a small sum of money in advancing your portfolio.

Paid plans for Wix begin at $16 per month. Paid plans remove all advertisements and let you use a custom domain name, effectively your portfolio website’s postcode. This allows visitors to concentrate on the work you wish to highlight.

Depending on your plan, you’ll receive up to 100GB of storage and limitless bandwidth (the data used to operate your website online) on all paid premium plans. This is perfect whether you’re an artist, graphic designer, or work with visual media because it eliminates the concern that enormous file sizes will use up all of your resources.

The Wix App Market is where you can get great apps that cover topics like digital marketing, additional design styles, and interesting features for your online portfolio. With premium plans, you also get access to more templates, tools, and apps from this store.

Squarespace vs Wix For Photographers

Even when you are doing well for yourself, being a photographer can be exhausting work. However, being so busy is a sign that you are doing something correctly because it shows that you have developed a clientele. 

image of camera
Source: Pexels 

If you are not quite there yet, perhaps you are not displaying your work the way you should be exhibiting it. Photographers all around the world dream of being able to support themselves with their art.

A strong internet presence and a website devoted to your photos are the best ways to do this. Being a fantastic photographer is not enough; you must also let the world know how wonderful you are.

When you work as a photographer, it’s crucial to have a website that looks good and conveys to the client who you are as a person and an artist and what you can produce with a camera.

Squarespace vs Wix for photographers is an excellent option in this regard, as they both have stunning templates that can be fully customized. Depending on your tastes, patience, and ability level, you can use one of these templates out of the box, modify them, or start from scratch and personally design your website using one of these services.

It is easy to see how comparable Squarespace vs Wix are in terms of what they offer; therefore, it is understandable why many photographers ask which service will be the most effective for creating a new website. Both advantages and disadvantages depend on what you need, but Wix is your best choice if user-friendliness and integrated SEO capabilities are important to you.

Wix is an excellent option if you’re completely new to website creation, want a free website, require advanced SEO capabilities, or want complete control over your site’s creative aspects.

Squarespace boasts the best designs on the market and all the tools you need for a hassle-free, fully functional website if you want a genuinely great website and are ready to be a little more patient with the process.

With high-quality image material, these templates are pretty much designed for photographers and other creatives.

What is Better Squarespace or Wix?

Squarespace vs Wix are excellent options for creating a website, and each provides a good number of support options for any issues you might encounter.

Your choice will depend on the features, and aesthetic your site will have. Squarespace is a little more capable if you plan on blogging frequently and want to sell services online.

Wix will be your greatest option if you’re a beginner wishing to personalize your website and attain high-quality SEO fully.

Both companies have created exquisite website building options, and they make improvements to their services every year. In this Wix vs Squarespace review, neither choice will leave you unsatisfied if your goal is to design a website that looks amazing.

If you want to realize your business’s true potential, you should consult UPQODE to help you design the website of your dreams.

Filed under: Website Content Management Systems

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