Wix vs Squarespace: Which Website Builder Is Best?
Quick Comparison
| Wix | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Beginners and small businesses who want to start free and use AI to speed up the build. | Designers, photographers, and brands who want a polished site fast and can skip the free-tier safety net. |
| Pricing | Free tier available / Light $17/mo, Core $29/mo, Business $39/mo, Business Elite $159/mo (annual) | 14-day free trial / Basic $16/mo, Core $23/mo, Advanced $99/mo (annual) |
| Winner | Our Pick |
Tool Breakdown
Wix
Wix pairs a genuinely permanent free plan with the widest template library (2,000+) and the most capable AI site-building tools, making it the safer default for most new sites — pick Squarespace instead if design polish and faster load times matter more than flexibility.
- Permanent free plan — no credit card, no time limit, unlike Squarespace's trial-only model
- 2,000+ templates plus Aria, an AI tool that can generate a full site from a text prompt
- Built-in SEO audit tools and marketing features baked into every paid plan
- Free plan carries Wix-branded ads and a non-custom wixsite.com subdomain
- Top-tier Business Elite plan ($159/mo) is noticeably pricier than Squarespace's equivalent Advanced tier ($99/mo)
Squarespace
Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder known for design-forward templates, fully managed hosting, and a CDN-backed performance edge over most competitors.
- Site speed is close to 2x faster than Wix in independent 2026 benchmarks, thanks to built-in CDN delivery
- Templates are fewer (190+) but more consistently designed, reducing the risk of an amateur-looking result
- Every annual plan includes a free custom domain for the first year
- No permanent free plan at all — only a 14-day trial before you must pick a paid tier
- Fewer native AI tools than Wix, and less template-count flexibility for niche layouts
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Wix or Squarespace have a free plan? +
Wix does — it's permanent, though it includes Wix ads and a wixsite.com subdomain until you upgrade. Squarespace has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial, after which you need a paid subscription to keep your site live.
Which is faster, Wix or Squarespace? +
Squarespace, by a wide margin — independent 2026 Lighthouse benchmarks show it loading close to twice as fast as Wix, largely due to its built-in CDN. If page speed is a ranking priority, that's a real factor to weigh.
Which is better for ecommerce, Wix or Squarespace? +
Both support online stores, but Wix's larger app ecosystem and more granular plan tiers give growing stores more room to scale features gradually, while Squarespace bundles stronger ecommerce tools (abandoned cart recovery, subscriptions) into its pricier Advanced plan.