When starting any small business, one of the primary things you’ll need to consider is your online presence. Having a good quality website is the key to success for a huge majority of small business owners, online store, and other blogs.
One of the biggest decisions when it comes to your online platform is which hosting company to go for. Choosing the right hosting company for you is key to making sure you have the easiest, most stress-free and most successful website making experience online. Knowing exactly what options are important to you in terms of web hosting is an important indicator that can help you choose the right web hosting provider for you.
Two potentially popular options are Wix and Squarespace. We are here to help you choose, by comparing the two options in a variety of different categories. We’re breaking down the main pros and cons of each, plus find out what real customers actually think of each of the blogging platforms. If you’re struggling to choose between Wix or Squarespace, we’re here to help!
Table of Contents
Wix VS Squarespace: Key Features
The main thing you need to consider when choosing a web hosting provider is what things are the most important to your blog or small business? Think about what you need from your specific website. For example, an e-commerce store will need different requirements than a more informational web page. You’ll also need to consider more personal preferences.
If you’re an old hand at running online businesses, you probably won’t need as much customer support. You will be able to cope with a steeper learning curve than if you’re totally new to the game.
There are other, more basic, aspects to take into consideration, too, like different pricing plans, options for additional apps, plus any extras. Our guide has broken everything down into categories to help you best decide if Wix or Squarespace is right for you.
Wix VS Squarespace: Uptime
Uptime refers to amount of time your website is working and responsive. Everyone hopes that this will be as close to 100% as possible, but it’s unrealistic to ever be guaranteed as completely perfect. Both Wix and Squarespace offer very high uptime levels, making either a reliable choice.
Wix VS Squarespace: Speed
Having a fast and easy to use website is another key aspect in finding and maintaining customers. Many reports say that if a website is too slow to load, many users will migrate to a different site – often that of a competitor. Luckily, both Wix and Squarespace are reliably fast and both make for a good choice in this category.
Wix VS Squarespace: Ease Of Use
One of the biggest differences between the two sites is the web design editor and builder. Squarespace has a more defined structure, while Wix gives the customer more freedom. This tends to mean Squarespace is the better of the two options for beginners, while those with website building expertise may enjoy the freedom they get through Wix.
Squarespace offers a range of different content blocks to help you build your perfect website. It helps your bring items to the perfect width and height to make your site sleek and easy to manage. The only reason this could be a bad thing is if you feel a little restricted by these templates. It’s really a matter of personal preference here.
Wix VS Squarespace: Pricing
Squarespace has two main options for its pricing plans – business or personal. Their personal option is billed at $12 per month if you pay annually, or $16 per month if you pay month by month. With this plan, you get unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth and storage, an SSL certificate. Plus 24/7 customer support and a free custom domain with an annual purchase.
The business owners option is billed at $18 per month if you pay annually, or $26 per month if you pay month by month. With this plan, you get unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited contributors, an SSL certificate. Plus 24/7 customer support and a free custom domain with an annual purchase. There’s no option for a free plan.
Options
Wix has more options and some which are incredibly low in price. Their four plans are the Connect Domain plan, the Combo plan, the Unlimited plan, and the VIP plan. The Connect Domain plan is billed at $5 per month and gives 1 GB of bandwidth and 500 MB of storage. You’ll have to purchase your domain name on top of this.
The Combo plan is billed at $11 per month and offers 2 GB of bandwidth and 3 GB of storage. It’s also ad-free and offers a free domain for a year. The Unlimited plan (which is the most popular option) is billed at $14 per month and offers unlimited bandwidth and 10 GB of storage. It’s also ad-free, and offers a free domain for a year. Plus it comes with extra free apps and plugins that can make your site look better and be easier to build.
The VIP plan is the best of premium plans Wix can offer. It is billed at $29 per month and offers unlimited bandwidth and 20 GB of storage. It’s also ad-free and offers a free domain for a year. Plus the most premium extra options including email campaigns and ad vouchers.
If you’re on a super tight budget, it’s clear Wix has more options for you. But their cheaper plans are pretty limited and can leave customers dissatisfied. In terms of value for money, Squarespace tends to have a slight edge over Wix. But if you have more specific budget concerns, Wix can be the better option for your site. It’s worth noting that neither Wix nor Squarespace comes with a free plan.
Wix VS Squarespace: Customer Support
Both of these companies promise 24/7 customer support, but there are differences between them. Wix offers support through forums, emails and a phone service, but there is currently no live chat option. Squarespace, on the other hand, has the same forum and knowledge center, plus a live chat function. However, there’s no phone support with Squarespace. It’s really down to which option sounds more appealing to you in terms of customer support options.
Wix VS Squarespace: Templates
Both Wix and Squarespace offer a lot of different site templates and themes to help you quickly and easily build an attractive website. The templates Squarespace offer are more restricted, with around seventy different options. Wix offers much more in terms of freedom, with a variety of over five hundred themes and templates.
However, some think Wix offers quantity over quality in terms of themes
, and prefer the look and feel of a Squarespace site. If you’re super picky, you may prefer the customization Wix offers. But if you’re looking to easily create an attractive site without a web designer, Squarespace could be the better option here.
Wix VS Squarespace: Type Of Site
One of the biggest things that’ll help you decide between Wix and Squarespace is knowing what type of website you’re trying to build.
If the main function of your website is the blog, Squarespace is likely the better option. Wix has a perfectly good blogging function. But Squarespace’s version is excellent, and one of the very best for building an attractive and easy to navigate blog.
In terms of e-commerce options, Squarespace also has the edge. If you’re building an e-commerce plan, a Squarespace website is likely the best option for you. It offers a ton of handy tools, including customer accounts, receipts, gift cards and much more. It’s not that Wix isn’t good in terms of building an e-commerce website – it’s just that the Squarespace platform is truly excellent in terms of this.
Wix VS Squarespace: Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (also known as SEO) is one of the most important things outside of social media. It’s the method through which your site can appear higher up in a list of search engine results, using things like Google analytics to ensure you’re reaching the maximum audience possible.
Both Wix and Squarespace have built in SEO tools to help you improve your website ranking, including optimized keywords, mobile optimization, and image alt-text. They also both have handy guides to learning more about search engine optimization.
While both platforms are excellent options in this category, Wix appears to have the edge over Squarespace. It has a more interactive and personalied appraoch to helping you learn and understand the process. Wix’s SEO help is also far better for beginners.
Wix VS Squarespace: Customer Satisfaction
While all this information can be helpful in terms of building a website, another important thing to consider is actual customer experience. Reading online reviews from verified customers can be one of the most important ways to figure out if a certain web hosting provider or site builder is best for you and your needs.
Wix Reviews: What Real People Are Saying
Wix has a generally positive online reputation, with a current rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on review site g2crowd.com. People draw attention to the excellent features of this option, allowing customers to easily build a professional looking site. People also point out that the site is easy and intuitive to use, and offers good options for customer support.
The software is very easy to use and is very helpful for non-programmers. It is easy to create a website as we get guidance at each step by Wix editor. I also recommend the software to my friends as it is free and easy to use.
g2crowd.com
However, this doesn’t mean Wix is totally perfect. There are some drawbacks to this option. Many say they find the way it targets beginners a little restrictive; plus point out that the cheaper paid plans are highly limited and can cause the user some problems.
I dislike the advertisements that show up as a user who doesn’t pay or as a free user; but it’s only on the bottom of the page so it’s not too big of a distraction.
g2crowd.com
The system seems targeted towards novice web designers with little to no coding experience. Customizing your website with advanced code can be difficult. When I tried to add some JavaScript and CSS files, the resulting pages often did not appear or function as expected.
g2crowd.com
Squarespace Reviews: What Real People Are Saying
Squarespace also has a generally positive online reputation. With a current rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on review site g2crowd.com. People draw attention to the excellent integration Squarespace offers, making building an interactive site easy. There are also many customization options. Many also point out how visually appealing Squarespace sites are, which can be difficult to find, especially for beginners.
I like the integration that Squarespace has with other platforms. From marketing and SEO to payments and social media, you can integrate a TON of different things into your Squarespace site; it’s done with just the drag of an icon into the build page!
g2crowd.com
Squarespace allows you to create beautiful, professional websites without the steep learning curve of a tool like WordPress or Drupal. It’s cost effective, easy to customize, and has solutions for almost every website need you might have.
g2crowd.com
All of this isn’t to say that Squarespace is totally perfect, though. Some users don’t like how reliant the website builder is on specific themes. Others claim the SEO help Squarespace offers isn’t as technical and in depth as they would prefer.
I dislike how different the theme layouts are built. You can have a perfectly functional page built in one theme layout, but if you switch it to another theme, it can sometimes rearrange nearly everything. That can make your page require a lot of work just to function as it did before.
g2crowd.com
I don’t like how there are additional steps one can take to boost SEO. Some aren’t made available through Squarespace or informed about.
g2crowd.com
Wix VS Squarespace: Our Verdict
There are many good things to be said about both Wix and Squarespace. Neither is exactly better than the other – rather, each is better tailored to specific needs. Deciding what you need out of your hosting provider and website builder is the best way to ensure happiness.
Broken down to the most simple statement? Squarespace is generally a better option for beginners who want an easy to use, intuitive builder which can help guide them through the process. Wix is better for those with higher levels of expertise, who want fewer restrictions and more customization.
If Squarespace is something you think will suit you, check out their plans and sign up here. However, if Wix sounds more up your street, you can check out their different options right here.
If you want to build and host a website but aren’t sure either of these options are quite right for you, we have a ton of other reviews. Check out our different options, broken down for ease of use, right here.
Have you ever used Wix? What about Squarespace? How were your experiences? Let us know in the comments below!