In 2024, having a strong online presence is more critical than ever, whether you're a small business owner, a blogger, or an entrepreneur launching an e-commerce store. But with so many website-building platforms available, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. The top contenders in the market—Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress—each offer unique features, making them suitable for different types of users. This guide will walk you through a detailed comparison of these platforms, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, and which might be the best fit for you.
Each of these platforms—Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress—has carved a niche for itself by offering a variety of tools to build a website without needing extensive coding knowledge. They’ve been optimized over the years with better performance, more customization, and scalable features to suit users with different needs.
When deciding between Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress, one of the most important factors is how easy they are to use, especially for beginners.
Squarespace is often praised for its intuitive design and clean interface. The platform provides pre-built templates that are fully customizable, and you can edit them using a visual editor. This makes Squarespace ideal for users who prioritize ease of use but still want a professional-looking site. There's no need to deal with any backend complexity—everything from blog posts to pages is managed through the same interface.
Wix offers a drag-and-drop builder, arguably one of the easiest to use. Even if you have zero experience with website design, you can quickly build a website by dragging elements like text boxes, images, or buttons to where you want them on the page. Additionally, Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) can create a website for you based on a few simple questions. This makes Wix a very beginner-friendly platform, perfect for small businesses and personal sites.
WordPress is a bit different in its approach. Although WordPress.com offers a more guided experience similar to Wix or Squarespace, WordPress.org—the self-hosted version—is known for its flexibility. The catch? It requires a bit more technical know-how. Users will need to navigate the dashboard, install plugins for extended features, and may have to tweak code to fully customize their site. While more complex, the trade-off is the level of control you get over every aspect of your site.
Customization is key when building a unique website. Let’s look at how Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress stack up in terms of design flexibility and control.
Squarespace is known for its beautiful, mobile-responsive templates that look professional right out of the box. While customization options are available, they are relatively limited compared to Wix and WordPress. You can adjust colors, fonts, and layouts, but there's a set structure within the templates that you can’t fully break away from. This is ideal for users who want a professional design without getting bogged down in customization details.
Wix allows complete design freedom. With its drag-and-drop editor, you can place elements exactly where you want them, creating a truly custom website. Wix’s App Market further extends customization options by allowing users to add various features, such as live chats, booking systems, or e-commerce functionalities. However, with greater freedom comes more room for error—unlike Squarespace, where the design limits prevent you from drastically altering the aesthetic appeal.
If customization is your top priority, WordPress is the ultimate platform. WordPress offers thousands of themes—both free and premium—that you can use as a starting point. In addition, WordPress’s plugins allow for limitless customization. You can tweak almost any aspect of your website, but you’ll need some coding knowledge (or hire a developer) to take full advantage of this flexibility.
Cost is an important factor, especially if you’re a small business or individual creator. Let’s compare the pricing structures of Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.
Squarespace offers four main pricing tiers:
Each plan includes hosting, an SSL certificate, and unlimited bandwidth. For users looking to run a blog or basic business website, the Personal or Business plan should suffice. E-commerce users, however, will need to opt for one of the Commerce plans.
Wix has a more flexible pricing structure:
For e-commerce, they offer:
Wix’s pricing is competitive, and it also offers a free version (with Wix branding). However, for serious businesses, the Unlimited Plan or Business Basic is a great starting point.
With WordPress, there are two routes:
Additional costs for premium themes and plugins can range from $30 to $100 annually. While WordPress might appear more cost-effective upfront, you’ll likely spend more time or money on customization and maintenance.
If you’re looking to run an online store, robust e-commerce features are essential. Here’s how the three platforms handle online selling.
Squarespace is a solid e-commerce solution for small-to-medium-sized stores. Its built-in e-commerce features allow you to sell both physical and digital products, manage inventory, and create promotional offers. The Advanced Commerce Plan offers features like abandoned cart recovery, which is critical for maximizing sales. While Squarespace lacks the extensive third-party plugin support of Word
Press, it’s still a strong contender for those who want simplicity.
Wix offers strong e-commerce capabilities, allowing you to set up an online store quickly. The platform supports physical and digital products, offers inventory management, and even integrates with dropshipping services like Modalyst. Wix's Business VIP plan also includes priority support, making it appealing for store owners who expect to scale quickly.
For WordPress, the go-to solution for e-commerce is the WooCommerce plugin, which turns any WordPress site into a fully functioning store. WooCommerce offers full flexibility, from product listings to payment gateways, and it’s the most powerful solution for large stores with many SKUs or complex features like subscriptions or memberships. However, setting it up requires more effort than Wix or Squarespace.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for your website's success. Here's a breakdown of how these platforms perform.
Squarespace offers decent SEO tools, including custom meta tags, automatic sitemaps, and SSL certificates. You can also add 301 redirects and customize URLs. While it offers the basics, Squarespace isn't as SEO-friendly as WordPress. However, for a typical small business or portfolio site, its features will suffice.
Wix has made significant improvements to its SEO capabilities. It includes tools for customizing meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags. Wix also provides an SEO Wiz to guide beginners through the process. Although Wix offers flexibility, some experts argue that the site speed and code structure aren't as SEO-friendly as WordPress.
When it comes to SEO, WordPress is the gold standard. With plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math, you can optimize every aspect of your website for search engines. From meta tags to structured data, WordPress gives you full control, which is ideal for users focusing on content marketing or organic search growth.
Ensuring your website is fast and secure is essential for user experience and SEO.
Squarespace websites are hosted on global content delivery networks (CDNs), which ensures decent speed and performance across different regions. However, users don't have control over server settings or optimization techniques, which could limit scalability for very large websites.
Wix also hosts its websites on CDNs, ensuring reasonable performance for small-to-medium sites. Wix sites are SSL-secured by default, and automatic updates ensure that you're always running the latest, most secure version.
WordPress is as fast as you make it. Performance depends on your choice of hosting provider and your ability to optimize the site (through caching, CDNs, and other methods). Premium hosting services like Kinsta or WP Engine are specifically built to handle WordPress and offer stellar performance. However, as the website owner, you are responsible for managing site performance.
If you're new to website building, you'll want a platform that's easy to use without sacrificing quality.
In 2024, choosing between Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress depends largely on your specific needs:
Should I use WordPress or Squarespace for my blog? WordPress offers more flexibility and control, but Squarespace is easier for beginners.
Is Wix better than Squarespace for small businesses? Wix offers more customization and is slightly more beginner-friendly for small businesses.
Which is the best website platform in 2024 for e-commerce? WordPress (with WooCommerce) offers the most powerful e-commerce features, but Squarespace and Wix are also strong options for smaller stores.
What is the best website platform for SEO? WordPress is the best platform for SEO due to its extensive plugin support and customizable features.
Prateeksha Web Design Company offers expertise in Squarespace, Wix and WordPress platforms. In 2024, the best platform for your website will depend on factors such as simplicity, customization, and business needs.
Interested in learning more? Contact us today.