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Key Points
- Squarespace and Wix are two popular website builders that allow you to build and customise a professional-looking site for your business.
- Squarespace is particularly good in areas such as e-commerce, value for money, seamless integration, and blogging.
- Wix’s standout features include e-commerce capabilities, ease of use, extensive customisation, and great user support.
- There is no overarching winner in terms of which builder is best for your website’s SEO, as it depends on what you are looking for and how well you use the platform’s tools and features.
What are Squarespace and Wix?
Squarespace and Wix are two of the most popular options for website building. Website builders allow you to build a site and customise the finer details so you can create a professional online presence for your business or brand. Both websites are used by millions of people and are solid choices in website creation.
So, how do you decide which platform is best for your business? While both are great website builders, Squarespace and Wix have numerous differences, benefits, and available features. Therefore, deciding the best one depends on your individual needs. Both options are great for Search Engine Optimisation, but your success in SEO ultimately depends on how well you use the builder’s services.
Comparison of Website Builders Squarespace and Wix
To help you choose the best website builder for your business, this main section of the article offers a comparison of various features of Squarespace versus Wix to help you pick the best platform for your website.
| Squarespace Vs Wix: Which is Best? | ||
| Feature | Squarespace | Wix |
| E-Commerce | + | + |
| Value for Money | + | |
| Ease of Use | + | + |
| Design | + | + |
| SEO Features | + | + |
| User Support | + | |
| Blogging | + | + |
| Multilingual | + | |
| Integrations, Apps, and Add-Ons | + | + |
| Marketing | + | |
| Sitemap | + | + |
E-Commerce
One of the most important features for a business to consider when choosing a website builder is the e-commerce options. Squarespace and Wix both give you the core features needed to create and run an e-commerce shop, so deciding the best in this instance can be like splitting hairs. Both platforms let you:
- Accept online payments for product subscriptions and services
- Create mailing lists
- Sell physical products
- Use a range of layouts
While there are small aspects of their e-commerce services where Squarespace and Wix differ, they each offer a professional-looking and functional shop. They are both viewed as particularly suitable options for small and medium-sized companies.
Top tip: If you would like to see how SEO can dramatically help small businesses, check out our article on SEO for small businesses.
Did you know? Wix and Squarespace have SSL encryption available to ensure your site is secure (a ranking factor for search engines).
Key Takeaway: Squarespace and Wix offer fantastic e-commerce capabilities.
Value for Money
What platform gives you more bang for your buck is another essential consideration. On the face of it, Wix seems to be better value for money. Indeed, Wix offers a free plan, while Squarespace only offers a 14-day free trial. However, when you look at the finer details, Squarespace is arguably better for money.
For instance, the free plan offered by Wix is not great and means you need to use a subdomain. Plus, you will have Wix adverts peppered all over your website. Moreover, Squarespace’s cheapest plan includes some excellent features, such as unlimited bandwidth, so you know it is money well spent.
Bear in mind that both platforms require you to purchase a plan to sell through your website. Overall, Squarespace offers the best value for money.
Key Takeaway: Squarespace offers better value for money.
Ease of Use
Wix and Squarespace are drag-and-drop website builders. Drag-and-drop makes creating a website very beginner-friendly, as there is no need for coding know-how. Therefore, both platforms are reasonably suited to beginners.
But Wix is an unstructured editor, meaning you can drag elements on a page anywhere. In contrast, Squarespace is a structured editor, offering a grid and column system that is more rigid. Wix is, therefore, slightly easier and more flexible to use compared to Squarespace, which involves a steeper learning curve. You typically need to click more times on Squarespace to get the same results as on Wix. However, Squarespace is not particularly hard to get to grips with either and is one of the easier website builders to navigate.
Did you know? One of the most notable aspects of Wix is its Wix ADI feature. ADI stands for ‘Artificial Design Intelligence’, and Wix ADI uses a virtual assistant to present you with a website based on several questions you are asked. One great benefit is you can always switch back to the regular Wix Editor.
Key Takeaway: Neither builder is especially hard to use, although Wix is slightly easier and more flexible.
Design
A website builder’s design capabilities are critical to consider as you want to ensure your business site looks professional and aesthetically pleasing. Wix has many templates available (over 800), and all are mobile-responsive. However, because there are so many, not all of them are of the best quality.
When looking at Squarespace, it provides far fewer but very attractive designs that are professional, tailored to various industries, and modern. Every template on Squarespace has been made by a professional designer, and they all are mobile-responsive too.
Moreover, Wix’s unstructured editor offers more customisation when designing and is a great choice if you want more creative freedom, but the quality and polish of Squarespace designs speak for themselves. Plus, you can switch to a Squarespace template at any point, but with Wix, you are committed to a template once your site is created.
Did you know? Both platforms offer robust membership sites for brands.
Key Takeaway: In this case, Wix wins the quantity battle, and Squarespace wins concerning quality.
SEO Features
Conducting SEO processes is key to helping your site rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Both Squarespace and Wix offer fantastic SEO capabilities. Wix has a handy tool called Wix SEO Wiz. This is great for beginners and offers strategies for improving your site’s overall SEO efforts. Squarespace also has a good selection of built-in SEO tools, such as keyword support.
Both website builders have useful SEO tools, such as optimised headings (including meta titles, descriptions, and image alt text), 301 redirects, and URL customisation. Helpfully, both also provide an SEO checklist to ensure you have a good handle on everything SEO-related. Asking which is best for SEO is a tough question, as Wix and Squarespace both have good SEO tools. It comes down to how effectively you use these tools on the platform.
Please note: Squarespace and Wix both integrate with Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Key Takeaway: Squarespace and Wix are good in terms of available SEO features.
User Support
Knowing whether there is helpful user support on a website builder should you run into any problems is sensible. Wix offers phone support, email, and live chat. Squarespace does offer good customer services, such as through live chat and email, but it does not have phone support. You can view great support forums, tutorials, and articles on both builders to help you find answers to your queries. Neither Squarespace nor Wix is lacking in user support, but in terms of sheer availability, Wix just edges the win.
Key Takeaway: Wix, compared to Squarespace, has slightly better user support as it offers phone support in addition to all the support avenues that Squarespace provides.
Blogging
Blogging is important to SEO as it gives you a chance to provide relevant answers to common user queries. It also helps with earning credibility and trust in your brand. If search engines view your content as valuable, it will give you a higher ranking in SERPs, improving your site’s overall visibility. Consequently, a website builder with good blogging options is a must-have for any business taking SEO seriously.
Squarespace and Wix have a large variety of brilliant blogging tools. Both facilitate numerous authors, let you use tags and categories, and have RSS feeds.
The main pitfall with Squarespace blogging is that it lacks autosave features. This means you can lose all your work if your computer crashes. Wix, on the other hand, does autosave. At the same time, Squarespace provides a comment moderation feature, whereas Wix does not, meaning you have little control over comments posted on your site. However, both have great features overall and are effective blogging platforms.
Top tip: To create the perfect content for your blogs, check out our SEO blog article writing guide.
Key Takeaway: Wix and Squarespace are both good for blogging.
Multilingual
When your business starts to expand, you will want to ensure that you can reach a wider audience and have the option of a multilingual site. Squarespace requires you to use a Weglot integration for a multilingual site, and you have to create a separate Weglot account, making it slightly cumbersome.
Conversely, Wix has a built-in multilingual feature that removes the need for a third-party app. Therefore, Wix takes the crown at this point of comparison with a more convenient multilingual option.
Key Takeaway: Wix has a handier multilingual option compared to Squarespace.
Integrations, Apps, and Add-ons
You can use add-ons and apps to enhance your site, and both website builders offer numerous extensions. Wix has an extensive App Market with countless add-ons and tools available to help expand your site. Squarespace has an Extensions marketplace with tools primarily focused on e-commerce, such as for shipping and marketing a store. In terms of numbers, Wix has more total extensions available.
Interestingly, Squarespace integrates a wide range of services by default. This leads to a smooth integration and user experience. But there are more Wix apps than Squarespace integrations, and some are free to use. However, more does not necessarily mean better, and Squarespace’s efficient integration is impressive and provides a seamless website-building experience, even when using third-party services.
Key Takeaway: Wix has a more extensive app store, but Squarespace has an arguably better user experience with integrations and tools.
Marketing
Another important consideration is how effective a website builder is for marketing. Squarespace’s offering is Squarespace Email Campaigns, an integrated email marketing tool. Unlike Wix Email Marketing, Squarespace Email Campaigns is not free. However, if you find the latter doesn’t answer all your needs, other marketing apps are also available in the Squarespace Extension marketplace.
On the other hand, Wix has numerous marketing SaaS tools that are highly customisable. For instance, one marketing feature is Wix Email Marketing which allows you to send stunning emails to your contacts by selecting an email template and tailoring it (if you wish). It’s a great way to run an email campaign to promote your brand, and it even lets you view interesting data, such as how many people view your email. Another Wix tool worth mentioning is Ascend by Wix, an all-in-one marketing suite for companies.
Key Takeaway: Wix edges the win in marketing by offering a free Wix Email Marketing feature.
Sitemap
A sitemap is a map of your website and informs search engine crawlers how to crawl and navigate a site. On both Squarespace and Wix, your sitemap is automatically updated when you make a change to your website. However, one con of both builders is that you cannot manually and directly edit a sitemap file. This should not be a big problem, but some users may be annoyed that they cannot customise sitemaps to their liking.
Key Takeaway: Both platforms automatically update your sitemap, although you cannot customise or edit them on either website builder.
Squarespace or Wix?
You should put great thought and consideration into choosing the best website builder for your company. Both Squarespace and Wix are reputable website-building platforms offering a wide range of valuable features for creating a professional-looking website.
Ultimately, the ideal option for you comes down to what features you are looking for. Using this comparison guide, you can split the hairs between Squarespace and Wix to decide which caters better to your needs.
In terms of SEO, these platforms are excellent choices, and there is no clear winner, as it depends on how well you can use the platform to further your SEO efforts. Take the time to evaluate which option is the ideal fit for your business strategy so you can make a confident choice.
Hire NUOPTIMA for Professional SEO Services
Monitoring and running an SEO campaign requires continuous work. It can be time-consuming and tiring, so many businesses decide to hire third-party help when it comes to SEO. NUOPTIMA is a profit-proven SEO agency that undertakes comprehensive SEO services of your website to improve its ranking in search results and gain more website traffic. In addition, we offer international SEO services to help your business expand its online presence globally.
NUOPTIMA has helped many websites in the past in achieving incredible results. To explore how we have helped past clients, browse our case studies section displaying many of our success stories to date. We know exactly what tasks need to be completed to improve your ranking in search results, and our professional team conducts our work to the highest standard.
If you would like help with the SEO of your website or are just eager to explore your options, book a free strategy call with our reputable team today, and start the wheels rolling toward SEO success.
