Squarespace and Wix are often grouped together as “easy website builders,” but in practice they solve different problems. Both are hosted platforms. Both remove server management and technical maintenance. Yet the experience of building, updating, and growing a site on each platform can feel very different once your business moves beyond a static presence.
This comparison is written for site owners who already have a website and are deciding whether Squarespace can still support their goals or whether Wix is the more practical next step.
Core Philosophy: Design Guardrails vs Flexible Control
Squarespace is built around design consistency. Its templates and layout rules are meant to protect visual quality. You are guided into clean spacing, balanced typography, and predictable page structures. For many users, this is reassuring. It reduces the risk of creating something that looks unpolished.
Wix takes a different approach. It prioritizes control and iteration. The editor gives you more freedom to adjust layouts, move elements, and build pages that serve different purposes. This makes Wix feel more like a working tool for marketing and growth rather than a fixed design system.
This philosophical difference shapes everything else, from editing workflows to long term scalability.
Editing Experience and Speed
Squarespace editing is structured. You work within blocks and sections that follow predefined rules. This keeps things orderly, but it can slow you down when you want to experiment. Certain layout changes require workarounds or acceptance that “this is just how the template works.”
Wix editing is more direct. You can move elements visually, adjust spacing, and build custom sections without fighting template logic. For businesses that update content often or run campaigns that require new landing pages, this speed matters.
This difference we’ve discussed in our Wix Review is one of the main reasons for owners who feel constrained by Squarespace to start exploring other systems.
Design Flexibility and Page Layouts
Squarespace templates look polished out of the box, but flexibility has limits. When you want custom layouts, mixed content blocks, or unconventional page structures, the system can feel rigid. This is fine for presentation focused sites but challenging for conversion driven pages.
Wix is more accommodating for marketing style layouts. Service pages, campaign landing pages, and pages built around testimonials, FAQs, and calls to action are easier to assemble and adjust. Wix sites tend to diverge more visually over time because owners are not locked into a single design pattern.
If you are satisfied with Squarespace’s aesthetic but frustrated by its boundaries, that tension is usually the deciding factor.
SEO and Site Structure
Both platforms support essential SEO tasks. You can manage titles, meta descriptions, URLs, image alt text, and indexation on Squarespace and Wix. For simple sites, this may be all you need.
The difference appears when you restructure or scale content. Wix generally offers more flexibility when creating new page types, reorganizing navigation, and implementing redirects. This matters during growth and especially during a migration.
Squarespace SEO is stable, but Wix tends to be more forgiving when you want to evolve your site structure over time. This becomes important if content and organic traffic are part of your long term strategy.
Integrations and Business Tools
Squarespace integrates with a range of tools, but its ecosystem is smaller. Many businesses rely on external services for forms, automation, CRM, and advanced analytics when using Squarespace.
Wix includes a broader set of built in business tools and a larger app ecosystem. Scheduling, contact management, automation features, and marketing tools are more tightly integrated. This reduces the need to stitch together multiple services.
For businesses that see their website as part of a larger operational workflow, Wix often feels more connected.
Pricing and Value Over Time
On paper, pricing between Squarespace and Wix can look similar. Both use subscription models. The difference is not just the monthly fee, but what you get for it.
Squarespace’s value is strongest when the site stays relatively stable. Wix’s value grows when you actively update, experiment, and expand your site. Faster editing, fewer workarounds, and more built in tools can outweigh small price differences over time.
This is why many businesses accept Wix as a better long term investment even if the starting price looks comparable.
Who Should Stay on Squarespace
As stated in this detailed Squarespace review, the website builder is still a strong choice if your site is design led, mostly static, and you value visual consistency over flexibility. Portfolios, personal brands, studios, and businesses that rarely change page structure can remain comfortable on Squarespace for years.
If your site already does what you need and you are not feeling limited, there is no urgent reason to switch.
Moving from Squarespace to Wix in Practice
Switching platforms does not mean starting over. A proper migration focuses on rebuilding key pages in Wix, preserving content and branding, and setting up redirects so visitors and search engines land on the correct pages.When done correctly, the site feels familiar but more capable. On squarespace-to-wix.com, the focus is exactly that: moving from Squarespace to Wix in a structured way that improves flexibility without sacrificing stability.