When it comes to WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, choosing the right platform to build your website is one of the most important decisions you’ll make online. With so many options available, the debate often comes down to these three major players — and each has distinct strengths for different types of users.
WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet according to W3Techs, while Wix and Squarespace have carved out strong positions as user-friendly, all-in-one builders. But which one is actually right for you?
In this guide, we’ll compare all three platforms across the categories that matter most: pricing, ease of use, customization, SEO, plugins and apps, ownership, and scalability. By the end, you’ll have a clear picture of which builder fits your goals, budget, and skill level. If you’re brand new to WordPress, you may also want to read our guide for absolute beginners.
Quick Overview: WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace
Before we dive into the details, here’s a high-level snapshot of each platform:
WordPress (WordPress.org) is an open-source content management system (CMS). You download the software for free, install it on web hosting you purchase separately, and you have full control over every aspect of your site. It’s the most flexible option but requires a bit more hands-on setup.
Wix is a cloud-based website builder known for its drag-and-drop editor. Everything is hosted on Wix’s servers, and you pick from hundreds of templates to build your site without touching any code. It’s designed for beginners who want something quick and visual.
Squarespace is another hosted website builder that focuses on design-forward templates. It’s popular with creatives, photographers, and small businesses who want a polished, professional look with minimal effort.
Important note: Throughout this article, “WordPress” refers to WordPress.org (the self-hosted version), not WordPress.com (the hosted service). These are two different things — WordPress.org gives you full control, while WordPress.com is a limited hosted platform.
Pricing Comparison
Cost is often the first question on everyone’s mind. Here’s how the three platforms compare on pricing in 2026:
| Feature | WordPress (self-hosted) | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software cost | Free (open source) | Free plan available (with ads) | No free plan |
| Starter/Basic plan | Hosting from $3–$10/month | Light: $17/month | Personal: $16/month |
| Business plan | Hosting from $10–$30/month | Core: $29/month | Business: $33/month |
| Ecommerce plan | Free WooCommerce plugin + hosting | Business Elite: $159/month | Commerce Advanced: $65/month |
| Domain name | $10–$15/year (separate purchase) | Free for 1 year on paid plans | Free for 1 year on annual plans |
| SSL certificate | Free with most hosts | Included | Included |
| Transaction fees | None (payment gateway fees only) | None on Business+ plans | None on Business+ plans |
The Real Cost Breakdown
WordPress has the lowest entry point. You can get quality shared hosting from providers like Bluehost, SiteGround, or Hostinger for as little as $3 to $10 per month. The WordPress software itself is free. Add a domain name ($10–$15/year) and you can have a fully functional site for under $60 per year. Premium themes and plugins are optional — thousands of free ones are available.
Wix offers a free plan, but it comes with Wix branding and ads on your site — not ideal for anything professional. Paid plans start at $17/month, and you’ll likely need at least the Core plan ($29/month) for business features. Billed annually, that’s around $348/year.
Squarespace has no free plan (only a 14-day free trial). Plans start at $16/month (billed annually), putting the minimum yearly cost at $192. The Business plan at $33/month ($396/year) unlocks features like advanced analytics and custom CSS.
Verdict: WordPress is the most affordable option long-term, especially if you’re comfortable managing your own hosting. Wix and Squarespace trade lower setup complexity for higher ongoing costs.
Ease of Use
How easy is it to actually build a website on each platform? This matters especially if you’re a beginner with no coding experience.
Wix: Easiest for Absolute Beginners
Wix wins on initial ease of use. Its drag-and-drop editor lets you place elements anywhere on the page — literally click, drag, and drop. There’s also Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence), which can generate a basic website for you based on a few questions. If you’ve never built a website before and want the lowest learning curve, Wix is hard to beat.
The downside? That freeform drag-and-drop can lead to messy layouts if you’re not careful. Elements can overlap, spacing can get inconsistent, and mobile responsiveness sometimes requires manual adjustments.
Squarespace: Structured and Design-Focused
Squarespace uses a more structured editor. Instead of dragging elements anywhere, you work within content blocks and sections. This makes it harder to create a messy layout — the grid-based system keeps everything aligned and professional-looking. For users who want a polished result without design skills, this approach works well.
The trade-off is less creative freedom compared to Wix. You’re working within Squarespace’s design framework, and some customizations require CSS knowledge.
WordPress: More Setup, More Power
WordPress has a steeper initial learning curve. You need to set up hosting and install WordPress, choose a theme, and configure basic settings before you start building. The block editor (Gutenberg) has improved dramatically — it now offers a visual, block-based editing experience that’s quite intuitive once you learn the basics.
With WordPress 6.7+ and Full Site Editing, you can now customize your entire site — headers, footers, templates — visually in the browser. Page builders like Elementor or Kadence Blocks add drag-and-drop functionality that rivals Wix and Squarespace.
According to WordPress developer Rich Tabor, co-founder of developer tools company Extendify: “The block editor has closed the gap significantly. For most users, WordPress is now just as approachable as any hosted builder — with far more room to grow.”
Verdict: Wix is easiest for day-one beginners. Squarespace offers a guided, design-first experience. WordPress takes more initial effort but rewards you with the most powerful editing tools long-term.
Customization and Design Flexibility
How much control do you have over the look and functionality of your site?
| Feature | WordPress | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Templates/Themes | 11,000+ free themes, thousands premium | 900+ templates | 150+ templates |
| Custom code access | Full (HTML, CSS, PHP, JS) | Wix Velo (limited) | CSS injection, limited code blocks |
| Layout flexibility | Unlimited with page builders | Freeform drag-and-drop | Grid-based sections |
| Custom fonts | Any font (upload or connect) | Limited selection + upload | Limited selection + Adobe Fonts |
| Switch templates | Yes, anytime | No (must rebuild) | Yes, with some limits |
WordPress is the clear winner here. With access to the full codebase, over 11,000 free themes in the official directory, and the ability to modify literally anything, there’s no ceiling on customization. Whether you want a simple blog or a complex membership site with custom post types, WordPress can handle it. Learn more about choosing and installing the right WordPress theme.
Wix gives you creative freedom with its drag-and-drop editor and Wix Velo (a development platform for adding custom code). However, one major drawback: you can’t switch templates without rebuilding your site from scratch.
Squarespace templates are beautifully designed but more rigid. You work within the template’s structure, and while you can inject custom CSS, deep customization is limited compared to the other two platforms.
Verdict: WordPress offers unlimited customization. Wix provides solid creative freedom for non-coders. Squarespace delivers polished design within more defined boundaries.
SEO Capabilities
If you want your website to rank in Google, SEO tools matter. Here’s how the platforms stack up:
WordPress is widely regarded as the best platform for SEO. Out of the box, it produces clean, semantic HTML. Add a plugin like RankMath or Yoast SEO (both have free versions), and you get complete control over meta titles, descriptions, Open Graph tags, XML sitemaps, schema markup, redirects, and more. As SEO expert Brian Dean of Backlinko has noted: “WordPress gives you more SEO control than any other platform — it’s not even close.”
Wix has improved its SEO significantly. It now supports custom meta tags, canonical URLs, structured data, XML sitemaps, and has a built-in Wix SEO Wiz that walks beginners through optimization. That said, page speed has historically been a concern with Wix sites — though the platform has made strides with faster loading in recent updates.
Squarespace includes built-in SEO features: clean URLs, auto-generated sitemaps, SSL certificates, meta tag editing, and mobile-responsive templates. It covers the basics well, but advanced SEO (like schema markup customization or granular redirect rules) requires workarounds or third-party tools.
| SEO Feature | WordPress | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom meta tags | Yes (via plugins) | Yes (built-in) | Yes (built-in) |
| XML sitemap | Yes (auto or plugin) | Yes (auto) | Yes (auto) |
| Schema markup | Full control (plugins) | Basic (auto) | Basic (auto) |
| Page speed optimization | Extensive (caching, CDN, image optimization plugins) | Limited control | Limited control |
| 301 Redirects | Yes (plugins or .htaccess) | Yes (built-in) | Yes (built-in, limited) |
| Robots.txt control | Full access | Limited | Limited |
Verdict: WordPress dominates SEO with unmatched flexibility and plugin support. Wix covers the essentials and is improving. Squarespace handles the basics but lacks advanced control.
Plugins, Apps, and Integrations
Extending your website’s functionality is where these platforms really diverge:
WordPress has a staggering 60,000+ free plugins in its official repository, plus thousands of premium options. Need ecommerce? Install WooCommerce (free). Want a membership site? Use MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro. Contact forms, booking systems, learning management, social networks — there’s a plugin for virtually everything. This plugin ecosystem is WordPress’s biggest competitive advantage.
Wix has the Wix App Market with around 300+ apps. While it covers common needs (forms, booking, chat, ecommerce), the selection is much smaller than WordPress. Some advanced functionalities simply aren’t available as Wix apps.
Squarespace takes a more curated approach with built-in features (scheduling, ecommerce, email campaigns) and a smaller set of third-party integrations. It recently launched Squarespace Extensions, but the library remains limited compared to both WordPress and Wix.
Verdict: WordPress is unmatched with 60,000+ plugins. Wix offers a decent but smaller app market. Squarespace focuses on built-in features with fewer extension options.
Ownership and Data Control
This is a critical factor that many beginners overlook — and it can have major consequences down the road.
WordPress: You own everything. Your content, your database, your files, your design — it’s all yours. You can move your site to any hosting provider, export all your data, and you’re never locked into a single company. If your host goes out of business, you simply move to another one. This level of ownership is unmatched.
Wix: Your content lives on Wix’s servers, and you cannot export your site to another platform. If you decide to leave Wix, you’ll need to manually recreate your site elsewhere. Wix does allow you to export blog posts, but not your pages, designs, or apps. This is a significant lock-in risk.
Squarespace: Similar to Wix, your site is hosted on Squarespace’s infrastructure. You can export some content (pages, blog posts, products) in XML format, but the design, custom CSS, and integrations don’t transfer. Migrating away from Squarespace requires substantial effort.
As web standards advocate and developer Matt Mullenweg (WordPress co-creator) has repeatedly emphasized: “Data portability and ownership are fundamental rights on the web. Your content should belong to you, not a platform.”
Verdict: WordPress gives you full ownership and portability. Wix and Squarespace create significant vendor lock-in — something to seriously consider before committing.
Scalability
Will the platform grow with you as your site and traffic increase?
WordPress scales from a simple personal blog to enterprise-level websites. The WordPress.org developer documentation shows just how extensible the platform is. Major brands like TechCrunch, The White House, BBC America, and Sony Music all run on WordPress. You can upgrade hosting as your traffic grows — from shared hosting to VPS to dedicated servers or managed WordPress hosting like Cloudways or Kinsta.
Wix works well for small to medium websites. However, performance can become an issue with very large sites (hundreds of pages) or high traffic volumes. Wix’s infrastructure is not designed for enterprise-scale operations, and you’re limited to the resources included in your plan.
Squarespace handles small to medium sites effectively and offers unlimited bandwidth on all plans. But like Wix, it’s not built for complex, large-scale websites. Advanced functionality often requires workarounds that become harder to maintain as your site grows.
Verdict: WordPress scales virtually without limit. Wix and Squarespace are suitable for small to medium sites but can hit ceilings as your needs grow.
Ecommerce Capabilities
Planning to sell products or services? Here’s how each platform handles ecommerce:
WordPress + WooCommerce is the most popular ecommerce solution on the web, powering over 25% of all online stores according to BuiltWith. WooCommerce is free, open-source, and supports unlimited products, payment gateways, shipping options, tax configurations, and thousands of extensions. From a 10-product store to a catalog with 100,000 items, WooCommerce can handle it.
Wix has solid built-in ecommerce features. You can sell physical products, digital downloads, bookings, and subscriptions. However, ecommerce requires at least the Business plan ($29/month), and the most powerful features are locked behind the Business Elite plan ($159/month).
Squarespace offers clean, attractive ecommerce templates and supports physical products, digital products, subscriptions, and services. The Commerce plans ($33–$65/month) include inventory management, abandoned cart recovery, and real-time shipping rates. It’s a good option for smaller stores, especially for design-focused brands.
Verdict: WordPress + WooCommerce gives you the most power and flexibility for free. Squarespace is excellent for design-first small stores. Wix covers the basics but gets expensive at scale.
Support and Community
WordPress has the largest community of any CMS — millions of developers, designers, and users worldwide. You’ll find answers on the official support forums, Stack Overflow, YouTube tutorials, and countless blogs. There’s no official phone or chat support (since it’s open-source), but your hosting provider typically offers technical support.
Wix offers 24/7 support via callback, email, and a comprehensive help center. Their support team can help with platform-specific issues directly.
Squarespace provides 24/7 email support and live chat during business hours. Their help documentation is well-organized and beginner-friendly.
Verdict: Wix and Squarespace offer direct support channels. WordPress has the largest community and most resources but no centralized support team.
The Complete Comparison at a Glance
| Category | WordPress | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Bloggers, businesses, developers, anyone who wants full control | Beginners who want drag-and-drop simplicity | Creatives and small businesses wanting polished design |
| Starting price | ~$50/year (hosting + domain) | $204/year (Light plan) | $192/year (Personal plan) |
| Ease of use | Moderate learning curve | Very easy | Easy |
| Customization | Unlimited | High (visual editor) | Moderate (within templates) |
| SEO | Excellent (best in class) | Good (improving) | Good (covers basics) |
| Plugins/Apps | 60,000+ | 300+ | Limited |
| Ecommerce | WooCommerce (free, powerful) | Built-in (paid plans) | Built-in (paid plans) |
| Ownership | Full (you own everything) | Limited (vendor lock-in) | Limited (vendor lock-in) |
| Scalability | Enterprise-grade | Small to medium | Small to medium |
Which Platform Should You Choose?
Here’s a straightforward recommendation based on your situation:
Choose WordPress If:
- You want full control and ownership of your website
- You plan to scale your site over time (more content, traffic, or features)
- SEO and organic traffic are priorities
- You want to keep costs low long-term
- You need ecommerce with WooCommerce
- You’re willing to spend 1–2 hours learning the basics
Choose Wix If:
- You’re a complete beginner and want the easiest setup experience
- You need a simple website (portfolio, small business, personal site)
- Visual drag-and-drop design is important to you
- You don’t plan to migrate your site to another platform later
Choose Squarespace If:
- Design quality is your top priority
- You’re a photographer, artist, or creative professional
- You want an all-in-one solution with built-in ecommerce
- You prefer structured templates over freeform editing
Getting Started with WordPress (Our Recommendation)
For most people reading this guide, WordPress is the best long-term choice. It gives you the most flexibility, the lowest ongoing costs, full ownership of your content, and the best SEO tools available. The initial setup takes a bit more effort, but modern hosting providers have made WordPress installation a one-click process.
Here’s how to get started in under 30 minutes:
- Choose a hosting provider — Look for providers that offer one-click WordPress installation, free SSL, and good support. Popular choices include Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger, and Cloudways.
- Register your domain — Many hosts include a free domain for the first year.
- Install WordPress — Most hosts offer one-click installation. It takes about 5 minutes.
- Choose a theme — Pick a lightweight, beginner-friendly theme like Astra, Kadence, or GeneratePress.
- Install essential plugins — Start with RankMath (SEO), a caching plugin (LiteSpeed Cache or WP Super Cache), and a security plugin (Wordfence).
- Configure your settings — Check out our guide on essential WordPress settings to configure first so you start on the right foot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I switch from Wix or Squarespace to WordPress later?
Yes, but it requires effort. You can export blog content from both platforms, but you’ll need to rebuild your design and re-configure functionality in WordPress. The longer you wait, the harder the migration becomes — which is why starting with WordPress from the beginning is often the smarter choice.
Is WordPress secure?
Yes, when properly maintained. Keep WordPress, themes, and plugins updated. Use a security plugin, strong passwords, and a reputable host. Most WordPress security issues come from outdated software or weak passwords, not the platform itself.
Do I need to know coding to use WordPress?
Not at all. The block editor and page builders like Elementor make WordPress fully visual. Coding knowledge is only needed for advanced customizations — and even then, you can hire a developer for specific tasks.
Which platform is best for blogging?
WordPress, without question. It was originally built as a blogging platform and still has the most powerful content management tools. Features like categories, tags, custom post types, RSS feeds, and advanced scheduling make it the go-to choice for serious bloggers.
Final Thoughts
There’s no universally “best” website builder — only the one that’s best for your specific needs. Wix makes getting started incredibly easy. Squarespace delivers stunning design out of the box. But WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace really comes down to this: WordPress gives you something the others can’t — complete ownership, unlimited growth potential, and an ecosystem that puts you in the driver’s seat.
For anyone building a website they plan to keep and grow over the next 5, 10, or 20 years, WordPress is the platform that will still be here — and still be adapting — when you need it.
Have questions about choosing between these platforms? Drop a comment below — we’re here to help you make the right choice for your website journey.
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Last modified: February 16, 2026
