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Wix vs Squarespace, from a designer’s point of view

$17.77 against $19 a month, so the price is the least useful thing about this decision. Neither will let you leave with the design you made.

Every figure read off both vendors’ own pages on

The short answer.

Three things separate them: Wix publishes free, Wix Studio imports from Figma and edits its breakpoints, and Squarespace hands a client a template that survives being edited. Everything else is close enough to be noise.

  • Pick Wix if

    You have nothing to spend yet. The free plan publishes a real page with Wix ads and a wixsite.com address, and Squarespace has no free plan at all.

    The design starts in Figma. Wix Studio has a Figma import, with real limits, and Squarespace has none of any kind.

    You want breakpoints you can edit. Wix Studio ships three you can change or add to, where Squarespace gives you desktop and mobile only.

    The content model has to get big. Wix Studio runs from 1,500 CMS items on Basic to 10,000,000 on Elite.

  • Pick Squarespace if

    A client will be editing it. The template handles responsive behavior, spacing and type, so three added paragraphs will not break the layout.

    You want one product, not a choice of two. Squarespace has a single editor, where Wix makes you pick Wix Editor or Wix Studio before you start.

    The site is content-led from day one. A blog with categories and tags, plus portfolio pages with project sub-pages, comes on the cheapest plan.

    You want a way out, however partial. The .xml export is thin, and still more than Wix offers, which is nothing.

Side by side.

Neither column is ours. Where a row says Wix Studio or Wix Editor, it means only that one.

Feature Wix Squarespace
Free plan that publishes a public site Yes, to a siteprefix.wixsite.com/siteaddress address with Wix ads on the page. 500MB storage, 1GB bandwidth, no custom domain No. Every site starts on a 14-day trial, no credit card required, and then you pay
Cheapest plan that publishes to your own domain $17.77/mo on Wix Editor Light, as a yearly subscription paid in full. Wix Studio starts at EUR 12/mo on the EU price sheet $19/mo billed annually on Basic
What the upper tiers cost $29.77 to $159.77 on Wix Editor Core, Business and Business Elite. Wix Studio Standard, Plus and Elite are EUR 20, 32 and 149 on the EU sheet EUR 18 to 69 on Core, Plus and Advanced. Squarespace states no USD figure for these tiers on a US-facing page
How many editors you have to choose between Two: the classic Wix Editor and Wix Studio, on separate price sheets with different plan names One
Domain included A free domain for the first year on every paid plan, both products One custom domain free for the first year on annual billing, renewing at a TLD price Squarespace does not state
Figma import Yes, in Wix Studio only. One-way with no re-sync, one page at a time, and no Studio-to-Figma direction None. A design made in Figma is rebuilt by hand inside Squarespace's editor
What the Figma import will not carry Menus and forms arrive as plain text and lose their functionality. Buttons convert only if they are text with a fill color. Videos, galleries and input elements are not recognized Not applicable: there is no import to carry anything
Responsive control Wix Studio ships three breakpoints (desktop from 1,001px, tablet 751 to 1,000px, mobile 350 to 750px) and they are editable, with custom ones addable code-free. Not listed for the classic Wix Editor Fluid Engine gives exactly two layouts, desktop and mobile. No tablet layout and no custom breakpoints
Site-wide animation Not listed Five presets with a slow, medium or fast speed control. No timeline and no scroll-scrub
Custom code and JavaScript Not listed per tier Not on Basic: no code injection, no JavaScript or iframes in code blocks, no Developer Platform and no third-party integrations. Core and above only
CMS and blog Wix Studio carries 1,500 CMS items on Basic up to 10,000,000 on Elite. The Wix Editor pricing page does not break the CMS out per tier A native blog with categories and tags, plus portfolio pages with project sub-pages and gallery layouts, from the cheapest plan up
Selling From Core up on Wix Editor: basic, then standard on Business, then advanced on Business Elite From Basic, with a 2% store transaction fee. 0% from Core up, plus subscriptions, memberships, courses, invoices and appointments
Getting the site out again None. Wix states a site must run on Wix's servers. CMS collections come out as CSV and blog posts cannot be exported to another platform at all One .xml file aimed at WordPress. Custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio, index, cover, album and store pages and product blocks are all excluded, and it cannot be imported into another Squarespace site
Collaborators Wix Editor: 2 on Light, 5 on Core, 10 on Business, 100 on Business Elite. Wix Studio: 3, 5, 10 and 100 2 contributors on Basic, unlimited from Core up
Hosting and SSL Yes, included Yes, included, with DDoS protection and 24/7 human support

Wix and Squarespace details checked on 2026-09-04 against www.wix.com, support.wix.com, www.squarespace.com, support.squarespace.com. Prices change; tell us if a cell is out of date.

What each one charges.

Both publish an entry price in dollars and serve the tiers above it by region, so the upper tiers below are in euros on both sides. Check the number from where you actually are.

Wix Editor plans

  • Free

    Free

    Publishes to a siteprefix.wixsite.com/siteaddress address with Wix ads on the page. 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth. No custom domain.

  • Light Entry plan

    $17.77 per month, yearly subscription paid in full

    Free domain for one year, 2 GB storage, 2 site collaborators. No payments and no e-commerce.

  • Core, Business, Business Elite

    $29.77 to $159.77 per month, yearly subscription paid in full

    Where payments and e-commerce start. 50 GB then 100 GB then unlimited storage, 5 then 10 then 100 site collaborators, and basic then standard then advanced e-commerce. Business Elite adds the advanced developer platform.

Read off Wix's pricing page on 2026-09-04. Prices change; tell us if one is out of date.

Wix Studio plans, a separate ladder

  • Basic Entry plan

    EUR 12 per month, EU price sheet

    10 GB media, 3 site collaborators, 1,500 CMS items, free domain for one year.

  • Standard

    EUR 20 per month, EU price sheet

    50 GB media, 5 site collaborators, 4,000 CMS items, accept payments.

  • Plus, Elite

    EUR 32 and 149 per month, EU price sheet

    120 GB then unlimited media, 10 then 100 site collaborators, 20,000 then 10,000,000 CMS items. Wix serves this ladder by region and states no USD figure we could read.

Read off the Wix Studio pricing page on 2026-09-04. Prices change; tell us if one is out of date.

Squarespace plans

  • Trial

    Free

    There is no free plan. Every site starts on a 14-day trial, no credit card required.

  • Basic Entry plan

    $19 per month billed annually

    Custom domain free for the first year on annual billing, up to 1,000 pages, blog and portfolio pages, 2 contributors, 30 minutes of video. No code injection, no JavaScript, 2% store transaction fee.

  • Core, Plus, Advanced

    EUR 18-69 per month billed annually, EU price sheet

    Adds code injection, unlimited contributors, a 0% store fee and more video storage. Squarespace serves its pricing page by region and states no USD figure for these tiers on a US-facing page, so the EU sheet is what we can verify.

Read off Squarespace's pricing page on 2026-09-03. Prices change; tell us if one is out of date.

What actually decides it.

$1.23 a month apart. What matters is not on the price page.

Only Wix publishes for free

Wix puts a live page online for nothing, with Wix ads, a wixsite.com address, 500MB of storage, 1GB of bandwidth and no custom domain. Squarespace starts every site on a 14-day trial with no card required, and then you pay or the site goes away.

As a designer, you are choosing Wix Studio

Wix Studio is a separate product from the classic Wix Editor, on its own price sheet. Editable breakpoints, the Figma plugin and the CMS with per-tier limits live in Studio only.

Only Wix Studio starts from Figma

Squarespace has no Figma import, so an approved design is rebuilt by hand. Wix Studio imports one page at a time with no re-sync; menus and forms arrive as plain text, and videos, galleries and input elements are not recognized.

Squarespace Basic is locked down

There is no code injection, no JavaScript or iframes in code blocks and no third-party integrations until Core. Fluid Engine gives two layouts, desktop and mobile, with no tablet layout and no custom breakpoints.

Neither lets you take the design

Wix says a site must run on its servers and has no HTML or CSS export; CMS collections come out as CSV, and blog posts cannot be exported to another platform. Squarespace exports one .xml file aimed at WordPress that leaves out custom code, style settings and portfolio, index and store pages, so what you get out is roughly the text.

Frequently asked.

More answers in the Help Center
Is Wix or Squarespace better?

For a designer working from a Figma file, Wix Studio, because it imports the design and lets you edit the breakpoints. For a site a client will maintain, or one that is content and commerce first, Squarespace; for anyone who cannot pay yet, Wix.

Is Squarespace cheaper than Wix?

No, and not by enough to matter: Squarespace Basic is $19 a month billed annually, and Wix Editor Light is $17.77 a month as a yearly subscription paid in full. Above the entry tier both serve prices by region.

Does Squarespace have a free plan?

No. There is a 14-day trial with no card required, and then you pay; Wix does have a free plan, which publishes to a wixsite.com address with Wix ads on the page.

Can I move my site from Wix to Squarespace?

Not as a design: there is no HTML or CSS export from Wix, so the site is rebuilt page by page. Blog posts cannot be exported to another platform at all, so copy your text and images before you cancel.

Which one is better for a portfolio?

Squarespace if the portfolio is case studies you keep adding to, since portfolio pages are on the cheapest plan. Wix Studio if the portfolio is the design work itself; our personal website examples page covers what the good ones share.

Can I use custom code on either one?

On Squarespace, not on Basic: code injection, code blocks with JavaScript and third-party integrations need Core or above. For Wix no primary source gives a per-tier answer.

Where Siter.io fits.

We make Siter.io, so this is the one section about us.

Siter.io is a much smaller builder for designed pages, not a small-business platform: you design on its own canvas, one layout per breakpoint, or import a Figma frame. It publishes free at name.getsiter.com or on your own domain from $7/mo billed yearly, priced per plan: Plus at $12 a month publishes 3 sites.

It has gaps: no CMS, no e-commerce (listed as upcoming, with no date), no full-site code export, and each breakpoint’s layout is positioned by hand. The Free plan publishes one website of up to 3 pages with our badge, and Wix publishes free as well, so a free plan is no reason to pick us.

If the site needs a content model or a store, pick one of the two above. Our Wix comparison and Squarespace comparison set out each trade.

Also useful: Webflow vs Wix, Framer vs Squarespace, and Webflow vs Squarespace.

A third option,
if neither fits.

If the site is designed pages you already have in Figma and there is no blog or shop to run, Siter.io publishes them.

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