Wix vs Squarespace (2026): Which Website Builder Is Better?
Short answer: Wix wins on price and flexibility, Squarespace wins on design and store fees. Wix's cheapest paid plan undercuts Squarespace's by $2/mo, and Squarespace still charges a 2% fee on every sale at that entry tier. Pick Wix for the cheaper start and more layout control. Pick Squarespace if you sell online often and want that fee gone by the second tier, or want a template that looks finished on day one.
For the wider field, see our best website builders and best AI website builders roundups, or 10 website builders for small business if Wix and Squarespace both feel like overkill. If you're weighing a dedicated store instead of a website builder's bolt-on shop, check best ecommerce platforms.
At a glance
| Dimension | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Wix.com Ltd | Squarespace, Inc. |
| Free tier | Yes, Wix-branded subdomain | No, 14-day free trial only |
| Cheapest paid plan | Light $17/mo billed annually | Basic $19/mo billed annually, $25/mo billed monthly |
| Mid tier | Core $29/mo billed annually | Core $29/mo billed annually, $39/mo billed monthly |
| Top consumer tier | Business Elite $159/mo billed annually | Advanced $99/mo billed annually, $139/mo billed monthly |
| Storage, cheapest paid plan | 2 GB | Unlimited on every paid plan |
| Online store transaction fee, cheapest paid plan | Not applicable (no store on Light) | 2% on Basic |
| Editor style | Free-form drag and drop, place anything anywhere | Grid-locked sections inside a template |
| AI site builder | Yes, generates a full site from a prompt | Yes, Design Intelligence and an AI website builder |
| Support | 24/7 in most regions | 24/7 |
What each one actually is
Wix is a free-form website builder: you drag elements onto a blank canvas and position them pixel by pixel, or let its AI tool generate a starting layout from a text prompt. That freedom is also Wix's biggest support complaint, since nothing stops you from stacking elements into a page that looks fine on desktop and breaks on mobile. Wix's paid plans, checked on wix.com/plans, September 2026, run Light, Core, Business and Business Elite, each unlocking more storage, more site collaborators and a heavier ecommerce feature set than the last.
Squarespace builds every site from a template with a fixed grid of sections, so a page looks professionally laid out from the moment you publish, at the cost of never quite achieving a fully custom layout. Its four plans, checked on squarespace.com/pricing, September 2026, are named Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced, and the jump between tiers is defined less by storage (every plan gets unlimited) and more by how much of your sales Squarespace keeps as a transaction fee.
Pricing: verified on both vendors' pricing pages
Wix, verified on wix.com/plans, US pricing, September 2026, billed annually:
- Free: $0, Wix-branded subdomain, no custom domain
- Light: $17/mo, 2 GB storage, a free domain for the first year, 2 site collaborators, no ecommerce
- Core: $29/mo, 50 GB storage, basic ecommerce and online payments, scheduling, 5 collaborators
- Business: $39/mo, 100 GB storage, standard ecommerce, 10 collaborators
- Business Elite: $159/mo, unlimited storage, advanced ecommerce and developer platform, 100 collaborators
Squarespace, verified on squarespace.com/pricing, US pricing, September 2026:
- Basic: $19/mo billed annually ($25/mo billed monthly). 2% transaction fee on online store sales, 7% on digital content and memberships, up to 2 site contributors
- Core: $29/mo billed annually ($39/mo billed monthly). 0% store transaction fee, 5% on digital content, unlimited contributors, advanced analytics
- Plus: $49/mo billed annually ($65/mo billed monthly). 0% store transaction fee, 1% on digital content, cart recovery and advanced shipping tools
- Advanced: $99/mo billed annually ($139/mo billed monthly). 0% store transaction fee, 0% on digital content, API access for sales automation
Squarespace has no free tier, only a 14-day free trial that requires no card. Wix's free plan never expires but keeps a wix.com subdomain and Wix ads on the page, so most buyers who compare the two are really comparing paid tiers. Entry pricing favors Wix by $2/mo on the cheapest annual plan, and by a wider margin once you factor in Squarespace's 2% cut of every Basic-plan sale.
Round by round
Cheapest entry price: Wix wins. Its entry plan undercuts Squarespace's by $2/mo, and Wix's free plan gives a real (if branded) option Squarespace does not offer at all.
Selling online without paying a cut: Squarespace wins from Core up. Wix charges no separate platform transaction fee once you're on a paid ecommerce plan, but Squarespace's Basic plan carries a 2% fee that disappears entirely from Core onward. A store doing meaningful volume on Squarespace Basic pays that 2% on every sale; moving up to Core for $10/mo more than Basic often costs less than the fee it removes.
Design control: Wix wins for custom layouts, Squarespace wins for a finished look on day one. Wix's free-form editor places any element anywhere on the page, which suits anyone who wants a specific, unusual layout and is willing to fix their own spacing mistakes. Squarespace locks you into a template's section grid, which produces a cleaner result with less effort but caps how far you can push a design away from that template's look.
Storage: Squarespace wins outright. Every Squarespace plan, including Basic, ships unlimited storage. Wix's Light plan caps out at 2 GB, and a site with a lot of video or high-resolution photography can hit that ceiling fast; Wix's Core plan at 50 GB is the realistic starting point for a media-heavy site.
Ecommerce depth at the top tier: close, Wix ships more seats. Wix Business Elite includes an advanced developer platform and 100 site collaborators for $159/mo; Squarespace Advanced drops its transaction fee to zero and adds sales-automation API access for $99/mo, cheaper but without Wix's collaborator count or developer tooling.
AI site generation: tie. Both vendors now generate a starting site from a text prompt, Wix through its AI site builder and Squarespace through Design Intelligence paired with its own AI website builder. Neither replaces manual editing for a launch-ready page; both are a faster starting point than a blank template. See our best AI tools for creating websites for how these AI builders stack up against dedicated design tools.
Strengths and real limits
Wix's real strengths: a genuine free plan, the cheapest paid entry point of the two, and an editor that puts no ceiling on layout creativity. Wix's real limit: 2 GB of storage on Light forces an upgrade fast for any site with real media, and the same drag-anywhere freedom that enables custom layouts also makes it easy to build a page that looks broken on mobile.
Squarespace's real strengths: unlimited storage on every plan including Basic, templates that look designed rather than assembled, and a transaction fee that drops to 0% starting on Core. Squarespace's real limit: no free plan, a mandatory 14-day trial instead, and Basic-plan sellers pay 2% on every online sale until they upgrade.
Who should pick what
Pick Wix if:
- You want the lowest paid entry price or a permanently free option
- You're designing a layout that doesn't fit a standard template grid
- Your site is mostly text and light images, so 2 GB on Light is enough to start
Pick Squarespace if:
- You're already selling online and want the 2% transaction fee gone as soon as you can afford Core
- Your site holds a lot of photo or video and unlimited storage matters from day one
- You'd rather start from a template that looks finished than build layout by layout
Pick something else entirely if ecommerce, not a general website, is the actual job: see best ecommerce platforms for dedicated store software instead of a builder's add-on shop. For a content-heavy site built around a blog or docs rather than a storefront, our best CMS platforms and best content management for small business roundups cover the alternative. If online scheduling is the main feature you need from either plan's booking tools, compare it against our best scheduling apps list.
Dupple data: Toolradar (our software directory) tracks 198 website builder tools as of September 2026, per its live best website builders ranking. Wix and Squarespace both place in that list alongside Webflow and Framer, so this is a comparison between two of the handful of general-purpose builders buyers actually shortlist, not a niche pick. See our own best website builders and best AI website builders for where each one lands against the rest of the field, and how to integrate AI into a website for what each vendor's AI tools can and cannot do for you.
Methodology
Every price above was read on the vendor's own US pricing page in September 2026: wix.com/plans and squarespace.com/pricing. Transaction fee figures for Squarespace were cross-checked against Squarespace's own help center article on choosing a plan, which confirms the same 2% Basic-plan rate. This page carries no paid placement; neither vendor paid for inclusion or wording. It is not benchmark testing of load speed or uptime, and we say so rather than borrow a third party's numbers.
FAQ
Is Wix cheaper than Squarespace?
On the entry tier, yes. Wix Light is $17/mo billed annually against Squarespace Basic's $19/mo billed annually. The gap widens for anyone selling online, since Squarespace Basic also takes a 2% cut of every sale that Wix's paid plans do not charge.
Does Squarespace still charge a transaction fee?
Only on the Basic plan, at 2% on store sales and 7% on digital content or memberships. That fee drops to 0% on store sales starting with the Core plan at $29/mo billed annually, verified on Squarespace's own pricing page.
Which is easier to use, Wix or Squarespace?
Squarespace's template grid gets a page looking finished faster because it limits how far you can move things around. Wix's free-form editor takes longer to get right but lets you build a layout Squarespace's grid cannot reproduce.
Does Wix have a free plan?
Yes, permanently, not just a trial. It keeps a wix.com subdomain and Wix branding on the page and excludes ecommerce, so most buyers comparing Wix to Squarespace are really comparing Wix's paid tiers to Squarespace's.
Which has better storage limits?
Squarespace, by a wide margin. Every Squarespace plan, including Basic, includes unlimited storage. Wix's cheapest paid plan, Light, caps out at 2 GB, and a media-heavy site needs Wix's Core plan (50 GB) to get comparable headroom.
Wix vs Squarespace for an online store?
Squarespace from Core upward if fee-free sales matter most, since its transaction fee hits zero at that tier. Wix's matching Core tier includes basic ecommerce with no separate platform transaction fee at any paid plan, so the better pick depends on whether you value Wix's layout freedom or Squarespace's zero-fee guarantee more once you're past the entry tier. For a store that outgrows either builder's bolt-on shop, see best ecommerce platforms and best AI product description writers for listing content at scale.
Cite this: Dupple, "Wix vs Squarespace (2026): Which Website Builder Is Better?", September 2026.
Neither builder wins every category. Pick Wix for the cheaper start and total layout control, or Squarespace for unlimited storage and a store that stops paying a platform fee sooner. Start your free 14-day Dupple X trial →
