Squarespace vs Wix (2026): Pricing, SEO and Which to Pick
Squarespace vs Wix in 2026: current prices after the July increase, SEO tools, speed, lock-in and 3-year cost, plus when a custom site is the better buy.
Working through a similar problem? Tell us what you want to build.
Legacies is an independent digital product brand based in Bucharest, Romania, founded by Horia Stan and Alexandru Tălnaci, that builds websites, landing pages and web apps for businesses worldwide. Wix and Squarespace both cover the basics of a business website, but they differ in design controls, SEO tools and the options available when you want to leave.
Short answer: pick Squarespace if you want a polished site with very little to configure. Pick Wix if you want more flexibility, more built-in SEO controls or a free plan to test with. Both now cost about the same, around $29 a month for the plan most businesses need. Neither one lets you take your site with you when you leave.
Quick answer
- Pick Squarespace for portfolios, studios, restaurants and service businesses that care most about design and want fewer choices to make.
- Pick Wix for small businesses that want more apps, more layout freedom, a robots.txt editor and a free plan to start on.
- Price: at the time of writing, Squarespace Core is $29 a month and Wix Core is $29.77 a month, both billed yearly in the US. That is roughly $1,050 over three years before a domain.
- Lock-in: Wix sites cannot be moved to another host. Squarespace exports only part of your content. If the site is how most of your clients find you, factor that in before you build.
Squarespace vs Wix at a glance
Here is the short version. Prices are US list prices on yearly billing, at the time of writing. Both platforms show different prices and currencies depending on where you are.
| Squarespace | Wix | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | Basic, $19/month | Light, $17.77/month |
| Plan most businesses pick | Core, $29/month | Core, $29.77/month |
| Top plan | Advanced, $99/month | Business Elite, $159.77/month |
| Free plan | No, 14-day trial | Yes, with Wix ads and a Wix subdomain |
| Free domain | First year on yearly plans | First year on yearly premium plans |
| Editor style | Structured sections, harder to break | Freeform drag and drop, more freedom |
| SEO controls | Solid basics | Basics plus robots.txt editor and more settings |
| Leaving the platform | Partial XML export | No export, the site stays on Wix |
| Best for | Design-first brands, portfolios | Flexible small business sites, more apps |
Sources: Wix plans page (it notes USD prices are for reference and vary by location) and Style Factory's Squarespace pricing guide, updated September 2026. Squarespace's own pricing page shows the price for your region.
Pricing in 2026: what changed and what you really pay
Squarespace raised its US prices in July 2026. On yearly billing, Basic went from $16 to $19 a month, Core from $23 to $29 and Plus from $39 to $49. Advanced stayed at $99. On monthly billing, Basic is $25, Core $39, Plus $65 and Advanced $139. If you signed up at the old prices, check your renewal email for the new amount.
Wix's current line-up is Light, Core, Business and Business Elite. The older Combo and VIP plans are gone. Wix lists Light at $17.77, Core at $29.77, Business at $39.77 and Business Elite at $159.77 a month, billed yearly and paid upfront.
Transaction fees
This is where the two really differ for anyone selling online.
| Plan | Squarespace store fee | Squarespace digital and membership fee |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2% | 7% |
| Core | 0% | 5% |
| Plus | 0% | 1% |
| Advanced | 0% | 0% |
Card processing comes on top of these fees. On Squarespace Payments, card rates start at 2.0% plus a fixed fee per transaction on Basic and Core, according to the pricing page. If you sell courses or memberships on Squarespace Core, 5% of every sale goes to the platform before card fees. Wix does not charge its own commission on sales on paid plans. You pay the payment provider's processing fees, and you need a plan that can accept payments.
The 3-year math
Here is what you pay over three years for the plan a typical service business would use, at the current US yearly prices.
| Plan | Per month | 3 years |
|---|---|---|
| Squarespace Basic | $19 | $684 |
| Wix Light | $17.77 | about $640 |
| Squarespace Core | $29 | $1,044 |
| Wix Core | $29.77 | about $1,072 |
| Wix Business | $39.77 | about $1,432 |
Add a domain renewal of roughly $20 to $25 a year after the first free year. The real cost is the same with both. You rent the site, and the meter never stops. We ran the same math for WordPress and custom builds in Wix vs WordPress vs a custom website.
Design and ease of use
Squarespace gives you structured sections and a small set of fonts and colors that look good together. It is hard to make an ugly Squarespace site. It is also hard to make one that does not look a bit like other Squarespace sites. For a photographer, a studio or a restaurant that wants something clean by Friday, that trade-off is often fine.
Wix gives you more freedom. You can place elements almost anywhere, add apps from the Wix App Market and build more unusual layouts. That freedom works both ways. A Wix site built quickly often has crowded mobile layouts and a mix of styles across pages. Wix also has Wix Studio for designers and agencies who want more control over responsive design.
Both now have AI tools that create a first draft of a site from a few questions. They save an afternoon. They do not replace thinking about who your customer is and what you want them to do. We wrote about where AI builders stop in AI website builder vs web designer.
SEO: which one ranks better?
Neither platform will rank you by itself. Content, links, your Google Business Profile and how useful the page is matter far more than the builder. Both platforms handle the basics: editable titles and meta descriptions, clean URLs, an automatic sitemap, SSL and mobile layouts.
The differences are in the details:
- Wix gives you more technical control. It has an SEO setup checklist, editable robots.txt, custom structured data per page and bulk 301 redirects. If you are moving an older site with many URLs, that redirect manager is useful.
- Squarespace covers the basics and stops there. You can set titles, descriptions, URL slugs and redirects. At the time of writing, it has no robots.txt editor. For a local service business with 5 to 10 pages, that is usually enough.
- AI crawlers. Squarespace has a setting to block known AI crawlers, and Wix lets you edit robots.txt yourself. Think twice before blocking them. If assistants cannot read your site, they cannot recommend you. We explain the trade-off in should you block AI crawlers.
On speed, both have improved a lot. Published Core Web Vitals pass rates for the two vary widely from one study to the next, and most put them in a similar range, often with Wix slightly ahead. The HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report shows real-user data by platform if you want to check it yourself. What hurts speed in practice is what you add to the site: large hero videos, uncompressed images and third-party widgets.
If your builder site already exists and does not show up on Google, the platform is rarely the main cause. Start with why your website is not showing up on Google.
Lock-in: the part people check too late
This is the biggest difference between a builder and a site you own, and it rarely makes the comparison tables.
Wix states plainly in its help center that a site cannot be moved to another host, because it runs on Wix's own technology. You can transfer your domain away. The design, layout and most of the structure stay behind. Leaving Wix means rebuilding the site.
Squarespace offers an export to a WordPress-format XML file, but it is partial. Layout pages, one blog and text and image blocks export. Store pages, portfolio and index pages, extra blogs, product blocks, video blocks, style settings and custom CSS do not. Images may not carry over either.
None of this is a scandal. It is how website builders work. Before you pay, ask yourself one question: if you outgrow this in two years, are you fine rebuilding from scratch? If the honest answer is no, plan for that now. And if you do move, protect the rankings you already have with our redesign without losing SEO checklist.
When neither is the right answer
Builders are a good deal when the site is a simple online card. They become a worse deal in a few situations:
- The site is how clients find you. You need full control over structure, speed and structured data, for Google and for AI assistants.
- You will outgrow the template. Booking flows, client portals, calculators or integrations with your own tools usually end in workarounds and extra apps on a builder.
- The subscription keeps growing. Premium apps, extra seats and higher plans add up quietly.
- You want to own it. Code, hosting and domain in your name, movable to any host or any developer.
This is the work we do. We build custom business websites in Next.js with a fixed price agreed before we start. A 4-6 page business website starts at 2,199 lei (about EUR 440) and takes 14-21 days. A landing page starts at 1,499 lei (about EUR 300) and takes 7-10 days. You get all the access and files, so nothing is locked to us. Hosting a site like this can cost little or nothing a month, and maintenance is optional. Full details are on our services page, and you can see what we have built on our projects page.
That is not cheaper than Wix in the first year. Over three years it is often in the same range as a Core plan. The difference is that you own the result. For the wider market picture, see how much a business website costs in 2026.
How to choose in five minutes
- Write down what the site must doShow work, take bookings, sell products or collect leads. A simple brochure site fits either builder.
- Check the fees for how you sellIf you sell digital products or memberships, compare Squarespace's percentage fees with Wix's flat plans at your real sales volume.
- Try both for freeUse the Squarespace 14-day trial and the Wix free plan. Build the same homepage on both and check it on your phone.
- Decide how long you plan to stayIf the site has to grow with the business for years, compare the 3-year subscription with a site you own.
If you are also considering more design-led tools, our Framer vs Webflow comparison covers the next step up.
Do it yourself or hand it over
Doing it yourself on Squarespace or Wix is fine when you are starting out, your budget is a few hundred dollars a year and most clients come from referrals rather than search. Pick the one whose editor you enjoy and publish this week. A live simple site beats a perfect one that does not exist.
Hand it over when Google and AI assistants are where new clients find you, when you keep fighting the template, or when you are paying for apps to make the builder do basic things. Start with the free audit to see where your current site stands, or look at our services and send us a message at [email protected]. We reply with a fixed price and a delivery date, not a sales pitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wix or Squarespace better for a small business?
For most small service businesses, both work, and the choice comes down to taste. Squarespace is better if you want a polished design with few decisions to make. Wix is better if you want more layout freedom, more apps and more SEO settings. At the time of writing, their core plans cost almost the same, about $29 to $30 a month billed yearly in the US.
Which is cheaper, Wix or Squarespace, in 2026?
Wix is slightly cheaper at the bottom: Light is $17.77 a month on yearly billing, against $19 for Squarespace Basic, at the time of writing. The popular Core plans are almost the same price, $29.77 for Wix and $29 for Squarespace. Wix also has a free plan with ads. Squarespace only offers a 14-day trial. If you sell digital products or memberships, Squarespace's percentage fees on lower plans can change the math.
Did Squarespace raise its prices in 2026?
Yes. In July 2026, Squarespace raised its US prices on yearly billing: Basic from $16 to $19 a month, Core from $23 to $29 and Plus from $39 to $49, while Advanced stayed at $99. Monthly billing for Core and Plus also went up. Prices differ by country, so check the pricing page or your renewal email for your exact amount.
Is Wix or Squarespace better for SEO?
Wix gives you more technical SEO control, including a robots.txt editor, custom structured data and bulk redirects. Squarespace handles the basics well and is usually enough for a small local business site. In practice, your content, Google Business Profile, reviews and links decide rankings far more than which of the two builders you use.
Can I move my Wix or Squarespace site to another platform later?
Not fully. Wix says its sites cannot be moved to another host, so leaving means rebuilding the site, although you can transfer your domain. Squarespace exports some content as a WordPress-format XML file, but store pages, portfolio pages, extra blogs, video blocks, styles and custom CSS are not included. Plan any move carefully and set up 301 redirects to keep your rankings.
When should I pay for a custom website instead of Wix or Squarespace?
A custom site makes sense when search and AI assistants bring you most new clients, when you need features a template cannot handle well, or when you want to own the code and hosting. At Legacies, a custom 4-6 page business website starts at 2,199 lei, about EUR 440, with a fixed price agreed before work starts. Over three years, that is often close to what a builder subscription costs in total.
Do Wix and Squarespace include a free domain?
Both include a free custom domain for the first year on yearly paid plans, at the time of writing. After that, you pay the normal renewal price each year. Monthly plans and Wix's free plan do not include a free domain, and a free Wix site runs on a Wix subdomain with Wix ads.