Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Which Is The Optimal Choice
By Sam Nguyen
Key Takeaways
- With its versatile features and robust app market, Wix is the top choice for creating dynamic and engaging websites.
- Squarespace impresses with stunning templates and excellent value, making it ideal for those who prioritize aesthetics.
- Weebly is a budget-friendly option for basic websites, although it may lack the advanced features of its competitors.
In this article, we detailly compare three popular website builders: Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. From user-friendly interfaces to unique features, we evaluate their strengths and weaknesses to help you make an informed choice for your website-building journey.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Key Differences
Building a website is no longer reserved for tech experts in today’s digital world. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace offer user-friendly solutions that don’t require any coding knowledge. But let’s delve into how easy they truly are to use based on real experiences from users like you.
Wix
Wix is a standout choice for its simplicity and creative freedom. With its drag-and-drop editor, you can easily craft a unique website by placing elements like text boxes, videos, and buttons exactly where you want them. Users love this feature, finding it easy to implement elements.
However, for some, the abundance of options might be overwhelming. The liberty to drag anything anywhere sometimes leads to clutter. Despite this, Wix’s flexibility and control make it an excellent choice, especially for those who want a personalized touch. If you’d prefer a bit more structure, Weebly or Squarespace might be better suited.
Weebly
Weebly caters well to beginners and those new to website building. Its editor is straightforward, and adding elements is easy, thanks to clear signposts. However, it scores slightly lower in user testing than Wix and Squarespace.
The platform’s downfall lies in its customization. While its structured templates guide design, they can sometimes limit creativity. Users find it challenging to place elements exactly where they want them, leading to frustration. Weebly is a good choice for those prioritizing speed and simplicity over extensive customization.
Squarespace
With its drag-and-drop editor and Fluid Engine, Squarespace earns its reputation as a user-friendly platform. It’s undergone improvements and now features the Squarespace Blueprint, making website building even more manageable.
Squarespace follows a minimalist approach, and while this keeps things neat, finding specific elements might take a bit longer. However, the platform offers helpful guidance through SEO prompts and tutorials.
Users often say Squarespace feels like having a professional designer at your service. The design results from using Squarespace are stunning, even if you’re not a web development expert.
Who is the winner?
Based on the provided information and the needs of different target audiences, the winner among the three platforms is Wix.
Wix is the top choice due to its balanced user-friendly features and creative control. With its drag-and-drop editor and the option to use Wix ADI for a quick setup, Wix caters to a wide range of users, from beginners to more experienced individuals. It offers a high degree of customization while maintaining simplicity, making it suitable for Online Entrepreneurs & SMBs, Bloggers and Content Creators, Designers and Creative Professionals.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Quick Comparison
| Category | Wix | Weebly | Squarespace |
| Ease of Use | Super simple drag-and-drop editing. | Beginner-friendly but less intuitive. | Very easy to use with a simple editor. |
| Design Flexibility | Over 800 customizable templates. | More structured designs with template switching. | Stylish, modern designs with creative freedom. |
| Value for Money | Offers 4 plans with ecommerce options. | 3 plans, not ideal for ecommerce. | 4 premium plans with ecommerce features. |
| Website Features | Wide range of features for growth. | Limited features, suitable for simple websites. | Built-in features are not as extensive as Wix. |
| App Markets | Extensive app selection, free and premium options. | Numerous apps could be better to navigate. | Smaller extension store, built-in features. |
| SEO | Built-in SEO tools, suitable for beginners. | Built-in SEO tools, slightly limited in features. | Built-in SEO tools, thorough but not beginner-friendly. |
| Ecommerce | Ecommerce plans with various sales features. | Ecommerce features provided by Square Online. | Specific ecommerce plans with sales features. |
| Help and Support | Variety of support options, no email support. | Multiple support options, not 24/7. | Excellent support via email, chat, and resources. |
Based on this comparison, Wix and Squarespace are the winners, offering a well-rounded set of features and user-friendly experiences for the target audience.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Ease Of Use
Wix
Wix stands out as the top choice, offering easy and intuitive drag-and-drop design features for the website. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, Wix caters to all levels of expertise. The platform empowers you with a range of features while maintaining user-friendliness. Creative control and growth tools make Wix a standout option for anyone seeking quality without complexity.
Weebly
Weebly is a solid choice for those who prioritize ease and want to build an essential website quickly. It’s especially appealing for short-term projects and budget-conscious users. The straightforward editor and clear signposting of elements make it easy to navigate. However, customization can be less intuitive, and the templates might restrict design options.
Squarespace
Squarespace offers a luxurious feel to website creation, delivering professional-grade designs and high-quality built-in tools, all at an excellent value for money. The drag-and-drop editor, Fluid Engine, and Squarespace Blueprint contribute to the user-friendliness. The platform’s minimalist approach ensures a clean design experience, even though it may require more exploration to find specific elements.
Who is the winner?
The winner in terms of ease of use is Weebly, Its simplicity and user-friendly interface make it a strong contender for individuals new to website design or seeking a straightforward platform.
For those who prioritize ease and want to establish an essential website quickly, Weebly offers an intuitive editor and clear signposting of elements. This means that even without technical expertise, you can easily navigate the platform and add components to your site without hassle.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Pricing Plans
Website builders like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace offer cost-effective plans for all users. Here’s a quick breakdown of their pricing:
Wix
- Light: $16 per month (billed annually)
- Core: $27 per month (billed annually) – Basic ecommerce
- Business: $32 per month (billed annually) – Standard ecommerce
- Business Elite: $159 per month (billed annually) – Advanced ecommerce
Weebly
- Personal: $10 per month (billed annually)
- Professional: $12 per month (billed annually)
- Performance: $26 per month (billed annually)
Squarespace
- Personal: $16 per month (billed annually)
- Business: $23 per month (billed annually)
- Basic Commerce: $27 per month (billed annually)
- Advanced Commerce: $49 per month (billed annually)
Who is the winner?
Ultimately, Squarespace stands out as the best value for money, offering a balance of features and cost.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Design Features
The appearance of your website matters, and Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace offer tools to make it look great. Here’s the detailed analysis of such design features
Wix
Wix boasts 800+ templates in various categories for different industries. These templates are easily customizable using the drag-and-drop editor. They are also mobile-responsive, ensuring your site looks good on all devices. However, once you pick a template, you can’t change it later.
Weebly
Weebly offers over 50 themes, with the advantage of switching templates whenever you like. Although it has fewer templates compared to Wix, customization is possible. The editor is restrictive, but you can use code for unique designs. Unfortunately, Weebly’s themes lack modern style, and mobile optimization isn’t the best among the three website builders.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a design powerhouse with a high rating for design flexibility. While its templates are fewer than Wix; however, the Squarespace themes are designed to perfection.
You can search by category or purpose, preview, and favorite designs. They’re fully mobile-friendly and offer great customization within set rows. The only drawback is that you can’t change the template once you publish your site with Squarespace’s new version (7.1).
Who is the winner?
Regarding design features, Squarespace stands out with its high-quality templates and customization options, followed by Wix. Weebly lags behind due to limited modern templates and mobile optimization issues.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Website Features
When it comes to features and tools, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly offer different levels of support to elevate your website’s performance:
Blogging
All three platforms, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly, receive a perfect 5 out of 5 scores for blogging features. Each platform provides the essential tools for creating and managing a successful blog, including multiple writer profiles, comments, social sharing, and post scheduling.
Marketing
Wix stands out with a perfect score in marketing features. Its Wix Ascend package offers various marketing tools, including email campaigns, social media sharing, and banners. Squarespace also offers fully integrated marketing features directly from its dashboard. Weebly lags behind as it only provides limited marketing tools through apps, and its Weebly Promote email marketing service.
Social Media Integration
Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly all offer social media integration, but there are differences in their approaches. Wix provides share buttons, social tools, and a dedicated social dashboard. Squarespace excels with its comprehensive integration, allowing linking to over 25 social accounts and auto-posting features. Weebly’s integration is basic, limited to adding icons that link to social media accounts.
Who is the winner?
In this comparison, Wix is the winner. Wix leads in marketing and social media integration, offering an extensive marketing toolkit and convenient social media management. Squarespace matches Wix’s performance in marketing while excelling in seamless social media integration. Despite scoring lower in marketing and lacking advanced social media integration, Weebly still offers essential tools for bloggers and website owners.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Ecommerce Features
When selling products or services online, having the right tools and features can make all the difference in ensuring a smooth and successful ecommerce journey. Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly offer a range of ecommerce features, each with strengths and considerations.
Wix
If you’re looking for a comprehensive ecommerce solution, Wix is a standout choice. With three dedicated ecommerce plans, starting at $27 per month (billed annually), Wix equips you with an array of built-in features essential for online selling.
These plans offer benefits such as accepting payments through over 50 different payment gateways worldwide, extra storage, commission-free selling, and detailed tracking of your site’s progress through Google Analytics.
Weebly
Weebly’s approach to ecommerce has evolved following its acquisition by Square in 2018. The dedicated ecommerce plans and templates that were once part of Weebly’s offering have been replaced by Square Online. This shift may seem initially complex, but it offers a distinct ecommerce solution with its strengths.
People interested in leveraging Weebly’s familiar interface can still incorporate ecommerce features into Weebly templates. These include item badges, product categories, coupon codes, a shipping calculator, and abandoned cart recovery (available on the Performance and Premium plans).
Squarespace
Squarespace offers essential eCommerce features like selling physical and digital products, services, inventory management tools, abandoned cart recovery, printable shipping labels, and guest checkout functionality.
An exciting feature that sets Squarespace apart is its integration with offline payments. The Squarespace Commerce app, coupled with an essential Square card reader ($49), enables you to accept in-person payments at events or pop-up shops seamlessly. This integration offers a practical advantage for businesses looking to diversify their sales channels.
Who is the winner?
Wix and Squarespace are the winners since they provide well-rounded and feature-rich ecommerce solutions, catering to different business needs. On the other hand, Weebly’s ecommerce focus has shifted to Square Online, which offers an accessible entry point to online selling but may lack the same depth of development seen in Wix and Squarespace’s dedicated eCommerce features.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: SEO Features
Wix
Wix makes SEO feel like a breeze, even if you’re not a tech whiz. They’ve got this thing called SEO Wiz that’s like your personal SEO assistant. You tell it a few keywords related to your website, and it cooks up a plan to make your site appear higher in Google search results.
Additionally, Wix has many easy-to-read guides covering everything you need to know about SEO. While building your site, Wix even gives you little tips on how to make Google notice your site.
Weebly
Weebly offers the Ultimate SEO Guide that’s like your roadmap to making your site more search-friendly. It is beneficial for any website owner who knows little about SEO analysis. Like Wix, Weebly also has built-in tools to make your site pop up more on Google. But here’s the thing – Weebly’s tools are a bit more basic than Wix’s, and they don’t have that excellent interactive helper like Wix’s SEO Wiz.
Squarespace
Squarespace takes a different approach to SEO than the two competitors. They’ve got all the SEO stuff on their platform, so you don’t need to hunt for extra tools. However, Squarespace’s SEO tools might seem trickier than Wix’s SEO features. To handle this, Squarespace releases numerous guides and videos that explain everything about SEO on Squarespace.
Who is the winner?
This is a tie when comparing SEO features among these three platforms. SEO is like a secret code that makes your website visible on search engines. Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace all have their ways to help you crack that code and get your site noticed. Whether you’re a newbie or a pro, they have something to help you.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: App Market
The app market can help website owners add more exciting and useful functions to their websites. Apps let you level up your website’s abilities and give it a unique touch.
Wix
Wix boasts a massive App Market with a whopping 500+ apps. You’ll find a mix of apps made by Wix and others by third-party developers. Most Wix-related apps are free, while others come with a price tag.
Many users left good reviews for the Wix App Market because it is user-friendly and lets you search by app name or category. Each app has a clear rundown of its features, pricing, user reviews, and ratings, making it easy to pick the best ones for your site.
Weebly
Weebly’s got its own App Center with over 300 apps ready to roll. However; Weebly’s App Center is less handy for browsing than Wix’s. It’s got fewer tools to help you explore, so you may not have the exact app or tool you need for your website building.
Squarespace
While Squarespace supports built-in apps like the Commerce App and Analytics App, it doesn’t have a big App Market like Wix and Weebly. Instead, it offers a select extensions lineup to supercharge your online store. Squarespace is a good bet if you want a more streamlined experience without relying too much on third-party apps.
Who is the winner?
Squarespace is the winner in comparing the App Market. It offers impressive design templates, integrated SEO tools, and a focus on aesthetics. However, remember that the real “winner” depends on your specific needs and preferences, so it’s essential to evaluate all platforms based on what matters most.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Customer Service
Wix
Wix provides round-the-clock phone support, live chat, and assistance through social media. Moreover, Wix’s Knowledge Base area is a valuable resource for troubleshooting and guidance.
Notably, Wix goes the extra mile by offering in-editor support – you can click on question marks within the editor to get helpful tips as you build your website. Especially, Wix allows you to upgrade to VIP support with priority assistance, available on the Business Elite or Enterprise plan.
Weebly
Weebly provides 24/7 email, live chat, and phone support; however, phone support is limited to higher-tier plans (Professional and above). Moreover, Live chat and phone support are available for only a specific timeframe (Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. US Pacific Time). Weebly’s help center contains articles to assist you, but it’s not as comprehensive as those of Squarespace and Wix.
Squarespace
Squarespace offers 24/7 email, live chat on weekdays, and communication through social media. The standout customer support feature is Squarespace’s extensive knowledge base, packed with helpful articles, videos, forums, and webinars to guide users through troubleshooting.
While phone support is unavailable, the wealth of information in their knowledge base compensates for it. Moreover, Squarespace commits to responding to your email within an hour.
Who is the winner?
Overall, Wix is the winner in customer support with its most significant number of support features, along with high-quality support. Squarespace and Wix stand out for their robust support options, with Squarespace excelling in its knowledge base. Meanwhile, Weebly offers satisfactory support, though it falls behind in availability and resources compared to its counterparts.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Which Is The Best Platform?
After a thorough examination and data-driven analysis, we’ve determined that Wix is the top website builder. Its user-friendliness, abundant high-quality features, and extensive customization options make it a standout choice.
Squarespace follows closely behind, excelling in design and value for money. Squarespace has its strengths, offering unbeatable value for your money, exquisite design choices, and dependable help and support. Its beautifully crafted templates and dependable support make it a strong contender for those seeking an aesthetically pleasing and cost-effective website.
While Weebly offers a solid foundation, it lags behind its competitors regarding overall features and advanced capabilities. Furthermore, Weebly faces tough competition against the robust capabilities of Wix and Squarespace.
However, if you’re content with the basics and don’t require advanced features, Weebly could suit your needs. Moreover, it’s worth considering for businesses looking for simple, budget-friendly projects.
Note: While all three platforms have their merits, the one right for you depends on your website needs.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: Which platform is for you?
- Wix: Best for users who want a user-friendly interface and a wide range of design options like designers or creative professionals. It’s also ideal for beginners and those looking for creative freedom.
- Weebly: Ideal for users seeking simplicity and ease of use. It’s a good choice for smaller websites, Online Entrepreneurs & small-to-medium business, and individuals who prefer a straightforward approach.
- Squarespace: Great for users who prioritize elegant designs and polished templates. It’s suitable for creative professionals, bloggers, content creators aiming for visually appealing websites.
Wix vs. Weebly vs. Squarespace: FAQs
Bottom line
In conclusion, Wix stands out as the top choice for creating a website that’s not only functional but also visually appealing. Ultimately, the choice between these builders depends on your specific needs. Whether selling online, building a business website, or showcasing your creativity, each platform has its merits.
