Wix vs Squarespace UK 2026: Pricing, Features, and Honest Comparison

Wix and Squarespace are the two most popular website builders in the UK – and they appeal to very different types of user. Wix gives you maximum design freedom, 2,000+ templates, and an expanding suite of AI tools from £9 per month. Squarespace gives you fewer choices but consistently better-looking results, with curated templates and polished design defaults from £12 per month.

Our verdict upfront: Wix wins for flexibility, AI features, and affordability at entry level. Squarespace wins for design quality, brand credibility, and its approach to store design. Neither is the right choice for every business – the best option depends on how much design control you want versus how quickly you want to look professional.

Compare the current plan terms before ordering. Our Wix pricing guide and Squarespace pricing guide explain the packages, billing and potential extras.

Wix vs Squarespace: Quick Comparison

Wix starts at £9/mo with a free plan option and 2,000+ templates. Squarespace starts at £12/mo, has no free plan, but offers higher-quality curated templates and no commerce transaction fee from Core upward; payment processing is separate.

Pricing Comparison

Compare the plan that supports your business, including payments, rather than the cheapest website-only plan. Squarespace Core already has no commerce transaction fee. Check subscription, processing and any service-specific fees together before deciding which platform costs less.

For an online shop, compare the subscription price with the fees charged on your expected sales. Squarespace Basic has a commerce fee, while Core removes it. The saving depends on your sales volume and the price difference between the plans available to you.

Squarespace requires annual payment on all plans, which reduces flexibility if you want to trial it before committing. Wix offers monthly billing as an option, though the per-month cost rises. Both offer a free trial of sorts – Wix via its free plan (limited, ad-supported), Squarespace via a 14-day trial with no credit card required.

Design and Templates

Wix offers 2,000+ templates with pixel-level drag-and-drop control. Squarespace offers fewer templates but every one is polished and professional – the quality ceiling is higher.

Wix gives you more templates than any other website builder. They are organised by industry – restaurants, portfolios, online stores, blogs – and you can customise every element: fonts, colours, spacing, and layout, down to the pixel. This is genuine creative freedom, but it also means you can create something that looks inconsistent or unprofessional if you do not have an eye for design.

One important limitation: once you choose a Wix template, you cannot switch to a different one without rebuilding your site from scratch. Squarespace allows template switching without losing content, which is useful if you change your branding or want to refresh the site’s look later.

Squarespace operates on a section-based editor. You drag sections rather than individual elements, which keeps layouts cleaner by default. The trade-off is less granular control. Squarespace’s templates are widely cited as the most design-forward in the industry – they are regularly used by photographers, architects, and agencies as a genuine showcase tool. If your business needs to make a strong visual first impression, Squarespace’s design floor is higher than Wix’s.

Winner: Depends on priority. Wix wins on template volume and control. Squarespace wins on design quality and consistency. If you will be handing the site to a non-designer to maintain, Squarespace is more likely to stay looking polished.

AI Tools

Wix leads on AI with 20+ tools including its AI Website Builder (powered by the Aria AI agent), AI SEO meta, AI colour scheme, and blog writer. Squarespace’s Blueprint AI focuses on site structure and content generation.

Wix’s AI Website Builder, powered by its Aria AI agent, can generate a complete site – pages, layout, copy, and images – from a short description of your business (Wix retired its older ADI tool in November 2024). This is one of the more mature AI site builders available and is particularly useful for business owners who want to get online quickly without making design decisions. The 20+ AI tools cover practically every area of site creation.

Squarespace’s Blueprint AI is newer and more focused. It generates a site structure and page outlines based on your business type, then lets you refine within Squarespace’s design system. The AI copy tools are good but less comprehensive than Wix’s. If AI-assisted site creation is a priority, Wix has a meaningful lead.

Winner: Wix – more tools, more coverage, and a more mature AI site builder.

Ecommerce

There is no universal cost winner for ecommerce. Wix requires a plan that accepts payments; Light does not. Squarespace charges a 2% commerce transaction fee on Basic and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced. Payment-processing costs remain separate.

Squarespace’s fee schedule separates commerce from Digital Products such as courses, video pages and member sites. A zero commerce fee does not mean every sale is free of charges. Existing customers should check the exact plan name, since legacy plans have different rules.

Buy now, pay later options differ too. Squarespace Payments offers Klarna and Clearpay to UK sellers, each with its own processing fee. Wix Payments lists Apple Pay, Google Pay and buy now, pay later options such as Klarna, but availability depends on your country, so check what UK shoppers will see at checkout.

Wix’s plan guidance confirms that Light cannot accept online payments. Its UK processing fees start at 2.1% plus 20p for credit and debit cards excluding American Express. Other payment methods and cross-border transactions can cost more. Check any fees attached to the selling service you use as well.

Compare the total subscription, processing charges and required extras using your expected order value and monthly sales. Core users do not need to upgrade to Plus merely to remove Squarespace’s commerce fee. An upgrade may still make sense for other features or fees, but it needs its own calculation.

Verdict: compare the actual store setup. The earlier claim that Wix is cheaper because Squarespace Core charges a commerce fee does not hold. Test the checkout and confirm support for your products, subscriptions, shipping and tax requirements before paying.

SEO and Marketing

Both platforms offer solid on-page SEO tools. Wix has more built-in marketing features and AI-assisted SEO meta generation. Squarespace has cleaner URL structures and stronger email marketing at higher tiers.

Wix provides a dedicated SEO Setup Checklist, site verification, structured data markup, custom meta titles and descriptions per page, canonical tags, and sitemaps. Its AI SEO tools can auto-generate meta descriptions and suggest focus keywords. The Wix App Market also gives access to third-party SEO tools like SE Ranking and SEMrush integrations.

Squarespace has historically been noted for cleaner, faster-loading sites – which can benefit SEO via Core Web Vitals. It offers custom meta tags, clean URL structures, automatic sitemaps, schema markup, and SSL on all plans. Squarespace Email Campaigns (included on higher tiers) is a solid built-in email marketing tool, comparable to a basic Mailchimp setup.

On social media, both platforms integrate with Instagram and Facebook. Wix has broader channel support via its marketing integrations. For most UK small businesses doing their own SEO, both platforms are functionally adequate – neither will create a technical SEO penalty if used correctly.

Winner: Draw – Wix has more marketing features overall; Squarespace has cleaner site performance. Neither has a decisive edge for standard SEO requirements.

Ease of Use

Squarespace has a gentler learning curve – its constrained editor guides you toward good layouts. Wix’s flexibility is an asset for experienced users but can overwhelm beginners with too many choices.

Wix’s drag-and-drop editor places elements anywhere on the canvas. This is powerful but also means you can easily create misaligned layouts. New users often spend time adjusting spacing and positioning that a structured editor would handle automatically. The Wix editor has improved significantly in recent years, and the AI Website Builder option lets you bypass design decisions entirely – but if you choose the freeform editor, there is a moderate learning curve.

Squarespace uses a section-based approach. You choose from pre-built content blocks and adjust within them. This means less creative freedom but a much faster path to a professional-looking result. For business owners who want to get online quickly and do not have a strong design preference, Squarespace’s structured approach tends to produce better first results.

Both platforms offer onboarding checklists and help centres. Wix has a larger volume of support articles and community threads due to its larger user base. Squarespace has a reputation for more polished, curated help content.

Winner: Squarespace – faster to a professional result for most non-designers. Wix is better for users who want granular control and are willing to invest time in the editor.

Customer Support

Squarespace offers email support and weekday live chat, with no phone support. Check its current contact hours. A company-wide review score should not be treated as a direct support-response benchmark.

Wix provides 24/7 live chat and a callback option for paid plan users. Its help centre is extensive, covering most common setup issues with step-by-step guides and video walkthroughs. Response times are generally reported as fast for live chat. Wix’s Trustpilot score of 3.5/5 (“Average”) reflects a mix of very positive reviews from users who found setup easy, and negative reviews largely about billing disputes and app store integrations.

Squarespace offers email support and weekday live chat, with no phone support. Check its current contact hours. A company-wide review score should not be treated as a direct support-response benchmark.

Winner: Wix – slightly higher Trustpilot rating and the option of a callback for users who prefer speaking to someone.

Wix Pros and Cons

Wix suits businesses that want maximum design freedom, AI-powered site creation, and the lowest entry price with a free plan option to get started risk-free.

Squarespace Pros and Cons

Squarespace suits creative businesses, portfolios, and brand-conscious SMEs that prioritise visual quality and want a polished result without deep design knowledge.

Our Verdict: Wix vs Squarespace

Wix is better for flexibility, AI tools, and price. Squarespace is better for design quality and brand credibility. The right choice depends on your priorities, not which platform is objectively “best”.

There is no single winner for every business. Try the editing workflow and the features you need, then compare the full cost of the plans that support them. A cheaper website-only plan is not a like-for-like alternative to an online-store plan.

Choose Wix if: you want a free plan to start, maximum template choice, the most AI tools, monthly billing flexibility, or a choice of payment-enabled business plans. Wix also works better for complex, multi-page sites where you want full layout control.

Choose Squarespace if: visual quality is your top priority, you work in a design-sensitive industry (photography, architecture, fashion, creative services), you want to switch templates without rebuilding, or you are willing to pay more for a consistently polished result without needing design skills.

Both platforms are well-established, actively developed, and used by millions of businesses worldwide. If you are still undecided, use Squarespace’s 14-day free trial to get a feel for its editor, and try Wix’s free plan to compare. There is no cost to testing both before committing.

Related Guides

See also: Best Website Builders for UK Businesses – our full comparison of 8 platforms including Shopify, Weebly, and GoDaddy. If you are focused on selling online, see our Shopify UK Pricing Guide and Best Free Website Builders UK. For a standalone Wix deep-dive, see our Wix Review. For a Squarespace deep-dive, see our Squarespace Review. Considering ecommerce costs? Read our Website Payment Processing Costs guide.

Trustpilot snapshot checked 13 September 2026: Wix 3.5/5 and Squarespace 3.5/5. Scores can change.

Emma Clarke

Technology & Payments Specialist

Emma covers the full range of business technology, including EPOS systems, merchant accounts, telecoms, and web tools. Her experience as a retail systems consultant helps businesses choose the right digital solutions to improve efficiency and sales.

Reviewed by

Sarah Mitchell

B2B Commerce & Finance Reviewer