Squarespace vs Wix vs WordPress: which should you choose?

Three of the most searched names in website building, and three different deals. Squarespace sells polish, Wix sells breadth and a free start, WordPress sells freedom. This guide lines them up on what each costs, what each is best at and what each lets you take with you.

Which of the three fits which kind of site

Squarespace is the pick for a design-conscious small business or creative that wants the site to look finished without fiddling. US yearly plans: Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25 a month, after a 14-day trial.

Wix is the pick if you want to start for nothing and grow into bookings, a store and marketing tools in one place. It has a $0 plan; paid US yearly plans are Light $17, Core $29, Business $39 and Business Elite $159 a month, with payments from Core.

WordPress is the pick for publishers and anyone who wants to own the software. It is a free download, and WordPress.com hosts it from $4 a month yearly if you would rather not run a server. A fourth path, We.Inc, builds a React site from a written brief that you can download in full; AI plans start at $20 a month.

Three platforms in one table

	Squarespace	Wix	WordPress
Free way in	14-day trial only	$0 plan, no card needed	Software free from WordPress.org; WordPress.com free plan shows ads
Paid plans, US, yearly	$12, $17, $25 a month	$17, $29, $39, $159 a month	WordPress.com $4, $8, $25, $45 a month; self-hosting depends on host
Taking payments	Every plan; 2% store fee on Basic	Core and above	WordPress.com Premium adds payment buttons; WooCommerce plugin for stores
Editors on the site	2 on Basic, unlimited from Core	2, 5, 10 or 100 collaborators by plan	Unlimited users on WordPress.com plans
Extending it	Extensions; CSS and JavaScript from Core	App market and developer platform on Business Elite	Over 60,000 plugins on WordPress.com; any plugin self-hosted
Exporting content	XML of pages, one blog, images	CSV per CMS collection; blog posts cannot be exported	XML of posts, pages and comments

Prices as of October 2026 from each vendor's pricing page (linked in sources), US dollars a month on yearly billing before tax; Wix says its prices vary by location.

Pros and cons

Squarespace

Best for: Small businesses and creatives that want a refined look with little effort

Price: Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25 a month on annual billing, US (checked October 2026); 14-day trial

Pros: Cheapest of the three hosted options once you sell online without fees (Core, $17); Templates that look finished out of the box; Invoicing and memberships included

Cons: No free plan; Export is limited to one blog and simple pages

Wix

Best for: Owners who want a free start and lots of built-in business tools

Price: $0 plan; Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 a month billed yearly (US list, October 2026; varies by location)

Pros: Genuine free plan with hosting and templates; Scheduling and eCommerce from Core, scaled up on Business and Business Elite; Storage grows from 2 GB on Light to unlimited on Business Elite

Cons: Blog posts cannot be exported to other platforms, per Wix's help center; Payments start at $29 a month, higher than Squarespace's fee-free store tier

WordPress

Best for: Bloggers, publishers and anyone who wants software they can move anywhere

Price: Free software; hosted on WordPress.com for $4, $8, $25 or $45 a month on a yearly bill (October 2026)

Pros: Lowest entry price and open-source code; Strongest blogging tools and the largest plugin ecosystem; Standard XML export, accepted by many platforms

Cons: Self-hosted sites need ongoing updates and security work; Design quality depends on the theme you pick

We.Inc

Best for: People who cannot decide on a template system and would rather describe the site they want

Price: Free plan: up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, no AI. AI building from $20/mo (Starter, 250 credits). Pro $49/mo, Max $99/mo.

Pros: The site is written for your brief, then edited by click, chat or code; Whole project downloadable as a ZIP, so the design is not locked to one host; Built-in visitor analytics with nothing to install

Cons: Much smaller add-on ecosystem than WordPress or Wix; No AI on the free plan

The cost of a small business site with a shop

Say you want a custom domain, a blog and the ability to sell a few products. On Squarespace that is Core at $17 a month yearly, with a 0% store fee: $612 over three years. On Wix, payments begin on Core at $29 a month: $1,044 over three years at US list prices. On WordPress.com, plugin installs begin on Personal at $4 a month, and the store-focused Commerce plan is $45.

Payment processing fees are extra everywhere, and self-hosted WordPress replaces the plan fee with your host's bill and any paid plugins. Treat the WordPress numbers as a floor rather than a total.

Strengths in one line each

Squarespace: the most consistent design for the least effort, with selling, invoicing and memberships included. Wix: the broadest set of business tools in one hosted account, and the only one of the three hosted services with a true $0 plan. WordPress: the most freedom over hosting, plugins and data, and the best blogging core.

The weaknesses mirror those. Squarespace limits layout freedom and exports little. Wix has no way to take blog posts elsewhere. WordPress asks the most of you in setup and maintenance.

Which to choose, by situation

A photographer, designer, restaurant or consultant who wants to look good and sell a little: Squarespace. A salon, studio or local service that needs bookings, payments and email marketing and wants to try before paying: Wix. A writer, publisher, nonprofit or developer who wants control and a big plugin library: WordPress, either self-hosted or on WordPress.com.

What each lets you take with you

Squarespace exports a WordPress-format XML file with layout pages, one blog and its posts, text and image blocks and gallery pages. Store pages, product, video and audio blocks, style settings and custom CSS do not export. Wix lets you export each CMS collection as a CSV file, but its help center says blog posts cannot currently be exported to other platforms.

WordPress.com exports posts, pages, comments, categories and tags to an XML file, with links to your media rather than the files themselves, so keep the old site public until the new one has copied the images. Themes and plugins do not come along; WordPress.com points to a migration plugin for a full-site move.

Whichever platform you leave, keep a list of current page addresses and use the same paths on the new site. To move onto We.Inc, paste the address of a site you own and ask it to rebuild an editable version with the same structure and content, keeping those paths.

Start from a template

Sources

Squarespace: Pricing (US) (2026-10-17)
Squarespace Help Center: Export your site content (2026-10-17)
Wix: Premium plans and free plan (2026-10-17)
Wix Help Center: Exporting content from your CMS collection (2026-10-17)
Wix Help Center: Exporting blog posts to other platforms (2026-10-17)
WordPress.com: Pricing (2026-10-17)
WordPress.com Support: Export your website's content (2026-10-17)
WordPress.org: Get WordPress (2026-10-17)

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheapest: Squarespace, Wix or WordPress?

WordPress, for the software itself, which is free; WordPress.com hosting starts at $4 a month yearly. Among hosted builders, Squarespace Basic at $12 is cheaper than Wix Light at $17 in the US, and Squarespace Core at $17 is the cheapest way to sell without a platform fee. Wix's free plan is the cheapest way to try one.

Which is easiest for a beginner?

Squarespace and Wix are both built for beginners; Squarespace keeps layouts tidier, Wix gives more freedom to place items and an AI that drafts the site from a prompt. WordPress.com now has a guided builder too, but WordPress as a whole has the most to learn, especially if you host it yourself.

Which is best for blogging?

WordPress. Blogging is its core, with unlimited posts on every WordPress.com plan and a standard export. Squarespace's blog is solid for a business, though only one blog exports. Wix includes a blog, but its help center says posts cannot be exported to other platforms, which matters if you might move later.

Can I switch from Wix or Squarespace to WordPress later?

From Squarespace, yes for the basics: its export is designed for WordPress and covers pages, one blog and images. From Wix it is harder: CMS collections export as CSV, but blog posts cannot be exported, so they have to be copied across by hand.

Where does We.Inc fit if none of the three feels right?

We.Inc skips the template choice: you describe the business and it builds the pages, then you edit by clicking, chatting or opening the code. The complete project downloads on any plan. It has fewer add-ons than these three, and its store suits small catalogues rather than large shops.

Build your own site

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How we research, test and update this page: our editorial policy. We.Inc is our own product.