Short answer: choose Wix or Squarespace if you want to build a small site yourself quickly and you’re happy to stay on their platform. Choose WordPress if you want full control, the best options for SEO, and a site you can move to any host or any developer later. For a business that wants to grow through Google, WordPress is usually the better long-term choice. For a simple personal site or a quick start, a builder is often fine.
We build almost all of our clients’ websites in WordPress, so you might expect us to say “WordPress, obviously”. It isn’t always the right answer. Here’s an honest comparison, including when we’d tell a client to use Wix or Squarespace instead.
Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress: the quick comparison
| Wix | Squarespace | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | DIY sites with lots of layout freedom | Clean, design-led DIY sites | Business sites that need to grow, rank and be flexible |
| Ease of use | Very easy | Easy | Easy to edit once built; building well takes skill |
| Typical cost | Monthly plan, roughly £9–£120 | Monthly plan, roughly £12–£80 | Free software; you pay for hosting, domain and any premium plugins |
| Design | Templates, drag and drop | Polished templates | Unlimited, with a theme or page builder |
| SEO control | Good basics | Good basics | Excellent, especially with an SEO plugin such as Rank Math |
| Ownership | Site lives on Wix | Site lives on Squarespace | You own the files and can move host at any time |
| Moving away later | Hard: usually means rebuilding | Hard: usually means rebuilding | Usually straightforward |
Builder prices are approximate UK ranges from kwiboo and published plan prices, excluding VAT. Plans and prices change often, so check the current pricing pages.
Wix vs WordPress: freedom now or control later
Wix lets you drag almost anything anywhere on the page. That’s great for getting started and for people who like to tinker. It includes hosting, security and updates in the monthly price, so there’s nothing technical to manage.
The downsides: that freedom makes it easy to build pages that look fine on a laptop and messy on a phone. And your website lives on Wix. If you want to move later, you generally can’t take the site with you, only your text and images.
Choose Wix if: you want to build it yourself this weekend, your site is small, and you don’t mind staying on Wix.
Squarespace vs WordPress: polish or flexibility
Squarespace is known for clean, stylish templates. It’s more structured than Wix, which makes it harder to break the design. Photographers, designers and small studios often like it.
The downsides: fewer ways to extend it, and, like Wix, you’re tied to the platform. Advanced SEO and custom features are limited compared with WordPress.
Choose Squarespace if: you want a good-looking portfolio or small brochure site and don’t need anything unusual.
WordPress: the most flexible option
WordPress is open-source software that powers a very large share of the world’s websites. On its own it’s free. You pay for hosting, a domain, and any premium tools such as a page builder or SEO plugin.
The strengths:
- You own it. Your site can be moved to any host and edited by any WordPress developer.
- SEO control. With an SEO plugin you control titles, descriptions, structured data, redirects and sitemaps page by page.
- It grows with you. Booking systems, multiple languages, online shops and membership areas can all be added later.
- Easy editing once built. With a visual page builder such as Elementor, changing text or images is as easy as on a website builder.
The downsides: someone has to look after it. WordPress, themes and plugins need regular updates, and a neglected site can be hacked. And building a good WordPress site from scratch takes real skill, so most businesses hire someone to do it.
Choose WordPress if: your website is an important source of customers, you want to rank on Google for your services, or you expect to add features later.
Which is best for SEO?
All three can rank on Google. A well-written Wix site will usually beat a badly written WordPress site, because content and relevance matter more than the platform.
The difference shows up as your site grows. WordPress gives you finer control over every page’s technical SEO, more control over speed through your choice of hosting and caching, and a much wider choice of tools. That’s why so many businesses that rely on search traffic end up on WordPress. You can read more in our guide to local SEO for small businesses.
Which is cheapest?
If you build it yourself and your time is free, a builder is usually the cheapest way to get online. Over several years, though, the monthly plans add up, and moving away later can mean paying for a full rebuild.
A professionally built WordPress site costs more upfront but can be cheaper to run. Ours, for example, include the domain, hosting and premium plugins free for the first year, then £170 + VAT a year. We compare the long-term costs of each route in website running costs in the UK, and the build prices in how much a website costs in the UK.
Can I move from Wix or Squarespace to WordPress?
Yes, but it’s a rebuild rather than a transfer. Your text and images can be moved, but the design has to be recreated. The important part is redirecting your old page addresses to the new ones, so you keep any Google rankings you’ve built up. We do this as part of our website redesign service, building the new site on a private test address while your old one stays live.
Frequently asked questions
Is WordPress free?
The software is free. Hosting, a domain and premium plugins cost money, as does someone’s time to build and maintain the site.
Is Wix bad for SEO?
No. Wix covers the basics well and a well-written Wix site can rank. It just offers less control than WordPress as your site and ambitions grow.
Which is easier to update, Wix or WordPress?
For day-to-day text and image changes, both are easy. WordPress built with a visual page builder feels very similar to a website builder.
Should a small business use a website builder?
If you have more time than budget and your needs are simple, a builder is a sensible start. If your website needs to win customers from Google, a professionally built WordPress site is usually worth it.