Squarespace vs. Wix Stores

While the site-builder is very easy to use, it does take a little getting used to. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, however, you’ll have no trouble changing everything from your logo to your color scheme.

The management dashboard, from where users manage listings, orders, and analytics, is intuitive and easy to navigate.

Beautiful template designs, user-friendly features, website is loading well. Very well coded and developed.

Easy to use, hugely customizable, great templates.

I love Squarespace. I have built my entire business on Squarespace, to annual revenues of over 500K.

When it comes to ease-of-use, there are two sides to Wix.

Updating your product catalog, managing orders, and running email marketing campaigns through the central dashboard is straightforward.

The star of the show, however, is the Wix website editor. Users can make a myriad of changes to their site’s look-and-feel (along with individual pages)via a wide array of customization features.

The only issue is the sheer number of features. There’s a lot! So while Wix’s editor is intuitive and easy-to-use once you’ve wrapped your head around the feature-set, there is a small learning curve initially.

“Great website builder! I think a lot of people writing reviews are inexperienced and haven't put the time into learning how to use Wix extensively and as a result I see a lot of frustration.” Tobi

“I love Wix! I’ve never once had a problem with Wix. The SEO has improved over the years and the ease of duplicating and creating new pages is unbeatable. The mobile response is fantastic.

“It is the easiest, most equipped, most high quality website builder ever. I asked for customer support's help three times and have always received an answer within 24 hours (in English).”

Squarespace Commerce strikes a rare balance for an ecommerce website builder by combining intuitive, accessible customization tools with the option to make more advanced code changes.

Because the site-builder has a lot of options, it does require a little familiarization. But once users have overcome that initial hurdle, an array of customization opportunities open up.

The only downside is that, while the templates are beautifully-designed and mobile-optimized, only ten are offered. If you’re thinking about opting for Squarespace, check that one of the themes meets your needs before signing up to a paid plan. There’s a free trial, so you can take the platform for a test-drive first.

Few other website builders on the market offer the same level of design flexibility as Wix. For retailers that want a high level of design freedom without the need to interact with any code, Wix is a no-brainer. Because of the broad feature-set, retailers can control the branding and look-and-feel of their store to a very precise level.

All of that said, Wix isn’t limited to “non-developers”. Code-savvy webmasters can make deeper backend changes and take advantage of a powerful set of APIs. So the platform isn’t just limited to people without coding experience.

Users also have access to a library of nearly 100 free templates.

All in all, Squarespace offers excellent value for money. The feature-set is extremely robust and includes unlimited products, multi-channel management (through the “Shopping Feed” integration), POS, abandoned cart emails, customer accounts, and more. It’s also possible to sell digital products and subscription services.

The only area where Squarespace falls is the limited add-on library. Compared to a solution like Shopify, Squarespace doesn’t offer smaller, less obvious features like countdown timers or personalized promotions.

To take advantage of all the features, you’ll need to sign up for the “Advanced” plan, but smaller retailers will get by happily on the “Basic” plan. The “Business” plan offers a limited feature-set and is designed for webmasters that want to sell a small number of products.

Wix is very competitive on price. The basic plan costs $20/month and includes access to the online store builder, shopping cart with multiple shipping rules, multichannel sales, and Wix payment gateway.

Wix also offers a handful of sweeteners, including a free domain (for one year), ad credit, and professional logo design.

The whole ecommerce feature set is available on all plans. The more expensive plans - “Business Unlimited” and “Business VIP” - provide extra storage and (in the case of the VIP option) first-in-line customer support. If you need more than 50GB of storage, you’ll have to speak to Wix directly.

The support package offered by Squarespace is excellent and users generally report high levels of customer satisfaction.

Customer support is available 24/7 via email and on Twitter. Live chat is available between 4 AM and 8 PM on weekdays.

Because Squarespace is a well-known and popular site-builder, a large community of users are active on the forums, which is another bonus.

While the quality of support provided by Wix is generally excellent, users only have the option of submitting a support ticket or requesting a callback. No live chat options are available.

English-language support is available 24/7 and support is also offered in a limited number of foreign languages during business hours.

VIP support, which essentially pushes you to the front of the line, is available on the Business VIP plan.

Squarespace is a popular ecommerce platform and site-builder with a loyal band of users. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use solution with a comprehensive and powerful set of features, then take advantage of the free trial and give it a test-drive.

One of the best aspects of Squarespace is its applicability to retailers with a range of coding abilities. Non-developers can take advantage of the feature-rich site-builder (which is easy to navigate one you’re familiar with all the options) and build a highly-customized site. Developers, on the other hand, can customize and alter a site’s code extensively using the “Developer Mode”.

So what about the downsides? While we’re big fans of Squarespace, it’s not all sunshine and roses. Although the feature-set is excellent - covering omnichannel listings, customer accounts, POS, promotion features, and email marketing - the integration library is a little sparse. Without coding experience, retailers will find it difficult to add smaller features, like countdown timers or personalization, without advanced coding abilities. If you want access to a large add-on library, a solution like Shopify might be preferable. Furthermore, while the themes on offer are superb, there’s only ten of them.

One of the big positives about Wix is that it provides all necessary core ecommerce features, including multichannel selling and shipping rules, on all of its plans. You don’t need to sign up to the most expensive package to get the functionality you need.

What’s more, many secondary features are offered. Related product listings, cart abandonment emails, and access to Modalyst dropshipping (to add extra products to your store) are available to all users.

But the standout feature is the drag-and-drop website builder. While there is a slight learning curve, this powerful tool enables you to customize your store without any previous coding experience.

So if you’re looking for a comprehensive solution with a high degree of design freedom, Wix is the way to go.