Platform Cost Comparison
Wix vs Squarespace — plans, build price, three-year total
Quick Answer
Wix runs $17–$159 a month and Squarespace from €11 a month on yearly billing — and a professional build on either costs $800–$3,500 from a template or $2,500–$7,000 custom-designed. Our engine prices Wix at 0.6× and Squarespace at 0.65× a WordPress build of the same scope, at about half the timeline. Three years of the standard tier is roughly $1,044 on Wix and €612 on Squarespace, so the subscription is a rounding error next to the build and the rebuild. Plan prices read from wix.com/plans and squarespace.com/pricing on 2 October 2026; Squarespace prices by region and served euros here.
These two are chosen by people who do not intend to hire developers, which makes the comparison unusual: the platform fee is visible and the real cost — your own hours, or a designer's — is not. Below are both, and the question that actually separates them.
Price a built site on eitherWhat a built site costs — Wix against Squarespace
Paid to a designer or small studio, on top of the subscription.
| Project type | Wix min | Wix max | Squarespace min | Squarespace max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template-based build | $800 | $3,000 | $900 | $3,500 |
| Custom design on the platform | $2,500 | $6,000 | $2,500 | $7,000 |
The plans, as published today
| Tier | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 — Wix domain, ads | Trial only |
| Entry | $17/mo — Light, 2 GB | €11/mo — Basic, 2% store fee |
| Standard | $29/mo — Core, payments, 50 GB | €17/mo — Core, 0% store fee |
| Business | $39/mo — Business, 100 GB | €29/mo — Advanced |
| Top | $159/mo — Business Elite | — (Advanced is the ceiling) |
Yearly billing. Read on 2 October 2026 from each vendor's own pricing page; Squarespace serves prices by region, so check yours. Monthly billing costs more on both.
What a built site costs
| Wix | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Engine multiplier vs WordPress | 0.6× | 0.65× |
| Timeline multiplier | 0.5× | 0.55× |
| Template-based build by a pro | $800 – $3,000 | $900 – $3,500 |
| Custom design on the platform | $2,500 – $6,000 | $2,500 – $7,000 |
| Plan cost, 3 years (standard tier) | $1,044 | €612 |
| Products it stays efficient with | ~100 | ~100 |
Build bands from our dataset of 600+ project quotes across 6 markets; multipliers from our pricing engine.
The question that decides it
Not features — both have more than a small business uses. Ask instead: how many people will edit this site, and do you trust them with a blank canvas?
Wix hands everyone absolute positioning. One owner who knows what they want gets a site exactly as imagined; three people over two years get drifting margins and a mobile layout nobody checked. Squarespace refuses most of that freedom, which is why agency-built Squarespace sites still look intact years later. If you are the only editor and you have a clear picture, Wix is faster. If the site outlives your involvement, the constraint is the feature.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Wix or Squarespace?
Wix starts lower and climbs higher. Wix publishes $17, $29, $39 and $159 a month on yearly billing; Squarespace publishes €11, €17 and €29 a month on yearly billing, roughly double on monthly billing (prices read on 2 October 2026; Squarespace prices by region). For an ordinary business site the two land within a few dollars of each other, so the plan is not the decision.
What does it cost to pay someone to build it?
A designer or small studio builds a template-based Wix or Squarespace site for $800–$3,500; a custom-designed one with real content work runs $2,500–$7,000. Our engine prices Wix at 0.6× and Squarespace at 0.65× against the WordPress baseline, with timelines about half — the platform removes most of the build, which is exactly what you are paying the subscription for.
Can I sell on either?
Both do ecommerce and both stay comfortable only to about a hundred products in our model. Squarespace charges a 2% transaction fee on its entry plan and 0% above it; Wix includes payments from its Core plan up. If the store is the business rather than a side of it, price Shopify instead — the fee arithmetic turns against builder platforms quickly.
Which one is easier to hand to someone else?
Squarespace, usually. Its templates constrain layout, so a site stays coherent after three people have edited it; Wix lets anyone drag anything anywhere, which is freedom on day one and a mess by month six. If several people will edit the site, that constraint is worth more than any feature on either list.
Can I move the site later?
Only the content, and only by hand. Neither platform exports a site you can host elsewhere: you take the text, the images and the domain, and you rebuild. Price that into the decision if there is any chance the site becomes a real asset — a $2,000 builder site you rebuild in two years costs more than a $5,000 WordPress site you keep.
Ready to build? Three ways to do it
The right path depends on budget, not preference. These bands come from our own published cost data.
Do it yourself
$0–$500
WordPress on cheap hosting like SiteGround — enough for a simple site you maintain yourself.
Hire a freelancer
$500–$5,000
Custom design and setup without agency overhead — the sweet spot for most small-business sites.
Browse Fiverrdevelopers →Custom project
$5,000+
Scope it properly before you talk to anyone — our calculator prices your exact feature list so quotes can't inflate.
Price my project →Disclosure: some links above are partner links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Recommendations come from our cost data, not from who pays us.