WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace

Wix and Squarespace are all-in-one website builders. You pay a subscription, pick a template and build the site yourself, with hosting and security included. WordPress is open source software that you install on separate hosting and extend with themes and plugins. The builders are simpler to start and run. WordPress can do more and is easier to move, but it needs looking after.

What each one offers

Wix

Wix provides hosting, a large template library, a drag-and-drop editor and an AI website builder that drafts a site from a text prompt. It has its own tools for online stores, appointment bookings and SEO, and an app market for adding more. Domains can be bought through Wix or connected from elsewhere.

Squarespace

Squarespace provides designer templates, built-in hosting with SSL, online store tools and appointment booking through Acuity Scheduling, which it owns. It also includes SEO tools, analytics and its own AI site builder. Squarespace is known for polished templates that are hard to make look bad.

WordPress

WordPress is free, open source software. According to WordPress.org, it runs over 43% of all sites on the web. You choose your own hosting, then add a theme or builder and plugins for the features you need. Nothing about the design or functionality is fixed, which is both the strength and the responsibility.

How they compare

Getting started

Wix and Squarespace are built for people making their own site. An owner with no technical background can publish something presentable quickly. WordPress has a steeper start: hosting, installation, a theme and plugins all have to be chosen and set up, and most businesses hire someone to do it.

Flexibility

On Wix and Squarespace you work within what the platform and its apps provide. That covers most small business needs. When a site needs something outside that set, such as a connection to a property management system, a custom booking flow or an unusual content structure, the options narrow. WordPress has a plugin or a custom route for almost anything, because the code is open.

Upkeep

The builders handle hosting, security and updates. A WordPress site needs its core software, plugins and server kept current and backed up. That is manageable, but it has to be someone's job.

Portability

This is where the builders cost you later. Wix states in its support documentation that a Wix site has to be hosted on Wix's servers and cannot be hosted elsewhere. Squarespace offers an export, but its export guide shows that it covers only some content, such as standard pages and one blog. Store pages, product blocks, style settings and custom CSS are not included. Leaving either platform means rebuilding the site.

A WordPress site can be moved in full to another host or handed to another supplier.

Cost model

Wix and Squarespace charge a subscription that includes hosting. WordPress software is free, with separate costs for hosting, any premium plugins, the build and maintenance. A builder is usually cheaper to start. Over several years the comparison depends on what the site has to do.

The South African view

For a brochure site, all three work the same in South Africa as anywhere else. The differences appear when you take payments.

• WordPress with WooCommerce works with the main South African gateways. Payfast, for example, has an official WooCommerce extension.
• Yoco and Peach Payments both list Wix among the platforms they integrate with.
• Before building a shop on Squarespace, check which payment providers it supports for a South African business. Do this before you design anything.

Also check where the site is hosted if local loading speed matters to you. With WordPress you choose the hosting region. With an all-in-one builder you use the platform's own network.

Choose Wix or Squarespace when

• The business is new and needs a presentable site soon.
• The site is small: a few pages, a contact form, perhaps simple bookings or a small shop.
• You want to build and update it yourself.
• You do not want to think about hosting, updates or security.

Between the two, Wix offers more layout freedom and a wider app market. Squarespace offers tighter templates and less to configure. Try both on a free trial before deciding.

Choose WordPress when

• The website is a main source of enquiries or bookings and has to keep growing.
• You need integrations with booking, accounting or other business systems.
• SEO is a long-term channel and you want full control of structure and content types.
• You want to own the site outright and be free to move it.

Where Stryx stands

Stryx builds new sites on WordPress with Bricks Builder, and does not build on Wix or Squarespace. That is not a judgement on those platforms. For a new business testing an idea, a site you build yourself on Wix or Squarespace is often the sensible first step, and a professionally built site can follow once the business has outgrown it.

When a business does move from a builder to WordPress, the work begins with an audit of the existing site, and old URLs are redirected so search visibility is kept.

Related reading

• WordPress website design
• Website redesign
• Payment gateways in South Africa
• WordPress vs Webflow

For a second opinion on which route suits your business, contact Stryx.