Technology
Wix vs. Squarespace – Website Builder Comparison for Creators and Influencers
Which site builder is best for influencers and content creators?
Everyone knows that having a website is one of the most important parts of being an influencer. Your website says a lot about you – this could be your online shop, your portfolio, and will be where brands will look to see if they want to sponsor you. Your website should be clean, show off your personal brand, and be easily navigable.
There are so many site-building alternatives out there, so how do you know where to build your site?
Today, we will be taking a look at two significant competitors, Wix and SquareSpace so you can decide where to build your website.
Wix
What is Wix?
Wix is a website-building platform that allows users to create HTML 5 sites through drag-and-drop tools. Founded in Israel in 2006, it is now publicly listed in the US and is a billion-dollar company. As of 2022, the site has over 220 million users and is one of the most popular website-building tools.
How does Wix Work?
Wix is the perfect website building solution if you don’t know how to code. It is free to sign up and there are thousands of free templates to choose from.
After you sign up, you can start creating your free site. You can choose from the categories listed below, or something else entirely.
Next, you can enter the URL of your website. What would you like your website to be called? It’s important to note that on the free plan, your url will end in .wix.
Don’t worry, you can change this at any time.
Next, you can start choosing templates, and picking key features your website will need.
This includes if you will want a live chat, pricing plans, Instagram feed, or more.
You can either begin with a template, or get a custom built site from Wix in a matter of minutes.
There are a large range of templates you can choose from. Below are just a couple of the options.
If none of the templates are catching your fancy, you can also have Wix choose a personalized template for you.
Simply add your information such as your social accounts, your business name, and your logo, and Wix will choose from a range of templates, and then you can start designing your site.
Once you’ve picked a template, or you’ve chosen Wix’s design options, you can start customizing your site however you’d like.
This is what your dashboard will look like.
Click on photos to replace them with your own and click on the text to easily add your information. You can add as many pages as you want, connect to apps, and connect your social media to the site.
Many of the applications have free plans or free trials available.
Once you’ve designed your website to your liking, you can hit publish and have your site be live to the public – just like that!
Does Wix Stay Free?
You can stay on Wix’s free plan without ever having to upgrade. However, to connect a domain and unlock some of the site’s key features, you will have to upgrade to a premium plan.
Wix has a few plans you can choose from, ranging from website plans to ecommerce plans, specifically for if you will be conducting business with your site.
The website plans are as follows –
The unlimited plan is Wix’s most popular plan at $20.40 USD a month. This plan allows you to connect your custom domain, remove ads, have 10 GB of storage, and allows you access to visitor analytics and site boosters, which can be vital for creators.
The ecommerce plans are below.
The Business Unlimited plan is the most popular, offering 35 GB of storage, secure online payments, and 10 hours of video.
What other features does Wix offer?
Some other key features from Wix are the ability to keep your site mobile friendly – with so much traffic coming from our cell phones, you need to make sure your site works on both desktop and mobile devices.
Wix also offers built in SEO tools to ensure your site is hitting the tops of Google search results.
And if you have coding experience and don’t want to pick from templates, you can use Wix ADI, which is an open development platform for developing more advanced websites.
SquareSpace
What is SquareSpace?
Squarespace is an American website builder founded in 2004. As of 2022, the site has 4 million subscribers and the company is estimated to be worth $10 billion USD. Unlike Wix, you have to subscribe to one of their premium plans to use the site as there are no free website options available.
Some top companies use Squarespace to power their websites, including Princess Polly, and Curology. They also sponsor influencers such as Casey Neistat.
How does SquareSpace Work?
Similarly to Wix, you can create a wide range of websites on the platform including e-commerce sites, personal blogs, portfolios, and more. They offer pre-built templates that are easily customizable. You can view some of these templates below.
Once you’ve created an account, you can start exploring the thousands of design templates on your 14 day free trial. Once your trial is up, you have to subscribe to one of the premium plans.
The most popular plan is their business plan at $17 USD a month. This allows you to connect a domain, receive top security, and have unlimited contributors to your site. You have 30 minutes of video storage as well as receive a professional email address from Google and access to your analytics.
Some other key features that Squarespace offers are in-depth analytics, such as sales if you are building an online shop, total traffic, and geography of this traffic. You can also view sales by product, see what keywords are driving the most traffic, and view data such as abandoned cart.
On more advanced plans, the more advanced your analytics are. You can also unlock features such as being able to sell products on Instagram, offer advanced shipping and discounts, and have zero transaction fees from Squarespace.
Once you’ve chosen your plan, you can start deciding how you want your site to look.
Below is what your dashboard will look like.
You can choose between hundreds of templates that fit your site needs and change your entire design at any point.
Just like Wix, Squarespace operates under a drag-and-drop approach which makes it easy for beginners or if you aren’t sure how to code.
Simply click on the text or photos you want to change, and you can design your perfect site in a matter of minutes and have it published in seconds.
What other features does Squarespace offer?
Squarespace allows you to schedule posts, integrate with popular apps such as Dropbox, and offers mobile editing.
Below are a few more key features that Squarespace offers to their subscribers. From video editing apps to email campaigns, you won’t run out of features with this platform.
Which site builder is best?
Now you have to decide – which website builder do you choose? While Wix offers free options, this could be the most economical choice for those just starting in content creation. However, many users agree that Squarespace’s editing tools are cleaner, more exact, and paying for the service allows for a better user experience.
Which site will you choose? Do you use another alternative? Let us know down below.