Wix, Squarespace or WordPress?
Wix and Squarespace are website builders you rent and run yourself. WordPress is free software that you, or someone you pay, installs and looks after on hosting of your choice. The right one depends on who will do the work and what the site needs to do.
- Costs compared in pounds
- How easy each is to leave
Side by side.
| Wix | Squarespace | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A hosted website builder | A hosted website builder | Free, open-source software you install on hosting |
| Who builds it | You, with drag-and-drop templates | You, with structured templates | You or a developer |
| Running costs | A monthly or yearly plan; prices vary by country | From £14.40 a month, billed yearly, on 1 November 2026 | Hosting and maintenance, from whoever provides them |
| Updates and security | Handled by Wix | Handled by Squarespace | Your job, or your developer’s |
| Extra features | Wix’s app market | Squarespace’s built-in features and extensions | Tens of thousands of plugins, or custom code |
| Leaving | The site cannot be moved to another platform | Some content exports to a WordPress file; the design does not | The whole site can be moved to any host |
Squarespace’s prices are from its UK pricing page and include VAT. Its cheapest plan takes 2% of online store sales; the others take no fee on store sales, though some take one on digital content and memberships. Wix shows prices by location, so check the UK price on its own site.
When Wix or Squarespace is the right choice.
If you want to build and update the site yourself, the site is simple, and the budget is small, a builder is a reasonable choice. Hosting, security and updates are part of the plan, and nobody else is needed.
Squarespace builds pages from structured sections. Wix lets you place things anywhere on the page, so check how each page looks on a phone as well as a desktop. Squarespace has a free trial and Wix a free plan, so you can build a page in each and see which suits you.
The cost to watch is your own time. A builder costs little in money, but it costs your time if you are the one doing the work.
When WordPress makes more sense.
WordPress suits a site that needs to do something specific, such as bookings tied to your own system, or several people editing different sections. It also suits a business that wants to own the site outright and move hosts when it likes.
The trade is upkeep. WordPress, its theme and its plugins need regular updates and backups, or known security holes are left open. Someone has to do that, whether it is you, a member of staff or a developer.
There are two things called WordPress: the free software from wordpress.org, which you install on any hosting, and WordPress.com, a hosted service run by one company that works more like a builder. This guide means the first.
Moving later.
Your domain name can be moved away from any of them, as long as it is registered in your name. The site itself is another matter. A Wix site cannot be exported to another platform, so leaving means rebuilding it. Squarespace can export some content, such as pages and blog posts, in a file WordPress can import, but the design and some page types stay behind. A WordPress site, files and database together, can be moved to any host.
If you might outgrow a builder within a couple of years, that is worth weighing now rather than later.
Where Braw fits in.
Braw builds on WordPress, without a page builder, and does the upkeep, so the site is yours without the maintenance landing on you. Braw Monthly is £79 a month for a simple site with no build fee, including hosting, updates and your edits, and the site is yours after 24 months. For a WordPress site you already have, Braw Support is £49 a month.
If a builder suits you better, we will say so.
Website platform questions
Ask us something else →Is Wix bad for SEO?
Wix sites can rank, and Wix gives you control over page titles, descriptions and addresses. What you cannot change is the code it produces, which limits what you can do about the site’s speed.
Can I move from Wix to WordPress?
Yes, by rebuilding the site on WordPress and moving your domain. The content can be copied across, and old addresses should be redirected to the new pages so the rankings carry over to the new pages as far as possible.
Is WordPress free?
The software is. Hosting, a domain, any paid themes or plugins, and the time or cost of looking after it are not.
Which is cheapest?
For a simple site you build yourself, a builder’s cheapest plan. Once someone else is building and maintaining it, compare the whole cost over a few years, as in our pay monthly or upfront guide.
Ask us which fits.
Tell us what the site needs to do and who will update it. We will tell you which way we would go, even if it is not with us.
Talk about your site →