Choosing between Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress comes down to your technical skill, budget, and long-term goals.
Wix is a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop builder, Squarespace is best for stunning, designer-made layouts, and WordPress is the most powerful, fully customizable platform for scalability and advanced SEO.
| Feature | Wix | Squarespace | Self-Hosted WordPress |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ease of Use |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent |
⭐⭐⭐ Moderate |
|
Design Flexibility |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Unlimited |
|
SEO |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent |
|
Blogging |
⭐⭐⭐ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best |
|
eCommerce |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Most Flexible |
|
Ownership |
Limited |
Limited |
Complete ownership |
|
Scalability |
Moderate |
Moderate |
Excellent |
|
Maintenance |
None |
None |
Required |
|
Monthly Cost |
$$-$$$ |
$$-$$$ |
$-$$$ (depends on hosting) |
Wix
Wix is an intuitive, all-in-one website builder that handles both design and web hosting in a single, closed ecosystem. It is highly popular among beginners and local businesses.
Benefits
✅ Extremely easy for beginners
✅ Drag-and-drop builder
✅ Hosting included
✅ Security handled automatically
✅ Automatic updates
✅ Large App Market
✅ Fast setup
Negatives
❌ Difficult to move your website elsewhere
❌ Less flexible for custom functionality
❌ Can become expensive as features are added
❌ Page speed can be slower than WordPress
❌ Limited control over the backend
Typical Costs (Australia)
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Plan Costs | $21–199/month. |
| Domain Name | $15–30/year |
| Extra |
Approximate annual cost: $320–570
*Wix does offer a free plan with a wix domain name (you can’t use a custom domain name like yourwebsite.com) and comes with limited features.
Squarespace
Squarespace is famous for its sleek, award-winning templates. It operates as a hosted solution and offers built-in tools that cater heavily to creatives and artists.
Benefits
✅ Beautiful professional templates
✅ Excellent for photographers, designers and service businesses
✅ Hosting included
✅ Security included
✅ Automatic updates
✅ Very polished user experience
✅ Fast setup
Negatives
❌ Less flexible than WordPress
❌ Limited plugin ecosystem
❌ More difficult to customise beyond the template
❌ Less suited to large or complex websites
Typical Costs (Australia)
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Plan Costs | $24–149/month |
| Domain Name | $15–30/year |
| Extra |
Approximate annual cost: $375–570
*Squarespace offers a free 14 day trial.
**Discounts apply if you pay annually.
Self-Hosted WordPress
(Self-hosted means you purchase your own hosting and install WordPress yourself or through your hosting provider.)
Benefits
✅ You own the website
✅ You own the hosting
✅ You own the database
✅ Thousands of themes
✅ Over 60,000 plugins
✅ Best SEO potential
✅ Extremely scalable
✅ Can build almost anything
✅ Easy to move between hosting companies
✅ No platform lock-in
Negatives
❌ Requires updates
❌ Requires backups
❌ Security needs managing
❌ Can require more technical knowledge
❌ Plugin conflicts occasionally occur
Typical Costs (Australia)
| Item | Annual Cost |
|---|---|
| Domain Name | $15–30 |
| Web Hosting | $120–350 |
| Premium Theme (optional) | $0–150 |
| Premium Plugins (optional) | $0–500+ |
| Maintenance (optional) | $0–1,200+ |
A typical small business WordPress website often costs around $150–400/year if managed yourself, or $500–1,500+/year if using premium tools and a maintenance service.
At Amay Web Design, our typical charges for domain name registration is $25 per year, hosting starting from $150 per year and maintenance starts at $50 per month per website.
eCommerce Comparison
| Feature | Wix | Squarespace | WordPress (WooCommerce) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Products | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Digital Products | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Subscriptions | Limited | Limited | Excellent |
| Memberships | Limited | Limited | Excellent |
| Shipping Options | Good | Good | Excellent |
| Payment Gateways | Good | Good | Excellent |
Winner: WordPress with WooCommerce
Final Thoughts
For a simple website that you want to launch quickly with very little technical involvement, Wix or Squarespace are both strong options. Wix offers greater design freedom with its drag-and-drop editor, while Squarespace is known for its polished templates and streamlined experience.
For most small businesses that expect to grow, self-hosted WordPress provides the best long-term value and can scale with your business. Although it requires occasional maintenance, it offers complete ownership of your website, far greater flexibility, stronger SEO capabilities, and the ability to expand with advanced functionality such as online stores, bookings, memberships, directories, blogs or custom integrations without being tied to a proprietary platform.
