WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace UK Website Builder Guide

When you're trying to pick between WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, it really boils down to a classic trade-off. Think of it this way: WordPress offers you the keys to the entire kingdom with ultimate control and room to grow, Wix gives you a magic wand for creative freedom with drag-and-drop simplicity, and Squarespace hands you a portfolio of stunning, professionally designed templates that look incredible right out of the box.

Your final decision will hinge on what you value most: flexibility, ease of use, or pure design polish.

Choosing Your UK Website Builder

Nailing down the right platform is one of the most critical first steps for any UK small business or freelancer. Each of these contenders serves a very different master, and figuring out their core strengths from the get-go will save you a world of pain and future headaches. This guide is here to cut through the noise and help you make a smart choice based on what your business actually needs.

Here in the UK, the battle for dominance is pretty clear. Wix is currently leading the pack, holding a massive market share of 49%. That translates to over 490,000 active UK websites, which shows just how popular it is with entrepreneurs. Squarespace follows with a respectable 24% market share, powering nearly 240,000 sites across the country.

At-a-Glance Platform Showdown

To make your initial choice a bit less daunting, this table breaks down the fundamental differences between our three heavyweights. It’s a great starting point, but for an even deeper dive, you might want to check out our complete guide to the [12 best website builder platforms for UK businesses in 2025](https://www.baslondigital.com/post/12-best-website-builder-platforms-for-uk-businesses-2025).

This high-level snapshot should give you a good feel for where you might land. But of course, the devil is in the details.

Ready to find the perfect home for your business online? Let’s dig deeper into the features that will truly define your success.

Comparing Platform Ease of Use

When you’re picking a website builder, the day-to-day reality of using it is a massive deal. Your time is precious, so let's get real about how much technical wrangling each platform demands and see which one fits your comfort level.

Wix User Experience

Wix is famous for being incredibly beginner-friendly, and for good reason. It’s built for people who just want to get on with it. Its main claim to fame is a super-intuitive drag-and-drop editor. You can literally stick anything—text, images, buttons—wherever you want on the page. No annoying grids boxing you in.

Need to launch, like, yesterday? Wix has a tool called Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). You answer a few questions about your business and what you like, and it spits out a surprisingly decent, customised website in minutes. It's the perfect solution for total beginners who value speed over getting bogged down in design details.

Squarespace User Experience

Squarespace sits somewhere in the middle, offering a blend of creative freedom with a bit more structure. Instead of the free-for-all canvas you get with Wix, it uses a section-based, grid-style editor. You build pages by slotting in pre-designed blocks for things like photo galleries, contact forms, or testimonials.

At first, this might feel a little restrictive compared to Wix, but it’s actually a brilliant design safety net. It's genuinely difficult to make an ugly website with Squarespace because all the templates and sections are professionally crafted to look slick and work together. This makes it a great fit for anyone who wants a polished, high-end look without needing a designer’s eye.

Here’s a peek at the Wix interface, showing off its editor and user dashboard.

This view gives you a sense of the tools at your fingertips, highlighting the platform's focus on a visual, feature-packed environment for building and managing your site.

WordPress User Experience

Alright, let’s be honest: WordPress has the steepest learning curve of the three. Because it’s a self-hosted platform, the setup alone is more involved. You have to sort out your own hosting and install the software. While most hosts now offer "one-click" WordPress installations, it's still not as straightforward as the all-in-one packages from Wix and Squarespace.

Once you're up and running, things have gotten a lot better thanks to the native Gutenberg block editor. It works a bit like Squarespace's editor, letting you build pages with content blocks. But if you want the kind of design freedom Wix offers, you'll almost certainly need to install a third-party page builder plugin like Elementor or Divi.

This adds another layer you have to learn and manage, complete with its own interface, updates, and settings. It gives you incredible power, for sure, but it also demands a bigger time investment and a willingness to get your hands a little dirty with the technical side of things.

So, how does this all translate into what your final website looks like? Let's dive into which platform gives you the best creative control for your brand.

Design Flexibility and Creative Control

Your website's design is your digital shopfront. Get it right, and you’ve got a customer. Get it wrong, and they’re gone in a click. The platform you choose is the single biggest factor determining how much say you have over that first impression.

This is where the choice really gets interesting. It's a classic battle: structured elegance versus total creative freedom. Let's break down what design control actually feels like on Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.

Squarespace: The Polished Professional

Squarespace has built its entire reputation on stunning, award-winning templates. It's the platform you choose when you want to look sharp and professional right out of the box, with zero fuss.

The secret is its structured, section-based editor. Think of it as a set of designer-approved guardrails. It’s genuinely difficult to make a Squarespace site look bad because the pros have already handled the tricky bits like layouts and typography. You can still tweak colours, fonts, and layouts, but you're always working within a framework that guarantees a clean, high-end result. It’s a design safety net.

Wix: Complete Creative Freedom

Wix is the polar opposite. It hands you a blank canvas and says, "Go wild." With its true drag-and-drop editor, you can stick any element—a button, an image, a block of text—anywhere you want on the page, down to the last pixel. For anyone with a specific creative vision, this is liberating.

But here’s the catch: that much freedom can be a double-edged sword. Without the guardrails of Squarespace, it’s also incredibly easy to create a site that looks cluttered, chaotic, or just plain unprofessional. If you don't have a good eye for design, you might end up with something that looks like a digital sweet shop after a tornado has hit it. Wix puts all the design responsibility squarely on your shoulders.

WordPress: Infinite Possibilities

When you talk about ultimate flexibility, WordPress is in a league of its own. Its design potential isn't limited to a built-in editor or a set of templates. Instead, it offers a layered approach that can be as simple or as mind-bogglingly complex as you need it to be.

This is what a standard Squarespace dashboard looks like—notice the clean, section-driven interface.

It’s organised and intuitive, guiding you through a structured process rather than just dropping you in front of a blank page.

The real power of WordPress design comes from a combination of three things:

• Themes: There are literally tens of thousands of them, from basic free layouts to premium themes that are practically websites in a box. The theme is your starting point—the foundation and style of your site.

• Page Builders: This is the game-changer. Plugins like Elementor or Divi transform the standard WordPress editor into a visual, drag-and-drop interface, much like Wix but with far more power and advanced features under the bonnet.

• Custom Code: For those who need it, WordPress is open-source. This means a developer (or you, if you’re brave) can get in and change every single line of code. This allows for truly bespoke designs and unique features that are simply impossible on a closed platform like Wix or Squarespace.

This tiered system means WordPress grows with you. You can start with a simple theme, add a powerful page builder when you’re ready for more control, and eventually hire a developer to build a completely custom solution when you’re ready to take over the world.

Feeling clearer on which platform aligns with your design vision? The next step is to see how each one helps customers actually find your beautifully designed site.

Evaluating SEO and Marketing Capabilities

A stunning website is only half the battle. If potential customers can’t find you online, all that design effort is pretty much wasted. That’s why a platform’s search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing tools are so critical for growth.

When you line up WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, their approaches to getting your site found are fundamentally different.

Sure, all three cover the absolute basics—letting you tweak page titles, meta descriptions, and image alt text. But they diverge sharply when you get into more advanced strategies. Understanding the essentials of what is search engine optimization is crucial here, as this is where these platforms really show their true colours.

WordPress: The SEO Powerhouse

For anyone serious about ranking in competitive UK markets, WordPress is in a class of its own. Its power doesn’t come from built-in features, but from its open-source nature and a mind-boggling library of over 60,000 plugins.

This setup allows for incredibly granular control over every single aspect of your site’s SEO. Plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math are industry-standard tools that transform a basic WordPress installation into a finely tuned optimisation machine.

With these plugins, you can:

• Implement advanced schema markup to help Google better understand your content.

• Generate and submit complex XML sitemaps automatically.

• Perform detailed content analysis to ensure every page is optimised for its target keyword.

• Manage technical SEO headaches like redirects and canonical tags with ease.

This level of control is simply unmatched by all-in-one builders. When it comes to marketing, WordPress integrates seamlessly with nearly every third-party tool you can think of, from email marketing giants like Mailchimp to advanced analytics platforms.

Wix and Squarespace: The Integrated Toolkits

Wix and Squarespace take a more guided, all-in-one approach. They provide built-in SEO wizards and checklists designed to walk beginners through the optimisation process. To be fair, these tools are genuinely helpful for getting the fundamentals right and making sure your site is ready for search engines.

Wix, in particular, has worked hard to shed its old reputation for poor SEO. Today, it offers solid, built-in features, and many of the old criticisms just don't hold up anymore. In fact, for a modern perspective, it's worth reading an updated take on whether Wix sites are bad for SEO to see just how far the platform has come.

Both platforms also offer their own integrated email marketing solutions (Wix Ascend and Squarespace Email Campaigns) and social media tools, which is a huge plus for businesses wanting to keep everything under one subscription.

But this convenience comes at the cost of advanced control. You're limited to the features they provide. If you need to implement a highly specific type of schema markup or tackle complex technical SEO tasks, you’ll often hit a wall that a WordPress user can simply bypass with another plugin.

Detailed SEO Feature Breakdown

To give you a clearer picture, here’s a look at how the key SEO features stack up across the three platforms. It really highlights the trade-off between built-in simplicity and limitless flexibility.

As you can see, the right choice really depends on your goals and technical comfort level.

For businesses in highly competitive niches or those with ambitious growth plans, the depth and flexibility of WordPress’s SEO toolkit make it the clear long-term winner. But for small businesses and freelancers who value simplicity and an all-in-one solution, the integrated tools from Wix and Squarespace are often more than enough to get started and see real results.

Scalability for Future Business Growth

Getting your business off the ground is one thing, but planning where it's headed is a whole different ball game. As you grow, your website needs to grow with you. If you pick a platform that can't keep up, you'll eventually face a messy and expensive migration. Nobody wants that.

This is a critical point in the WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace showdown. While all three will get you a perfectly decent website, their ability to handle serious, long-term growth—especially in e-commerce—is worlds apart.

Native E-commerce Tools

For most UK businesses dipping their toes into e-commerce, starting small is the way to go. Wix and Squarespace get this, and they’ve built slick, all-in-one solutions that are fantastic for anyone just starting out.

• Wix Commerce: Comes with a really friendly interface and has all the tools you need for products, payments, and shipping built right in. It’s a solid package for small to medium-sized shops.

• Squarespace Commerce: If your brand is all about aesthetics, Squarespace is your friend. It's famous for its stunning product pages and has great tools for selling physical products, services, and digital downloads.

But here’s the catch: these platforms are closed shops. That convenience comes at a cost—you’re stuck with their features, their product limits, and their transaction fees. As your business scales, having solid strategies for reducing cart abandonment becomes non-negotiable, and you might find these built-in tools just don't cut it.

Unmatched Power with WordPress and WooCommerce

And this is exactly where WordPress flexes its muscles. Combine WordPress with the free WooCommerce plugin, and you've just built yourself an e-commerce beast with practically no limits.

Because WooCommerce is open-source, you are in the driver's seat. It can handle a handful of products just as easily as it can handle tens of thousands. You can tweak every single pixel of the shopping experience, from how the checkout flows to the layout of your product pages.

Beyond Standard E-commerce

Real growth isn't always about selling more stuff. Maybe you want to launch an online course, build a private members-only section, or create a complex booking system for your services.

On Wix and Squarespace, you'll be heading to their app marketplaces for that kind of thing. The options can be limited, and each new app often adds another line item to your monthly bill.

With WordPress, the plugin library is like a treasure chest. The possibilities are nearly endless. You can bolt on specialised tools for just about anything:

• Memberships: Plugins like MemberPress let you create different subscription levels and lock down your premium content.

• Online Courses: Tools like LearnDash can transform your site into a full-blown learning platform.

• Custom Bookings: Need a sophisticated booking system for a hotel or a fleet of rental cars? Yep, there are dedicated plugins for that.

This freedom to add powerful, specific features is why WordPress is still the go-to for ambitious businesses. You're never boxed in. The platform bends to fit your vision, not the other way around.

Breaking Down the Real Platform Costs

Let's talk about money. When you're running a small business, every pound counts, and the price you see advertised for a website builder is almost never the final price you pay. That flashy monthly fee? It's usually just the tip of the iceberg.

To make a smart decision, you need to understand the total cost of ownership. We’re going to peel back the layers on WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace to see what you’ll actually be spending in the long run.

The All-in-One Subscription: What You See Isn't Always What You Get

Platforms like Wix and Squarespace bundle everything into a neat subscription package. Your monthly or annual payment typically covers hosting, security, and the main website builder tools. Simple, right? Well, mostly.

The catch is in the tiered plans. You might start on a cheap plan, but as soon as you need to do something serious—like actually sell products—you're forced to upgrade. On Wix, for example, taking online payments means moving up from their basic 'Light' plan to at least the 'Core' plan. Squarespace plays a similar game; their entry-level plan slaps a 3% transaction fee on every sale, pushing any serious e-commerce store onto a pricier tier just to get rid of it.

Then there are the app marketplaces. Sure, many apps are free, but the really powerful ones for things like advanced booking systems, slick marketing tools, or specialised shop features often come with their own recurring monthly fee. For a really deep dive into how these little extras can stack up, check out this guide to the complete [Wix website cost in the UK](https://www.baslondigital.com/post/wix-website-cost-uk-demystified).

The À La Carte Menu of WordPress

WordPress is a completely different beast. The core software is free—as in, it costs nothing to download. But that's like getting a car engine for free; you still need to buy the rest of the car to actually go anywhere. It’s an à la carte approach where you pay for each piece separately.

Here’s a breakdown of your main expenses:

• Domain Name: Expect to pay around £10-£15 per year.

• UK Web Hosting: This is a big one. It can be as cheap as £4 a month for basic shared hosting or climb to over £30 a month for faster, more reliable managed WordPress hosting.

• Premium Themes: You can find thousands of free themes, but a professionally designed premium theme with good support will usually set you back a one-time fee of £40-£80.

• Premium Plugins: This is where costs can spiral. Essential tools for SEO (like Yoast SEO Premium) or adding extra features to your online shop (WooCommerce extensions) often require annual subscriptions.

For a very simple website, WordPress can feel cheaper at first. But once you start adding premium themes and a few essential plugin subscriptions, the total annual cost can quickly overtake the straightforward monthly fee of an all-in-one platform.

So, when you’re budgeting, look beyond the headline price. For Wix and Squarespace, scrutinise the feature list for each tier and anticipate what apps you might need to buy. For WordPress, make a list of everything—hosting, theme, and all the must-have plugins—to get a true picture of your total investment.

So, Which One Should You Actually Choose?

Alright, let's cut to the chase. The whole WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace smackdown doesn’t have a single winner. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The best platform is simply the one that fits your business, your skills, and your ambition like a glove.

To stop you from spiralling into a pit of indecision, here’s my straightforward verdict for UK businesses. This should give you the clarity you need to pick your platform and get building.

Your No-Nonsense Platform Guide

• For Creative Freelancers & Service Gurus: Go for Squarespace, no question. If your website is your portfolio, you need it to look drop-dead gorgeous without hiring a designer. Squarespace's templates are stunning right out of the box, and its structured editor stops you from accidentally making a mess. It's all about polish and simplicity.

• For Small Businesses That Just Need to Get Online: Wix is your best friend here. It hits that sweet spot between creative freedom and "I don't have time for this" ease of use. The drag-and-drop editor is a dream, and it comes packed with all the tools you need under one roof. Perfect for getting a great-looking, custom site live—fast.

• For Ambitious Start-ups & E-commerce Empires: It has to be WordPress. For anyone with big dreams of scaling up, this is the undisputed champ. The sheer power you get from plugins like WooCommerce for e-commerce and its legendary SEO capabilities puts it in a different league. If you have complex needs and plan on serious growth, this is your only real choice.

  
  

It boils down to a fundamental choice. With Wix and Squarespace, you're paying for predictable, bundled costs. With WordPress, you're managing flexible, à la carte expenses.

Ultimately, you’re trading off simplicity, design control, and future-proofing. Pick the platform that doesn't just solve your problems today but is ready to grow with you tomorrow.

Feeling like you'd rather have an expert handle all this?

Baslon Digital is a top-tier Wix website design agency in London. We specialise in building incredible, results-driven sites that get UK businesses noticed. Let's turn your vision into a reality, without the headache.

Visit us at baslondigital.com to get started today.