What Platform Should You Use for Your Website? (Squarespace vs Wix vs Wordpress)

I get this question a lot. Clients ask me all the time which platform they should be using, whether they should build on Wix or Squarespace or WordPress, or if they should even be building it themselves. The truth is that the platform matters.

Your website is an investment. Sometimes the investment is your own time because you are building it yourself. Other times the investment is money because you are hiring someone else to build it for you. Either way, you want to choose the right platform because you care about longevity, you want the right price, you want easy access, and you want customization where you need it.

The way I explain this to people is to think in three levels. Each level has a right fit depending on your goals, your budget, and your tolerance for complexity.

Squarespace Review: Best for Simple Brochure Sites

Squarespace is often the first step into putting together a website. It is basic, but it is also very accessible. You can add text, drop in photos, and get a site live without a lot of effort. Most of the time, if Squarespace is the right solution for you, you are probably building it yourself.

This is not a tool that we often use for our clients, but it does serve a purpose. If somebody needs something inexpensive and very quick, Squarespace can be the right place to start. With the right copy and photos you can have a site that looks polished enough to give you legitimacy and credibility.

We see people use Squarespace when they are simply trying to have a brochure online. They might take photos on their iPhone, upload them, and add a few lines of text. For many people, that is all they are looking for.

Who it’s for:

• Businesses with limited budgets

• Simple products or services like a family owned roofing company or lawn business

• Owners who only need a brochure style site that collects form submissions

Stat to consider: Squarespace powers just under 2 percent of websites worldwide. It is a small portion of the market compared to more advanced platforms, which tells you it serves a specific but limited need.

Wix Review: Best All-Around Website Builder for Small Business

This is where most of our clients land. I would say that nine times out of ten, when we are working on a site for somebody, we are using the Wix platform. The reason is simple. Wix is robust, it looks great, and it has one of the most complete dashboards you can find.

On the front end, Wix is fully customizable. You can work with blocks, sections, animations, even custom code. It allows for strategic design that reflects your brand rather than a cookie cutter template. On the back end, Wix gives you tools that most small and mid sized businesses need.

You can use the Wix dashboard as a CRM for form submissions. You can create automations for email funnels. You can send newsletters. You can track traffic, sources, clicks, and patterns of behavior. You can accept payments. You can run a lot of your digital marketing through this single system.

Once we complete a website in Wix, we hand over ownership to the client. At that point you have access to everything. If you want to change an image, update a video, or rewrite text, you can do that yourself without causing damage. We give you a tutorial so you know exactly how to make small changes and hit publish.

If you need bigger changes like a new page, a redesigned section, or a funnel built out, that is where we step back in and build it for you on a project basis or retainer.

Who it’s for:

• Businesses that are ready for more than a brochure site

• Owners who need data, analytics, and marketing tools in one place

• Teams who want the ability to make updates on their own without relying on a developer every time

Stat to consider: Wix holds around 45 percent of the DIY website builder market. It is the most popular choice in this category, and for good reason.

Example: One of our clients, a local café, uses Wix. We built in online ordering, a newsletter signup, and a blog for seasonal updates. Today they handle menu changes, swap photos, and update events on their own without ever having to call us.

WordPress Review: Best for Large, Complex, High-Traffic Sites

WordPress is one of the most robust options for website design, but it comes with significant complexity. The development side is not user friendly. Even when tools like Elementor or Figma make the layout process easier, you are still looking at a platform that requires technical knowledge.

Beyond development, maintenance is ongoing. WordPress sites run on a system of plugins. Those plugins all need to be updated regularly, and when one breaks it can affect the entire site. You almost always need a developer to maintain it.

The cost of WordPress is also much higher. A project that would cost five thousand dollars in Wix can easily cost three to five times more in WordPress. Add the ongoing maintenance fees and you have a significant long term investment.

What makes WordPress appealing is scale. If you are talking about tens of thousands of visitors every month, WordPress has the stability and performance to handle that volume. For many mid sized businesses, that kind of capacity is unnecessary. If your site will be serving under ten thousand visitors a month, Wix or Squarespace will serve you just fine.

Who it’s for:

• Large companies with complex customization needs

• Organizations serving tens of thousands of monthly visitors

• Businesses that have the budget to pay for ongoing development and maintenance

Stat to consider: WordPress powers over 40 percent of all websites worldwide. It dominates the market for enterprise sites, but it also demands the most resources to keep running smoothly.

Example: A nonprofit we worked with chose WordPress because they needed a membership portal, a donation system, and multilingual functionality. It was the right choice, but it required custom coding and continues to require ongoing developer support. They're a large non-profit so it made sense for them.

Squarespace vs Wix vs WordPress: Cost Comparison

Here is how I explain the cost difference in simple terms.

• A Squarespace site is a five hundred dollar website

• A Wix site is a five thousand dollar website

• A WordPress site is a fifty thousand dollar website

These numbers are not exact but they give you a sense of scale. Each level requires a different kind of investment.

Which One is Right for You?

For most small and mid sized businesses, Wix is the right solution. You are past the point of just needing a brochure. You need a website that is strategic. You need tools that will grow with you. And you need analytics and data to make smart decisions. Wix gives you all of that without overwhelming you.

At The Haven Agency, our goal is to guide you to the platform that actually helps you grow. If you are unsure which one fits your needs, we can walk you through the options, talk about your goals, and build a plan that works.