Choosing a website builder in 2026 isn’t the same decision it was five years ago. Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress.com have all restructured their pricing and plan names at least once in the past year, and the gap between “easiest to use” and “most flexible” has narrowed. We pulled current plan tiers, prices, and feature lists straight from each vendor’s own pricing page to see where the real differences sit today.
At a Glance
| Spec | Wix | Squarespace | WordPress.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Light, ~$17.77/mo (annual) | Basic, $19/mo (annual) | Personal, $4/mo (annual) |
| Free plan? | Yes, Wix-branded subdomain | No (trial only) | Yes, wordpress.com subdomain |
| Best known for | Drag-and-drop design freedom | Designer-quality templates | Blogging heritage + WooCommerce option |
| E-commerce transaction fees | Varies by plan tier | 0% on Core and up; 2% on Basic | 0% with Business/Commerce plans |
| Best for | Visual control, small business sites | Portfolios, creative brands, online stores | Blogs, content sites, WooCommerce stores |
Short Verdict
If you want the most hands-on visual editor and don’t mind a steeper learning curve for e-commerce, Wix’s Core and Business plans cover most small-business needs. If design polish matters more than flexibility — portfolios, photographers, boutique brands — Squarespace’s Core plan is the stronger template library and the better e-commerce fee structure for digital products. If you eventually want full control over plugins, themes, and your own WooCommerce store without paying transaction fees, WordPress.com’s Business plan is the better long-term home, especially if you already publish content regularly.
What Each One Is
Wix is a fully hosted, drag-and-drop site builder where you place elements freely on a canvas rather than working inside a fixed template grid. It markets itself on design freedom, a large app marketplace, and an AI site generator that can build a draft site from a text prompt.
Squarespace builds sites from a smaller set of professionally designed templates with a more opinionated editor — you get less pixel-level freedom than Wix, but a more consistent, higher-end look by default. It’s long been the go-to for photographers, restaurants, and creative portfolios, and it owns Acuity Scheduling and Unfold for additional booking and social tools.
WordPress.com is Automattic’s hosted version of the open-source WordPress software. The free and Personal plans are closer to a traditional website builder experience, but paying up to the Business or Commerce tier unlocks the ability to install any WordPress plugin and theme, including the full WooCommerce e-commerce stack — giving you an upgrade path to practically unlimited customization that Wix and Squarespace don’t offer.
Pricing Breakdown
| Plan | Price (billed annually) | Key limits/features |
|---|---|---|
| Wix Free | $0 | Wix subdomain, drag-and-drop editor, Wix branding |
| Wix Light | ~$17.77/mo | 2 GB storage, free domain for 1 year, 2 collaborators |
| Wix Core | ~$29.77/mo | 50 GB storage, basic e-commerce, 5 collaborators |
| Wix Business | ~$39.77/mo | 100 GB storage, standard e-commerce, 10 collaborators |
| Wix Business Elite | ~$159.77/mo | Unlimited storage, advanced e-commerce, 100 collaborators, advanced dev platform |
| Squarespace Basic | $19/mo | 30 min video storage, 2% store transaction fee, 7% digital content fee |
| Squarespace Core | $29/mo | 5 hrs video, 0% store transaction fee, 5% digital content fee |
| Squarespace Plus | $49/mo | 50 hrs video, 0% store fee, 1% digital content fee |
| Squarespace Advanced | $99/mo | Unlimited video, 0% fees on everything |
| WordPress.com Free | $0 | 1 GB storage, wordpress.com subdomain, no plugins |
| WordPress.com Personal | $4/mo | 6 GB storage, free custom domain for 1 year |
| WordPress.com Premium | $8/mo | 13 GB storage, payment buttons, video uploads |
| WordPress.com Business | $25/mo | 50 GB+ storage, any plugin/theme, WooCommerce, SSH/WP-CLI access |
| WordPress.com Commerce | $45/mo | Full WooCommerce, premium store themes, 0% WooCommerce fees |
A note on Wix pricing: Wix has adjusted its plan prices more than once in 2026, and its official pricing page states that quoted rates exclude tax and can vary by location. The figures above come directly from Wix’s current pricing page at the time of writing — confirm the live rate for your region and billing cycle before checking out. Squarespace and WordPress.com monthly figures reflect each vendor’s own published annual-billing rate; all three builders charge noticeably more if you pay month-to-month instead of annually.
Ease of Use
Wix’s canvas editor gives you the most granular control over exact placement of every element, which is powerful but also the easiest place to accidentally break a layout on mobile. Its AI site builder narrows that risk by generating a structured starting point. Squarespace trades some of that freedom for guardrails — sections snap into clean, pre-designed blocks, so it’s harder to make a page look unbalanced, but also harder to deviate from the template’s visual language. WordPress.com’s block editor (Gutenberg) sits in between: easier to learn than raw WordPress plugin management, but the full power of the platform — themes, plugins, custom code — only becomes available on paid plans, and that extra flexibility comes with a real learning curve compared to Wix or Squarespace.
E-Commerce and SEO Tools
All three offer built-in SEO basics — editable meta titles/descriptions, sitemaps, and mobile-responsive output — at every paid tier. Squarespace’s SEO panel and built-in keyword suggestions are generally considered the most beginner-friendly out of the box. For selling online, the economics differ sharply: Squarespace drops its store transaction fee to 0% starting on the Core plan, but still takes a cut of digital content and membership sales unless you’re on its top Advanced tier. WordPress.com only reaches 0% WooCommerce transaction fees on Business and Commerce plans, but WooCommerce itself is a far deeper, more extensible store engine once you’re there. Wix’s fee structure depends on which of its tiered “eCommerce” feature sets (Basic, Standard, Advanced) your plan includes, and scales with plan level rather than a flat percentage disclosed on the main pricing page.
Pros and Cons
Wix
- Pros: most visual design freedom, large app marketplace, AI site generator, built-in booking/events tools
- Cons: pricing has risen multiple times in 2026, free plan carries Wix branding, migrating off Wix later is harder than with standard WordPress
Squarespace
- Pros: strongest default design quality, 0% store fees from Core up, unlimited bandwidth on every plan
- Cons: less granular layout control than Wix, fewer third-party app integrations, digital content fee only disappears on the priciest Advanced plan
WordPress.com
- Pros: cheapest entry point, real WordPress underneath (full plugin/theme access on Business+), no required transaction fee once you reach Business/Commerce
- Cons: full customization locked behind pricier plans, steeper learning curve than Wix or Squarespace if you want to touch plugins and themes
Who It’s a Good Fit For
- Choose Wix if: you want maximum visual control over layout and plan to use its app marketplace or built-in booking/events features.
- Choose Squarespace if: you’re a creative professional, photographer, or boutique brand where visual polish matters more than layout flexibility, and you sell a modest volume of products or digital content.
- Choose WordPress.com if: you blog or publish content regularly, want the option to grow into a full WooCommerce store without recurring platform fees, or want an exit path that doesn’t lock your content into a proprietary format.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
If you’re running a high-volume online store with complex inventory, all three of these general-purpose builders will eventually feel limiting compared to a dedicated e-commerce platform like Shopify. And if you need enterprise-grade workflow, multi-site management, or a custom dev team working against a headless CMS, none of these three hosted builders is the right long-term foundation.
Bottom Line
There’s no universal winner here — the right pick depends on whether you value design freedom (Wix), out-of-the-box visual polish (Squarespace), or long-term platform ownership and content flexibility (WordPress.com). Price annually with any of them; month-to-month billing on all three carries a meaningful premium.
FAQ
Can I switch builders later without losing my content?
Moving a WordPress.com site’s content to another host is relatively straightforward since it’s built on open-source WordPress. Migrating a Wix or Squarespace site elsewhere is much harder, since both use proprietary, closed site architectures with no standard export-and-rebuild path.
Which is cheapest for a simple one-page site?
WordPress.com’s Personal plan and free tier are the cheapest entry points. Wix and Squarespace’s paid plans both start higher, though Wix also offers a free, ad-branded tier.
Do any of these charge a transaction fee on sales?
Squarespace drops its store transaction fee to 0% from the Core plan up (digital content/membership sales still carry a declining fee by tier). WordPress.com reaches 0% WooCommerce fees on Business and Commerce. Wix’s fee treatment depends on the eCommerce feature tier attached to your plan — check the live pricing page for your plan’s specifics.
Is WordPress.com the same as self-hosted WordPress.org?
No. WordPress.com is a managed hosting service built on the same open-source software as WordPress.org, but lower-tier WordPress.com plans restrict plugin/theme installation. Only Business plan and above unlock the same openness that self-hosted WordPress.org offers by default.
Sources
- Wix — Official pricing page
- Squarespace — Official pricing page
- WordPress.com — Official pricing page
Related reading: Best WordPress Backup Plugins in 2026 and Best CRM Software for Small Businesses in 2026.
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