WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: Which Is Best for a UK Small Business in 2026?

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace comes down to one trade-off: convenience or control. Squarespace is the quickest route to a polished website you run yourself, Wix gives do-it-yourself builders the most features, and self-hosted WordPress is the one you fully own, can move anywhere and can grow without limits. That is why Squarespace and Wix are popular with people building their first site at the kitchen table, and why most websites built by professionals for small businesses run on WordPress.

We build websites for small businesses across London and Essex, and we also get asked to fix, speed up or move sites built on all three platforms. This guide gives you the honest version: real UK prices, what each platform is genuinely good at, what the sales pages leave out, and a quick quiz at the end to point you at the right one. We build on WordPress, but you will see below that it is not the right answer for everyone.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace at a glance

All three can give you a professional, mobile-friendly website. They differ in who does the work, how much freedom you get and what happens if you ever want to leave. Here is how they compare on the things that matter most to a small business.

Share of all websites from W3Techs, 28 September 2026. Prices from each platform’s UK pricing, September 2026, excluding VAT.

First: which WordPress are we talking about?

This trips up a lot of people, because there are two things called WordPress:

• WordPress (self-hosted, often called WordPress.org) is free software. You rent hosting from any provider, install WordPress, and the site is yours: files, database, design, the lot. This is what powers about 40% of all websites and what most web designers mean when they say “we build on WordPress”.
• WordPress.com is a hosted service run by one company, closer to Wix and Squarespace in how you pay. In September 2026 its UK plans run from £3 to £36 a month billed yearly (excluding tax), and its paid plans now let you install plugins.

When we compare WordPress with Wix and Squarespace in this guide, we mean the self-hosted version, because that is where the real difference in control and ownership lies.

UK prices in 2026: what each platform costs

In any WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace comparison, headline prices are only the start, but they are the easiest thing to compare. These are the monthly prices when you pay for a year up front. Paying month to month costs more: Squarespace says annual billing saves up to 36%.

Two costs apply whichever platform you pick. Business email (you@yourbusiness.co.uk) is not included by any of them; Google Workspace Business Starter is £5.90 per user a month on an annual plan, excluding VAT. And your domain renews every year after any free first year.

If you want to see how these platform costs compare with paying a freelancer or an agency, our guide to how much a website costs in the UK breaks down every route, with a free calculator.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: the 3-year cost of ownership

A website is not a one-off purchase, so comparing month one is misleading. Here is what a typical small business, with a 5–10 page site and one business mailbox, pays over three years on each route.

Three things jump out:

1. The do-it-yourself routes cost roughly the same. Within about £80 of each other over three years. Price should not be the deciding factor between Wix and Squarespace.
2. The real cost of DIY is your time. Most owners spend 20 to 40 hours building a first site, and more fixing it later. At even £25 an hour, that is £500 to £1,000 of your time.
3. A professionally built WordPress site costs a few hundred pounds more over three years, but you get a site built for enquiries, set up for Google and owned by you, and you get those hours back.

Ease of use: who can build what in a weekend?

Squarespace: the gentlest learning curve

Squarespace gives you structured sections that snap into place. You have fewer choices than on Wix, which is exactly why it is hard to make a Squarespace site look bad. If you have a free weekend, decent photos and a clear idea of your pages, you can have a respectable site live by Sunday evening.

Wix: the most freedom for a DIY builder

Wix lets you drag almost anything anywhere, and it will now build a first draft from a single prompt with its AI site creator. The freedom is the upside and the trap: it is easy to end up with a desktop layout that looks fine and a mobile version that needs a lot of tidying. Wix also has the widest range of built-in apps, from bookings to simple memberships.

WordPress: the steepest start, the highest ceiling

Self-hosted WordPress asks more of you up front: choosing hosting, installing a theme, picking plugins and learning the editor. Once it is set up, updating text, photos and blog posts is straightforward, and there is almost nothing it cannot do. That is why the usual pattern is a web designer builds it and the owner edits the day-to-day content.

Design and templates

Squarespace has the most consistent, magazine-style templates. They suit anything visual: food, interiors, photography, events. Wix offers thousands of templates across every industry, with more variation in quality. WordPress can look like anything, because a designer can build a completely custom layout or use a premium theme as a starting point.

The honest catch with templates on any platform is that your competitors use them too. A template gets you a tidy site; standing out in a local market usually needs your own photos, your own words and a layout built around how your customers decide.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace for SEO: can each one rank on Google?

Yes. Google does not rank a site higher or lower because of the platform it is built on. All three let you set page titles and meta descriptions, create a sitemap, use clean URLs and add image alt text. The differences show up once you want to go further:

For most local businesses, the platform is not why a site fails to rank. The usual reasons are thin service pages, no location pages, a neglected Google Business Profile, few reviews and slow mobile pages. Our local SEO checklist covers the work that actually moves you up the map pack, on any platform.

Ownership and moving later: the question most people forget

Nobody plans to leave their website platform, but prices rise, businesses grow and designers change. What happens then is very different on each platform:

• Wix: Wix’s own help centre explains that a Wix site must run on Wix’s servers and cannot be hosted anywhere else. You can export your product list as a CSV file and transfer your domain, but the pages, blog and design have to be rebuilt elsewhere.
• Squarespace: you can export some content as a file that WordPress can import: layout pages, one blog, and text and image blocks. Store pages, product blocks, video and audio blocks, headers and footers, styles and custom CSS are not included. Products can be exported separately as a CSV.
• WordPress: you can download the whole site, files and database, and move it to any host or hand it to any developer.

Whichever you choose, make sure the domain name is registered in your name, not your designer’s or the platform’s. The domain is what your customers, your Google listing and your printed materials point to. We cover this and the other ownership questions to ask in our guide on how to choose a web designer.

Online shops and bookings

If selling or booking online is central to your business, the details below matter more than templates.

For a small catalogue, all three are fine. As a shop grows, WooCommerce gives you the most control over products, delivery rules and integrations, at the cost of more set-up and maintenance.

Security, updates and support

Wix and Squarespace look after hosting, security and software updates for you. That is a big part of what your monthly fee buys, and it is a genuine advantage for owners who never want to think about it.

WordPress hands that job to you or your web designer. Core software, themes and plugins need regular updates, and the site needs backups. Left alone for a year or two, a WordPress site becomes slow and vulnerable. Looked after, it is as secure as anything else. If yours is showing errors, our guide to fixing common WordPress errors walks through the usual culprits.

On support: Wix and Squarespace offer help centres and customer care. With WordPress, support comes from your host and your web designer, which means it is only as good as the people you choose.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace by type of business

Free 60-second platform quiz: which one fits you?

Still torn between WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace? Answer six quick questions and the quiz weighs your answers against what each platform does best. It runs entirely in your browser.

Switching platforms later: what it involves

Plenty of businesses start on Wix or Squarespace and move to WordPress once the website becomes a serious source of work. Done carelessly, a move can cost you rankings you spent years earning. Done properly, it looks like this:

1. Audit what you have: every page, blog post and image, plus which pages bring in visits and enquiries.
2. Rebuild on the new platform: the design and pages are recreated, ideally improved, rather than copied as they are.
3. Keep or redirect every URL: each old address gets a permanent (301) redirect to its new equivalent, so Google and old links find the new page.
4. Move the domain and email carefully: DNS changes are planned so email keeps working throughout.
5. Check Google afterwards: submit the new sitemap in Search Console and update your Google Business Profile link.

For a typical 5–15 page small-business site, the switch usually takes a few weeks from start to finish, most of it spent on content.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: our honest recommendation

If you are starting out, testing an idea or your website is mainly a digital brochure, Squarespace or Wix is a perfectly sensible choice. Pick the one whose editor you enjoy using, register your domain in your own name and spend your energy on great photos and clear words.

If your website is meant to bring in work from Google, needs to grow with your business, or you simply want to own what you pay for, WordPress is the stronger long-term choice, and it is worth having it built properly from day one. Before you hire anyone, run through our 15 questions to ask a web designer, and make sure the site you end up with meets the UK legal requirements for business websites.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: frequently asked questions

Is WordPress better than Wix for SEO?

Both can rank well. WordPress gives you more control, with SEO plugins, detailed schema and full control of page speed, which matters most for businesses that compete hard on Google. Wix covers the essentials well for a small site. Content, reviews and your Google Business Profile usually matter more than the platform.

Which is cheaper in the UK, Wix or Squarespace?

On paper Wix starts lower (£9 a month versus £12, billed yearly), but its entry plan cannot take payments. On the plans most small businesses need, Wix Core at £16 and Squarespace Core at £17, the difference is about £36 over three years.

Is WordPress really free?

The software is free. You pay for hosting (roughly £5–£25 a month), a domain (about £8–£16 a year for .co.uk), any premium theme or plugins, and usually a web designer to build it and keep it updated.

Can I move my Wix website to WordPress?

Yes, but not automatically. Wix sites cannot run on another host, so the pages and design are rebuilt on WordPress and every old URL is redirected to keep your Google rankings. Your domain and product list can be transferred.

Which platform is easiest for a complete beginner?

Squarespace. It has fewer options, well-designed templates and a structured editor that makes it hard to break the layout. Wix is also beginner-friendly but its freedom takes more care on mobile.

Which platform do web designers use for small business websites?

Most professional web designers build small business websites on WordPress, because it gives them full control over design, speed and SEO, and the client can own and move the finished site. Some designers specialise in Squarespace or Wix, which can suit simpler sites.

Can I switch platforms without losing my Google rankings?

Yes, if the move is planned: keep or redirect every old URL with permanent 301 redirects, recreate page titles and descriptions, and submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console. Rankings can wobble for a few weeks and then settle.

Is Squarespace good enough for a small business website?

For many small businesses, yes. It is reliable, secure and looks professional. It is less suitable if you need lots of location pages, complex features or the ability to move the site to another host later.

Sources

1. Squarespace pricing (UK), checked 28 September 2026.
2. WordPress.com plans and pricing (UK), checked 28 September 2026.
3. ExpertSure: Wix pricing UK 2026, August 2026.
4. ExpertSure: Squarespace pricing UK 2026, August 2026.
5. W3Techs: usage statistics of content management systems, 28 September 2026.
6. Wix Help Center: exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere.
7. Wix Help Center: exporting your product list.
8. Squarespace Help Center: exporting your site.
9. Squarespace Help Center: export products to a .csv.
10. Refractiv: Google Workspace price UK 2026, May 2026.