Squarespace is cheaper if you just want a website. Wix is cheaper the moment you start selling. Everything between those two points depends on what you actually need, and I’ll walk through the numbers that matter, including the ones that don’t appear on either plan page.
If you want a full feature and performance breakdown, our Wix vs Squarespace comparison covers that. Here, I tested both platforms specifically for pricing, including costs that don’t appear on either plan page.
Quick Verdict
For a basic website with no selling, Squarespace wins at $12/month versus Wix’s $17/month. For eCommerce, Squarespace Advanced at $25/month with 0% transaction fees beats Wix Business at $39/month for most physical product sellers.
Wix wins on flexibility, the only platform here with a free plan, a money-back guarantee, and room to scale past $25/month without hitting a ceiling.
Pros and Cons
Wix
- Free plan lets you build before spending anything
- No transaction fees on physical product sales
- 14-day money-back guarantee on all paid plans
- AI generates a working site draft before you pay
- Scales to 100 collaborators on Business Elite
- Buy-now-pay-later fees reach 6% plus $0.30 per transaction
- Email marketing costs extra on every plan
- App Market features add unplanned monthly costs
- Domain renewal not disclosed on the pricing page
- $159/month Business Elite is a steep jump from $39
Squarespace
- $12/month Basic is the cheapest entry point here
- 0% physical product fees from Core upward
- Google Workspace trial included on Core and above
- 50% student discount available through Student Beans
- Cleaner pricing with fewer add-on cost layers
- No free plan at all, trial only
- 7% digital content fee on Basic is punishing at volume
- Zero refunds on monthly plans
- No plan above $25/month for larger teams
- Weekday-only live chat on lower tiers
Pricing at a Glance
All prices are annual billing. Both platforms charge more on monthly plans.
Wix Pricing
Wix has four paid tiers and a free plan, which is genuinely useful for building and testing before you spend anything.
Wix Website Builder Plans
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WIX Studio Basic | 10 GB | Unlimited | CA$16.68 | Details |
| Light | 2 GB | 2.05 GB | CA$23.63 | Details |
| WIX Studio Standard | 50 GB | Unlimited | CA$27.80 | Details |
| Core | 50 GB | Unlimited | CA$40.31 | Details |
| WIX Studio Plus | 120 GB | Unlimited | CA$44.48 | Details |
| Business Elite | Unlimited | Unlimited | CA$48.65 | Details |
| Business | 100 GB | Unlimited | CA$50.04 | Details |
| WIX Studio Standard | Unlimited | Unlimited | CA$207.11 | Details |
The free plan puts a Wix subdomain and platform ads on your site, so it’s not suitable for a live business, but it’s a real starting point that Squarespace doesn’t offer.
The paid plans scale from a basic portfolio tier all the way to an enterprise-level store setup. The most important jump is between Core and Business.
Abandoned cart recovery is locked behind Business, which means $29/month is not the real entry point for a store, regardless of how the plan page presents it.
Squarespace Pricing
Squarespace has three tiers and no free plan. The 14-day free trial requires no credit card, which gives you enough time to build something real before committing.
Squarespace Website Builder Plans
What stands out immediately is how competitive the entry price is. $12/month on Basic is the cheapest paid option either platform offers. The catch is the transaction fees on that tier, which I cover in the next section; they significantly affect the value calculation depending on whether you’re selling anything.
The Core plan at $17/month is where Squarespace becomes genuinely compelling for small stores. Physical product transaction fees drop to 0%, and Google Workspace email comes included as a trial, something Wix charges separately for on every plan.
One thing worth noting across both platforms:
- Squarespace offers no refunds on monthly subscriptions at all, and annual plan refunds are only available within the first 14 days
- Wix’s 14-day money-back guarantee applies to new premium plan purchases only, not renewals or upgrades from an existing plan.
The Transaction Fee Trap
This is the most important pricing detail on both platforms, and neither plan page makes it obvious enough.
Wix Payment Processing Fees
On Wix, processing fees are set by Wix Payments and vary by country and payment method, not by which plan you’re on. Upgrading from Core to Business Elite does not reduce your processing rate.
| Payment Method | US | EU | UK |
| Credit/Debit Card (excl. Amex) | 2.9% + $0.30 | 1.9% + €0.30 | 2.1% + £0.20 |
| American Express | 3.7% + $0.30 | 3.1% + €0.30 | 3.1% + £0.20 |
| PayPal | 3.49% + $0.49 | N/A | N/A |
| Afterpay / Affirm / Klarna | 6% + $0.30 | Varies | 4.99% + £0.35 |
| POS / Tap to Pay | 2.6% + $0 | N/A | 1.7% + £0 |
A few things worth knowing before you enable every payment option:
- Buy-now-pay-later methods like Afterpay and Klarna run 6% plus $0.30 in the US, more than double the standard card rate
- Cross-border transactions add a 1% to 1.5% fee on top of the standard processing rate
- Currency conversion adds another 1% to 2% on top of that
- Chargebacks cost $15 per incident in the US, €15 in the EU, £15 in the UK
- Refund processing fees are not returned to you when you issue a refund
If subscriptions are central to your business model, verify the current rates directly with Wix before choosing a plan.
Squarespace Transaction Fees
On Squarespace, the fees that sit on top of payment processing are tied directly to your plan tier, and they apply to two categories separately: physical store sales and digital content or membership sales.
| Plan | Physical Store Fee | Digital Content Fee | Price/month |
| Basic | 2% | 7% | $12 |
| Core | 0% | 5% | $17 |
| Advanced | 0% | 0% | $25 |
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- At $5,000/month in digital product sales on Basic, the 7% fee costs $350/month in charges alone
- Moving to Advanced at $25/month eliminates that entirely, saving $325/month net
- At $2,000/month in physical store sales on Basic, the 2% fee adds $40/month
- Moving to Core at $17/month eliminates the physical store fee for $5 more per month
The pattern on both platforms is the same: before you choose a plan based on the headline price, calculate whether the fee savings at the next tier outweigh the extra monthly cost. On Squarespace, especially, they usually do.
What the Plan Pages Don’t Show
Neither platform’s pricing page tells the full story. Here’s what I found that isn’t listed in either plan comparison.
Wix hidden costs:
- Domain renewal runs $15 to $20/year from year two. The free domain voucher covers year one only and applies to new domains purchased through Wix, not renewals.
- Wix Email Marketing is a separate subscription. Removing Wix branding from campaign footers costs $10/month minimum on the Essentials tier. It’s not included in any website plan.
- Several features that look like platform defaults require third-party apps from the Wix App Market, each priced separately. Verify whether any feature you’re relying on is native or app-dependent before committing to a plan.
- Wix Payments processing runs 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction in 15 supported countries. Most of Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe are not supported. If you’re outside those 15 countries, you’ll need a third-party gateway.
Squarespace hidden costs:
- Domain renewal costs apply from year two, similar to Wix.
- Google Workspace email is listed as “included” on Core and above, but this means a trial period. Ongoing costs are billed directly by Google after the trial ends.
- No refunds on monthly plans, period. Annual plan refunds are only available within 14 days of purchase. Renewal payments cannot be refunded under any circumstances.
- Squarespace Payments is only available in the US, UK, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Outside those markets, you’ll need a third-party processor.
- Students can get 50% off their first year through Student Beans verification. Worth checking before you pay full price.
Who Should Pick Which
Pick Wix if:
You’re running a service business, restaurant, or hotel that needs bookings, payments, and a website from one place. Wix is also the right call if you want to build and test your full site before paying anything, or if you need more than two collaborators on a tight budget. If your business will grow past what a $25/month plan can support, Wix is the only option here with room to scale.
Pick Squarespace if:
You’re building a portfolio, blog, or small physical product store where design quality matters and your team is small. At $17/month on Core with 0% transaction fees and Google Workspace included, it’s strong value for a solo creator or small creative business. Also the better call if you qualify for the 50% student discount, which cuts your first year to $6 to $12.50/month depending on the plan.
The Bottom Line
| Use case | Winner | Why |
| Basic website, no selling | Squarespace Basic | $5/month cheaper than Wix Light |
| Small physical product store | Squarespace Core | 0% fees at $17/month vs Wix Core’s 4% subscription fee |
| Store needing abandoned cart recovery | Squarespace Advanced | $14/month cheaper than Wix Business with 0% fees |
| Subscription or membership business | Depends on volume | Run the fee calculation before deciding |
| Large team or complex eCommerce | Wix Business Elite | Squarespace has no equivalent tier |
| Testing before committing | Wix | Free plan available, money-back guarantee on paid plans |
For most small businesses and creators, Squarespace delivers more value per dollar at the entry and mid levels. Wix earns its higher price tag when you need the feature depth, the team size, or the free starting point.
