If you aren’t familiar with website builders it’s still very likely that you’ve heard of at least one of these before.
Wix, Squarespace and Weebly are the three largest website builders available, with hundreds of millions of websites hosted between them.
Today we’re going to take a look at which one you should choose if you’re looking to use a website builder for your new website thanks to our Brisbane web design team.
Pros and Cons
Wix
Pros: Best all-around website builder while also being the easiest to use with a lot of creative control.
Cons: You can’t switch templates once the website is live and you have very little storage space.
Squarespace
Pros: Best features and templates in terms of design and flexibility.
Cons: Higher priced plans and no third-party app store.
Weebly
Pros: Cheapest starting plan with the best features to scale your website.
Cons: Limited drag-and-drop customisation.
Ease of Use
Wix is beginner friendly and the easiest to use out of the three website builders.
It’s straight forward drag-and-drop editor allows for easy creative control over your website and with their artificial design intelligence you can get your website setup very quickly.
Squarespace can take a little longer to get the hang of when compared to the other two website builders but it’s far from being difficult.
It’s great for anyone with a bit of technical knowledge and patience, Squarespace will get you the closest to a professionally designed website without using a developer.
Weebly is also very beginner friendly and its templates are structured to help restrict your ability to break anything, this does however restrict your creativity when compared to Wix.
Overall, Wix is the easiest website builder to use with its simple drag-and-drop editor and artificial design intelligence to help you get started.
Design Flexibility
Wix offers over 500 mobile responsive templates for you to choose from, along with its blank templates it’s almost impossible to find something that doesn’t suit your business.
It’s also really easy to edit a template once you find one you like with their simple drag-and-drop editor.
You can customise it to suit your business within a few minutes using your own custom videos, images and text.
While you do have creative freedom to start with, once your website is live you won’t be able to change your website template.
Squarespace has an incredible collection of templates for you to choose from, they may not have as many as Wix but they are all created to a very high standard.
You can search through their mobile responsive templates by category or keyword and find results tailored to your business.
Weebly has 35 themes to choose from and like the others they are all mobile responsive.
Weebly’s themes are more structured then Wix’s which some find reassuring while others can find it restricting.
Squarespace is the best choice for design, with their incredible templates and vast customisation options you can’t do better.
Tools and Features
eCommerce
All three website builders have eCommerce plans and tools available but if eCommerce is the focus of your new website I’d recommend you check out our other guide on website builders tailored to eCommerce: Shopify vs BigCommerce vs WooCommerce.
If eCommerce is a minor feature of your website then you’ll be happy to hear that they all offer great tools to help you sell your products online.
Blogging
Wix has a few built-in blogging tools to help you get started, like galleries and email campaigns.
Squarespace is great for building a high quality and creative blog on your website.
Everything you need is built-in, including social sharing, geo-tagging and custom URLs.
Weebly also has some handy blogging features including comment management tools and media integration.
Marketing
While Wix does allow you to run email campaigns, create newsletters and integrate with your social media, a lot of the additional features come from paid apps.
Squarespace has all its marketing features built-in so you can run your email campaigns, create newsletters and integrate with your social media easily.
Weebly offers lead capture, this allows you to add forms to your website so that you can collect contacts and add them to your email campaigns.
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and it’s how your website gets found on search engines like Google.
All three website builders include SEO tools and help guides to help your website rank higher on search engines.
Both Wix and Weebly have SEO apps in their stores which can help you out, Squarespace on the other hand have all their SEO features built-in.
Overall, Wix has the best SEO capabilities when compared to Weebly and Squarespace. They offer the most support while being very beginner-friendly.
Help and Support
All three website builders have great support systems including email, live chat and their own help centres.
Squarespace is the only one not to offer phone support however.
Wix has the best all-around support however with its numerous options while Weebly only offers phone support on its higher paid plans and Squarespace doesn’t at all.
Pricing and Value
Wix has four paid plans ranging from $16 to $179 AUD per month, plus its free plan.
You can take a look at all their plans on their pricing page but the main differences are storage, bandwidth and eCommerce features.
Squarespace has four paid plans as well ranging from $22 to $61 AUD per month (annual discount available).
You can compare each of their plans on their pricing page but the main differences are in the marketing and eCommerce features.
Weebly has three paid plans ranging from $10 to $35 AUD per month (annual discount available), plus their free plan.
Check out the details on their pricing page but one thing to note is that you need their $15 plan or higher to remove their ads.
Overall, Weebly has the cheapest starting plan and offers the best value for money.
Wix also offers great value for money and Squarespace’s prices reflect their high standards.
The Verdict
With everything considered, Wix is the best website builder for beginners with its easy to use drag-and-drop editor allowing anyone to get online quickly and easily in 2024.
Squarespace is the best choice for anyone creative and looking for the highest quickly outcome without hiring a developer.
Weebly is great for small businesses, with all the best features and affordable prices its perfect for any small business looking to get online today.
Don’t forget that Wix and Weebly both offer free plans while Squarespace has a 14-day free trial, so go test them out for yourself!
I hope you found this helpful, if you have any questions about our team or how we can help with your website please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
To your success,
Jackson