For most Australian small businesses, Squarespace is the easiest way to get a good-looking site, Wix gives you the most built-in tools for a do-it-yourself build, and WordPress gives you the most control and the freedom to move your site anywhere. The right pick depends on three things: who will build and edit the site, how much the site needs to do, and whether you are happy renting it or want to own it. Most comparisons on page one are feature lists written for a global audience, or forum threads with strong opinions and little evidence. The useful differences for an Australian owner are cost in AUD, ease of editing, measured speed on Australian sites, and what happens if you ever want to leave.
Key Takeaways
- Squarespace is the simplest to make look good, Wix offers the most DIY flexibility, and WordPress offers the most control and ownership.
- Wix and Squarespace plans cost roughly $18 to $160 a month in AUD. WordPress software is free, but you pay for hosting, maintenance and usually a designer.
- A Wix site cannot be moved to another host, and Squarespace’s export leaves out store, portfolio and several other page types.
- In September 2026, 86.2% of Australian Wix sites passed Core Web Vitals on mobile, against 52.3% for Squarespace and 50.2% for WordPress. That does not prove the platform causes the gap.
- WordPress suits businesses whose website is a main source of leads or needs custom features. Builders suit simple sites run by the owner.
The short answer
Choose by who maintains the site and how much it has to do. All three can produce a professional site. They differ in how much effort that takes, how far they stretch, and what happens when you want to leave.
In the interest of transparency, Keener builds client sites on WordPress with Elementor, so read this with that in mind. There are plenty of cases below where Wix or Squarespace is the better choice, and they are stated plainly.
| Wix | Squarespace | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | DIY owners who want lots of built-in tools | Owners who want a polished look with little effort | Businesses that need control, custom features or ownership |
| Cost (AUD) | About $18 to $160/month, billed yearly | $18.70 to $119.90/month annually, $26.40 to $163.90 monthly | Free software, plus hosting, maintenance and build costs |
| Ease of editing | Easy, drag and drop | Easy, more structured | Depends on the build; easy with a page builder set up well |
| Design flexibility | High within Wix | Moderate, template-led | Highest |
| SEO control | Good basics | Good basics | Most control |
| Mobile Core Web Vitals pass rate, Australia, Sept 2026 | 86.2% | 52.3% | 50.2% |
| Can you move the site to another host? | No | Partial content export only | Yes |
| Who does updates and security | Wix | Squarespace | You or your web provider |
Cost
Wix and Squarespace cost less upfront, while WordPress usually costs more to build and can cost a similar amount to run. Wix’s plans page, viewed from Australia, showed paid plans from $17.77 to $159.77 a month, billed yearly and marked as including GST. Squarespace’s AUD pricing lists $18.70 to $119.90 a month paid annually, or $26.40 to $163.90 paid monthly, including estimated GST.
WordPress itself is free open-source software. You pay for hosting, a domain, premium plugins if you need them, ongoing updates, and almost always someone to design and build the site. For a breakdown of builder costs including domains, email and payment fees, see what Wix and Squarespace really cost in Australia. For hosting, see website hosting costs in Australia.
Ease of editing
Squarespace is the easiest to keep looking good, Wix is the easiest to change freely, and WordPress is as easy as the person who set it up made it. Squarespace’s structured sections make it hard to break a layout. Wix’s freer drag-and-drop editor lets you put anything anywhere, which is great until the mobile version needs separate fixing.
WordPress has a reputation for being harder, and an unplanned install can be. A site built with a page builder such as Elementor, with set styles and reusable sections, lets an owner change text, images and prices without touching code. The editing experience is decided more by the build than by WordPress itself.
Design flexibility
WordPress offers the most design freedom, Wix is a close second, and Squarespace trades some flexibility for consistency. Squarespace templates look polished, but sites built on them can start to look alike. Wix gives more freedom inside its editor. WordPress has no ceiling, because a designer can build any layout and add custom code where needed.
For most small businesses, design flexibility matters less than a clear page plan and good copy. A clean template with the right message will beat a custom design with the wrong one.
SEO control
All three can rank well on Google. WordPress gives you the most control over the technical details. Wix and Squarespace both let you edit page titles, descriptions and URLs, and they handle sitemaps and secure connections for you. That covers what most small business sites need.
WordPress, with an SEO plugin, adds finer control over structured data, redirects, internal linking and site structure. That matters more for larger sites, service-area pages and businesses competing hard in search. Ranking depends far more on useful content, local signals and links than on the platform. The guide to getting your website on Google covers the steps that make the biggest difference.
Speed
On real-world Australian data, Wix sites pass Google’s Core Web Vitals far more often than Squarespace or WordPress sites. HTTP Archive’s technology report, using Chrome real-user data for September 2026 from its Core Web Vitals API, shows these mobile pass rates for Australian sites:
- Wix: 86.2% of 2,856 origins passed on mobile.
- Squarespace: 52.3% of 4,006 origins.
- WordPress: 50.2% of 43,579 origins.
- All Australian sites: 50.7% of 166,124 origins.
This is a fair point in Wix’s favour, but read it carefully. These figures compare platforms, and they do not prove the platform causes the difference. Wix sites tend to be simpler and all run on Wix’s own managed hosting. WordPress covers everything from cheap shared hosting to large custom builds, so its average is dragged down by many slow, poorly maintained sites. A well-built WordPress site on good hosting can be fast. A Wix site loaded with apps can be slow. Judge the speed of the actual site you will end up with, not the platform average.
Ownership and portability
WordPress is the only one of the three you can pick up and move. Wix’s help article on exporting your site says a Wix site “needs to be hosted and operated on Wix’s servers” because its setup “does not support external hosting”. A separate Wix help page says blog posts currently cannot be exported to other platforms.
Squarespace offers an export, but it is partial. According to Squarespace’s export guide, it produces a WordPress-format file containing layout pages, one blog and basic blocks. It does not export store, portfolio, album or index pages, product blocks, video, style settings or custom CSS.
On WordPress you own the files and the database, and you can move host whenever you like. If leaving would be painful, factor that in now.
Ecommerce
Squarespace and Wix handle small, simple shops well. WordPress with WooCommerce suits shops that need custom rules. Squarespace Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on store sales, and Core and above charge 0%. Squarespace’s FAQ also lists the countries where Squarespace Payments is available, and Australia is not among them, so Australian sellers connect another provider.
For a shop with unusual products, made-to-order options or club stores, WooCommerce gives more room. Keener client Blakk Sportswear, an Indigenous-owned teamwear brand, runs club stores on WooCommerce. If a dedicated store is the main goal, compare against Shopify too: the Shopify vs WooCommerce guide covers that choice in AUD.
Integrations: CRM, bookings and more
All three connect to common tools, but WordPress connects deepest. Wix has built-in bookings and many apps. Squarespace has scheduling and a smaller set of extensions. WordPress can be wired directly to industry systems.
Two examples from Keener builds show where that matters. Real estate sites sync listings from CRMs such as Reapit, Inspect Real Estate and Agentbox, so a new listing appears on the site without anyone retyping it. Indigeco, a recruitment business, runs a two-way Bullhorn sync so jobs and applications flow between the website and the recruitment system. Builders can sometimes do this through third-party widgets, but usually with less control over how the content looks and ranks. See real estate websites and recruitment websites for how those work.
Maintenance burden
Wix and Squarespace handle updates and security for you. WordPress makes you responsible for them. This is the biggest practical downside of WordPress for a busy owner. Plugins and themes need regular updates, backups need to run, and someone needs to notice if the site goes down.
The usual answer is a care plan. Keener’s website care plans start from $60 a month (ex GST) and cover cloud hosting, weekly plugin and theme updates run overnight, uptime monitoring, threat defence and daily backups stored in two places. Other providers offer similar plans. If nobody will look after a WordPress site, a builder is the safer choice.
Which one should you choose?
Match the platform to who runs the site and what it must do.
Choose Squarespace if you want a polished site quickly, you will edit it yourself, and your needs are simple: a service business, a portfolio, a café or a studio.
Choose Wix if you want to build it yourself with lots of built-in tools such as bookings, forms and basic ecommerce, and you are comfortable staying on Wix for the life of the site.
Choose WordPress if the website is a main source of leads, you need custom features or CRM connections, you want to own and move your site, or you plan to invest in SEO. Budget for a proper build and ongoing care.
If you are still deciding how to get the site made, the guide to DIY, freelancer or agency websites helps with that choice.
Frequently asked questions
What’s easier, Squarespace or Wix?
Squarespace is easier for most beginners because its structured sections keep layouts tidy on desktop and mobile. Wix is easier if you want total freedom to drag elements anywhere, but that freedom means more fiddling to get the mobile version right. Both are far easier for a first-time owner than setting up WordPress from scratch.
What are the downsides of using Squarespace?
Squarespace offers less design and feature flexibility than WordPress, and its export is partial: store, portfolio and several other page types do not come across. Squarespace Payments is not listed as available in Australia, so you connect a separate payment provider. Its Basic plan also charges a 2% fee on store sales.
Is Squarespace still good in 2026?
Yes, for the right business. Squarespace still offers AUD pricing, polished templates, and an included Google Workspace account for the first year on Core and above. In HTTP Archive’s September 2026 data, 52.3% of Australian Squarespace sites passed Core Web Vitals on mobile, slightly above the all-site average of 50.7%. It suits owners who want a good-looking site with little upkeep.
Why are people leaving Wix?
The common reasons are lock-in and outgrowing the platform. A Wix site cannot be moved to another host, and blog posts cannot currently be exported, so the longer you stay, the bigger a move becomes. Businesses that need deeper SEO control, CRM integrations or custom features often move to WordPress, accepting a rebuild as the price of owning their site.
Is WordPress similar to Squarespace?
Only on the surface. Both let you build and edit a website, but Squarespace is an all-in-one service where hosting, security and updates are handled for you. WordPress is software you install on hosting you choose, which gives you more control and ownership but makes you responsible for updates, backups and security.
Next step
Pick the platform that fits who will run the site and what it must do. If that is a builder, go ahead with confidence. If your site needs to win leads, connect to your systems or grow with SEO, talk to Keener about website design and we will tell you honestly which platform fits.