WordPress vs Squarespace vs Wix for a small business or nonprofit
Squarespace and Wix are the quickest way to a tidy small site you manage yourself, and they handle hosting, security, and updates for you. WordPress takes more setup and upkeep but has no ceiling: you own the site, can move it to any host, and can add almost any feature. Pick a builder for a simple brochure site you'll run alone; pick WordPress when the site has to grow, do more than show pages, or outlast any one company's product.
How they compare
| Squarespace | Wix | WordPress | WordPress + Dirigible | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted website builder | Hosted website builder | Open-source software you run on a host of your choice | WordPress with the Dirigible theme and plugins |
| Getting started | Easiest. Polished templates. | Easy. Free-form drag and drop. | Needs hosting, a theme, and setup, or someone to build it. | Dirigible hosts your site and manages updates. Prefer to host it yourself? Buy a license. |
| Cost | Monthly or yearly plan | Monthly or yearly plan | Hosting, plus any paid themes and plugins, plus build and maintenance | One all-in fee when Dirigible hosts your site. Self-hosting: your hosting plus Dirigible licenses. |
| Flexibility | Limited to the platform's features and integrations | Large app market, still within the platform | Tens of thousands of plugins, and custom code when needed | Everything WordPress offers, plus blocks that match your brand in the editor |
| Ownership and moving away | Limited export: one blog and basic pages | Wix sites can't be moved to another host | Full copy of your site and data, movable to any host | Same as WordPress |
| Upkeep | Handled by Squarespace | Handled by Wix | Updates, backups, and security are your job or your developer's | Hosted with Dirigible: updates, daily backups, and security done for you. Self-hosted: the theme and Dirigible plugins update themselves; backups and other plugins are your job. |
| Online store, events, members | Built-in options, with limits | Built-in apps, with limits | Plugins such as WooCommerce, with more room to customize | Events with ticket sales and QR code check-in, staff directories, locations, and document libraries built in. WooCommerce for a store. |
WordPress here means the free software from WordPress.org, run on your own hosting. WordPress.com is a hosted service built on it, with plans that sit between the two.
Sources: Squarespace: Exporting your site, Wix: Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere.
Choose Squarespace or Wix if
- The site is a few pages: who you are, what you do, how to contact you.
- You'll build and update it yourself and don't want to think about hosting or updates.
- You're happy to work within the template and the platform's features.
Choose WordPress if
- The site needs more than pages: events and tickets, a staff or resource directory, member content, donations, a large blog, a store with many products, or integrations with your CRM.
- Several people will edit it, with different permissions.
- You want to own your site outright and be able to change hosts or developers.
- Search traffic matters and you want full control over page addresses, structured data, and speed.
For everything a business site on WordPress needs, from must-have pages to local SEO, see WordPress for small businesses.
What it costs over time
A builder's plan price is close to the whole cost. WordPress costs more or less depending on choices: hosting, licenses, and especially whether someone maintains it for you. Compare the yearly total, including your own time, not just the monthly sticker price. See How much does a website redesign cost?
Already on a builder?
Moving later is possible but means rebuilding the site. See Move from Wix or Squarespace to WordPress.
If your site runs on Dirigible
Dirigible sites are WordPress sites, so you own them and can move them. When Dirigible hosts your site, the upkeep is done for you:
- Updates: WordPress, the Dirigible theme and plugins, and your other plugins stay up to date.
- Backups: daily, kept for 30 days.
- Security: a firewall in front of the site and malware scanning on it.
- Speed: pages are cached and served from a worldwide network, close to your visitors.
- Uptime monitoring: Dirigible hears about it if your site goes down.
Hosting it yourself with a license, the theme and Dirigible plugins still update themselves. See Dirigible theme: Getting started.
If you're torn between a builder and WordPress, the deciding question is usually what the site needs to do in three years, and a web designer can help you answer it before you commit.
