Wix and Squarespace both employ bug bounty programs and ensure a high degree of security to reduce this risk, and Wix/Squarespace have both employed these measures to keep hackers at bay.
Wix provides an intuitive drag-and-drop system to edit content on the pages of your website, and also has an SEO learning hub and site inspection feature for SEO training purposes.
Features
While both builders offer an impressive variety of features, Wix stands out by having more third-party apps and in-house tools than Squarespace does, making it easier for site builders to add exactly the features needed on their sites with Wix compared to Squarespace despite a slight decrease in overall category scores this year. As a result, its score for features was higher despite overall category scores declining slightly this year.
Wix excels when it comes to music templates, offering an expansive collection that can easily be personalized using its drag-and-drop editor. Wix also boasts an impressive range of app integrations; 47 “Made by Wix” apps are readily available for use, along with many others available through the Wix App Market. Finally, for storefront creation purposes Wix offers its own ecommerce tools as well as an easy way to integrate third-party shopping apps such as Ecwid.
Both platforms boast robust analytics tools to show how visitors are finding your site, where they came from, what keywords they searched on and how much money they are spending. You can use them to track revenue, bookings, traffic, people stores and events; identify best-selling products; identify top customers as well as track best-selling products based on performance data; track revenue/bookings/traffic/people stores/events etc.
Both platforms offer similar pricing plans, with Wix starting at $16 per month (billed annually) for its most basic plan and Squarespace starting at $23 for their Core plan. Wix offers its free plan with an internal subdomain featuring advertising from Wix; in contrast, Squarespace plans offer custom domains without ads on your website. Both offer convenient payment methods like credit cards and PayPal and also provide free trial periods; Wix also autosaves pages while editing them and provides access to site version history, while Squarespace doesn’t.
Pricing
Wix and Squarespace are software as a service (SaaS) tools, meaning they require a monthly subscription payment but offer all the essential elements required to build and manage websites without needing coding skills.
Both platforms provide musicians with a robust selection of features for blogging, ecommerce and data capture; however Squarespace stands out as providing music-specific functionality – including offering fans the ability to subscribe for concert footage and blogs – through members areas.
Wix provides an inferior way of accepting donations online, limited only to a simple button which sends visitors through PayPal (which may prove more challenging for certain individuals than others). In comparison, WordPress makes accepting online donations far simpler with custom forms accepting multiple types of payment as well as creating full donation sites for donation campaigns.
Although both platforms offer a comprehensive selection of templates, Squarespace stands out with its elegant selection and easy customization features that enable site owners to match the aesthetic with their brand more accurately – factors which contribute to its 4.7 out of 5 score which has not changed from last year’s testing.
Squarespace holds an edge over Wix in that you have more payment gateway options, enabling you to charge different sales taxes depending on where your visitors come from around the globe. While Wix only supports its default option – Wix Payments – which charges 2.9% + 30c per transaction in the US (cheaper rates may apply elsewhere), while Squarespace plans come equipped with unlimited bandwidth and storage right out of the box.
Design
Design-wise, both platforms are fairly intuitive and user-friendly for novice users. Squarespace boasts an intuitive drag-and-drop editor for editing site elements. Or if you prefer something less hands on, the platform can build it all for you with only some minimal prompts from you!
Wix offers an attractive template selection that features several music-specific designs, as well as the capability to capture email addresses with its newsletter tool and utilize other marketing features for musicians such as gig calendar and ticketing system.
The platform’s primary drawback may be its inability to allow you to switch templates after going live, which could be detrimental for some users. But, they’re an extremely established business with millions of customers worldwide and an established track record in developing its product over time.
Squarespace templates may be more limited than Wix’s but still provide plenty of choices for musicians, artists, and businesses looking to build professional websites without needing technical knowledge or coding expertise. Furthermore, these fully responsive sites will automatically adjust according to which device it’s being viewed from.
Both platforms provide free plans, though you must host your website with them and accept advertisements on it. Paid plans start at just $16 per month for their Light plan – including free custom domain name but not unlimited bandwidth usage; both companies offer discounts if paying upfront for at least a year or two subscriptions.
Integrations
Wix provides musicians with many features that enable them to build professional sites quickly and easily, including templates tailored for various genres like music. Furthermore, it features an easy drag-and-drop editor which enables users to move content around pages as needed.
Website Builder boasts the highest feature score out of all website builders we tested, and offers one of the best app markets available today. Furthermore, its ecommerce offering allows its users to sell online without incurring transaction fees; making this an excellent solution for musicians looking to sell music and merchandise.
Wix has several drawbacks that may deter musicians from choosing it for their website needs, which could sway some musicians away. First is its limited bandwidth limit: Combo’s lowest plan has only 2 GB. Second is that its ecommerce platform doesn’t permit setting suggested donation amounts like Squarespace does – something important for non-profits.
Squarespace stands out from its counterpart Wix with a clear and intuitive editing interface, thanks to the Fluid Engine editor’s more structured approach to page layout than Wix’s “absolute positioning” approach. Yet its creative freedom still offers plenty of creative freedom for musicians looking to design stylish websites on Squarespace. Furthermore, this platform boasts template options specifically tailored for blogging that feature writer profiles, blog-specific analytics as well as archives, social sharing options, and SEO features – something Wix lacks.
Customer Support
Wix and Squarespace both boast excellent customer support teams, featuring extensive knowledge bases with email, live chat and phone support as well as video tutorials and webinars. Squarespace even provides a self-service platform where customers can search for solutions to common problems while Wix provides an active 24/7 community forum.
Both platforms feature mobile applications to facilitate content, bookings, and ecommerce management on-the-go. Both provide analytics which reveal information such as the pages with the highest visits or the keywords driving traffic; you can even set automations that trigger automatically whenever visitors take certain actions–like sending a text message when someone submits a form or creating a Trello card when someone fills one out.
Squarespace earned an outstanding 4.8 out of 5, and was the overall leader for musicians among all builders we tested. This could be partly because it offers dedicated streaming and selling audio tools (Wix Music), plus more music-specific templates than any other builder we tried.
Wix is another fantastic option for beginners, featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop editor to let you build exactly the website look you desire. There are countless customization options, including font sizes, sizes and colors; various layout options; even Wix ADI which automatically designs sites based on answers provided via questions.
Keep in mind that neither Wix nor Squarespace provides unlimited bandwidth, so if your band attracts significant traffic, upgrading to a more expensive plan may be necessary. Both plans provide free trials with 14-day money-back guarantees.
