- Webflow vs. Squarespace?
- Ease of Use
- Customization & Integrations
- Marketing & SEO
- Affordability
- Pros and Cons: Webflow vs. Squarespace Recap
- Our recommendations
- Next Steps
- Still have questions?
- FAQ – Webflow vs. Squarespace
Are you a designer or developer choosing between Webflow and Squarespace? Learn the pros and cons of each platform and get recommendations for which one best suits your needs.
Among the many no-code website builders on the market, Webflow and Squarespace stand out as two of the most popular options.
Which one is easiest to get started with, and which will be sustainable for your long-term design customizations?
I’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each platform along multiple factors that you may be considering for your own website.
Webflow vs. Squarespace?
Webflow is a visual web design platform with a robust CMS that tends to be more popular with developers and designers who value flexibility, clean code, and speed.
Squarespace is a template-based, drag-and-drop website builder popular among creatives and e-commerce store owners due to its ease of use, value plans, and easy setup.
You can think of Webflow as a visual design editor, while Squarespace is more like a Lego for websites.
Ease of Use
Webflow has a steeper learning curve than Squarespace but is more customizable. Webflow’s community forum and Webflow University courses provide comprehensive training. While there is no live chat or phone support, email support is available, with priority for paid customers.
Squarespace’s template-based approach makes it easy for anyone to start a website. It is very intuitive to use without much experience. You will find it easy to get a beautiful site up and running quickly. Squarespace also offers support in English through live chat or email, in addition to free webinars and community forums.
Customization & Integrations
Customizations
Webflow offers websites that can either be built from scratch or customizable templates. You can control every pixel and make your designs a lot more precise by customizing every single element without code, though you’ll have to familiarize yourself with how to use its tools.
Squarespace offers sleek templates that are plug-and-play. Its templates are SEO-friendly, and the designs are clean, modern, and adaptable for many uses. The mobile version of the site can be edited, but you will have to know a little CSS to modify things like mobile font size. There are other limits on customization, which mean that templates are inflexible unless you know your way around code.
Integrations
Both Webflow and Squarespace integrate with Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Amazon, Zapier, Stripe, and third-party domains. However, Webflow’s integrations include more business functionality, while Squarespace involves commerce functionality primarily.
Webflow has over 238 tools and apps that it connects with, including more than 60 integrations for your site. Popular integrations include Intercom, Shopify, and Hubspot. Webflow also makes it easy to translate your Figma prototypes into Webflow sites directly, including custom animations that are not available on Squarespace.
Squarespace can extend your site with integrations, depending on your paid plan. Blocks of code from Google Maps, Acuity Scheduling, Youtube, and Zola are available. You can also connect your social accounts like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Finally, commerce integrations like Apple Pay, PayPal, Square, and USPS help calculate shipping costs and accept payments for your online store.
Marketing & SEO
Webflow makes custom SEO easy for static sites and blogs, while Squarespace has an edge in its e-commerce SEO features.
Webflow provides a visual CMS to create a well-structured database with custom SEO options. There are also template pages for your blog and case studies, and the biggest upsides include its speedy servers and mobile-responsive designs. Semantic tagging and free SSL are easy to set up, and product data feeds are easy to generate.
Squarespace’s responsive templates and built-in on-page SEO features are rich for online stores and email marketing. Additional optimizations are available to activate SSL security certificates and compare search keywords from inside the editor. Custom blogging capabilities are more limited.
Affordability
Overall, Squarespace is more affordable for larger projects. Though Webflow’s extensive pricing options may seem confusing initially, it is potentially better value for you and your team if you are looking for specific offerings.
Webflow Pricing
Webflow’s most affordable Basic plan for a static site begins at $14/month if billed annually ($18/month if monthly).
Webflow also has a CMS plan for blogs and content-rich sites for $23/month if billed annually ($29/month if monthly). The Business tier expands the CMS capabilities to support more traffic for $39/month if billed annually ($49/month if monthly).
E-commerce capabilities go from $29/month to $74/month and $212/month if billed yearly. Plans scale according to the number of ecommerce and CMS items. The two highest tiers benefit from 0% transaction fees, while the lowest tier has a 2% transaction fee.
Localization is an add-on for an extra $9/month which allows you to translate your site for different target locales and drive global traffic.
Webflow provides paid integrated hosting for the sites you create, although you can export your site and have it hosted elsewhere, possibly at a lower price—or even for free. In addition, Webflow’s site plans are billed separately from workspace plans.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: How to Host Webflow Yourself
Squarespace Pricing
Squarespace has a very simple tier-pricing structure. Free custom domains are included in the annual but not the monthly plan.
Its most affordable plan for mobile-optimized sites using its templates starts at $16/month if billed annually ($25/month if billed monthly). The Business tier provides advanced analytics and selling capabilities for a 3% transaction fee for $23/month if billed annually ($36/month if billed monthly).
Basic e-commerce capabilities cost $28/month if billed annually.
More advanced features like subscriptions and advanced shipping and discounting cost $52/month if billed annually ($40/month and $72/month respectively, if billed monthly). Transaction fees are 0% for the commerce tiers.
Pros and Cons: Webflow vs. Squarespace Recap
| Feature | Webflow | Squarespace |
| Ease of Use |
Pro: Rich visual design editor, comprehensive training courses Con: Steep learning curve, email support prioritized for paid users |
Pro: Streamlined drag-and-drop templates, live support by chat or email Con: Might be too simple for your needs |
| Customization & Integrations |
Pro: Highly customizable designs and animations, Figma prototype to site Con: Requires some design and/or development knowledge |
Pro: Blocks of code and commerce integrations to calculate shipping Con: Customizations are more restricted and depend on paid plan |
| Marketing & SEO |
Pro: Fast servers, built-in marketing integrations, mobile-responsive Con: Not as feature-rich for e-commerce |
Pro: Rich and highly optimized e-commerce SEO features Con: Difficult to customize schema markup, does not support product data feeds |
| Affordability |
Pro: More tailored plans for specific needs Con: Potentially confusing, pricier overall, separate billing for workspaces |
Pro: Simpler, more affordable overall Con: Custom domains not included in monthly plans |
Our recommendations
Depending on your needs:
Choose Webflow if…
You have some design and web development experience
You have a static site and want more advanced design and SEO features
You care about fast load times and clean code
You want an end-to-end experience in designing and running your site
You have specific traffic or e-commerce needs for which Webflow’s pricing plan makes sense
Choose Squarespace if…
You want to rapidly start a content-rich or
You want a user-friendly building experience with a drag-and-drop editor
You want to start right off the bat and don’t mind the limits on customization
You want more intuitive online store features and SEO functionality
You want easy analytics and built-in marketing tools with a straightforward back-end
Be sure to check out Webflow stacks up against other web builders.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Webflow vs. Wordpress
RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Webflow vs. Framer
Next Steps
One excellent option not much discussed in this article is to export your Webflow site and host it on a fast, secure web host like our service, Tiiny.host.
You can also export a Squarespace site to speedy and secure static web pages using a Static Site Generator (SSG). Then host your site using the professional features of Tiiny.host.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Exporting your Site from Squarespace.
Visit Tiiny.host for the simplest way to host your static site or exported Webflow project.
Still have questions?
Contact our awesome customer service people! They’re glad to answer questions about this article, web hosting, or just about anything internet-related. We’re available now by email and chat.
FAQ – Webflow vs. Squarespace
What is the main difference between Webflow and Squarespace?
The main difference is that Webflow is a visual web design tool with integrated hosting, while Squarespace is an all-in-one solution with ready-made templates. Webflow is geared more towards designers and has a steeper learning curve, while Squarespace is geared more towards creatives and is easier for beginners.
Does Webflow have templates?
Webflow has over 2000 templates, including free options, which you can customize. However, only 49 are free.
Does changing Squarespace templates impact SEO?
Squarespace has over 200 templates. Changing Squarespace templates shouldn’t impact SEO too much, as long as the text content stays the same. However, there is variance in template SEO, and Squarespace 7.1 doesn’t have all the features in version 7.0 yet. Some templates, such as the Brine template family, are more SEO-optimized than others.
