A practical guide to choosing the right platform
Choosing the right website platform is no longer as simple as picking the one with the nicest templates. In 2025, each of the major players has grown more sophisticated, more specialised and more opinionated about the type of sites they are designed to power. Your choice now depends on factors like scalability, content workflow, custom requirements, integrations, growth plans and the level of control you want over performance and optimisation.
This guide breaks down the strengths and limitations of the three most established platforms in the market: Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. Each can produce a strong result if used for the right purpose. The key is matching the tool to the project.
Who each platform is best suited for
Wix
Wix has evolved into a powerful platform with a large ecosystem of apps, a fully visual builder, strong AI assisted features and an end to end toolset for small and medium businesses. It suits people who want to move fast, build visually and manage everything in one account.
Best for:
- small businesses
- freelancers
- simple Ecommerce
- DIY users who want control without code
- sites where design freedom matters more than structure
Wix now supports more advanced features like headless content, memberships, CRM and strong Ecommerce tools. It remains the most design flexible of the hosted builders, although that freedom can create messy structure when used by beginners.
Squarespace
Squarespace has continued its steady evolution and remains the most curated, design consistent and beginner friendly option. With the release of Fluid Engine, Squarespace is more flexible than it used to be, but still prioritises structure and aesthetics over full creative freedom.
Best for:
- creatives
- restaurants and venues
- photography and portfolio sites
- simple product catalogues
- businesses that value polish and low maintenance
Squarespace produces beautiful results quickly. It limits complexity by design, which is a strength unless you need custom integrations or non standard UX.
WordPress (.org version)
WordPress powers a large portion of the modern web and is still the most flexible option by a wide margin. It is not a builder in the same sense as Wix or Squarespace. It is a full content management system that can be extended indefinitely through code or plugins.
Best for:
- complex sites
- content heavy platforms
- multisite or multilingual
- custom functionality
- enterprise, large Ecommerce or long term scalable websites
- teams that want full control over hosting, performance and SEO
You can use block based editing, page builders (Elementor, Breakdance etc) or entirely custom themes. This makes WordPress suitable for almost anything, but it also requires more technical understanding and more responsibility for security, performance and maintenance.
Pricing in 2025
Pricing shifts often and varies by region, but here is a general overview.
Wix
From free plans for basic sites through to premium Ecommerce and business plans. Typical ranges are:
- basic personal or portfolio sites from about 15–20 AUD per month
- business and Ecommerce plans from about 30–60 AUD per month
Wix handles hosting, security, CDN, email marketing tools and analytics within the subscription.
Squarespace
Squarespace does not offer a free tier. Plans typically range from:
- personal and portfolio sites from about 20–30 AUD per month
- business and Commerce plans from about 35–60 AUD per month
You pay for predictability and polish. Hosting and security are included.
WordPress (.org)
WordPress itself is free, but running a WordPress site is not.
Cost considerations include:
- hosting (10–50 AUD per month for standard sites, more for high performance)
- paid themes or page builders
- paid plugins
- maintenance and support, if outsourced
WordPress can be the cheapest or the most expensive of the three depending on how it is implemented.
Customisation and flexibility
Wix
Wix still leads in visual flexibility. You can move anything anywhere, create overlapping layouts, animate elements, and design freely. This is great for creative control but can introduce inconsistencies and responsive issues if not managed well.
Wix also now includes robust tools like Velo for low code customisation.
Squarespace
Squarespace restricts layout freedom to maintain consistency and polish. Fluid Engine allows more freedom than older versions, but you build largely within a structured grid.
This results in cleaner responsive behaviour. The tradeoff is less creative control.
WordPress
WordPress is completely flexible. Custom themes, custom post types, advanced fields, bespoke interactions, headless setups, full code access and the largest plugin ecosystem in the world.
If you can imagine it, you can build it, although the complexity increases accordingly.
SEO and performance
Wix
Wix has significantly improved its SEO capabilities in recent years and supports strong indexing, structured data tools and fast loading when configured properly. It still performs best for simple sites.
Its performance is limited by the nature of being a hosted, JS heavy platform.
Squarespace
Squarespace provides clean markup, simple SEO controls and predictable performance. Not as technically advanced as WordPress but strong enough for most small businesses.
WordPress
WordPress offers the deepest SEO control through plugins, server tuning, caching, schema tools and extensibility. A high performance WordPress build can outperform all hosted builders, but only when handled by people who know what they are doing.
Support and ecosystem
Wix
Direct support, help centre articles, AI assisted support tools and a growing community. Support quality is strong for hosted platforms.
Squarespace
Very strong native support including live chat, clear documentation and a very large community.
WordPress
Support depends on where you get it.
- Your host
- Your plugins
- Your theme developer
- Your agency
The ecosystem is huge, although fragmented. You will always find an answer, but sometimes you will find ten answers and need to know which one is right.
How to choose the right platform in 2025
Ask yourself:
- How complex will the site become in the next two years
- Do you need integrations, automations or custom workflows
- How important is design freedom vs design consistency
- Who will maintain the site and how technical are they
- Do you need full control over SEO, speed and hosting
- Are you expecting to scale into Ecommerce, memberships or multilingual content
In simple terms:
- Choose Squarespace for beautiful, simple, structured sites with minimal maintenance
- Choose Wix for creative visual freedom and an all in one toolset
- Choose WordPress for anything that must scale, integrate or evolve seriously over time
Final thought
There is no perfect platform, only the right platform for the project. Taking time to define the required features, the future roadmap and who will manage the site will save you time and cost later. If you want advice tailored to your business or need help choosing a platform that fits your long term vision, we are always happy to talk it through.