Squarespace and Webflow are two of the highest-rated website builders in the industry. Combined, they have over 1 million sites up and running. 

Each platform’s user base continues to grow because of their respective commitment to never-ending improvement of their products. New features are released regularly, which makes it hard to pick a clear winner when it comes to the Squarespace vs Webflow debate.

But, these two popular site builders have crucial differences which we will dissect in this guide. I’ve spent over 10 hours researching these two platforms and I’m here to share my experiences with you to help you make the right choice.

If you’re not sure how to choose the right platform for your next project, read the rest of this Webflow vs Squarespace comparison so you can make a well-informed choice.

1. Ease of Use

Most people who set out to build a website end up frustrated because they just can’t figure out how different tools work. 

Avoid such setbacks in your own site-building journey by choosing a website builder that makes it as easy as possible for you to create your site. 

Let’s see what Webflow and Squarespace offer in this regard.

Squarespace:

Squarespace is an all-in-one platform with tools to build and market your website. You can use it to create a full-scope website from scratch, or you can pick a Squarespace template to serve as a foundation for your new site.

Using Squarespace’s templates will help to speed things up, and there are many to choose from in different categories and industries.

When talking about ease of use, it’s also important to consider the user interface of the editor on the website builder.

The Squarespace editor is simpler than Webflow’s, and therefore easier to use. Managing your website content will not be stressful. Simply use the platform’s sections and content blocks as the building components for your pages. 

The content blocks include things such as text, buttons, forms, images, maps, etc. Put these together in any combination, and they make a section. The sections are then stacked vertically on your website and voila! you’ve got a page. 

As you can see, the Squarespace templates greatly hasten the website-building process. But, if you feel like leveraging your own creativity, you can build your site from scratch. Choose from the library of pre-designed sections to create your own layouts.

Summary of Squarespace’s Ease of Use Features:

• All-in-one website-building platform
• In-depth tutorials for getting started
• Intuitive drag-and-drop design system
• Integrated website management tools, no third-party plugins necessary
• Free, unlimited website hosting for your website, blog, or eCommerce store

Webflow:

Webflow empowers you to build a professional, custom website using a visual canvas. This means you don’t have to work with code, but you get the power to create unique and exceptional designs. 

When you sign up on the platform, you are prompted to answer a few questions about your role in business after which you are guided through a few steps to create your website. 

For those unfamiliar with web design, there are video lessons, blogs, and example websites to help you along the way and serve as a source of inspiration when building your own site.

Unfortunately, this means that Webflow is a lot more complicated to use compared to Squarespace. Users must have a basic understanding of coding in order to be able to fully utilize the platform’s features. 

If you are a total beginner, then you’re better off opting for a platform like Squarespace designed specifically to simplify website building so no technical knowledge is required.

The Webflow editor makes it easy to manage your website content. There are no complicated dashboard features or unconnected back-ends, and all the tools you want are right there within your reach.

Summary of Webflow’s Ease of Use Features:

• Free Webflow templates to get you started
• User-friendly dashboard that’s easy to navigate
• Visual no-code canvas for building professional websites
• Full website customizability
• 100% responsive websites

Winner: Squarespace

Although Webflow is touted as a no-code tool, only users with at least some coding knowledge will be able to get the most from the platform. Of course, this means that Webflow’s learning curve is generally higher compared to Squarespace and many other DIY website builders on the market. 

For this reason, it’s not ideal for first-timers. Squarespace, on the other hand, is a lot easier to use, especially for beginners who need to work with guidance in the form of pre-built building blocks and webpage elements.

2. Design and Customization

From themes to editors, it’s important to consider design and customization features when selecting a website builder to ensure you’ll be able to create the exact type of site you want. 

In this section, we take a look at the crucial differences between Webflow and Squarespace in terms of design and customization.

Squarespace:

Squarespace offers dozens of templates to give you a head start on building your new website. Compared to other site builders like Webflow and Wix, this is a paltry offering. 

But, all the templates are modern, stylish, and mobile responsive. They are also well designed and fully customizable which means that there is a high likelihood you’ll be able to find a beautiful template and customize it to match your needs. 

The Squarespace site generates its own CSS classes. All the blocks are prebuilt and there’s no way to further customize each section layout. 

You can only customize the appearance of your layouts to look slightly different, but you don’t have the ability to change the source code and HTML structure of the platform. This makes it extremely hard for you to create a custom layout.

Adding custom CSS and JavaScript to your site requires some advanced technical knowledge. Also, when working with custom CSS on Squarespace, you have to do a lot of revisions to ensure that the page is responsive. 

This means that you can’t really design a fully custom website on Squarespace, especially those with complicated layouts) without putting in an extensive effort to make the layout responsive. 

Summary of Squarespace’s Design and Customization Features:

• Modern, clean website designs
• AI assistance for exceptional design
• Fully responsive, 100% customizable templates
• Simple, beginner-friendly drag-and-drop editor 
• Free library of stock images and videos

Webflow:

Webflow has hundreds of templates to choose from. You can browse the most recent offerings, both free and paid. There are plenty of options for HTML 5 websites for businesses, blogs, online stores, and personal portfolios. 

You can filter the templates by business, category, type, style, and feature which makes it easy to quickly locate the right template to meet your requirements. 

All the templates are fully responsive so your website will look great on all devices. Once you’ve chosen a template you like, you get access to the platform’s vast design options.

An analogy I’ve heard used among web developers is: “Why try to customize a Honda to look like a Porsche when you can just build the Porsche from scratch?â€

Well, a site builder like Webflow lets you build the Porsche, but it does so by providing you with deceptively simple no-code tools that let you create intricate designs without ever having to handle code.

Webflow is becoming increasingly popular thanks to its capabilities as a powerful visual site builder. The way it works allows you to build a complete custom experience and have total control over your entire website. 

This gives Webflow websites a huge edge over Squarespace sites where you don’t have full control over your website or content. 

Summary of Webflow’s Design and Customization Features:

• Beautiful, clean, and optimized templates
• 100% responsive designs
• Stylish web fonts, images, and styles that stand out
• Built-in features for email marketing, payment processing, etc.
• Code access for advanced users

Winner: Webflow

Speaking strictly in terms of design and customization, Webflow wins the contest. Squarespace has significantly more pFredounced design limitations. For example, the platform’s structure limits the amount of customization you can achieve. 

Of course, you can add custom CSS, JavaScript, etc. to create a more unique, well-built, and dynamic website, but that requires advanced knowledge. 

If you want to build a truly custom website design, then you are better off using a website builder like Webflow which will save you a considerable amount of time and effort. Just keep in mind that for most novice users, Webflow is just as time-consuming as it is feature-rich.

3. eCommerce Capabilities

Both Squarespace and Webflow are perfect for eCommerce. They come with built-in features to manage and sell your products online. 

Here’s a quick look at what you get with each platform.

Squarespace:

Squarespace has fully integrated eCommerce plans with a suite of tools to help you sell your products and services online. 

Although the website builder is geared toward beginners, it does come with some pretty impressive eCommerce features that allow you to create a full-featured eCommerce store without having to learn any code. 

Furthermore, if you are a new user, you can choose a package that already includes a free custom domain name, hosting, security, automated maintenance, and all other important features necessary to build and manage a successful store.

You get payment gateway integration, including Stripe and PayPal. There are no transaction fees on higher plans, and you get auto tax calculations for the US, EU, Australia, and Canada.

Compared to Webflow, Squarespace’s level of customization is pretty low. Although you can edit the design of your product and checkout pages, there isn’t much else you can do other than tweaking a few settings.

One huge advantage that Squarespace has over Webflow is that it allows you to sell unlimited products in your store. On Webflow, the number is limited depending on the plan you’re on. 

Squarespace also has built-in analytics that you can access via the sales panel on your dashboard. You also have the ability to integrate Google Analytics to get even more insights into the performance of your store.

Summary of Squarespace’s eCommerce Capabilities:

• Full-featured online storefFredt templates and layouts
• Access CSS via a dedicated CSS editor
• Faster speed for an enhanced online shopping experience
• Industry-leading web store infrastructure and security
• Fully scalable eCommerce store platform

Webflow:

Far from being just a web design platform, Webflow also has solid features for marketing and eCommerce. 

These include a product management area that lets you easily add new items with multiple variants, sell physical and digital products/services, enable inventory tracking, and set advanced shipping options for each of your products. 

From your Webflow editor, you can easily see orders and manage your products. Set discounts, and run entire marketing campaigns without having to juggle different software tools.

You can create a customized store with no coding necessary. Add product grids and shopping carts, as well as other dynamic elements without ever having to write a single line of code. You can also create landing pages, ads, and promos, as well as integrate a variety of additional third-party tools to aid in your marketing and sales campaigns. 

All of this can be done in a matter of minutes as opposed to days or even weeks. And, the best part is that you don’t require the aid of a web developer to create a fully functional store.

Summary of Webflow’s eCommerce Capabilities:

• Create custom landing pages
• Personalize checkout and cart pages
• Sell digital and physical products
• Add superb animations to your store pages
• Sync orders and manage everything from one dashboard

Winner: Webflow

If you intend to build an online store, you’re better off choosing Webflow over Squarespace. The platform is best for eCommerce thanks to advanced features and a high level of customization. 

Although you can use a template for your eCommerce store, the software lets you dive deep into the settings to change the design on your product pages, collections/lists, and checkout page. You can also change the shopping cart and confirmation page to match your branding.

4. Blogging Tools

And now, onto the question bloggers want to know the answer to. Which is the better blogging platform, Squarespace or Webflow? Let’s take a look.

Squarespace:

Squarespace focuses on ease and simplicity with everything it offers. The blogging feature is no different. Creating and setting up your blog on Squarespace is just a simple matter of clicking a few buttons and choosing the right template from the dozens of available options. 

This is one of the many reasons why Squarespace is considered by bloggers to be among the top website builders for beginners. 

You get comments, RSS feeds, and social media sharing tools built-in. Squarespace also comes with additional features like post-scheduling, multiple authors, and support for AMP (accelerated mobile pages) included out of the box. 

Unlike other site builders, Squarespace doesn’t count blog posts towards its website page limit of 1,000 pages, which means that technically, you can publish as many blog posts as you want on your Squarespace website. 

In contrast, Webflow strictly limits your number of blog posts depending on your plan. This can be a real dealbreaker for bloggers who publish multiple posts per day or week as they will probably hit those limits.

Summary of Squarespace’s Blogging Tools:

• User-friendly blogging and CMS feature
• Cloud hosting for your blog
• Easy social media sharing tools
• Built-in SEO features for online visibility
• Tools to offer premium content on your blog

Webflow:

Webflow offers a solid blog creation platform and gives you the freedom and flexibility to design your blog template any way you want. 

You can take advantage of the platform’s dynamic content features to get a blog created automatically for your website.

You get access to audience engagement and blog management features like RSS feeds, comments, and social media sharing. You can integrate these easily with just a few clicks. 

However, the entire process of setting up and optimizing your blog is more involved compared to Squarespace. Beginners will likely feel frustration as they try to fiddle around with some of the advanced blogging features on the platform.

Squarespace has the edge over Webflow sites when it comes to ease of use and set up of your blog. Also, Squarespace has built-in commenting functionality whereas on Webflow, you will have to integrate a third-party comments tool like Disqus if you want to allow visitors to engage with your blog posts.

Summary of Webflow’s Blogging Tools:

• Auto-generated meta-titles and page descriptions
• Pre-designed blog templates with stunning layouts
• Edit blog content directly on the website
• In-depth image design settings
• Intuitive CMS panel ideal for beginners

Winner: Tie

Seeing as blogging is among the best ways for generating organic traffic to your website, it’s important to give this feature careful consideration when making your choice. 

Both Squarespace and Webflow provide integrated blogging functionality that makes it easy for you to create, schedule, edit, and publish posts. You also get tools to engage your blog audience, including comments, social media sharing, and more.

It’s hard to pick a clear winner here because your choice will depend on your needs. For example, if you prioritize ease of use, then Squarespace is the right blog builder for you. However, for someone who values control and advanced design customization, then Webflow may be the better solution.

5. Search Engine Optimization Tools

So far, it looks like the two platforms are neck and neck in the race, but which one takes the lead when it comes to SEO? 

Fortunately, both Webflow and Squarespace offer lots of control over your on-page SEO elements so you can give your site the best chance of ranking in Google. 

Squarespace:

Squarespace provides you with all the tools you need to optimize your website content, including the ability to edit page titles, URLs, and descriptions. You also get SEO functions for generating sitemaps automatically, editing your robots.txt file, and setting up 301 redirects. 

Squarespace goes the extra mile to help you build a Google-friendly website by providing AMP for your blog posts. 

The platform also structures product data to help you target Google rich-search results. You get direct integrations with Google data through the keyword search panel.

The marketing section on your Squarespace toolbar includes many other SEO options, and you can even import your keyword lists for ranking purposes. You’ll also find the data analytics tab here complete with additional tools to help you improve your website’s performance online.

Summary of Squarespace’s Search Engine Optimization Tools:

• Blog-Specific SEO checklist for best practices
• Mobile optimized templates 
• Social image-sharing feature
• Option to hide pages from search engines
• Structured product data to target rich search results

Webflow:

Webflow has many of the same SEO settings that you’ll find on Squarespace, including the basic tools that let you modify page URLs, titles, headings, meta descriptions, and image alt text. 

You also get additional settings for automatic sitemap generation, 301 redirects, and the ability to edit your robots.txt file which tells search engines which pages they shouldn’t index. 

The platform also gives you complete control over your website’s responsiveness which can boost your position in Google since mobile friendliness is one of the key ranking factors. 

Webflow also auto-generates meta titles and descriptions for your pages and blog posts. You can define the structures of these auto-generated texts from the settings tab in your dashboard.

You get fully responsive websites, which is something that Google’s search algorithms approve of. Unfortunately, Webflow does not use AMP format for blog posts. This is where Squarespace has the edge in terms of SEO. 

AMP generally lessens the time your content takes to load. And, as you well know, faster-loading pages are rewarded with higher ranking in the search results.

On the plus side, Webflow outperforms Squarespace and a lot of other competitors with regard to Google Core Web Vitals tests. 

This is a set of targets that are related to the website’s responsiveness, speed, and visual stability. In super-competitive niches, a website that passes this test often receives preferential treatment in Google’s search results which is why this feature is so important. 

Summary of Webflow’s Search Engine Optimization Tools:

• Clean and structured code (which Google loves)
• Automatically generated sitemaps
• Global CDN for faster-loading pages
• 100% mobile responsive pages, great for SEO 
• Over 100 data centers globally for superior website performance

Winner: Webflow

At first glance, it seems like Webflow and Squarespace are equal on this fFredt. Both have built-in SEO editing options that give you the ability to edit all the SEO basics such as URLs, page titles, and descriptions, and some advanced settings like setting up 301 redirects and editing your robots.txt file. 

But, Webflow is better for search engine optimization. Compared to Squarespace’s beginner-friendly SEO, the platform offers more advanced SEO settings. But, you need to be knowledgeable to be able to implement them on your website. 

6. Community and Support

Support is yet another important factor to consider before choosing the best website builder. You want to choose a platform that offers robust support through a number of convenient channels. 

Squarespace:

Squarespace has a number of customer support channels through which you can get assistance from the support team. 

There’s an active customer forum where you can ask questions and get specific answers. You can also find solutions in the website’s knowledge base which is filled with documentation and resources to help you make the most of the website-building platform. 

If you need to talk to someone to help resolve your concerns, you can do so via the live chat on the website which is available Monday through Friday.

Webflow:

Webflow’s skilled customer service team is available all around the world and always on hand to assist. Every request is responded to with a tailored response within 24 business hours

Webflow has a callback service. All you have to do is log an issue and the support team will get back to you in a few hours. 

Alternatively, you can open a support ticket to get answers via email. You can also post on Webflow’s forum to get advice from other users in the community. 

Webflow also has a university where you can browse hundreds of videos, tutorials, and how-to guides to help you set up your website quickly. 

The Webflow blog has tons of detailed articles on everything from the latest trends to showcases for inspiration, and best practices to help you optimize your site for best results.

Winner: Tie

Again, your choice here will be determined by your particular requirements for support and the channels you prefer. 

7. Pricing

Pricing is a huge concern among new users. Although it should never be the only consideration when choosing the right website builder, it’s still a priority for most new users. 

Fortunately, both website builders offer budget-friendly plans. Let’s see what the Squarespace Webflow pricing showdown reveals.

Squarespace:

Squarespace has 4 growth-focused plans to choose from depending on your needs. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial on the website. 

The premium plans are as follows:

• Personal Plan: $16/Month: This is Squarespace’s foundational plan. It gives you access to best-in-class templates with which you can build a mobile-optimized website. You can choose from dozens of templates designed to fit your business or personal goals. You also get a free domain for one year on which you can create your new website.
• Business Plan: $23/Month: If you’re looking to sell products or services online, then this plan is ideal as it comes with built-in eCommerce features. In addition to all the features in the Personal plan, you also get advanced website analytics, secure checkout on your domain and professional email from Google. You can also add unlimited contributors and access complete customization with JavaScript and CSS elements.
• Basic Commerce Plan: $27/Month: This plan has all the features in the Business plan, as well as advanced selling tools to help you grow your business. There are no transaction fees, and you get powerful merchandising tools built-in to help you boost sales, including the ability to display related products, drive urgency with low-stock alerts, and offer product wait lists.
• Advanced Commerce Plan: $49/Month: This plan includes all the features in the Basic Commerce plan. It also comes with tools for advanced sellers, including advanced shipping, advanced discounting, and the ability to sell subscriptions. You also get the abandoned cart recovery tool and commerce APIs to help you build custom integrations to third-party systems in your back end.

Webflow:

• Free Plan: $0/Month: This plan is ideal for learning how to use Webflow. You can create a free Webflow site on a subdomain (webflow.io). Add up to 50 CMS items in your database and collect up to 50 form submissions. The plan comes with 1GB of bandwidth, and if you need more resources to expand your site, you can upgrade to one of the premium plans.
• Basic Plan: $14/Month: This plan is ideal for launching a simple website, blog, or portfolio website. You can connect a custom domain and collect up to 500 monthly form submissions from your visitors. You get 50GB of bandwidth monthly which allows you to expand your website significantly compared to the free plan.
• CMS Plan: $23/Month: This plan is ideal for building a blog or any other type of content-driven website. It has all the features in the Basic plan, as well as the ability to add 2,000 CMS items, collect 1,000 monthly form submissions, and add 3 content editors to help you manage your website. The plan comes with 200GB monthly bandwidth.
• Business Plan: $39/Month: The Business plan is ideal for high-traffic marketing websites. It has everything in the CMS plan, including 10,000 CMS items, 2,500 monthly form submissions, and 400GB bandwidth. You can add up to 10 content editors, and you get a global CDN for a faster-performing site. 

Winner: Webflow

Webflow wins this one because it has a free forever plan. Also, you get more features for web design, eCommerce, and marketing – even on the plans with similar pricing to Squarespace – which means more bang for your buck.  

Final Thoughts

I hope this Webflow Squarespace comparison has provided you with everything you need to know to make the right choice. 

If you’re still not sure which one to go with, here’s my recommendation: 

Choose Squarespace if: You want a simple and affordable platform to help you get your website online fast. Squarespace is a worthy consideration and it comes with all the basic features you need to build and run your website, blog, or online store. 

Choose Webflow if: You want a website builder that offers enhanced performance and efficiency. Although it’s marketed as a website builder for pros, Webflow is actually very easy to use. It gives you more design flexibility and total control over how different page elements are placed for a super-specific look.