Webflow vs. Squarespace: Which Website Builder is Best for You?

Webflow and Squarespace belong to the same category of tools: website builders. However similar, each has a unique approach to its users and offers features that may or may not be what you require.

One thing is sure: you can build visually appealing and fully-functional websites with both platforms using little to no code. 

Read our Webflow vs Squarespace comparison the learn more about the two platforms and their advantages and disadvantages. This should help you determine which option will meet your needs. 

In addition to overviewing the two, we’ll compare them for pricing, ease of use, templates, performance, and more.

Overview of Webflow

Webflow is a visual website builder, a hosting platform, a CMS, and more. It’s technically an all-in-one package for any individual or organization looking to design, launch, and run their website.

Some of the main advantages of Webflow compared to its competitors, including Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace, include:

• Webflow gives you an end-to-end experience when designing and running a site, equipping you with all the necessary tools to excel in the digital environment. Even though you’ll find this is true for all other popular builders, only Webflow can actually cover every single aspect of maintaining your online presence. ✅
• Webflow has many pricing plans, each carefully designed to meet the needs of different customers. Even though they may seem confusing initially, they will make your life easier once you pick the right one. ✅
• Having its own hosting solution makes it easy to scale your website and keep it fully functional in case of a sudden increase in traffic. ✅
• Webflow writes clean code as you engage in visual development. It means you can easily export and use the code elsewhere with minimum to no adjustments. ✅
• Webflow is designed with responsiveness in mind, meaning you can quickly adjust your sites for different screen sizes and optimize them for various desktop and mobile devices. ✅

No website builder is perfect, and Webflow has a couple of disadvantages to take into account:

• Webflow has a steep learning curve. Even though it can make some of the most powerful websites in the world, you won’t be able to do it by just dragging and dropping pre-made elements in a template. You’ll have to devote much time to mastering this tool or hire Webflow experts to do digital wonders for you instead. ❌
• No live chat or phone support. Many users don’t like the idea that they must wait for hours to get a response from a customer support representative at Webflow. On the brighter side, Webflow has a fantastic community forum, as well as the popular Webflow University, a free comprehensive, and beginner-friendly course. ❌

Squarespace Overview

Squarespace is an online website builder focusing on making the entire design and launch process easy and streamlined. Just like Webflow, it lets you ultimately take the reins over the building of your site, enabling you to maintain it further after the launch.

Squarespace stands out from the pack in the following areas:

• It’s extremely simple to use and aimed at users looking to build functional and visually captivating sites with little to no technical knowledge. Compared to other similar builders, there’s much less learning to do in the beginning. ✅
• Squarespace is all about templates, and you’ll find some unique and customizable options for your website that can kickstart the site-building journey. ✅
• Squarespace is price-worthy, as you’ll get great value for the money you’ll pay if you decide to use this option. ✅

Some of the significant downsides of Squarespace include:

• Even though Squarespace is easy to use, that limits your design freedom compared to competitors such as Webflow. ❌
• Squarespace doesn’t offer the autosave feature and the revision history. If your browser accidentally crashes or closes while working on a project, your progress will be lost unless saved manually. ❌
• If your website starts growing, you might encounter some limits mainly related to your site’s functionality and SEO. ❌

Webflow vs. Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace offers four pricing plans, the basic one (personal) starting at $16 monthly. The Business version of the site comes at $23 a month. If you build an e-commerce platform, you’ll need the basic or advanced Commerce plans, which cost $27 and $49, respectively.

Even though Webflow features a free plan, you can unlock its true potential with one of the paid options. Things get tricky with Webflow, so I suggest reading Flow Ninja’s explanation of Webflow pricing plans.

Overall, Webflow is the winner here, as there’s a much more comprehensive selection of plans, meaning you can get the most suitable option for you.

‍If you keep things basic and straightforward, Webflow is still a better option, as its Basic plan starts at $14 a month.

Webflow vs. Squarespace Ease of Use

Webflow is highly customizable — much more compared to Squarespace. Unfortunately, that comes at a price: it’s more difficult to use. There’s much more learning to do, and you’ll likely have to watch plenty of videos from Webflow University just to get started.

Things are more streamlined with Squarespace, as you get a much simpler website-building experience for beginners. This, however, comes at the cost of customizability.

If we were to judge only by the ease of use, Squarespace would be a clear winner here.

Webflow vs. Squarespace Templates

According to Webflow’s official site, the platform features more than 2,000 templates, many of which are community-built. We also created our fair share of templates at Flow Ninja. 

You can filter templates on Webflow’s official page by tags, category, language, style, features, and type. Almost all templates are paid, and some are pretty pricey too. 

But perhaps the most important thing about Webflow’s templates is that they’re highly customizable, meaning you’re not constrained to them. If you think outside the box and want to deconstruct the theme to create something of your own, you’re free to do it. Of course, you’ll need adequate technical knowledge for that.

I couldn’t find the exact number of templates that Squarespace offers. According to some unofficial sources, it has between 100 and 140. However, as I was scrolling through, it felt like there were at least several hundred options to choose from.

The main difference from Webflow is that all Squarespace templates are free. 

You can also filter them based on different criteria and play around to suit them to your needs. However, they’re not as customizable as Webflow’s templates, meaning you’ll face some constraints design- and development-wise.

The winner is Webflow, provided you’re willing to buy a template.

Webflow vs. Squarespace Performance

This one is tough.

All sites have great loading times. Both Webflow and Squarespace give similar results, with most of their sites performing within the industry’s performance standards.

Still, one aspect gives Webflow an edge in terms of performance: SEO.

In addition to streamlining the technical aspect of search engine optimization, Webflow made dynamic content creation and publishing as easy as ABC. It means you can quickly deploy relevant content and edit it as you see fit, which is always good SEO-wise. If you add the visual CMS that lets you structure databases, create templated pages, and integrate content across your website, you’ll have a ball as an SEO or content expert.

All of this is technically possible with Squarespace, but you’ll probably have to add a few more people to the process, including developers. 

Webflow vs. Squarespace Animations and Interactions

Webflow has completely streamlined creating interaction and animations.

The entire process can be developed visually. You can easily add parallax movement, scroll progress, or insert an expressive animation that can be 100% custom if you wish so.

Unfortunately, this isn’t possible with Squarespace, which has a limited number of built-in animations and interactions.

Truth be told, you’ll probably need a professional if you want to go one step beyond what’s offered. The only difference is that the professional can do much more with Webflow’s tools in a shorter time than with Squarespace.

How to Decide Between Webflow and Squarespace

My final choice is Webflow. However, it’s not everyone’s. If you’re just starting and need a simple but powerful website built fast, Squarespace might be a better option for you. However, if you’re looking to build a complex site with many pages and a range of animations and interactions, Webflow might be an option to consider.

These are some extreme cases. Please research and learn more about the two platforms before making your final decision.

If you decide to go with Webflow and need experts' help, feel free to reach out to Flow Ninja.