Free Squarespace vs Wix Cost Calculator

Last updated: October 25, 2026

Quick answer: Squarespace and Wix look like a $29-against-$29 tie at the mid tier — until transaction fees and site counts change the answer: Squarespace Basic takes 2% of store sales and Core takes 5% of digital and membership sales, while Wix charges no platform transaction fee on any tier, and every extra site multiplies the subscription. This free Squarespace vs Wix cost calculator prices both on your sites, your plans, your monthly sales and your digital sales over year 1 and 3 years. On the defaults (1 site, Core vs Core, $2,000 a month in sales, $500 of it digital), Wix costs $29 a month while Squarespace costs $54 a month ($29 subscription + $25 in fees) — a $25 monthly gap, $900 over 3 years. Card processing (about 2.9% + $0.30) is charged by the payment processor on both sides and is excluded from both totals. Everything runs in your browser; your sales figures stay private.

Number of sites

Monthly store sales ($)

Of that, digital / membership sales ($)

Wix plan (per site)

Squarespace plan (per site)

Setup / design, one-time ($)

US list prices, October 2026, annual billing per site: Wix Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159; Squarespace Basic $19, Core $29, Plus $49, Advanced $99. Squarespace platform fees: Basic 2% of all store sales; Core 5% of digital content and membership sales (physical sales exempt); Plus and Advanced 0%. Wix charges no platform transaction fee on any tier. Card processing (typically about 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction through Stripe/PayPal/Wix Payments) applies on both sides and is excluded from both totals, so the comparison isolates the platform cost. Sales figures are totals across all sites; the fee applies once to total sales. Worked check: 1 site, Core vs Core, $2,000 sales, $500 digital — Wix $29/mo; Squarespace $29 + $25 = $54/mo. Verify against each vendor's current pricing page before signing; Wix notes its prices vary by location.

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See the full breakdown

Your result shows the subscription and fee lines side by side — the guide explains the 2% and 5% rules, the per-site multiplier, and where a subscription comparison breaks down.

Squarespace vs Wix Pricing: The Transaction-Fee Trap (2026) →

How to Use the Squarespace vs Wix Cost Calculator

Enter your number of sites. Both builders price per site, so an agency with 5 client sites pays 5 subscriptions — the single most common understatement in builder comparisons, where a one-site price is quoted for a multi-site business.
Enter your monthly store sales and, separately, your digital / membership sales. The split matters only on Squarespace: Basic charges 2% on all store sales, Core charges 5% only on digital and membership sales (physical sales are exempt on Core), and Plus/Advanced charge nothing. If all your sales are physical, Core's fee is $0 no matter the volume.
Pick your Wix plan and Squarespace plan per site. Wix Light ($17) is a brochure-site plan; Core ($29) is the first plan that sells properly; Business ($39) adds advanced ecommerce; Business Elite ($159) is the high-volume tier. Squarespace Basic ($19) sells with the 2% fee; Core ($29) is the small-business tier; Plus ($49) removes the fee for digital sellers; Advanced ($99) adds advanced shipping and subscriptions.
Enter setup / design as a one-time cost if you have a quote for theme work or migration. It lands in the year-1 total only. Press Compare total cost and read the fee line first: on a digital-heavy store, Squarespace's fee line can exceed its subscription line, which is the whole point of the comparison.
Compare the 3-year totals, not just the monthly gap. A $25 monthly fee gap is $900 over 3 years — and it grows with sales, unlike the subscription, which stays flat. A store planning to scale its membership revenue should price the fee at next year's volume, not this month's.

Why Use Our Squarespace vs Wix Cost Calculator?

Transaction fees as a line item, not a footnote — Squarespace Basic 2% and Core 5% are computed from your actual sales split, so a digital-heavy store sees its real fee instead of a $29 subscription quote that hides it.
Digital-vs-physical sales split — Core's 5% applies only to digital and membership sales, so a store selling physical goods on Core correctly shows $0 in fees. Most guides apply the 5% to everything or to nothing; both are wrong.
Per-site multiplication — subscriptions multiply by your site count, so agencies and multi-brand businesses see their real bill instead of a single-site price.
Card processing excluded honestly — about 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction applies on both sides through the same processors, so including it would only pad both totals equally. The comparison isolates the platform cost, and says so.
Setup as a separate, editable line — a one-time design or migration cost belongs in year 1 only. Enter your quote; leave it at $0 and the comparison stays a clean platform shootout.
Exportable for the decision — download the comparison as CSV or print it to PDF for a client or finance review. Your sales figures never leave your browser.

Common Use Cases

A coach selling a $500-a-month membership on Core: 1 site, Core vs Core: Wix $29 a month; Squarespace $29 + $25 (5% of $500) = $54. Over 3 years the gap is $900 — enough to pay for Plus ($49) and still save, since Plus removes the fee entirely at $49 a month, $20 less than Core all-in.
A physical-goods store doing $5,000 a month: Digital sales $0: Squarespace Core charges $0 in fees, so both vendors cost $29 a month per site. The comparison is a tie on price, and the decision falls to design templates, shipping features and the app ecosystem — which is the honest outcome for a physical-only store.
An agency running 5 client sites: 5 sites on Core: $145 a month on either vendor before fees. Add $2,000 a month in digital sales per site and Squarespace adds $500 a month in fees across the portfolio ($100 per site) while Wix adds $0 — a $6,000 annual portfolio gap created entirely by the fee line.
A store choosing between Basic and Core on Squarespace: Basic ($19 + 2% of all sales) against Core ($29 + 5% of digital only): at $2,000 in physical sales and $0 digital, Basic costs $59 and Core $29 — Core wins despite the higher subscription, because Basic's 2% applies to everything. The fee structure, not the subscription, decides the tier.

Squarespace vs Wix Cost Calculator vs Alternatives

Vendor pricing pages (Squarespace, Wix): The authoritative rate and fee source, and the place to verify any number here before signing. What a pricing page cannot do is apply the fee percentages to your sales split and site count at once, or total 3 years alongside the subscription. That is the calculator's job.
Independent comparison guides: Most guides compare subscriptions and declare a tie at $29, which is true for physical-only stores and false for digital sellers. Guides are useful for design and feature fit (Squarespace's templates vs Wix's app market); they are weak on fee-driven total cost.
ToolNest's Shopify fee calculator: The same fee-line method applied to one platform: subscription plus percentage, shown line by line. Here the method compares two builders' fee structures against each other — different vendors, same lesson: the percentage is the price, not the subscription.
Doing the comparison in a spreadsheet: Works, but the spreadsheet has to encode both vendors' tier ladders, the two Squarespace fee rules, the per-site multiplier and a 3-year horizon by hand, and it goes stale every time either vendor reprices. This page keeps those rules in one place, current to the October 2026 checks.

Bottom line: Wix usually wins on total cost for digital and membership sellers, Squarespace ties for physical-only stores — and the real bill depends on your site count and your digital sales, in that order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Squarespace or Wix cheaper?

On subscription alone, Wix wins the entry tier ($17 against $19) and the two tie at the mid tier ($29 against $29). On total cost, it depends on your sales mix: a store with $500 a month in digital sales pays $54 on Squarespace Core against $29 on Wix Core, a $25 monthly gap. A physical-only store pays $29 on both. Price your sales mix, not the subscription.

What are Squarespace's transaction fees, exactly?

Basic: 2% of all store sales. Core: 5% of digital content and membership sales only — physical product sales are exempt. Plus and Advanced: 0% platform fees. These fees are on top of card processing (about 2.9% + $0.30), which both builders charge through their payment processors. A $100 digital sale on Core therefore costs $5 in platform fees plus about $3.20 in processing.

Does Wix charge transaction fees?

No platform transaction fee on any tier: Wix does not take a percentage of your sales. You still pay card processing through Wix Payments, Stripe, Square or PayPal (typically about 2.9% + $0.30), but that is a processor charge, not a Wix charge, and it applies on Squarespace too — which is why this calculator excludes it from both sides.

Why does the site count matter so much?

Because both builders price per site, and neither offers a meaningful multi-site discount on standard plans. Five sites on Core cost $145 a month on either vendor before fees; a comparison that quotes $29 for a five-site agency understates the subscription by $116 a month, $1,392 a year. Enter your real site count — it is the easiest line to get wrong and the most expensive to miss.

When does Squarespace Plus pay for itself?

When your Core fee exceeds the $20 subscription jump from Core ($29) to Plus ($49). On digital sales, that happens at $400 a month in digital sales (5% of $400 = $20). Above $400 a month in digital or membership sales, Plus is cheaper than Core despite the higher subscription — and above $1,000 a month in digital sales, Core costs $79 all-in against Wix Core at $29, so the fee line, not the subscription, is the decision.

Do Wix prices vary by location?

Yes — Wix notes that its prices vary by location, and the rates used here are US annual-billing list prices from October 2026 checks. Squarespace's US annual rates are used on the other side. If you buy outside the US, check both pricing pages in your currency before signing; the fee structure (Squarespace's percentages vs Wix's 0%) does not change, but the subscription gap may.