If you’re researching WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, you’ve probably noticed something: everyone has an opinion. Wix fans love how easy it is. Squarespace users swear by the templates. And WordPress people? They’ll talk your ear off about flexibility and control. So who’s right? Honestly, they all are — for different reasons. But if you’re a business owner who wants a site that can actually grow with you, WordPress wins. It’s not even close. The catch? WordPress needs maintenance. And that’s what we need to talk about.
The Quick Comparison
Before we get into the weeds, here’s the high-level breakdown:
WordPress:
- Cost: Free software + hosting ($5-50/mo) + optional premium plugins
- Ease of Use: Moderate learning curve
- Design Flexibility: Unlimited — full code access
- SEO Control: Full control (meta tags, schema, sitemaps, everything)
- Ownership: You own everything
- Maintenance: Required — updates, backups, security
Wix:
- Cost: $17-159/mo
- Ease of Use: Very easy drag-and-drop
- Design Flexibility: Limited to Wix’s editor
- SEO Control: Basic (improved recently, still limited)
- Ownership: Wix owns the platform — you’re renting
- Maintenance: Handled by Wix
Squarespace:
- Cost: $16-72/mo
- Ease of Use: Easy, beautiful templates
- Design Flexibility: Template-based with some custom CSS
- SEO Control: Decent but not complete
- Ownership: Squarespace owns the platform — you’re renting
- Maintenance: Handled by Squarespace
See the pattern? Wix and Squarespace handle maintenance for you. That sounds great until you realize what you’re giving up.
Why WordPress Powers 43% of the Internet (And Wix/Squarespace Don’t Come Close)
WordPress runs 43% of all websites on the internet. Not 43% of websites built with a CMS — 43% of the entire internet. Wix sits around 3-4%. Squarespace is under 3%. That gap isn’t an accident.
WordPress dominates because it gives you something the website builders can’t: real control. Want to add an online store? Install WooCommerce. Need a membership portal? There’s a plugin for that. Want to build a custom booking system that works exactly the way your business needs? Write the code — or hire someone who can. The ceiling doesn’t exist.
With Wix or Squarespace, you get what they give you. Their app markets have improved, sure. But when you hit a wall — and you will — there’s nowhere to go. You can’t access the server. You can’t write custom PHP. You can’t install a plugin that doesn’t exist in their ecosystem. You’re stuck.
And then there’s SEO. If you care about showing up on Google — and you should — WordPress gives you tools that Wix and Squarespace can’t match. Full control over your meta tags, your schema markup, your XML sitemaps, your site speed optimization, your server-level caching. With plugins like Rank Math or Yoast, you can fine-tune every single page. Try doing that on Squarespace.
But here’s the thing that really matters: ownership. Your WordPress site lives on a server you control. You can move it anywhere. You can back it up yourself. You can switch hosting providers tomorrow. With Wix or Squarespace, you’re renting space in someone else’s house. And they can change the rules — raise prices, remove features, or shut down entirely — whenever they want.
The Trade-Off: WordPress Needs Maintenance
Let’s be real. WordPress isn’t a “set it and forget it” platform. It requires ongoing maintenance, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
Here’s what that looks like:
Plugin updates. WordPress has over 60,000 plugins. The ones on your site need regular updates — not just for new features, but for security patches. An outdated plugin is one of the most common ways sites get hacked.
Theme updates. Your theme needs updating too. If the theme developer releases a security fix and you ignore it, you’re leaving a door open.
WordPress core updates. WordPress itself pushes major updates a few times a year and minor security patches more frequently. These need to be applied.
Backups. You need regular, automated backups stored somewhere off your server. If something goes wrong — a bad update, a hack, a server crash — backups are your safety net.
Security monitoring. Someone needs to watch for malware, brute force attacks, and suspicious activity.
Performance monitoring. Site speed matters for SEO and conversions. Databases get bloated. Caches need clearing. Images need optimizing.
Why does WordPress need all this? Because it’s open-source software running on a server you control. That open-source ecosystem is what gives WordPress its power — thousands of developers building plugins, themes, and tools. But an open ecosystem also means more attack surfaces and more moving parts. It’s the trade-off for freedom.
Wix and Squarespace don’t have this problem because they control everything. They choose which features exist. They handle updates behind the scenes. But that control goes both ways — they also control what you can and can’t do with your own website.
What Happens If You Don’t Maintain WordPress
This is where it gets ugly. A WordPress site without maintenance is a ticking time bomb. Not “might cause problems eventually.” Will cause problems.
Outdated plugins are the #1 way WordPress sites get hacked. Hackers don’t need to be sophisticated — they just scan for sites running known vulnerable versions of popular plugins. If your site is one of them, you’re a target. And the cost of cleaning up a hacked WordPress site is brutal. We wrote a whole article on how much it costs to fix a hacked WordPress site — it can run anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the damage. That’s money you’d never have to spend if the site was maintained.
Slow sites kill conversions. Every second your site takes to load costs you customers — studies consistently show that conversion rates drop dramatically after 3 seconds of load time. A neglected WordPress site accumulates bloat: unused plugins, unoptimized images, database overhead. Speed doesn’t maintain itself.
Then there’s the compatibility issue. WordPress pushes a major update, and suddenly one of your plugins doesn’t work with the new version. Your contact form breaks. Your checkout page throws errors. Your calendar widget disappears. If nobody’s testing updates in a staging environment before pushing them live, you find out about these problems when your customers do.
None of this happens overnight. It creeps up. And by the time you notice, you’re looking at a slow, vulnerable, partially broken site that’s hemorrhaging search rankings and customer trust.
Why It’s Still Worth It
So WordPress needs work. Why bother? Because the alternative is worse.
You own your website. This isn’t a philosophical argument — it’s a practical one. Wix raised their prices by 30-40% in 2023. Squarespace removed certain features from lower-tier plans. When you’re on a platform, you’re at their mercy. With WordPress, you own the code, the content, the design, the database — everything. If your hosting provider raises prices, you move to another one. Try moving a Wix site to Squarespace. It doesn’t work.
WordPress gives you better SEO. Full stop. The level of control you get with WordPress SEO plugins, combined with server-level optimization and custom schema markup, is lightyears ahead of what Wix or Squarespace offer. If organic search traffic matters to your business — and for most businesses, it should be your primary marketing channel — WordPress is the only serious choice.
There’s no platform lock-in. Your WordPress site is built on open standards — PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript. Any developer in the world can work on it. If you hire a new web designer next year, they can pick up right where the last one left off. Good luck finding a Wix developer who can do anything beyond what the drag-and-drop editor allows.
And the big one: WordPress can grow with your business. Need to add an online store? Done. Membership site? Done. Multi-language support? Learning management system? Integration with your CRM? All possible. WordPress doesn’t have a ceiling. Wix and Squarespace do, and you’ll hit it faster than you think.
How We Handle WordPress Maintenance for You
Look — we get it. You didn’t start a business so you could spend your evenings updating WordPress plugins. That’s our job.
At Snazzy Solutions, our WordPress maintenance plans cover everything your site needs to stay fast, secure, and running smoothly:
- Weekly plugin, theme, and core updates (tested before going live)
- Daily automated backups with off-site storage
- 24/7 security monitoring and malware scanning
- Uptime monitoring — we know if your site goes down before you do
- Monthly performance reports
- Priority support when something breaks
Plans start at $100/month. That’s less than what most businesses spend on coffee in a week. And it’s a fraction of the cost of dealing with a hacked site, a crashed server, or a Google penalty from a slow, insecure website.
We also handle full-service web design if you need a new WordPress site built from scratch — or if you’re migrating from Wix or Squarespace and want to finally own your website.
The Bottom Line
WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace isn’t really a fair fight. Wix and Squarespace are great for hobbyists, side projects, and people who want something quick and simple. Nothing wrong with that.
But if you’re running a business — a real business that depends on its website for leads, sales, and growth — WordPress is the platform. Yes, it needs maintenance. Yes, that means either learning to do it yourself or paying someone to handle it. But the flexibility, control, SEO power, and ownership you get in return? That’s not a trade-off. That’s an investment.
Don’t let the maintenance scare you. Let someone handle it so you can focus on running your business.
Need a new WordPress site or want us to take over maintenance on your existing one? Let’s talk. Reach out to us and we’ll figure out exactly what your site needs.