Best Website Builders in 2026: How Squarespace Beats Competitors
It’s been a couple years since we launched Tactycs, and in that time we’ve worked with all kinds of businesses to bring their marketing vision to life.
A large part of our work has involved building — and rebuilding — websites of all kinds. From intuitive, user-friendly setups to complex, code-intensive projects, we’ve worked with nearly every major website builder, including Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, and WordPress.
But recently, we started to notice a trend in our Web Design clients: We’ve transitioned at least a dozen of our clients from their old website builder to Squarespace. Even with the majority of our web clients on Squarespace, there are still many other clients we’re recommending Squarespace to as an alternative to their current website builder.
Today, I want to explore why Squarespace continues to be the premier website builder for our digital marketing company. At the same time, we’ll be covering all the major website builders to find which builders are best, which ones to avoid, and how they all compare to Squarespace.
Jump into this comprehensive website builder review from our experts in SEO and web design!
Table of Contents
Top 3 Best Website Builders in 2026
Squarespace
Pros
User‑friendly drag-and-drop website builder.
Built‑in support for custom CSS, HTML and JavaScript injection
Unified dashboard for hosting.
Site analytics are available within the platform.
It being an all-in-one platform makes setup and maintenance easy.
Designer-quality, mobile-responsive templates available for easy builds.
The platform also offers support for e-commerce, email campaigns, analytics, social integrations
Cons
Customization can be limited for highly-experienced web developers.
Third-party tools are not an option, so web designers are only limited to built-in design features.
When aesthetics, polished templates and an all‑in‑one experience matter most, Squarespace is hard to beat. It’s our agency’s favourite for a reason! If you want your website to look good and function without issue, Squarespace is the best choice.
One of the most annoying things to deal with when building a website is breaks and hard-to-explain issues. My team and I don’t run into nearly as many issues with Squarespace sites. Since the platform offers an all-in-one experience, there’s no plug-ins to cause compatibility issues — which means no juggling version updates, no unexpected crashes, no broken layouts after theme changes, and far less risk of security vulnerabilities introduced by third-party tools.
I also like the flexibility it offers, blending user-friendly web design with advanced customization options for more experienced web developers. From the perspective of an agency owner, it’s easy enough for my junior hires to start a web project on, but also offers custom front-end coding for more experienced team members..
I can easily — and often do — train my clients on how to use Squarespace’s basic functionalities. With Squarespace, our clients don’t need to depend on us for minor site changes, they can make simple text edits and/or add photos on their own. It’s just that easy-to-use, and our clients really appreciate the autonomy it offers them.
Can we help make your website great? Let’s book a coffee chat!
Wix
Pros
Offers a large selection of templates (900+).
Beginner‑friendly drag‑and‑drop editor.
Automatic updates and security handled by Wix.
Includes additional features like e‑commerce modules, booking. systems/reservations, SEO tools, and more.
Cons
Overwhelming for beginners with so many features and options.
Need to manually ensure mobile-responsiveness.
Large sites or content-heavy pages can load slower.
The free plan has Wix branding/ads, which may not look professional for business.
Once you pick a template, you can’t switch to another one without rebuilding your content.
If you’re looking for the broadest flexibility and a strong all‑rounder builder in 2026, Wix is a great choice. It’s similar to Squarespace in how it blends beginner-friendliness with more advanced web development options.
Wix has a vast library of templates, design elements, and built-in tools. It offers high customization while still maintaining a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. It also supports custom code via Velo by Wix, its built-in development platform, so advanced users can create custom interactions, connect APIs, or build dynamic content systems without leaving the platform.
I’ll be honest, it’s a little overwhelming to get into at first. There are so many customization options that you can spend ages trying to find the best version of a particular design. After a bit of experimentation and practicing self-restraint, it becomes a lot more comfortable and quicker to use.
If you want to feel comfortable faster, it might not be a bad idea to watch a quick tutorial video first before diving in. This way, you know what to expect, and it’s easier to not get overwhelmed and confused.
Best practice is to prioritize simplicity over trying to make every section visually intricate — focus on great designs for the most important parts of your page and let the less important sections be simple and to-the-point. You need to have a good intuition to know when it’s time to stop.
Shopify
Pros
Easy to use with no coding required.
Strong infrastructure for store speed, uptime, and security.
Apps and integrations available for expanding features.
Built specifically for e‑commerce: excellent support for sales, inventory, checkout, payments, and multiple sales channels.
Cons
Migration away from Shopify is complex and not always smooth.
Limited design flexibility compared to general website builders like Wix or Squarespace.
Content creation tools (blogs, pages) are less advanced than other platforms.
Monthly costs can rise quickly when adding apps, features, or using third-party gateways.
Shopify remains the industry standard for anyone serious about e-commerce. While we’ve mainly emphasized Squarespace for our clients, we always choose Shopify for our e-commerce clients.
That’s because Shopify was built for selling online, and it shows. Everything from inventory and order management to payments, abandoned cart recovery, and multichannel selling (Instagram, TikTok, Amazon) is seamlessly integrated. It’s also one of the most secure and scalable e-commerce platforms available, with hosting and speed optimized for stores of all sizes.
Shopify is also great for product SEO, with most experts agreeing that high-traffic LLM sites like ChatGPT often refer to Shopify when asked for product recommendations.
However, Shopify doesn’t shine as much as a website builder when you take out the e-commerce aspects. We’d never recommend Shopify to a business that’s not looking to sell products online.
3 Website Builders to Avoid in 2026
Hostinger
We never use Hostinger.
There’s only one benefit of Hostinger…it’s budget-friendly. They offer low-cost all-in-one packages with the server hosting and website builder included… But that’s where the benefits end in our opinion.
Here are a few reasons why we avoid using Hostinger:
Customization options are much weaker compared to competitors.
Designed mostly for very small sites, with limited advanced features and scalability.
Code is inaccessible — no coding for the back-end or front-end.
SEO is basically inaccessible — you can’t manually input SEO titles and/or meta descriptions.
You’re locked into the chosen template and can’t easily switch without rebuilding.
Upsells for key features and starter packages that feel more restricted than marketed.
Wordpress
We wouldn’t say Wordpress is horrible by any means. Many of our clients are still on Wordpress. Nevertheless, we transition our clients away from Wordpress frequently, and that choice is from how difficult it can be to use. Technical maintenance isn’t just a possibility, it’s basically a must to keep your site from becoming slow, failing to load, or breaking.
Let’s just say that Wordpress should be avoided unless you have a dedicated web development team available to consistently manage and maintain it.
Here’s a few reasons why we avoid using Wordpress:
High ongoing maintenance (plugins, updates, security).
Although extremely powerful, it has a steep learning curve and isn’t easy to recommend to beginners.
You’ll need to download third-party tools and plug-ins for more expansive customization options.
With many Wordpress users depending on third-party tools, it’s very difficult to find accurate troubleshooting information online.
GoDaddy
While we don’t have much experience with GoDaddy’s website builder, we can confirm that its interface is largely similar to Hostinger — extremely limited, no access to code, and little freedom in design
Here’s a few reasons why we avoid using GoDaddy’s website builder:
Very restricted website builder with few customization options and no access to code.
Vendor lock-in — you can’t export your site easily or migrate it away.
E‑commerce and advanced features are weak or require much higher‑tier plans.
Why We are Transitioning Clients to Squarespace
We’ve uncovered many of the benefits that come with using Squarespace, but have yet to explain exactly why we’ve transitioned so many clients to it.
Before we continue with the comparison chart, I’ll explain why Squarespace has become the premier website builder choice for our agency.
Less Tech, Fewer Headaches
We’ve seen websites completely break due to plugin conflicts, compatibility issues, or overly complex code that’s prone to causing problems. These issues significantly limited our ability to feel confident making site changes, adding new plugins, and enhancing the site overall.
While our team has the skills to handle these types of technical needs, there’s no denying that it gets tiring. It’s even worse if you’re managing a site as a beginner. We were spending so much time monitoring and fixing technical issues, and had to charge our clients for all of it.
Once we started switching clients over to Squarespace, we never had to think about technical maintenance again. None of our clients that started on or transitioned to Squarespace have every required technical maintenance help. Compared to platforms like Wordpress, where technical maintenance is a consistent concern, this took a significant burden off our shoulders.
Money Better Spent
Running our own business, we understand that every dollar of your marketing budget counts. Seeing so much of our client’s budget go to technical site maintenance — rather than categories that could actually drive sales — didn’t feel like a good trade.
Once we realized this, we started transitioning some of the smaller sites we managed to Squarespace. This eliminated the need to spend so much marketing budget on quick fixes and constant maintenance.
We used the extra budget on more valuable marketing ventures: SEO content writing, online advertising, high-converting service pages, and other activities to drive traffic and sales. This way, our clients started to see a more immediate ROI from our services.
No More “Call Your Developer” Moments
Something we saw consistently, even for sites we didn’t manage ourselves, was constant vendor dependence. Our clients were constantly needing to communicate and reach out to us or their website vendors for help, even for the most minor site changes. The clients didn’t feel comfortable making their own changes, either because it was too difficult, or because they were scared of breaking things.
There was one thing we knew for sure — it was unnecessary. You shouldn’t have to spend money to change some text or add an image to your home page. We didn’t feel comfortable charging our clients for that, so we started thinking about how to solve it.
The answer was Squarespace. It’s beginner-friendly, but not limited to those easy-to-use features. It gave us the flexibility to build and enhance the site using advanced customization options without alienating our clients that are inexperienced in web design. In a single meeting, we could easily show our clients how to change and/or add images and text, how to add a simple section to the homepage, and much more.
This gave our clients the autonomy to make changes on their own while still being able to call on us for projects that required more advanced and content-heavy web design.
Simplify Your Website Management: Transition to Squarespace Today
If you and your team are spending too much time and money just keeping your website running, you’re not alone — and you don’t have to keep doing it. Squarespace offers an all-in-one platform that’s faster, easier to manage, and built for non-technical users.
We help businesses like yours make a clean switch — no downtime, no hassle. Let us handle the heavy lifting so you can finally take control of your site, without relying on a developer for every update.
Squarespace vs. Other Website Builders: Comparison Chart for 2026
| Feature / Criteria | Squarespace | WordPress | Wix | Shopify | Hostinger | Weebly | GoDaddy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ideal use-case | Design-forward sites, service businesses | Blogs, content-heavy, highly customizable | Flexible builder for SMBs and creatives | E-commerce and product-first stores | Basic, budget-friendly sites | Simple websites and small stores | Basic business sites with fast setup |
| Ease of use | Very easy for non-tech users | More technical, requires updates | User-friendly drag-and-drop | Easy for stores, but app-heavy | Beginner-friendly, limited tools | Very simple to use | Fast but lacks depth |
| Customization & code | Custom CSS/HTML, limited full access | Full code access, plugin-heavy | Custom code with Velo available | Some access via Liquid templates | Limited customization | Minimal design flexibility | Restricted editing options |
| E-commerce | Good for small-to-medium stores | Strong with WooCommerce | Good built-in store tools | Excellent e-commerce platform | Basic store functionality | Simple sales tools | Very basic online store |
| Cost & scalability | Mid-tier pricing, solid value | Varies (hosting, plugins, themes) | Mid-tier + optional app costs | Expensive as store grows | Low-cost, fewer features | Affordable but limited | Low price, limited growth |
| Maintenance | Low – fully managed | High – plugins, updates, backups | Moderate – apps need updates | Moderate – store upkeep required | Low – basic structure | Low – simple toolset | Low – few moving parts |
| Migration & flexibility | Moderate – locked into platform | High – portable and flexible | Moderate – limited template switching | Moderate – not easily portable | Low – hard to scale or move | Low – limited export options | Low – migration not easy |
| Best for client hand-off | Excellent – easy for clients to manage | Depends – often needs developer help | Great – intuitive for most users | Good – if clients are product-focused | Fine – for basic DIY needs | Good – for simple client sites | OK – easy edits, but not scalable |
