> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Wix vs Squarespace for Australian Small Business 2026: Which Should You Pick? - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/wix-vs-squarespace-australia-2026/ - Published: 2026-06-17T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:43:39.000Z - Description: Both bill Australians properly — AUD, GST invoice. Wix wins on features and a real free plan; Squarespace wins on design. Here's who should pick which. - Author: Adam - Tags: AI Website & App Builders, Website Builders, Wix, Squarespace, #comparison Head-to-head verdict [**20**/25Wix AI Website BuilderWinner](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-wix-australia-2026/)[**19**/25Squarespace](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-squarespace-australia-2026/) **Our pick: Wix AI Website Builder.** The verdict below says who should buy the other. > **Winner: Wix** for most Australian small businesses — more features, a 1,000-app market, bookings and a store under one login, plus a genuine free plan to start on. **Pick Squarespace** if how the site *looks* matters more than how much it does — its templates are the best in the category by a clear margin. > > *Last reviewed: 18 June 2026 by Adam.* This is the website-builder decision most Australian small businesses land on once they've ruled out the fiddly DIY options and the developer-only tools. In 2026 both platforms have bolted real AI onto the front door — Wix with a conversational one-prompt builder, Squarespace with a guided design assistant. The good news: you can't go badly wrong. Both are mature, both are reliable, and — the thing that knocks out most of this category — **both bill Australians in AUD with a GST-inclusive tax invoice.** The decision comes down to whether you're buying features or buying looks. We scored [Wix](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-wix-australia-2026/) 20/25 and [Squarespace](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-squarespace-australia-2026/) 19/25, each against our [five-criteria framework](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/). Both landed an identical 4/5 on Australian Fit — neither offers Australian data residency, which is the one gap holding both off a fifth star. ## At a glance | | Wix | Squarespace | | ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | **Our score** | 20/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (AU Fit 4/5) | 19/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (AU Fit 4/5) | | **Free plan** | Yes — Wix-branded, wixsite.com subdomain, no custom domain | No — 14-day free trial only, no card required | | **Entry paid tier** | Light (US$17.77/mo reference, annual billing; \~A$25/mo — Wix bills in AUD with GST included, final figure at checkout) | Basic A$24/mo, or A$17/mo on annual | | **Mid plan** | Core (US$29.77/mo reference, annual billing; \~A$42/mo, GST included at checkout) | Core A$39/mo, or A$28/mo on annual | | **Top tier** | Business Elite (\~US$159/mo reference) | Advanced A$149/mo, or A$109/mo on annual | | **The AI** | One-prompt builder — full site in under 2 minutes | Design Intelligence — guided assistant, not one-prompt | | **App market** | \~1,000 apps (bookings, store, blog, email, payments) | Thin — no real app market | | **Editor** | Pixel-precision, powerful, cluttered | Restrained, low-clutter, hard to make ugly | | **Billing** | AUD, GST included, tax invoice | AUD, GST included, tax invoice | | **Best for** | Feature-led businesses; bookings/store/blog in one tool | Design-led brand, portfolio or services sites | ## What both tools actually do Both are cloud website builders: generate a starter site, edit it in a visual editor, attach a custom domain, take payments, run a blog, and — to varying depths — sell products. For a non-technical owner the job is broadly the same on either: answer a few prompts, get a draft, then shape it into something you're proud of. The difference in 2026 is how much the AI does for you. **Wix** runs a conversational AI Website Builder (part of what it brands "Wix Harmony") — answer three or four prompts and it assembles a five-or-six-page site, copy and images included, in under two minutes. Worth knowing: the old "Wix ADI" is dead, retired on 10 November 2024, so any guide still referencing ADI is describing a product you can't buy. **Squarespace** runs Design Intelligence and Squarespace AI as a *guided assistant*, not a one-prompt generator — you pick a goal, answer questions, and it suggests a template, palette, fonts and draft copy you refine. You do more of the work on Squarespace; the payoff is output that looks better. Treat both AIs as a fast first draft, not an autopilot. And sweep the copy for US spelling on either — both default to "color" and US phrasing, which is a five-minute localisation job, not a structural problem. ## Pricing in Australia This is the clearest practical split between the two. **Squarespace prices in plain, native AUD — but there's no free plan.** Its AU-facing pricing page serves Australian visitors A$ figures directly: Basic A$24/month (A$17/month billed annually), Core A$39 (A$28 annual), Plus A$69 (A$49 annual), and Advanced A$149 (A$109 annual). GST is applied to AU subscriptions under Australia's digital-services rules and appears on the tax invoice. There's a 14-day free trial with no card required, but if you want to sit on a free site indefinitely, this isn't it. These are the figures verified live from an Australian IP on 7 June 2026 — confirm the current numbers on the pricing page before you buy, as builder pricing moves. **Wix has a genuine free plan, but its pricing display is messier.** There's a real free tier — Wix branding and a `wixsite.com` subdomain, no custom domain — which makes it a usable trial rather than a business site. Above that sit four paid tiers: Light, Core, Business and Business Elite. The quirk: Wix's public pricing page shows **USD reference figures to everyone, including Australian visitors** — US$17.77/month Light, US$29.77 Core, US$39.77 Business, US$159.77 Business Elite on annual billing (up marginally from the flat US$17 / US$29 / US$39 / US$159 shown until August 2026) — and the exact AUD amount is only confirmed at the billing step from your address. Each AU pricing card is stamped "Price includes GST." At roughly the \~1.40 conversion, Light lands near A$25/month and Core near A$42/month, GST already inside those figures, but treat them as indicative — the real AUD figure is set at checkout, so confirm it on the pricing page. The headline: **Squarespace shows you a cleaner price; Wix gives you a free entry point.** Both produce a compliant GST tax invoice you can hand straight to your bookkeeper — no FX, no guessing whether GST was charged. That shared compliance win is exactly what separates these two from the AI-native upstarts that bill USD-only. ## Where Wix wins - **Feature breadth is unmatched.** Bookings, ecommerce, blog, email marketing, payments and a \~1,000-app market — all under one login. If you want one platform instead of a stack, nothing else here comes close. - **The AI builder does more of the work.** A complete, coherent first-draft site in under two minutes from a plain-English prompt. Squarespace's assistant won't do that. - **There's a real free plan.** You can start for nothing (with Wix branding) and upgrade when ready — Squarespace gives you 14 days and then asks for money. - **Niche integrations are more likely to exist.** The app market means the specific tool your trade or industry depends on is more likely to plug in natively. ## Where Squarespace wins - **The best templates in the category, by a margin.** Every Squarespace site starts from a designer-grade base; it's genuinely hard to make one look cheap. Wix can look just as good, but you have to work for it. - **A restrained, low-clutter editor.** Less power than Wix's pixel-precision canvas, but far less overwhelming for a non-designer. Squarespace makes it hard to build something ugly — which is exactly what a non-technical owner wants. - **Cleaner AUD pricing on the page.** You see native A$ figures up front, not USD reference numbers you have to mentally convert and confirm at checkout. - **Less time lost in settings.** Where Wix's depth can swallow a couple of hours, Squarespace's constraints get you to launch-ready in an afternoon. ## Australian fit: a dead heat at 4/5 Both score **4/5 on Australian Fit**, and it's deserved on both sides: native AUD pricing, GST applied and shown on a compliant tax invoice, and 24/7 support that covers Australian business hours regardless of time zone. Neither has an Australian office, but both treat the market as a first-class billing region — which is most of why they sit one and two in this category. The shared gap is **data residency.** Neither offers an Australian hosting region — Wix runs on global infrastructure (predominantly US), Squarespace hosts offshore in the US/EU. For a café, a tradie, a portfolio or a brand site, that's immaterial. For a business storing sensitive customer records under the Privacy Act, it's worth noting — though no mainstream builder in this category offers AU hosting either. That single gap is what holds both tools to 4/5 rather than 5, and is why each lands as a strong recommendation rather than an "Excellent" five-star tool under our [Australian Fit gate](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/). Both clear the 4/5 bar, so both remain eligible to be a category Top Pick — but if onshore-only storage is a hard requirement for you, an exportable WordPress option with a selectable region is the better fit. The other shared catch: **you're locked in on both.** You cannot export a Wix or Squarespace site and self-host it elsewhere — the site lives on the platform, or you rebuild from scratch. If owning and moving your site outright is non-negotiable, neither of these is your tool. ## Which to pick — decision framework - **You want one platform that does bookings, a store or a blog as well as a website** → **Wix.** The breadth and the app market are the whole point. - **You care most about how the site looks** → **Squarespace.** The templates are the best here, and it's hard to make one look cheap. - **You want to start for free and upgrade later** → **Wix.** It has a real free plan; Squarespace gives you 14 days. - **You want the cleanest, no-conversion AUD price on the page** → **Squarespace.** Native A$ figures up front, not USD reference numbers. - **You're a non-designer who wants a polished site up in an afternoon without drowning in settings** → **Squarespace.** - **You just want the safest, most widely-supported default with room to grow** → **Wix**, our category Top Pick. ## The verdict **Winner: Wix, for most Australian small businesses.** It scores 20/25 to Squarespace's 19, and the gap is exactly what you'd expect: Wix does more. The bookings, the store, the blog, the email tools and the 1,000-app market all live under one login, the AI builds a usable site in under two minutes, and there's a genuine free plan to start on. For an operator who wants one tool rather than a stack, that breadth is the reason to buy. **But Squarespace is the smarter buy for a specific, large group of Australians:** anyone whose site has to *look* the part — a brand, a services business, a portfolio, a considered small store. Its AI does less of the heavy lifting, but the payoff is output that looks more expensive than the effort, and it clears the exact same Australian compliance bar as Wix: AUD billing, GST invoice, 24/7 support. It loses the Top Pick on two counts — no free plan, and a thinner feature set — not on quality. The honest truth: both are excellent for Australians, both bill you properly, and both lock you in with no export. Pick on what you're optimising for — features or design — not on a feeling that one is "better," because at this level neither is. If Squarespace's AI moves from assistant to true one-prompt builder over the next six months — the direction the whole category is heading — this gap narrows further. Update history - **1 Oct 2026** — **Wix's reference prices synced from the Wix review.** Wix moved its displayed USD reference figures from flat dollars to cents on or before 2 September 2026 — Light US$17.77, Core US$29.77, Business US$39.77, Business Elite US$159.77 a month on annual billing — and the review recorded it then (re-confirmed by browser from an Australian IP on 21 September 2026). This comparison still said US$17 / US$29 / US$39 / US$159\. Was: "Light (\~US$17/mo reference; \~A$24/mo + GST — confirm at checkout)". Now: US$17.77 and \~A$25, and the "+ GST" wording is gone because Wix's Australian cards are stamped "Price includes GST" — the comparison said so in its own Billing row. Squarespace figures untouched. Found by the cross-file price sentry. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which is better for Australian small business? Wix, for most. It scores 20/25 to Squarespace's 19, with more features, a \~1,000-app market, bookings and a store under one login, and a real free plan. Pick Squarespace if how the site looks matters more than how much it does. ### Which is cheaper in AUD? Close. Squarespace shows native A$ figures up front, from A$17/month on annual billing. Wix shows USD reference figures (US$17.77/month entry) and confirms the AUD amount at checkout. Both include GST. Compare your chosen tier's landed price. ### Do both bill in AUD with a GST invoice? Yes — and that's what separates them from the USD-only upstarts. Both bill Australians in AUD with GST included and a compliant tax invoice you can hand straight to your bookkeeper. ### Is there a free plan or free trial? Wix has a genuine free plan (with Wix branding and a wixsite.com subdomain). Squarespace has no free plan — only a 14-day trial, no card required. ### Can I keep my site data in Australia? No — neither offers an Australian hosting region (Wix is mostly US, Squarespace is US/EU). It's immaterial for most small-business sites, but if onshore-only storage is a hard requirement, an exportable WordPress option with a selectable region is the better fit. You also can't export and self-host either platform. ## Sources This comparison draws on The AI Directory Australia's underlying reviews of [Wix](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-wix-australia-2026/) (20/25) and [Squarespace](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-squarespace-australia-2026/) (19/25), each scored against our [five-criteria framework](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/) and verified against the vendors' own Australian pricing and product pages on 7 June 2026. - Wix premium plan pricing — https://www.wix.com/plans (USD reference figures shown to all visitors; AU cards stamped "Price includes GST"; exact AUD set at checkout) - Wix AI Website Builder / Wix Harmony — https://www.wix.com/ai-website-builder - Squarespace pricing (native A$ figures verified from an Australian IP) — https://www.squarespace.com/pricing - Squarespace AI / Design Intelligence — https://www.squarespace.com/ Both pricing pages render figures client-side and were last verified live on 7 June 2026; builder pricing moves, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's pricing page before you buy. ## Read next - Full review: [Wix](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-wix-australia-2026/) (20/25) and [Squarespace](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-squarespace-australia-2026/) (19/25) - Category guide: [Best AI Website & App Builders in Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-website-builders-australia-2026/) --- *The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our* [*Methodology*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/) *and* [*Affiliate Disclosure*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/affiliate-disclosure/)*.*