Squarespace vs Wix for a UK small business

Squarespace shows prices in pounds to UK visitors (Squarespace pricing):

When we checked, the page also showed "50% off" on every plan. The small print says the discount applies to the first payment only, not to renewals, so budget for the full price from year two. The page doesn't say whether prices include VAT.

Wix has five plans: Free, Light, Core, Business and Business Elite (Wix plans). We couldn't read a price in pounds. The page loads its prices by script, and the version we could read showed placeholder figures in dollars. Wix says prices "vary by location", that the prices shown are for yearly plans paid up front, and that they don't include taxes. Its help centre says the same. Check the price on your own screen before you sign up, and look for the renewal price.

Yes, you can build and publish a site on Wix for free. Wix says free sites get 500MB of storage and an address like yourname.wixsite.com/yoursite, and you need a paid plan to use your own domain name (Wix). Free sites also show a Wix banner ad at the top (Wix).

For a business, that's fine for testing. It isn't what you want customers to see.

Squarespace has no free plan. It offers a 14-day free trial with no card needed, which you can extend by seven days. After the trial you can't get into the site until you pay (Squarespace).

Your domain. Both include a free domain for the first year on yearly plans only (Squarespace, Wix). After that you pay the normal renewal price.

Card payments. Squarespace charges 2.0% + £0.25 a transaction on Basic and Core, less on the higher plans. Its Basic plan also takes a 2% fee on online store sales (Squarespace). Wix Payments charges 2.1% + £0.20 for UK cards, excluding American Express (Wix).

Online booking. This is the biggest difference for a local service business:

• Wix has its own booking tool, Wix Bookings. Wix says you can add it free, but you need to upgrade to accept bookings and payments (Wix). On the plans page, scheduling is listed on Core and above, not on Light.
• Squarespace sells bookings as a separate product, Acuity Scheduling. Acuity's pricing page says "all prices are in USD": Starter is $16 a month billed annually, or $20 monthly (Acuity). We couldn't find a price in pounds.

If you'd rather use a booking system you already have, both builders can link to it. Our guide to choosing a booking system compares the options.

Changing the design. Wix says "it's not possible to switch to a different template for a site you already created". You'd start a new site and move your plan and domain across (Wix). On Squarespace's current version (7.1) you can't switch templates either, but you can restyle colours, fonts and layouts within the site (Squarespace).

Leaving. This matters more than most comparisons admit:

• Wix says a Wix site "needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers". You can't export it to another host (Wix). If you leave, you rebuild.
• Squarespace can export part of your site as a WordPress file: basic pages, one blog and galleries. Store pages, products, extra blogs and your design don't come with it (Squarespace).

Your domain can leave either. For a .co.uk domain on Wix you'll need an IPS tag from your new provider rather than a transfer code (Wix). Squarespace says a transfer can take up to 15 days (Squarespace).

Either way, keep your own copies of your photos and text, and make sure the domain is registered in your business's name.

Whichever you pick, the platform matters less than what's on it: clear services, real photos, your area, your prices if you can share them, and an obvious way to book or get in touch.

If you'd rather not build it yourself, we design and set up websites for small businesses across the UK. We can host and run the whole site for you, or look after the Squarespace or Wix site you already have, even if we didn't build it.

• Website design for small businesses
• Website maintenance