Squarespace vs. Wix for Coaching Websites: Which Platform is Better for Your Business?

As a coach, your website isn’t just sitting there—it’s doing the work. It’s your booking system, sales page, lead magnet, blog, and brand hub all in one. Choosing the right platform to build it on can either streamline your growth or slow you down with tech frustrations.

If you’ve narrowed your options to Squarespace and Wix, both are leading website builders, and both are used by thousands of coaches worldwide. But which one is better for your coaching business?

In this blog, we’ll break down the differences between Squarespace and Wix in a practical, no-fluff way—based on features that matter to coaches, like appointment scheduling, customization, course integration, and ease of use.

Meet the Contenders: Squarespace and Wix

Let’s quickly introduce the two platforms, especially for those new to website design:

• Squarespace is known for its clean, modern templates, user-friendly interface, and all-in-one approach. Coaches love it for its simplicity and built-in tools for scheduling, email marketing, and digital products.

• Wix offers more customization options with a drag-and-drop editor and hundreds of templates. It has an app market with tons of features, which can be both a pro and a con depending on your needs.

Both are popular—but how do they actually compare when it comes to building and running a coaching website?

Ease of Use: Which Platform Is More Coach-Friendly?

Coaching Feature	Squarespace	Wix
📅 Session Booking	✅ Available through Acuity Scheduling (add-on feature)	✅ Available through Wix Bookings (add-on feature)
📝 Custom Intake Forms	✅ Included via Acuity	✅ Included with built-in form builder
💾 Selling Digital Products	✅ Included with e-commerce tools	✅ Included, some features may require upgrade
📧 Email List Building	⚠️ Requires Email Campaigns (add-on feature)	⚠️ Requires Wix Ascend (add-on feature)
🎁 Lead Magnets / Free Downloads	⚠️ Requires Email Campaigns or integration (add-on feature)	⚠️ Requires Wix Ascend or email app (add-on feature)
🌟 Client Testimonials	✅ Easily added with styled blocks	✅ Multiple layout options available
✍️ Blog for Thought Leadership	✅ Clean, built-in editor	⚠️ Separate blog editor (less cohesive)
🎓 Online Courses / Members Area	✅ Available through Members Area (add-on feature)	✅ Available via third-party apps
📣 Landing Pages for Offers	✅ Built-in with Fluid Engine	✅ Built with drag-and-drop editor

When it comes to setting up a website without coding, both platforms offer intuitive design tools—but the experience feels very different.

Squarespace: Streamlined and Beginner-Friendly

Squarespace’s editor uses sections and blocks, making it easy to create a professional-looking layout without decision fatigue. It guides you with built-in design rules, so your site looks consistent and polished even if you’re not a designer.

For example, coaches who use Squarespace templates designed for coaches often say the site feels “done” much faster than expected.

Wix: More Flexibility, More Decisions

Wix gives you almost total control—drag and drop any element anywhere. Great for designers, but it can overwhelm new users or lead to messy mobile versions. The learning curve is steeper, especially if you want to maintain brand consistency across pages.

Verdict: If you want simplicity and fewer moving parts, Squarespace is the clear winner. Wix might appeal if you enjoy tinkering and want total control.

Design and Templates: Which One Looks More Professional?

Coaching is personal. You need a website that reflects your brand and builds trust instantly.

Squarespace: Beautiful Out of the Box

Squarespace templates are clean, modern, and designed to make you the focal point. They’re easy to style with your brand colors and fonts—and you won’t need to overhaul much to get a sleek result.

Take a look at how to build a coaching business site on Squarespace and you’ll see that even non-designers can create high-converting pages with minimal effort.

Wix: Huge Library, Less Consistency

Wix offers 800+ templates, but many feel dated or overly busy. It takes more work to make a Wix site look clean and strategic—especially if you’re trying to convey a calm, confident presence that coaching clients are drawn to.

Verdict: Squarespace wins for elegant, easy-to-use templates. If you care about visual consistency and fast results, you’ll likely prefer its more curated approach.

Built-In Features for Coaches

Let’s compare how both platforms handle features that matter most to service providers and coaches.

Booking and Scheduling

• Squarespace: Includes Acuity Scheduling, which is owned by Squarespace. It’s deeply integrated and lets clients book sessions, sign contracts, and even pay online—all within your site.

• Wix: Offers Wix Bookings, a decent native tool, but not quite as robust as Acuity for high-volume coaches or those offering different types of sessions.

Email Marketing

• Squarespace: Has a built-in email marketing platform that matches your site’s design. It’s simple and functional—perfect for newsletters and client updates.

• Wix: Also has a built-in email tool (Wix Ascend), but it’s more limited unless you upgrade to a higher plan.

Memberships and Courses

• Squarespace: Includes a Members Area feature, great for coaches offering group programs or downloadable resources.

• Wix: Requires third-party apps (like Wix Members or external platforms) to do the same, which can lead to clunky user flows or added monthly fees.

Want to see how coaches use these tools in action? Check out our Squarespace Website Design for Coaches to see real examples of well-structured, results-driven coaching sites.

Customization and Control

Both platforms let you create unique sites, but the way you customize them is very different.

• Squarespace: Customization is guided—fonts, colors, layouts are controlled by style settings. You can’t place elements anywhere, but you can’t really mess it up either.

• Wix: More advanced customization, more control—but you also have to manage the details (responsive design, spacing, mobile issues).

Verdict: If you want a polished site without the stress, Squarespace gives you just enough control to make it yours. If you’re comfortable with design tools or want pixel-perfect placement, Wix might suit you better.

Pricing Comparison: What Do You Actually Get?

Plan Tier	Squarespace	Wix
Free Plan	❌ Not available	✅ Includes Wix ads, no custom domain
Entry Plan	$16/month (Personal)	$17/month (Combo)
Recommended for Coaches	$23/month (Business) – includes basic e-commerce, code injection, and marketing tools	$29/month (Unlimited) – includes more storage, analytics, and basic marketing
E-Commerce Plan	$27/month (Basic Commerce)	$32/month (Business Basic)
Advanced Plan	$36/month (Advanced Commerce) – for more selling tools, subscriptions, and shipping options	$36/month+ (Business Unlimited / VIP) – includes more marketing tools and custom branding
Booking Tools	✅ Acuity Scheduling included (extra pricing based on usage)	✅ Wix Bookings included in higher plans
Email Marketing	✅ Built-in (starts with basic tier, scalable with upgrades)	✅ Wix Ascend (limited on lower plans, full access with upgrade)
Members Area	✅ Add-on starting at $10/month	✅ Included in select business plans
Apps/Plugins	Minimal need—most tools built-in	Many features require third-party apps

When choosing a website builder, the monthly cost isn’t the only thing that matters. It’s what you get for that price—especially for coaches who need reliable tools to run their business.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace starts at $16/month (Personal plan), but most coaches opt for the Business plan ($23/month) or Commerce plan ($27–$36/month), since these allow full customization, e-commerce, and premium integrations like Acuity Scheduling.

Squarespace also includes:

• SSL certificate

• Built-in analytics

• Email marketing (basic tier included)

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage

• Members Area (additional cost)

Wix Pricing

Wix offers a free plan, which sounds tempting—until you realize it includes Wix-branded ads, limited features, and no custom domain. The real coaching-friendly plans start around $16–$27/month for core features.

However, advanced features (like accepting payments or integrating tools) often require separate paid apps from the Wix App Market, which can add up quickly.

Verdict: Squarespace’s pricing is more predictable, and includes more built-in features coaches actually use. Wix’s free plan is nice for testing, but scaling often costs more in the long run.

SEO: Which Platform Ranks Better?

A beautiful site won’t help your coaching business if no one can find it. That’s where SEO—search engine optimization—comes in. But let’s clear something up: it's not the platform that gets your site to rank, it's the content you create and how well you structure it.

Both Squarespace and Wix offer solid tools to support good SEO practices. The key difference lies in how easy each platform makes it to implement those best practices consistently.

• Squarespace SEO

Squarespace has improved significantly in recent years. It offers:

• Clean HTML markup and structured URLs

• Built-in sitemap and SSL

• SEO-friendly image alt text, headings, and metadata

• Automatic mobile optimization

• Integration with Google Search Console and analytics tools

While some custom SEO settings are limited, most coaches don’t need advanced control. The built-in tools are more than enough to show up on Google if your content is optimized.

Pro tip: Squarespace’s consistent structure makes it easier to follow best practices for content optimization. We even built a free Squarespace SEO checklist for coaches to help you get started.

• Wix SEO

Wix has made huge improvements in recent years, with full control over meta titles, alt text, canonical tags, and custom URLs. Their SEO Wiz is helpful for beginners and walks you through setup.

That said, the flexibility of Wix’s design tools can lead to messy site structures or inconsistent heading usage—both of which can hurt rankings.

Verdict: Tie. Both platforms now offer strong SEO capabilities—but Squarespace keeps your site structure cleaner by default, which makes SEO easier for non-techies.

Blogging and Content Strategy

Blogging is a powerful tool for coaches to drive traffic, show expertise, and connect with potential clients.

• Squarespace Blog Features

Squarespace’s blogging tools are clean and intuitive, especially for minimalist content layouts. You can:

• Add categories, tags, and authors

• Create email campaigns directly from blog posts

• Schedule posts and set excerpts

• Use custom layouts or blog-style sections anywhere on your site

There are limitations (no native commenting system, for example), but for most coaches who post 1–2 times a month, it’s more than enough.

• Wix Blog Features

Wix offers a separate blog editor, which can feel disconnected from the main site. It does support categories, tags, scheduling, and even member-only blog access. But the editor isn’t quite as streamlined as Squarespace, and it lacks the design elegance Squarespace offers out of the box.

Verdict: Squarespace wins for simplicity and design consistency. If your content strategy includes blogging or newsletter-style updates, it’s a smoother experience.

Mobile Responsiveness

Let’s face it—many clients will visit your site from their phone. A poor mobile experience can kill conversions before they even begin.

• Squarespace Mobile Performance

Squarespace templates are fully responsive, and with the Fluid Engine editor, you have control over how your site looks on mobile. You can adjust the layout, hide or show specific sections, and fine-tune spacing just for smaller screens—without affecting the desktop view.

This flexibility means your site doesn’t just look okay on mobile—it looks intentional. Whether clients are viewing your coaching services from a phone or a laptop, the experience stays clear and professional.

• Wix Mobile Experience

Wix offers a separate mobile editor, which gives you more control—but also more work. You may have to manually tweak layouts for mobile devices, especially if you’ve heavily customized the desktop version.

This can lead to design mismatches or inconsistent experiences between devices.

Verdict:
Both platforms offer mobile editing, but they take different approaches. Squarespace lets you adjust the mobile layout within the same editor, keeping things simple and streamlined. Wix separates mobile design into its own editor, which gives you more control but also adds complexity.

Support and Reliability

When something goes wrong—or when you’re just stuck—you need to know help is available.

• Squarespace Support

Squarespace offers 24/7 email support, live chat on weekdays, and a massive help center with tutorials, videos, and forums. Their templates are maintained in-house, so you get consistent, centralized support.

And if you're using a designer-made template, like one from our coaching template collection, you’ll get extra support for layout and setup too.

• Wix Support

Wix has a help center, community forum, and callback support (for premium users). However, since Wix relies heavily on third-party apps and templates, support can vary depending on what tools you’re using.

Verdict: Squarespace’s centralized, streamlined support makes troubleshooting easier—especially for coaches who don’t have time to dig through forums or chase down plugin developers.

App Integrations and Flexibility

Some coaches want a simple site. Others want integrations for email funnels, lead magnets, online courses, and more. How do the platforms stack up?

• Wix Integrations

Wix has an App Market with 250+ tools for everything from chatbots to events to CRM. It’s great if you need specific features, but be prepared for mixed quality and extra subscriptions.

• Squarespace Integrations

Squarespace has fewer third-party apps, but the built-in tools are robust. It also integrates smoothly with top services like Zapier, Mailchimp, Calendly, and Acuity. Less choice, but less noise.

Verdict: Wix wins for breadth of integrations. Squarespace wins for built-in quality and simplicity.

Squarespace vs. Wix for Coaching Websites: Which Platform is Better for Your Business?

Scalability: Can Your Website Grow with Your Business?

As a coach, your needs today might look different in 6 months. Maybe you’ll add group programs, digital downloads, or even an online course. A good website platform should support your growth without needing a total rebuild.

Squarespace Scalability

Squarespace is built with solopreneurs and small businesses in mind. As your coaching business evolves, you can:

• Add Members Area to offer paid content or community access

• Sell digital or physical products through the built-in e-commerce system

• Use Acuity to expand your service offerings (workshops, classes, 1:1s)

• Integrate marketing tools like email campaigns and pop-ups

You’re not stuck with a static brochure site—Squarespace is flexible enough to grow without needing 10 extra plugins or a developer on call.

Wix Scalability

Wix also scales well and includes similar options: memberships, e-commerce, custom forms, and even a built-in CRM. But the catch is that many features rely on third-party apps from the Wix App Market, which can lead to inconsistent user experience or rising costs as you expand.

Verdict: Both can scale—but Squarespace offers a more streamlined experience. If you want simplicity as you grow, Squarespace’s native features are easier to manage.

Real-World Use Cases: Coaching Websites That Work

Let’s break down how each platform performs in real coaching scenarios.

Squarespace in Action

Squarespace is ideal for coaches who want:

• A professional site launched in days, not weeks

• Built-in scheduling, email, and landing pages

• Elegant design that doesn’t need a designer’s touch

• Seamless experience for both clients and site owners

You’ll often see life coaches, wellness professionals, business mentors, and therapists using Squarespace because it helps them focus on what they do best—coaching.

And with the help of purpose-built resources like our coaching website templates, the setup process is even faster and more strategic.

Wix in Action

Wix is better suited for coaches who:

• Want total design control down to the pixel

• Need niche integrations not supported by Squarespace

• Are willing to spend more time customizing their site

• May benefit from features like Wix’s CRM or advanced form logic

Some coaches love that level of customization—but others find it distracts from actually getting their business up and running.

Accessibility, Performance, and Maintenance

• Accessibility

Squarespace templates are more consistently built with accessibility in mind—contrast, heading structure, and responsive design are all cleaner out of the box. Wix can achieve the same standards, but only with more effort and manual adjustments.

• Performance

Site speed matters, especially on mobile. Squarespace’s infrastructure generally leads to faster load times, while Wix’s heavier custom layouts and scripts can sometimes drag performance down.

• Maintenance

Squarespace updates are handled entirely in the background. You don’t need to worry about plugin compatibility or template versioning. Wix, while not overly complex, may require more hands-on upkeep—especially if you're stacking several apps or third-party widgets.

Verdict: Squarespace is more low-maintenance and consistently performs well. Wix requires more user involvement, which may not be ideal if tech isn’t your thing.

Final Verdict: Which Platform Should You Choose?

Feature	Squarespace	Wix
Ease of Use	✅ Beginner-friendly	⚠️ More complex
Templates	✅ Clean, minimal	⚠️ Varied quality
Booking & Scheduling	✅ Built-in (Acuity)	⚠️ Native but less robust
Blogging	✅ Seamless	⚠️ Disconnected editor
Email Marketing	✅ Built-in	⚠️ Limited unless upgraded
SEO	✅ Clean structure	✅ Full control
Mobile Design	✅ Auto-responsive	⚠️ Manual tweaks needed
Customization	⚠️ Guided only	✅ Total freedom
Pricing Simplicity	✅ Transparent	⚠️ Add-on costs
Support	✅ Centralized	⚠️ Varies with apps
Scalability	✅ Strong native tools	✅ Lots of app options
Maintenance	✅ Hands-off	⚠️ Higher upkeep

Our Recommendation for Coaches

If you’re a coach who values clarity, ease, and fast setup—choose Squarespace. It’s the best platform for getting your coaching website online quickly, with built-in tools for scheduling, email marketing, and digital offers—all without needing technical skills or dozens of plugins.

If you’re a design-savvy coach or have a very specific vision that requires total layout control and custom integrations, Wix could be a good fit. But be prepared for a steeper learning curve and ongoing tweaking.

Want to skip the trial and error? Our Squarespace website design service for coaches helps you launch a high-converting, custom coaching site in just 5 days—designed to attract clients and grow your business.

Final Thoughts

Wix and Squarespace both offer powerful tools—but their strengths suit different types of users. For most coaches, especially those just starting or ready to scale with less stress, Squarespace provides a smoother path to a beautiful, functional, and client-ready site.

Now that you know the pros and cons of both platforms, you’re ready to build a site that not only looks good—but works hard for your coaching business.