This question comes up at the very beginning, and it is usually answered under time pressure. Someone needs a website, sees an advert, clicks on a site builder and has something visible after a weekend.
That is not a bad route. I do not advise against it on principle, and I earn nothing from this decision — my clients come along later anyway, once the site runs into its limits.
But that is exactly the point here: when does a site builder run into its limits, and when does it not?
The short answer
Wix or Squarespace, if you need a manageable presentation site, want to build it yourself without help, and do not expect it to have to do substantially more in the coming years.
WordPress with Elementor, if it is foreseeable that a shop, several languages, bookings or a membership area will be added — or if you want to work with a service provider in your region.
The difference is not the handling
This surprises many people. Elementor is no longer substantially harder to operate than Wix. Both work in the front end, both show you what you are building, both need no technical background.
The difference lies elsewhere:
With Wix and Squarespace you rent a finished environment. Everything is set up — and everything ends where the vendor drew the line.
With WordPress you operate software that belongs to you. Everything is possible — and everything has to be set up first.
That is the whole trade: convenience against freedom of action.
At a glance
| WordPress + Elementor | Wix | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup effort | moderate | very low | low |
| Hosting | freely selectable | included | included |
| Running costs | hosting plus Elementor Pro | monthly plan | monthly plan |
| Design | very free | free, but within a frame | tightly guided, very attractive |
| Shop | WooCommerce, very powerful | built in, solid | built in, solid |
| Multilingual | mature (TranslatePress, WPML, Polylang) | limited | limited |
| Extensible | over 50,000 plugins | app market, limited | very limited |
| Data sovereignty | complete | with the vendor | with the vendor |
| Migration possible | yes, entirely | practically no | practically no |
| Help in German-speaking markets | everywhere | the vendor's support | the vendor's support |
Where the site builders score
The start really is faster. You register, choose a template, swap text and images — and the site is online. No hosting, no domain setup, no plugin selection. That is a real advantage, especially when time is short.
You do not have to look after anything. Updates, security, backups, certificates — all the vendor's business. That is the point WordPress advocates like to play down, and it is important. A neglected WordPress site is a security risk. A neglected Wix site is simply an old site.
Squarespace looks good out of the box. Its templates are stricter in design terms and therefore more successful than what many people put together in free systems. Anyone without a feel for typography and white space gets a better result from Squarespace than from complete freedom.
One price, everything included. No separate items for hosting, licence, backup.
Where WordPress with Elementor scores
It grows with you. That is the main argument, and it is usually decided two to three years after the start. A shop? WooCommerce. Bookings? There are a dozen good solutions. Multilingual? Mature, see WordPress multilingual. Membership area, courses, invoicing integration, an interface to your inventory system — all available.
With the site builders these routes end early or lead through expensive additional services.
You can move. A WordPress site can be exported as a whole and taken to another provider. From Wix you essentially get your text and images out, not your website. That is the dependency you do not feel at the start and pay for in full when you switch.
Data sovereignty and GDPR. You choose the server — including one in Austria or Germany. You know where form data sits. With the site builders that is a matter of data processing with a foreign vendor.
You will find help locally. If in two years you need someone to take over or extend the site, for WordPress there is somebody in every region. With the site builders you depend on the vendor's support.
Elementor Pro: Theme Builder, forms and popups — the building blocks a site builder brings as a matter of course — sit in Elementor's Pro licence. That puts WordPress on a par for everyday work. View Elementor Pro
The cost question, honestly calculated
Site builders look cheap because you see one monthly figure. Work it out over five years, and work out the tier you actually need — the cheapest one is practically never enough once your own domain, a shop or more storage comes into play.
Against that, WordPress puts up hosting, a domain, Elementor Pro and — the most honest item — your time or the fee for maintenance.
My experience after many such calculations: for a small presentation site with no need to expand, there is little between the two over five years. As soon as a shop is added, WordPress is considerably cheaper. And if the site ever has to move, the calculation tips for good — because moving out of a site builder is a rebuild.
The full breakdown for WordPress is in WordPress costs 2026.
The point where it tips
I see three triggers that bring people from a site builder to WordPress:
- A shop is to be added. The built-in shops are enough for twenty products. At two hundred, with variants and Austrian legal texts, it gets tight.
- The site is to become multilingual. Here the site builders hit their limits early, and WordPress has several mature solutions.
- Somebody else is to take over. As soon as an agency or service provider comes into play, the choice of platform becomes an issue — most of them work with WordPress.
If one of these three points is foreseeable for you, save yourself the detour.
My recommendation by situation
Wix, if you need a site quickly and without help, want to work freely in design terms, and do not want to look after anything.
Squarespace, if a good appearance matters more to you than design freedom — the templates are consistently good and forgive a lack of design instinct.
WordPress with Elementor, if the site is meant to grow, if a shop, several languages or bookings are foreseeable, if data sovereignty matters to you, or if somebody else will be working on it at some point.
No site builder and no page builder, if your site consists almost entirely of text. Then WordPress with the block editor is enough and you save yourself the Elementor licence — see Block editor versus page builder.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wix bad for SEO?
That was a fair criticism years ago and is no longer. Wix sites can rank. You still have the finer tools and the greater freedom over structure and loading time in WordPress.
Can I move from Wix to WordPress?
Text and images yes, the website no. Expect a rebuild. That is exactly why it is worth asking the question thoroughly at the start.
Is WordPress not insecure?
WordPress is as secure as it is maintained. Current updates, good hosting and a security plugin are enough for the vast majority of sites — see Wordfence vs. Sucuri vs. Solid Security. Anyone unwilling to do any of that is honestly better off with a site builder.
What about Webflow?
That is the third variant — more demanding than Wix, freer than Squarespace, but with the same dependency. See: Elementor vs. Webflow.
In closing
A site builder is not a wrong decision. It is a decision with an expiry date you do not know at the start.
If you are certain your website will be doing the same thing in five years as it does today, take the convenient route. If you cannot say that with certainty — and most people cannot — WordPress is the route that leaves the answer open.
Further comparisons: Elementor vs. Webflow, WooCommerce vs. Shopify and the overview of page builder comparisons. If you are at the beginning and would like to talk the decision through calmly: Elementor training.
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