Wix vs Squarespace for Canadian businesses in 2026

We checked both pricing pages from Ottawa on October 14, 2026, and read each company’s help centre for the details below. All prices are in Canadian dollars.

Wix and Squarespace at a glance

Prices in Canadian dollars

Both builders show Canadian prices to visitors in Canada. Prices are per month and do not include tax.

Wix shows only yearly prices on its plans page. The monthly price appears at checkout. On October 14, Wix also showed 50% off the first year of Core, Business and Business Elite. That sale covers the first year only, so budget for the full price when the plan renews.

Every Squarespace plan has unlimited storage, apart from limits on video. Its pricing page shows both yearly and monthly prices.

For most small business sites, the real comparison is Wix Core at CA$33 against Squarespace Core at CA$32. That is about CA$400 a year before tax.

Fees when you take payments in Canada

The plan price is only part of the cost of selling online. Card processing is charged on every sale.

• Wix Payments. 2.9% plus CA$0.30 per card sale, or 3.5% plus CA$0.30 for American Express. In person, a card costs 2.7% and an Interac debit costs CA$0.15. Cards from outside Canada add 1%.
• Squarespace Payments. 2.9% plus CA$0.30 per sale on Basic and Core, 2.7% on Plus and 2.5% on Advanced. Cards from outside Canada add 0.7%.

Squarespace Basic also takes 2% of each store sale. On CA$2,000 of sales a month, that is CA$40, more than the CA$11 a month it costs to move up to Core. Wix lists no fee of its own on store sales, but it takes 4% on Core and 2% on Business when you sell memberships or subscriptions.

Squarespace Payments works in Canada with a Canadian bank account, in CAD. Wix also works with other providers in Canada, such as Stripe, PayPal, Square and Moneris.

Online booking for service businesses

Clinics, salons, tutors and consultants usually need clients to book online.

• Wix. Wix Bookings is included from the Core plan. It handles services, classes, staff calendars and online payments.
• Squarespace. Booking runs on Acuity Scheduling, which Squarespace owns but bills separately. It costs CA$22, CA$36 or CA$66 a month paid yearly, depending on how many calendars you need.

The cheapest way to take bookings is Wix Core at CA$33 a month. On Squarespace, Basic plus the cheapest Acuity plan comes to CA$43 a month.

French and English sites

Many businesses in Ottawa, Gatineau and Quebec need a site in both official languages.

• Wix. Wix Multilingual is built in. You can translate pages yourself, or use automatic translation. Wix gives 3,000 words of automatic translation for free, then sells more in packs.
• Squarespace. The built-in option is Weglot, on Squarespace 7.1 sites only. It is free for one extra language up to 2,000 words. A site with more text needs a paid Weglot plan, or the translations stop showing. Weglot does not translate email campaigns, Acuity Scheduling or member areas.

A 10-page business site can pass 2,000 words quickly. For a full French and English site, Wix costs less and keeps everything in one account.

Sales tax, GST and HST

Tax affects you twice, once on your plan and once on your own sales.

On your plan, both companies add Canadian sales tax for Canadian customers. A business registered for GST/HST can add its number to the account and may be exempt on Wix or on Squarespace. Wix notes that BC PST still applies.

On your own sales, a store must charge the right tax for each province it ships to.

• Wix. Automatic tax is on the Business and Business Elite plans. By default, it collects only the 5% GST until you add the provinces where you also collect PST or HST.
• Squarespace. Automatic tax is on the Core, Plus and Advanced plans, for a fee of 0.05% to 0.15% of each order, up to CA$1.49. Squarespace says it covers over 100 countries, but its help pages do not say how it handles PST, HST or QST, so run a test order for each province you ship to. On Basic, you set tax rates by hand, province by province.

.ca domains

Both builders include a free domain for the first year on yearly plans, and neither one covers a .ca. You can still buy a .ca through Wix or through Squarespace, or connect one you already own. A .ca requires a Canadian presence, such as a Canadian business or residence.

Selling products from Canada

Both builders can run a small online store. Two details matter for a Canadian shop.

• Shipping labels. Squarespace’s built-in labels work only for orders shipped within the United States. Wix offers shipping labels to Canadian merchants.
• Selling in person. Squarespace’s point of sale works only in the US and the UK. Wix lists in-person card and Interac rates for Canada.

If you plan to sell hundreds of products, compare Shopify too. Our e-commerce website design page explains when we suggest it.

Speed on phones

Google measures how fast real pages load and respond for real visitors. It calls these measures the Core Web Vitals. The HTTP Archive technology report tracks how many sites on each platform pass them.

In September 2026, 80.9% of Wix sites passed on phones, compared with 71.0% of Squarespace sites. Your own site’s speed still depends on its images, videos and apps.

Design and editing

Wix lets you drag any element to any spot on a page. That gives you more control, and it also makes it easier to end up with a page that looks off on a phone. Squarespace builds pages from sections laid out on a grid, which keeps the layout tidy and gives you fewer choices.

Choose your starting design with care on either one. Wix cannot switch a live site to another template. On Squarespace 7.1, you change the look through site styles instead of a new template.

For accessibility, Wix has an Accessibility Wizard that checks your pages. Squarespace has the basic tools, such as alt text for images, but no built-in checker. Some organizations in Ontario must meet a legal standard. Our AODA website compliance guide explains who.

SEO tools

Both builders cover the basics Google needs.

• A custom title, description and web address for each page.
• 301 redirects, so old links keep working. Wix redirects need a custom domain. Squarespace uses URL mappings.
• An automatic sitemap.
• Structured data. Wix lets you add your own. Squarespace adds some for you, which you cannot edit.

Neither one will rank a site by itself. Rankings come from useful pages, a complete Google Business Profile and reviews.

Moving away later

This difference is easy to miss. A Wix site must stay on Wix’s servers. If you leave, you rebuild every page somewhere else.

Squarespace can export part of your site as a WordPress file. The export includes regular pages, one blog and its images. It leaves out store pages, products, videos and your design.

Trials and refunds

• Wix. A free plan with Wix ads, and a 14-day money-back guarantee on new paid plans.
• Squarespace. A 14-day free trial with no credit card. A yearly plan gets a full refund if you cancel within 14 days.

When to hire a web designer instead

A builder is a good choice when the budget is small, the site is simple and you enjoy doing it yourself. Building it yourself takes real time. dotCanada estimates 20 to 60 hours for a first do-it-yourself site built with a WordPress theme and page builder, and every update adds more.

A web designer makes more sense when:

• You want the site done without spending your evenings on it.
• You need a feature the builder cannot do, or a booking or quote form that fits how you work.
• You want to own the site and be free to move it.
• You need pages planned around what people search for in your area.

A builder plan costs about CA$400 a year, every year. A starter site from us costs from $1,000 once, and a site built as a static site is hosted for free. You can also pay $100 a month with nothing upfront. Our guide to what a website costs in Canada compares every option.