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Webflow and Squarespace both enable users to create websites without extensive coding knowledge, but there are significant differences between these two popular website builders.
Webflow vs. Squarespace: An Overview
Together, Webflow and Squarespace have revolutionized how websites are created, making web design accessible to designers, business owners, and content creators without requiring extensive development expertise.
Webflow and Squarespace work by providing visual interfaces that allow users to build and manage websites without writing code. This enables individuals and businesses to establish an online presence without hiring a team of developers. If you're looking to create a website, both platforms offer the tools to design, publish, and maintain your site with varying degrees of creative control and technical complexity.
But while these website builders share some fundamental capabilities, they differ in important ways that can affect your workflow, design possibilities, and final product. Webflow typically offers more design flexibility and control, catering to designers and professionals seeking customization. Meanwhile, Squarespace has established itself as a user-friendly platform with beautiful templates, ideal for those who prioritize simplicity and speed over extensive customization.
Understanding these differences is crucial for making smart platform choices that align with your website goals, technical skills, and long-term needs.
Key Takeaways
- Webflow provides greater design flexibility and control, while Squarespace offers an easier, more streamlined experience with beautiful templates.
- Webflow has a steeper learning curve but allows for more custom design and functionality, making it ideal for designers and developers.
- Squarespace excels in user-friendliness and quick setup, making it perfect for beginners and those with straightforward website needs.
- Both platforms offer e-commerce capabilities, but with different approaches to store setup and management.
- The choice between platforms depends on your design needs, technical abilities, and the complexity of the website you're building.
Webflow
As its name suggests, Webflow emphasizes the flow of web design, offering a visual development environment that gives users granular control over website elements. Most designers leverage Webflow's visual editor to build custom websites with sophisticated interactions and responsive designs. So, if you use Webflow to create a business website or online portfolio, when you design in the editor, you're essentially building with visual tools that generate clean, production-ready code behind the scenes.
Much of the value of Webflow is in its design flexibility and CMS capabilities:
Visual development provides unprecedented control over design elements and website structure, with options that appeal especially to designers and creative professionals. Because users can create complex interactions and animations visually, the process becomes more accessible than traditional coding while still offering professional results.
Note: Webflow's pricing structure includes both site plans (for hosting) and account plans (for design capabilities), requiring users to understand both aspects when calculating total costs.
Squarespace
Squarespace, founded as a blog hosting service that has evolved into a comprehensive website builder, works differently from Webflow. Unlike Webflow's focus on design flexibility, Squarespace operates around a template-based system where content management takes center stage. The price you pay covers both hosting and access to the platform's features, with different tiers offering varying capabilities.
Many Squarespace sites use the platform's professionally designed templates, trying to maintain a polished aesthetic while customizing content to their needs. This approach typically makes Squarespace more accessible to beginners but potentially more limiting for those seeking unique designs.
Some Squarespace projects also leverage third-party extensions—expanding functionality beyond the core platform—so additional tools can enhance what's possible. That said, Squarespace is generally meant for straightforward website projects, so its features are designed to be comprehensive yet easy to implement.
The first Squarespace version focused primarily on blogging, but most users now create various types of websites. Modern sites use Squarespace's e-commerce tools, booking features, and member areas to build full-featured business websites. However, most websites built with Squarespace maintain the platform's signature clean and professional aesthetic because the template system, while customizable, encourages consistency with established design principles.
E-commerce Capabilities
Both platforms offer e-commerce solutions, though they approach online selling differently. Webflow E-commerce provides deeper customization of the shopping experience, allowing designers to craft unique product pages and checkout flows. As your store grows, Webflow gives you control over every aspect of the customer journey.
Think of Webflow's e-commerce as a custom boutique where every detail of the shopping experience can be tailored to your brand. When customers interact with your products, the platform allows you to create distinctive presentations while handling the technical aspects of transactions.
Squarespace, on the other hand, offers a more streamlined approach to e-commerce with its built-in tools. The platform includes everything needed for a typical online store, from inventory management to secure checkout processes, all within its user-friendly interface.
Most online store owners who use Squarespace appreciate the simplicity—typically setting up their stores with minimal configuration, choosing from available payment processors, and using the platform's built-in marketing tools to promote their products.
$335 million Webflow has raised approximately $335 million in funding as of 2022, highlighting its growth in the website building space.
Key Differences Between Webflow and Squarespace
Webflow and Squarespace are both popular website building platforms offering ways to create online presences. However, they differ in several key aspects, including design flexibility, ease of use, customization options, and target users.
Key Differences Between Webflow and Squarespace
Webflow
- Design approach: Visual development with granular control
- Learning curve: Moderate to steep, requires time to master
- Customization: Extensive design flexibility and control
- Target audience: Designers, agencies, and tech-savvy users
- CMS capabilities: Powerful, customizable content management
Squarespace
- Design approach: Template-based with style customization
- Learning curve: Gentle, designed for beginners
- Customization: Limited to template parameters and style options
- Target audience: Small businesses, creatives, and beginners
- CMS capabilities: Straightforward content management
Design approach: Webflow uses a visual development environment where you have granular control over HTML, CSS, and JavaScript visually, allowing for unique designs and interactions. Meanwhile, Squarespace relies on professionally designed templates that users customize through style editors and content blocks, providing structure and guardrails.
Learning curve: Generally, Webflow has a moderate to steep learning curve, requiring time to understand its interface and capabilities fully. Conversely, Squarespace is designed to be learned quickly, with intuitive controls and guided setup processes that make it accessible to beginners.
Customization: Webflow offers extensive design flexibility, allowing users to create completely custom layouts, interactions, and functionality without template constraints. However, Squarespace provides more limited customization within the parameters of chosen templates, focusing on content and style adjustments rather than structural changes.
Target audience: Typically, Webflow appeals to designers, agencies, and tech-savvy users who need creative control and are willing to invest time in learning the platform. Meanwhile, Squarespace targets small businesses, creatives, and beginners who prioritize ease of use and quick setup over extensive customization.
CMS capabilities: Webflow features a powerful content management system that allows for complex content structures and relationships, giving users control over how content is organized and displayed. Conversely, Squarespace offers more straightforward content management, focusing on ease of use for blog posts, products, and basic content types.
In 2025, Webflow expanded its Logic features, allowing users to create more complex website functionality without coding, further cementing its position as a powerful tool for creating sophisticated websites.
Key Similarities Between Webflow and Squarespace
Nevertheless, Webflow and Squarespace share several similarities, particularly in their purpose and core functionality. Both are designed to help users create professional websites without coding knowledge. Some similarities include the following:
Similarities Between Webflow and Squarespace
- Core Purpose: Both Webflow and Squarespace enable users to create professional websites without writing code, making web design accessible to non-developers.
- Hosting: Both platforms include website hosting with their plans, eliminating the need to set up separate hosting services.
- Responsive Design: Both Webflow and Squarespace create responsive websites that adapt to different screen sizes and devices, essential for modern web design.
- E-commerce: The two platforms provide e-commerce functionality, allowing users to set up online stores and sell products or services.
- SEO Tools: Both offer built-in SEO features to help websites rank better in search engines, including meta descriptions, alt tags, and customizable URLs.
- Customer Support: Both platforms provide customer support and educational resources to help users make the most of their tools.
Since ease of use is important to many website creators, here's a specific comparison of the user experience between these platforms.
When Should You Choose Webflow?
For designers and agencies seeking maximum creative control, Webflow offers unparalleled flexibility and customization. Professional designers will generally appreciate Webflow's ability to create unique layouts, animations, and interactions that stand out from template-based websites.
When Should You Choose Squarespace?
Unless individuals need extensive customization or complex functionality, Squarespace offers a more user-friendly approach that allows for quick and beautiful website creation. Small business owners and creative professionals appreciate Squarespace's ability to produce professional results with minimal time investment.
What About SEO Performance?
Both platforms provide tools for SEO optimization, though they approach it differently. Webflow offers more control over technical SEO factors like code structure and meta tags, while Squarespace handles many SEO basics automatically, making optimization more accessible to beginners.
The Bottom Line
Webflow and Squarespace have proven to be valuable tools for modern website creation, each with distinct strengths. Webflow typically appeals to designers and agencies who need creative control and are willing to invest time in learning a more complex platform. Webflow's flexibility makes it particularly attractive for unique projects that require custom functionality and design.
Squarespace, especially with its beautiful templates and intuitive interface, offers an excellent solution for individuals and small businesses seeking a professional online presence without a steep learning curve. While it provides less customization than Webflow, Squarespace's streamlined approach enables users to create polished websites quickly and efficiently. The choice between the two often comes down to your design priorities, technical capabilities, time constraints, and the specific requirements of your website project.