Best Squarespace Alternatives in 2026: Website Builders and CMS Options Beyond Wix and Webflow

The best Squarespace alternatives depend on whether you need a simple builder or designer-grade control. Wix suits small businesses that want a flexible drag-and-drop editor, Webflow suits designers who want full visual control and a built-in CMS, and WordPress is the open-source choice for anyone who wants to own their site.

Squarespace, Wix and Webflow are each other's closest rivals, so this guide covers Wix alternatives and Webflow alternatives too, and lists all three as options. Ten picks mix hosted builders with open-source CMSs, and the guide says who needs a designer-grade tool and who is better off with a simple one.

Why people look for Squarespace, Wix and Webflow alternatives

Squarespace is a hosted website builder with templates, an AI builder and built-in ecommerce, scheduling and email tools. The reasons to compare it with other builders are usually these:

• Hosted only, closed source. Squarespace, Wix and Webflow run on the vendor's platform, and none can be self-hosted. Your site lives on their service for as long as you pay for it.
• Pricing structure. Squarespace has no free plan, only a free trial, while Wix and Webflow both list free options and paid tiers. Webflow separates workspace plans from hosting plans for published sites, so read both on its pricing page.
• Design control. Webflow's listing points to designers building responsive layouts and interactions visually, with marketing sites, agency work and content teams as typical uses. Template-first builders suit people who want a good-looking site without designing one.
• Content and publishing needs. A blog, a newsletter or paid memberships may fit better on a publishing platform such as Ghost or WordPress than on a general site builder.
• Ownership and portability. Open-source options such as WordPress, Webstudio and Microweber let you host and modify the code yourself.
• Stores and bookings. Builders bundle ecommerce and scheduling to different degrees, and a store-first business may want a dedicated platform. Enlisted's guide to Shopify alternatives covers that route.

How we picked

Enlisted looks for tools that do the same core job as Squarespace: publishing a website without writing everything by hand. Open-source projects are screened by licence, by whether they can be self-hosted and by recent activity in their GitHub repository. Pricing for hosted products is taken from the model each vendor publishes. That means no claims about how pleasant an editor feels, because that would require building a site in each tool. For the method, see how Enlisted ranks tools.

Simple builder or designer-grade tool?

This is the choice that sorts the list, more than any feature checklist.

• Template-led builders such as Squarespace, Wix and Carrd start from templates or an editor and aim at people who are not designers: portfolios, small business sites, landing pages.
• Designer-grade visual tools such as Webflow, Framer and Webstudio give designers control over layout, interactions and structure without hand-coding. They fit agencies, in-house designers and marketing teams.
• CMS and publishing platforms such as WordPress and Ghost put content first and are extended with themes, plugins or APIs.
• Self-hosted all-in-one builders such as Microweber give you a Wix-style editor on your own server.

If the person editing the site every week is not a designer, weigh a template-led builder heavily, even if a designer-grade tool looks more capable.

1. Squarespace: best template-led builder for portfolios and small business sites

Squarespace is a website builder and hosting service where you start from customizable templates or an AI website builder, add a domain and publish portfolios, blogs and online stores. Beyond the site, the product line covers ecommerce, analytics, invoicing, scheduling, memberships, donations, email and SMS campaigns, SEO tools and business email.

Its solutions are grouped by profession, such as creative services, professional services, beauty, fitness, events and nonprofits, which makes it easy to see a ready-made fit. It is both the page's starting point and a legitimate alternative to Wix and Webflow for people who want a polished result with little setup. There is no free plan, but there is a free trial. See the Squarespace alternatives page for the wider list.

• Best for: creatives and small businesses that want design-led templates plus scheduling, email and a store under one subscription.
• Watch out for: it is closed source and hosted only, and designers who need custom interactions or a structured CMS may outgrow its templates.

2. Wix: best flexible drag-and-drop builder with a free plan

Wix is a hosted website builder with a drag-and-drop editor, a large template library and built-in AI tools for site creation. The vendor advertises that you can start building for free and connect a custom domain, and hosting is handled by Wix.

It has a free plan with hosting and the editor, plus paid Light, Core, Business and Business Elite plans sold on yearly terms. It is commonly used for small business sites and simple online stores, which puts it in direct competition with Squarespace. For leaving Wix, see Wix alternatives.

• Best for: small businesses and first-time site owners who want a free plan to start and an editor they can place elements in freely.
• Watch out for: it is closed source and hosted only, and the free plan has limits, so check what it includes before you build on it. See the Wix plans page.

3. Webflow: best designer-grade visual builder with a built-in CMS

Webflow is a visual design and hosting platform that combines a designer, CMS, hosting and SEO tools, so teams can build and run websites without coding by hand. Designers create responsive layouts and interactions visually, and the same platform manages content and hosts the finished site.

The product also covers localization, collaboration, Figma to Webflow, DevLink, Webflow Cloud and an MCP server, and its listing points to marketing sites, agency client work and content teams. It is the strongest match on this list for people who currently find Squarespace or Wix too constrained. For people moving away from it, see Webflow alternatives.

• Best for: designers, agencies and marketing teams building custom marketing sites with a visual CMS.
• Watch out for: it is closed source and hosted only, costs are split between workspace and site plans, and a small business owner who just wants a template may find it more tool than they need.

4. Framer: best for designers publishing sites from a visual canvas

Framer is a hosted design and website-building tool that works on a visual canvas and publishes finished pages as live websites. It spans design, content management and hosting, so a team can go from an idea to a launched site in one product.

The product centers on a design agent that works directly on the canvas, and sites include hosting, security, analytics, a CMS and SEO tools. Developers can extend the platform with plugins, code components, overrides and a server API. There is a free plan for non-commercial use and paid plans above it.

• Best for: designers and startups publishing portfolio, marketing and landing pages from a design-first tool.
• Watch out for: it is closed source and hosted only, and the free plan is for non-commercial use, so a business site needs a paid plan.

5. WordPress: best open-source CMS for owning your site

WordPress is an open-source content management system and publishing platform for building websites, blogs and apps that you run on your own PHP hosting. You write and organize content in a browser-based, block-based editor, pick a design with themes and extend the site with a large library of plugins for stores, analytics, newsletters and more.

The software is free and open source, and the costs come from hosting and any paid themes or plugins you choose. GitHub lists the licence as "Other". It is the standard open-source answer for owning your site, and its listing points to a large library of plugins.

• Best for: content-led sites, blogs and business sites where ownership and extensibility matter more than a one-subscription convenience.
• Watch out for: self-hosting means you handle hosting, updates, backups and security, and the choice of plugins affects how much maintenance you take on. If you want WordPress without the server work, the next pick is a hosted version.

6. WordPress.com: best hosted WordPress without the server work

WordPress.com is Automattic's hosted WordPress platform, where you create and run WordPress sites without handling servers, updates or security yourself. It includes managed hosting with site recovery and developer tools, an ecommerce option, an AI website builder, themes, plugins, block patterns, newsletters, domains and professional email.

There is a free plan with no expiry alongside paid tiers, and a migration service helps move existing sites over. For agencies and enterprises, it also offers dedicated hosting options such as WordPress VIP. The platform is a hosted service even though the WordPress software itself is open source.

• Best for: people who want WordPress's themes and plugins without maintaining a server.
• Watch out for: it is a hosted service rather than self-hosted software, and plan tiers decide which features you get, so check which plan covers ecommerce and the plugins you need on its pricing page.

7. Webstudio: best open-source Webflow alternative

Webstudio is an open-source visual development platform presented as an alternative to Webflow. It is a visual builder that connects to any headless CMS and supports all CSS properties, and you own the data, components and infrastructure.

You can use the hosted version or deploy your own instance, and the project is built on React and Remix. The core is AGPL-3.0-or-later, and an optional animation package is proprietary, which matters if you rely on it.

• Best for: designers and developers who want Webflow-style visual building with open code and a headless CMS behind it.
• Watch out for: it is built around connecting to a headless CMS, so check how content editing will work for non-technical editors before committing.

8. Ghost: best open-source platform for newsletters, memberships and publishing

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform for independent writers and media businesses that handles blogging, newsletters, memberships and paid subscriptions in one product. A creator can publish articles, email them to subscribers and charge for access without stitching tools together.

It is MIT licensed and written in JavaScript and TypeScript on Node.js. You can run it yourself with its CLI installer, or use the Ghost(Pro) managed service, which handles CDN, backups, security and maintenance.

• Best for: creators and publications whose site is mainly a blog, newsletter or membership business.
• Watch out for: its focus is publishing, so a brochure site with scheduling, a store or heavy page layouts belongs on one of the general builders.

9. Carrd: best for simple one-page sites

Carrd is a hosted builder for one-page websites, aimed at personal profiles, landing pages that capture emails and other simple sites. You start from a template or an empty page, and every site is responsive by default.

The free tier has a small limit on the number of sites. A Pro tier adds custom domains with SSL, more sites, forms for contact, newsletter signup and payments, third-party embeds, analytics integrations and removal of Carrd branding. For a profile or link page, that may be all you need.

• Best for: personal pages, link pages and single-purpose landing pages.
• Watch out for: it is built for one-page sites, so a multi-page business site, blog or store should use another tool.

10. Microweber: best open-source drag-and-drop builder you host yourself

Microweber combines a drag-and-drop page builder with a content management system on the PHP Laravel framework. It aims to let people create websites, online stores and blogs without technical skills, while giving developers a modern codebase to extend.

A shopping cart and content management features sit alongside the visual editor, with modules and customizations on top. It is free and open source under the MIT licence, which makes it the nearest thing here to a Wix-style editor on your own server.

• Best for: small businesses and agencies that want a drag-and-drop editor with ecommerce on a server they control.
• Watch out for: you manage hosting, security and backups yourself, and as a PHP and Laravel application it needs a server that meets its requirements.

Which Squarespace alternative should you choose?

Small businesses without a designer can start with Squarespace, Wix or WordPress. Designers and agencies should compare Webflow, Framer and Webstudio, and publishers should look at Ghost and WordPress. See the CMS category for more options.

Wix alternatives and Webflow alternatives at a glance

Many searchers start from a different product, so here is a short map:

• Leaving Wix for more design control: Webflow, Framer or Webstudio. For a more polished template look: Squarespace. For ownership: WordPress or Microweber. See Wix alternatives.
• Leaving Webflow because you want open code: Webstudio, or Silex and Instatic below. Because you only need a simpler site: Squarespace, Wix or Carrd. See Webflow alternatives.
• Leaving Squarespace for a free start: Wix, Carrd, Framer for non-commercial work, or WordPress on your own hosting. For publishing: Ghost or WordPress.

More builders and CMS options

Further builders and CMSs, by job:

• Silex: a free, open-source visual builder that exports clean static HTML and CSS, positioned as a libre Webflow alternative.
• Instatic: a self-hosted visual CMS and site builder that outputs static HTML and CSS.
• Halo: an open-source website builder in Java for blogs, knowledge bases, company sites and stores.
• Craft CMS: a PHP content management system with flexible content modeling, a GraphQL API and optional ecommerce.
• Strapi, Payload and Wagtail: open-source CMS options aimed at developer teams that build custom front ends.
• Hugo: an open-source static site generator for blogs and documentation.
• Jimdo, Strikingly, Tilda, Weebly, GoDaddy Website Builder and Hostinger Website Builder: hosted builders for small business and one-page sites.

What to check before you move a website

Rebuilding a site on a new platform is mostly about not losing what already works:

• URLs and redirects. List your current pages and plan redirects, so search traffic and links keep working.
• Domain and email. Check where the domain is registered, where DNS is managed and whether business email is tied to the old platform.
• Content export. See what the old platform lets you export and what you will have to move by hand.
• Forms, bookings and stores. Rebuild contact forms, scheduling and checkout on the new tool and test them before you switch the domain.
• Email campaigns and analytics. If these live inside the old builder, find replacements. Enlisted's guides to Mailchimp alternatives and Google Analytics alternatives cover two common ones.
• Who edits the site. Pick the tool the person doing weekly updates will actually use.