You can build a decent site almost anywhere now. The gap is in control, speed, and living with your choice a year from today. Here’s the state of play, short and blunt, a few bent commas on purpose.
Wix Studio
For agencies and freelancers, Wix Studio is finally a grown-up tool, clean handoff, decent dev hooks, constant updates. The old Forms app is being retired, the newer one is the path forward which tells you they’re pruning and tightening the stack. Pricing’s wide, templates everywhere, and it doesn’t freak out when clients edit.
Squarespace 7.1 (Fluid Engine)
Squarespace’s grid editor is the best it’s ever been, real layout control on desktop and mobile, fewer guardrails without the mess. Also, the company went private under Permira, which usually means faster shipping and harder opinions about commerce features, we’ll see. For now, it’s stable, polished, easy to hand to non-technical teams.
Webflow
Design fidelity and CMS depth, that’s the draw. In 2025 they rolled out native localization so global sites stop feeling like plug-in soup. One big caveat, Logic is being sunset in 2025 and User Accounts in early 2026, so if you want native automations or gated content, plan an integration layer or a third-party account system now. Power with strings, but still power.
Framer
Speed to “it looks good,” wild. On-page editing and steady UX updates make collaboration painless, and the template marketplace now has real store options, though the CMS is still best for simpler structures. If your site is mostly marketing and you like shipping fast, it sings.
WordPress (hosted or self-hosted)
The site editor keeps maturing, with Zoom Out mode and better data views that make pattern-first building less of a puzzle. It’s still the portability king and the plugin universe is, well, the universe, just mind your hosting and performance discipline.
Shopify (for stores first, websites second)
If revenue is the point, Shopify stays the default. Summer ’25 shipped a truckload of upgrades across checkout, Hydrogen, and UI components, which means nicer dev ergonomics and smoother storefronts. As a general website builder it’s fine, as a sales machine it’s home.
Quick picks
- Best all-around for small biz: Wix Studio. It balances control, cost, and client-proof editing.
- Best for design precision and complex content: Webflow, with a note to plan around the Logic and Accounts deprecations.
- Best for one-person editorial sites: Squarespace 7.1, Fluid Engine feels natural, publishing stays calm.
- Best for fast marketing sites: Framer, especially when “good today” beats “perfect next month.”
- Best for serious ecommerce: Shopify, still.
2026, what’s coming
- Memberships and automations shift in Webflow. User Accounts are officially sunset January 29, 2026, so ecosystems and auth providers step in, expect stronger “connect anything” stories, fewer native do-it-alls. Plan migrations now, not later.
- Squarespace under private ownership. After the 2024 take-private, watch for tighter commerce stacks, more native merchandising, probably faster iteration. That’s an inference, the funding structure often pushes there.
- Wix trims and consolidates. They’re already deprecating legacy apps in 2025; in 2026 expect more house-cleaning and deeper Studio workflows rather than scattershot features.
- Framer doubles down on editing flow. The cadence of updates suggests more live-site controls and CMS smoothing, not a pivot to heavy enterprise content. Watch the update log, it’s steady.
- Stores keep eating websites. Shopify’s editions rhythm points to faster storefront performance and richer components, so brochure sites with carts keep moving there when revenue matters.
How to choose, today
Sketch the site’s real job. If it’s selling, start at Shopify. If it’s brand plus complex content, Webflow. If it’s clean marketing pages at pace, Framer. If it’s general business with team handoff, Wix Studio. If you want broad portability, WordPress. Then test two, live for a week in each, ship a page, feel the friction. Tools are promises, workflows are truth.
