WordPress.org lets you choose your own host, install plugins and manage URLs yourself. Wix, Squarespace and Shopify host the site for you and set more limits in return. All four support page titles and sitemaps. They differ on redirects, structured data, robots.txt and what you can export if you leave.
By Donnie Strompf. Updated October 2026.
I’m Donnie Strompf and I’ve done SEO since 2008. This page compares what each vendor’s own help pages and Google Search Central say, and it picks no winner on agency preference. Each fact carries the date shown on its page, or says the page shows none, plus the day it was read. Plans change, so check the vendor’s page before you buy.
Key takeaways
- WordPress.org is free software that you install at a host you choose. The others are hosted by the vendor.
- Google’s help pages say a CMS can generate page titles and is likely to provide a sitemap. They do not say any platform ranks higher.
- Redirect rules vary by platform. Before a rebuild, ask how every changed address will be redirected.
- Wix says its sites must run on Wix’s servers. The others export some content, and every export leaves something behind.
- Check the plan before buying. WordPress.com’s Free plan has no plugins, and Wix needs a paid plan for a custom domain.
What are you choosing between?
“WordPress” names two products. WordPress.org is open source software licensed under the GPL (WordPress.org, About, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). WordPress.com sells managed hosting, while with WordPress.org you find and pay a separate host (WordPress.com Support, WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, last reviewed August 11, 2026).
Wix and Squarespace are hosted site builders. Shopify is built around selling, and its pricing page lists a point-of-sale add-on (Shopify, Pricing, no plan date shown, read October 15, 2026).
| Platform | Who hosts it | How you extend it |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.org | A host you pick | Plugins and themes you choose |
| WordPress.com | WordPress.com | Plugins on paid plans |
| Wix | Wix | App Market apps |
| Squarespace | Squarespace | Code injection on Core and up |
| Shopify | Shopify | Theme code editor |
WordPress.com says plugin installation is available on paid plans only (WordPress.com, Pricing, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). Squarespace lists code injection for Core and the plans above it (Squarespace Help, code injection, last updated September 16, 2026).
Do all four meet the basics Google asks for?
Google’s documentation says a CMS can handle titles and is likely to handle sitemaps. On titles: “Most CMSes can automatically turn the titles you write into a <title> element” (Google Search Central, SEO starter guide, updated December 10, 2025). On sitemaps, it says that with a CMS such as WordPress or Wix, “it’s likely that your CMS has already made a sitemap available” (Google Search Central, sitemaps overview, updated December 10, 2025).
The defaults differ:
- Squarespace: it creates a sitemap and metadata, and writes schema for blog posts, events, local businesses and products that owners “can’t edit or remove” (Squarespace Help, What Squarespace does for SEO, last updated July 14, 2026).
- Shopify: the sitemap and robots.txt files are generated automatically, canonical tags are added and themes include product schema (Shopify Help, SEO overview, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
- WordPress: since version 5.5 it publishes a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml (Make WordPress Core, July 22, 2020). WordPress.com names Yoast SEO for custom titles and descriptions (WordPress.com Support, SEO, last reviewed August 11, 2026).
Having these features does not mean a page will rank. The differences that matter sit below. What does move rankings is in the SEO guide, and an overview of technical SEO is in what technical SEO is.
What happens to your search traffic when a URL changes?
Google recommends “server side permanent redirects from the old URLs to the new URLs” when a site moves, and says to keep them “for as long as possible”, generally at least a year (Google Search Central, site moves with URL changes, updated August 20, 2026). Check the redirect rules before choosing a platform, especially if the current site has pages that rank.
| Platform | Where you set redirects | Stated limit or catch |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.org | A plugin such as Redirection | Plugin is free |
| WordPress.com | Yoast Premium has a manager | Plugins need a paid plan |
| Wix | URL Redirect Manager | 5,000 per site; custom domain only |
| Squarespace | URL mappings field | About 2,500 lines; slug edits add none |
| Shopify | URL redirects in Content | Only from broken URLs |
WordPress.com says Yoast Premium adds a redirect manager (WordPress.com Support, SEO, last reviewed August 11, 2026). The Redirection plugin describes itself as managing 301 redirections and says it has no premium version (WordPress.org, Redirection, version 5.10.1 dated September 17, 2026). Wix allows 5,000 redirects per site, says “301 redirects only work with custom domains,” and does not let the URL Redirect Manager redirect from the homepage (Wix Help, setting up 301 redirects, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
Squarespace limits the URL mappings field to 400 KB, “usually around 2500 redirect lines” (Squarespace Help, URL mappings, last updated September 8, 2026). Changing a slug creates no redirect, so the old address returns a 404 until you add one (Squarespace Help, URL slugs, last updated April 22, 2026).
Shopify allows up to 100,000 redirects on standard stores, and only from URLs that currently show a 404 (Shopify Help, URL redirects, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
Who controls structured data and robots.txt?
Google recommends JSON-LD for structured data where your setup allows it, and requires that markup describe content visible on the page (Google Search Central, intro to structured data, updated December 10, 2025; structured data policies, updated July 10, 2026). A robots.txt file tells crawlers which URLs they may fetch, and Google says it is not a way to keep a page out of Google (Google Search Central, robots.txt introduction, updated December 10, 2025).
| Platform | Add your own JSON-LD | Edit robots.txt |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.org | Via a plugin | Via a plugin or a file on your host |
| WordPress.com | Not stated | Custom file upload, paid plans |
| Wix | Yes, up to 5 per page | Robots.txt Editor |
| Squarespace | Built-in types fixed; custom not stated | Not editable per Squarespace |
| Shopify | Product schema built in; custom not stated | robots.txt.liquid |
Yoast says its free plugin writes core schema types as JSON-LD and that LocalBusiness schema is in Premium (Yoast, structured data, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). Wix accepts JSON-LD only, with up to five markups per page and under 7,000 characters each (Wix Help, structured data markup, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
WordPress.com’s SEO page does not mention structured data. It does list a custom robots.txt upload among the extra tools on its paid plans (WordPress.com Support, SEO, last reviewed August 11, 2026). For WordPress.org, the Virtual Robots.txt plugin says it creates a robots.txt file you can edit, and that a physical file on the host takes the place of the virtual one (WordPress.org plugin directory, Virtual Robots.txt, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
Wix calls editing robots.txt “an advanced feature” and says Wix Customer Care cannot help with changes you make (Wix Help, editing robots.txt, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). Shopify labels its robots.txt.liquid customization unsupported and warns that incorrect use “can result in loss of all traffic” (Shopify Help, editing robots.txt, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
Squarespace says all its sites share one robots.txt file that users “can’t access or edit” (Squarespace Help, Google SEO emails and console errors, last updated August 5, 2025). Its Crawlers setting blocks a listed set of AI bots when ticked, with no per-page option (Squarespace Help, AI crawlers, last updated January 8, 2026). Which AI bots to allow is covered in which AI crawlers to allow in robots.txt, and the steps for being recommended are in the guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT and AI Overviews.
What can you take with you if you leave?
Export options vary. Wix does not let you move its site build to another host, while Squarespace exports some content as XML, and no export here carries over a finished design.
| Platform | What exports | What stays behind |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.org | Content, moved when you choose | Depends on your host |
| WordPress.com | Posts, pages, comments, tags as XML | Media files, theme, plugins |
| Wix | Site and blog: not available per Wix | The whole site build |
| Squarespace | One XML file, one blog | Product blocks, drafts, design |
| Shopify | Products as a CSV file | Pages and blog: not stated |
WordPress.com says both WordPress products let you keep your content and move it when you choose (WordPress.com Support, platform comparison, last reviewed August 11, 2026). Its export file holds content such as posts and pages with their comments, plus links to media, but not the media files or the theme (WordPress.com Support, export, last reviewed October 5, 2026).
Wix says its sites cannot be hosted elsewhere, and gives its proprietary technology as the reason (Wix Help, exporting or embedding your site, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). Its blog page says blog posts cannot currently be exported to other platforms (Wix Help, exporting blog posts, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
Squarespace exports a single XML file in WordPress format that covers layout pages and one blog page, and leaves out product blocks, store pages, drafts, design settings and custom CSS (Squarespace Help, exporting your site, last updated February 12, 2026). Shopify’s export page covers products as a CSV file and does not address pages or blog posts (Shopify Help, export products, no date shown, read October 15, 2026).
Before hiring a designer, confirm that your business will control the domain, the hosting login and the platform account. That is covered in who owns your website and marketing accounts.
How do the plans differ?
Plan prices move, so none are quoted here. WordPress.com says its Free plan uses a WordPress.com subdomain and shows ads, with no custom domain or plugins (WordPress.com, Pricing, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). Wix says connecting a custom domain requires a paid plan (Wix Help, Building a website for free, no date shown, read October 15, 2026). Squarespace offers 14 days free and Shopify a 3-day trial (Squarespace, Pricing; Shopify, Pricing; neither shows a plan date, read October 15, 2026).
Ask any designer to quote the platform plan separately from the domain and the host. Our pricing page covers our marketing services, reviewed October 2026. Our guide to how much digital marketing costs for a small business sets out the ranges.
Which platform fits which kind of site?
Use the table to pick what to check first, then read the vendor pages for the plan you would buy.
| If your site is | Look first at | Check before you commit |
|---|---|---|
| Many pages, custom features | WordPress.org | Who pays and logs into the host |
| Managed, WordPress-based | WordPress.com | Plan needed for plugins |
| Small brochure, you edit it | Wix or Squarespace | Redirect caps and export limits |
| A store is the business | Shopify or WordPress.com Commerce | Outside-gateway fees, product export |
| Likely to change hosts later | WordPress.org | Wix sites must stay on Wix |
Before anyone picks a platform for you, ask these questions in writing:
- Who will hold the domain and the platform accounts, and will our company be the owner?
- Which plan does the proposal require, and which features sit above it?
- How will redirects be set for every changed address, and where are they stored?
- What can be exported if we leave, in which file format?
- After launch, who submits the new sitemap in Search Console, as Google’s site-move page advises?
Our website design and development page describes the service itself.
FAQ
Is WordPress better for SEO than Wix?
Google’s starter guide does not say any platform ranks higher. Rankings depend on your content and links as much as the platform, and all four can support them. WordPress.org has more places to change things, while Wix sets caps such as 5,000 redirects. Compare those controls against what your site needs.
Can I move to a new platform without losing search traffic?
Google warns that visibility “may fluctuate temporarily during the move” and settles over time. It advises mapping every old URL to a new one and submitting the new sitemap in Search Console. Nothing on the platform side can promise that traffic holds, so test the redirects before launch.
Do I need an SEO plugin on a WordPress site?
A plugin puts per-page titles and schema fields in one place. WordPress.com notes that an SEO plugin replaces its built-in tools and advises against running more than one. Choose one, such as Yoast, and check which schema types it puts behind a paid tier.
Can a small business use a free plan?
A free Wix or WordPress.com site runs on the vendor’s own address instead of your domain. Wix also says 301 redirects only work with custom domains, so a free site cannot redirect old pages. A business that wants its own web address needs a paid plan.
Do Shopify and Squarespace charge fees on sales?
Shopify charges a fee when a store uses a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, from 2 percent on Basic to a fifth of one percent on Plus, per its pricing page. Squarespace lists 2 percent on Basic and 0 percent from Core, per its pricing page. Neither page shows a plan date (Shopify, Squarespace).
Related reading
- 10 email marketing landing page tips to increase conversions
- Website Redesign SEO Checklist: What to Do Before, During and After Launch
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