Wix vs. Squarespace vs. Webflow: A Speed Race

Website builders trade flexibility for performance. But how much performance do you sacrifice? We tested all three platforms with comparable pages to find out.

Test Setup

For each platform, we created:

• A landing page with hero image, 3 feature sections, testimonials, and CTA
• Default theme with minimal customization
• One optimized image, one form, one navigation menu
• No third-party scripts beyond default platform scripts

Tests run on:

• PageSpeed Insights (mobile, real Chromium)
• WebPageTest (Moto G Power, 4G, Virginia)
• 5 runs, median result

Results

Lighthouse Mobile Scores

Metric	Wix	Squarespace	Webflow
Performance	45-60	40-55	70-85
LCP	3.5-5.0s	3.0-4.5s	1.5-2.5s
CLS	0.05-0.15	0.01-0.05	0.01-0.03
TBT	800-1500ms	600-1200ms	200-500ms
Page weight	2-4MB	1.5-3MB	500KB-1.5MB
Requests	60-100	40-70	20-40

Winner: Webflow by a significant margin.

Why Webflow Wins

1. Clean HTML output — semantic, minimal wrapper divs
2. Efficient CSS — only includes styles for used elements
3. Less JavaScript — no heavy runtime framework
4. Built-in lazy loading — native implementation
5. Fastly CDN — excellent global edge caching

Why Wix Is Slowest

1. Heavy JavaScript runtime (~500KB+ for the Wix framework)
2. Client-side rendering — content renders in JavaScript, not HTML
3. Many platform scripts — analytics, editor hooks, A/B testing
4. Complex DOM — deep nesting, many wrapper elements
5. Limited optimization control — can't modify loading strategies

Squarespace: Middle Ground

1. Server-rendered HTML — better than Wix's CSR approach
2. Moderate JavaScript — platform scripts are significant but not extreme
3. Good image handling — automatic responsive images and lazy loading
4. Limited caching control — can't fine-tune cache headers

Optimization Tips by Platform

Wix

• Use Wix's built-in image optimizer (auto-WebP)
• Minimize the number of sections and elements per page
• Avoid third-party app additions (Wix App Market apps are often heavy)
• Use Wix's built-in animations sparingly
• Enable "Velo" only if you need custom code

Squarespace

• Choose a simpler template (Brine family tends to be lighter)
• Optimize images before uploading (Squarespace resizes but compression is moderate)
• Limit custom CSS injections
• Use the built-in blog and commerce features instead of third-party embeds
• Minimize header/footer complexity

Webflow

• Use Webflow's responsive image settings
• Enable lazy loading on below-fold images
• Minimize interactions and animations
• Use Webflow's built-in SEO settings
• Preload hero images manually in custom code

When to Move Off a Website Builder

Consider migrating to a custom solution when:

• Lighthouse consistently under 50
• Page weight exceeds 3MB
• You need sub-2s LCP for competitive SEO
• Third-party integrations are being limited by the platform
• You have development resources available

Monitor Your Builder-Based Site

Regardless of platform, monitor your Core Web Vitals. Builder updates can change performance without warning.

Monitor your site performance →