Outgrown Wix or Squarespace? Learn the signs, what you can and can't take with you, and how to move without losing your domain, email or Google rankings.
Most businesses start on a website builder, and for good reason. Wix and Squarespace are quick, cheap to start with, and you don't need a developer.
Then the business grows. You want something the builder can't do. The site feels slow. The monthly bill keeps going up. And you start asking whether it's time for a "proper" website.
Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. Here's how to tell, and how to move without losing your domain, email or Google rankings.
The Short Answer
If your site is simple, brings in enquiries and doesn't get in your way, stay where you are.
Move when the builder starts holding the business back, not just because the design looks a bit old. An old design can usually be fixed on the same platform. Our guide on redesign vs rebuild vs migration explains the difference.
Signs You've Outgrown Your Builder
Business owners who've hit the limit usually tell us:
- "We can't add what we need." Bookings linked to your own system, a CRM connection, custom quote forms, or a client login area.
- "The site is slow and we can't fix it." Builders give you little control over how pages load. See why a website feels slow despite a good PageSpeed score.
- "Our costs keep going up." A higher plan for one feature, a paid app for another. Soon you're paying more for less control.
- "We need more control over SEO." More than one language, or technical settings the builder doesn't let you change.
- "Every small change needs a workaround." Time spent fighting the builder is a cost too.
If two or three sound familiar, look at your options.
When You Should Stay
Staying is often the right call if:
- Your site is a few pages and a contact form
- It brings in enquiries and nobody is complaining
- You don't have the budget for a new build plus ongoing upkeep
- Nobody on your team would look after a self-managed site
A builder's subscription includes hosting, security and updates. Leave, and those become your job, or your developer's.
What You Can Take With You (and What You Can't)
This surprises most people. You can't export your builder site and run it somewhere else. The design has to be rebuilt.
Wix says plainly that a Wix site must run on Wix's servers. You can export your contacts and store products as CSV files. But Wix also says it is not possible to export blog posts, so those have to be copied by hand.
Squarespace gives you an export file, but it only covers part of the site: normal pages, one blog, and text and image blocks. It leaves out store pages, extra blogs, style settings and custom CSS. Squarespace also warns that images may not come across, so they often need re-uploading by hand.
So a move from either platform means:
- Your design is rebuilt on the new platform. It's a good chance to fix what wasn't working.
- Your content is moved, partly by export and partly by hand.
- Customer and member accounts don't carry over, so people will need to sign up again.
The Three Things That Go Wrong Most
1. The domain. If you bought your domain through the builder, you can move it, with one catch. Under ICANN rules, which both Wix and Squarespace follow, a domain usually can't be transferred within 60 days of being bought, moved, or having its contact details changed. You don't have to transfer it, though. You can leave it where it is and point it at the new site. Check who controls your domain first.
2. Business email. This catches people out more than anything. Wix says business email stops working after a domain transfer until the email settings (called MX records) are added again. Squarespace gives the same warning for Google Workspace email. Write down your DNS settings before you touch the domain.
3. Google rankings. Your page and blog addresses will probably change. Every page that matters needs a redirect from the old address to the new one. Without that, links from Google and other websites break, and rankings can drop.
Where Should You Move?
It depends on what the website needs to do:
- WordPress suits sites where your team updates pages and posts often.
- Shopify suits businesses where selling online is the main job.
- Next.js or a custom build suits sites that need speed, custom features or a link to your business systems.
We compare the first and third in WordPress vs Next.js. Store owners should read our WooCommerce to Shopify guide. For budgets, see how much a business website costs.
How to Move Safely
- List what you have. Pages, blog posts, products, forms, integrations, and which pages get traffic.
- Check your domain and email. Who controls the domain, and what email settings are in use.
- Pick the platform based on what the site needs to do, not what's popular.
- Build the new site privately and move the content across before anything changes.
- Map every old address to its new one and set up the redirects.
- Switch the domain in a quiet week, add the email settings again, and test email straight away.
- Keep your builder plan for a few weeks. Moving the domain doesn't cancel the builder site, so you can still check old content. Cancel it later.
- Watch Search Console and your enquiries for the first month.
Done in this order, most of the risk sits in planning, where fixes are cheap.
Need a Second Opinion?
If your site is small and you're comfortable with domain settings, you can do a lot of this yourself.
If it brings in steady enquiries or search traffic, or you're not sure a move is worth it, get an honest view first. Sometimes the answer is a better-built site on the same builder.
FAQs
Will I lose my Google rankings if I move off Wix or Squarespace?
Not if it's done carefully. The risk comes from changed addresses without redirects, or content lost on the way. Good redirects cut that risk a lot, but no one can promise rankings will stay exactly the same.
Can I keep my domain name?
Yes. Transfer it to a new provider, or leave it where it is and point it at the new site. If you bought it in the last 60 days, a transfer will have to wait.
Will my business email stop working?
It can, if you transfer the domain without adding your MX records again. Note them down first and test email right after the switch.
Can I export my whole Wix site and host it somewhere else?
No. Wix sites only run on Wix. You can export contacts and products, but the design and blog posts must be rebuilt or copied by hand.
How long does a move take?
The rebuild takes the longest. The domain switch itself is quick once the new site is ready.