If your Wix or Squarespace renewal came in higher than you expected, you have three options. You can stay and drop to a cheaper plan, or move. Moving is doable, but it means rebuilding the site, not copying it.
What Squarespace charges now
Squarespace bills NZ customers in NZ dollars. Its pricing page showed these monthly prices when we checked in October 2026:
| Plan | Paid yearly | Paid monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | NZ$19 | NZ$26 |
| Core | NZ$31 | NZ$44 |
| Plus | NZ$49 | NZ$69 |
| Advanced | NZ$109 | NZ$149 |
These are the prices as listed. Check your invoice for how GST is shown on your account.
The rises come from two changes. In 2025 Squarespace replaced its old Personal, Business and Commerce plans with these four. Then in July 2026 it raised three of them again, by up to 26% in US dollar terms. Most people pay yearly, so many only see the change at renewal.
What Wix charges
Wix says its prices vary by location, and its plans page may show US dollars for reference, so we haven't quoted a figure here. It has a free plan with Wix branding and four paid plans: Light, Core, Business and Business Elite. Your billing page shows what you'll pay at the next renewal.
What you're paying for
With either builder, the plan covers hosting, the security certificate, templates, the editor and support. You don't deal with updates or servers.
That's a fair deal if you like editing your own site and want everything in one place. If that's you, staying may be the right call. The catch is that you rent the site. You can't take it with you when you leave.
Your three options at a glance
| Option | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Stay on a cheaper plan | No move, no rebuild | You may lose features you use |
| Move to another builder | Maybe a small saving | Same rebuild as any move, and prices can rise there too |
| Move to a site you can take with you | Host it almost anywhere | Someone has to keep it updated and backed up |
Option 1: stay on a cheaper plan
Look at what you actually use. A brochure site with a contact form often doesn't need a plan with online store features. Before you downgrade:
- Check what you'd lose. Features such as booking, a shop or extra storage.
- Switch to yearly billing if you're paying monthly. On Squarespace's Core plan that's NZ$31 a month instead of NZ$44.
- Set a reminder a month before renewal, so you decide before it charges your card.
Option 2: move to another builder
Other builders work the same way: a monthly fee, and you do the editing. You may save a little, but you face the same rebuild as any other move, and the price can rise there too.
Option 3: move to a site you can take with you
A WordPress site, or a simple static site, can be hosted almost anywhere. If a host raises its prices, you move the files and keep the site.
The trade-off is that someone has to keep it updated and backed up. Our website maintenance guide covers what that involves, and how much a website costs compares the ways to pay.
What moving actually involves
- Accept that the design doesn't come with you. Wix doesn't support exporting a site to another host. Squarespace can export some content as a file for WordPress: basic pages, one blog, text and images. Store pages, portfolios, video blocks, styles and custom code stay behind. Either way, the look of the site is rebuilt.
- Keep your Google rankings. Every page on your old site has an address that Google knows. If the new site uses different addresses, set up redirects from each old address to its new one. Skip this and people who click your old Google results land on an error page.
- Check your email. If your email runs through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and was set up through the builder, changing the domain's settings can break it. If mail starts going missing afterwards, why emails go to junk covers the records involved.
- Move the domain. If you bought your domain through Wix or Squarespace, you can transfer it out. For a .nz domain, you get an Auth Code from your current provider and give it to the new one. If you can't get at your domain, see how to get your domain back.
- Update the links that point to you. Your Google Business Profile, social pages and directory listings should link to the new site's pages.
When to get help
A small site with five pages and no shop is a weekend job for a confident owner. It gets risky when you have a lot of pages ranking in Google, an online shop, bookings, or email on the same domain. A missed redirect or a wrong DNS record can cost you enquiries for weeks before you notice.
Having someone do it means they list every page on the old site, rebuild it, set up the redirects, move the domain and email records in one go, and check it all works before you cancel the old plan. If you're not sure how big your move is, send us the address and we'll tell you what's involved, free.