Which website builder has the fewest faults? WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace vs others (our data)

In our checks of 32,933 UK and 41,368 US small-business websites, sites built on Duda and Webflow had the fewest faults, and sites on Weebly had the most. In the UK, 34% of Duda sites and 35% of Webflow sites had at least one fault, against 74% of Weebly sites. In the US, the figures were 19% for Duda, 34% for Webflow and 78% for Weebly. WordPress and Wix sat in the middle in both countries.

That does not mean your builder causes your faults. The gaps partly reflect who uses each builder and how old their sites are. The most common faults can be fixed in any major builder in minutes, and this guide shows where.

Fault rates by website builder

Share of sites with at least one of our 12 faults, from our automated checks between 4 October and 3 November 2026: 32,933 UK sites (UK study) and 41,368 US sites (US study).

The 12 checks were: missing meta description, slow on mobile, phone number not tappable, out-of-date copyright year, not mobile-ready, no HTTPS redirect, no enquiry form, no reviews shown, no HTTPS, broken homepage link, slow server response and invalid certificate. A site counts once per fault type.

What the table shows

• Consistent at the top and bottom. Duda and Webflow were in the top two in both countries. Weebly was last in both.
• WordPress and Wix swap places. Wix did better than WordPress in the UK (45% vs 51%), but worse in the US (53% vs 48%). The difference between them is small and goes both ways, so the data does not favour either.
• Squarespace and GoDaddy were weaker in the US. Both were at 71% in the US, against 59% and 61% in the UK.
• Custom and older sites are a big group with many faults. 12,554 UK sites and 13,298 US sites had no identifiable platform, and they had high fault rates (66% UK, 60% US).
• Some groups are small. UK Shopify (264) and UK Weebly (265) are the smallest groups. Treat a few points of difference there with caution.

Why the builder is not the whole story

It would be easy to read the table as a league table of builders. That would be misleading, for four reasons.

1. Who uses each builder. Some platforms are used mainly by professional web designers and agencies who build sites for clients. Others are designed for owners to build their own site in an afternoon. A professionally built site is more likely to have a meta description and a tappable phone number, whatever the platform.
2. How old the sites are. A builder with many sites created years ago will have more sites with an out-of-date copyright year, older non-responsive themes and links that have since broken. The fault comes from the site not being updated, not from the builder.
3. What the builder does by default. This is where the builder does matter. Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow and GoDaddy's builder all provide HTTPS automatically, according to their help centres. On self-hosted WordPress, HTTPS depends on your host and your settings. Some builders also make a typed phone number tappable automatically; others need you to add the link.
4. Detection limits. We identified platforms from technical signatures. A heavily customised site may not be identified, and falls into the "not identifiable" group.

So the honest reading is this: a site's faults depend mostly on whether someone set it up carefully and keeps it updated. Builder defaults help at the margin, mainly on HTTPS and mobile layout.

The three faults to fix first, in every builder

The three most common faults in both countries are the same, and all can be fixed without a developer:

Fix times are our estimates for a typical small site. Slow mobile loading (21.2% UK, 18.7% US) is also common but has many causes, so it has its own guide: why is my website slow on mobile.

The steps below come from each platform's official help pages, checked on 3 November 2026. Builders change their menus often, so follow the linked help page if a label has moved.

WordPress

Add a meta description

WordPress itself has no meta description field. You need an SEO plugin. The two most widely used are Yoast SEO and Rank Math.

• Yoast SEO: edit the page, open the Yoast SEO panel and use the Search appearance section to type a meta description, then update the page. If your homepage shows your latest posts rather than a static page, set the homepage description in Yoast's settings instead. See Yoast's guide.
• Rank Math: edit the page, open the Rank Math panel, click Edit Snippet in the General tab and type in the Description box. See Rank Math's guide.

Make the phone number tappable

In the block editor, select the phone number text, click the link button and enter tel: followed by the number with no spaces, for example tel:+442079460000. WordPress.com's guide describes this and a Buttons block "Call now" option. If your phone number is in a theme header or a page builder widget, look for a link field in that widget's settings.

Force HTTPS

1. Make sure your host has installed an SSL certificate. Most hosts offer a free one in their control panel.
2. In WordPress, go to Settings > General and change both "WordPress Address (URL)" and "Site Address (URL)" to start with https://. WordPress's documentation says both should include https:// and have no trailing slash.
3. Add a permanent redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. Many hosts have a "force HTTPS" switch. Otherwise it goes in your server configuration or .htaccess, as shown in WordPress's HTTPS guide.

Our SiteVerdict WordPress plugin checks all three from inside your dashboard.

Wix

Add a meta description

In the Wix Editor, open the Pages & Menu panel, click the More Actions icon next to the page, choose SEO basics and fill in the meta description field. Then publish. Wix suggests 50 to 160 characters. See Wix's help article. Steps differ slightly in Wix Studio and the newer Harmony editor.

Make the phone number tappable

According to Wix's help centre, a phone number typed into a text box becomes clickable automatically. To link a button, select it, click the Link icon and choose the phone number option. Wix recommends including the country and area code so that people calling from abroad can connect.

Force HTTPS

Wix enables HTTPS on all sites automatically and it cannot be turned off. If you connect a custom domain, the certificate is generated automatically, which can take up to 48 hours after DNS changes. If your Wix site shows "Not secure", check your domain's DNS records.

Squarespace

Add a meta description

In the Pages panel, hover over the page, click the gear icon, open the SEO tab and fill in the SEO description. Save. For the homepage description site-wide, in version 7.1 open the SEO panel, go to SEO settings and the Home tab, and edit the SEO site description. Squarespace suggests 50 to 300 characters and notes search engines cut off around 160. See Squarespace's help article.

Make the phone number tappable

Open the link editor on your text, button or navigation item, choose Phone, enter the number with country code, and select Call. Squarespace says not to include a leading 0, as it may stop the link working. See Add links to your site.

Force HTTPS

Squarespace's default SSL setting is "Secure", which redirects HTTP visitors to HTTPS, and it recommends keeping HSTS on. Check your SSL settings if you have changed them. See Understanding SSL certificates.

Shopify

Add a meta description

For the homepage, go to Online Store > Preferences and fill in the title and meta description in the SEO section. For individual pages, products and collections, use the search engine listing section at the bottom of each item's editor. Shopify recommends about 160 characters and natural sentences rather than keyword lists. See Shopify's help article.

Make the phone number tappable

Shopify's rich text editor documentation says to create a call link by selecting the text, inserting a link and entering tel: followed by the number. Where your phone number appears in a theme header or footer, the steps depend on your theme. Our Shopify app flags pages where the number is not linked.

Force HTTPS

Shopify issues free certificates automatically for domains bought through Shopify or connected to it. Provisioning can take up to 48 hours. If it fails, Shopify's help page covers the usual causes, such as CAA records and DNSSEC.

Webflow

Add a meta description

Open the Pages panel, open Page settings and fill in the meta description under SEO settings. Settings apply per page. For CMS collection pages you can set a pattern built from collection fields. Publish to apply. See Webflow's help article.

Make the phone number tappable

Select the link, button or link block, open its link settings and choose the phone option, then enter the number. See Link settings.

Force HTTPS

Webflow says SSL is on by default for sites created after 14 November 2018 and cannot be disabled. If a custom domain shows a certificate problem, check your DNS and CAA records.

GoDaddy Websites + Marketing (Airo)

Add a meta description

GoDaddy's builder keeps search settings in its SEO tool. GoDaddy's own guidance describes opening the page in the editor, clicking the Settings (cog) icon and choosing "Get Found on Google" to edit the title and description. We could not find a current official help article with exact steps, and menu names have changed as GoDaddy has added its Airo tools, so check your editor for an SEO section. See Improve my website's SEO.

Make the phone number tappable

GoDaddy's action button help describes setting a button to link to a phone number. On a mobile, tapping it opens the visitor's calling app. For a number in text, select it and use the link option to add a phone link.

Force HTTPS

GoDaddy says Websites + Marketing sites have an SSL certificate installed and managed for them. If the certificate is not active, GoDaddy's first suggested fix is to republish the site.

Duda and Weebly

We have not written step-by-step instructions for Duda and Weebly here because we could not verify current steps on their official help pages for this guide. Both builders have SEO settings with a description field and a way to link text or buttons to a phone number. Search their help centres for "SEO description" and "phone link". The HTML for a phone link is the same everywhere; see our click-to-call guide.

Should you switch builder?

For most small businesses, no. Moving a site takes days, risks breaking links and search rankings, and costs money. Every builder in our table can fix the three most common faults. Switch only if your builder cannot do something you need, for example a mobile page that loads in under 2.5 seconds, or a working HTTPS redirect on your own domain.

Before deciding, run a check on your current site. If the faults it finds can be fixed where you are, fix them there. SiteVerdict is available as a WordPress plugin, a Shopify app and a Chrome extension that works on any builder.