Running a business as a mom is not for the faint of heart. Between running errands, managing the kids, and working with clients, it can be difficult to find time for anything else – let alone trying to find the time to create your website!
One of the most common questions I get asked from my clients is “which platform should I use?” Which do you think is better and why?
While there are many options out there, in this blog post, we’re going to take a look at the pros and cons of WordPress and Squarespace so you can determine which one is better for you.
An introduction to each platform
Squarespace and WordPress are two popular website builders that allow you to easily create a website without any technical skills or programming knowledge.
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open-source platform that you can use to make your website. It has been around since 2003 and it is the most popular platform because it is so versatile.
Over 37% of business websites are using WordPress as their platform.
WordPress has been worked on by hundreds of designers and programmers for years to build a competent platform for anyone to use. It is versatile, expandable, flexible and can grow in any direction that your business wants to grow.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a popular platform that allows you to create your own website. Squarespace provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements to create and modify webpages.
What is the learning curve?
WordPress
Although WordPress is fairly intuitive and easy to use, there’s definitely a small learning curve. You will need to familiarize yourself with the terminology of posts vs pages, categories vs tags, understanding what themes are and which plugins you should look for when building your website.
The default content editor that comes standard in WordPress has custom blocks for adding text or media-rich elements on your page layouts but you also have the option of installing themes (free & paid) to further customize your website.
NOTE: Not all themes are created equal and some are definitely more difficult than others. Also, free themes are typically less customizable than the paid ones. I highly recommend DIVI. You can also install plugins (free & paid) that can add any desired feature/functionality – making WordPress one of the most powerful platforms out there today.
Squarespace
The first thing people often mention is that with Squarespace, there are no coding skills required (no HTML or CSS). It also has templates designed specifically for blogs, but they’re not as customizable as WordPress’ themes.
Squarespace lets you customize your templates and pages using a visual editor similar to WordPress. However, you are limited to the options available in the customizer. Which means your options are extremely limited without adding custom HTML/CSS.
Conclusion
Squarespace may be appealing to beginners, but its lack of features might not meet all your needs as a business owner. Squarespace fares better than WP where ease is concerned but it really lacks flexibility.
With WordPress you have access to unlimited design possibilities that allow users complete control over their site’s appearance – literally from scratch if they so wish – right down into font size, color palette etc.
What is the cost?
Knowing how much each platform costs is important in making a business decision. Let’s look at how much Squarespace cost vs. how much WordPress cost.
WordPress
WordPress itself is free. You are free to download, use, and build upon WordPress (this refers to wordpress.org not wordpress.com). In order to build your website with WordPress, you will need to register a domain and signup for a web hosting account.
Depending on your needs, you can choose a plan that works best for your needs. Shared hosting plans work for most small personal and business websites. The cost of web hosting and domain name vary depending on which hosting provider you go with. You can run your website for as low as $2.75 per month (which includes your domain name and hosting – I recommend HostGator).
One of the reasons for WordPress’ popularity is that the overall cost of building your website with WordPress is very low.
Squarespace
The personal plan for Squarespace starts from $12 per month (billed annually) or $16 month to month. Unlike a shared WordPress hosting plan, the personal plan comes with very limited features. You can only add only two contributors to your site, and you cannot sell products. Whereas you can start an online store with WordPress for less than that.
Squarespace business plan starts from $18 per month (billed annually) or $26 month to month. It includes eCommerce support, but they charge a 3% transaction fee. The business plan comes with unlimited contributors, pages, and additional advanced features.
They also have separate plans for online stores starting from $26 per month with no additional transaction fee.
Conclusion
WordPress beats Squarespace with affordable pricing plans available from a variety of web hosting services. The cost really depends on how many resources you need, but you get access to all WordPress features right out of the box for a fraction of the cost of Squarespace.
How customizable are they?
Both WordPress and Squarespace come with ready-made templates and design tools to make it easy for you to create a custom website.
WordPress
WordPress offers access to thousands of free and paid website themes. These themes are highly customizable, allowing you to use your own website logo, colors, upload your own images, and more.
Many WordPress themes come with multiple layout choices, drag and drop page builders, sliders, photo galleries, and tons of other features. No matter what kind of website you are building, you will find hundreds of professionally designed templates for the job.
NOTE: Not all themes are created equal and some are definitely more difficult than others. Also, free themes are typically less customizable than the paid ones. I highly recommend DIVI.
Squarespace
Squarespace offers ready-made website templates organized into different categories. There are templates for all popular website categories, with professional designs that look good on all devices.
However, the number of pre-made templates are very limited, and your design options are also limited to the set of features available in the Squarespace customizer.
Squarespace templates come with a limited number of layout choices with each template. You can still do basic colors, fonts, website logo, and other things, but these templates are not as customizable as WordPress themes.
Conclusion
WordPress comes out as a clear winner in terms of design choices, customization options, and flexibility. While Squarespace offers great looking templates, they are extremely limited and are not very flexible.
Can I add extra functionality?
As your business grows, you may want to add more features and functionality to your website with the use of third-party tools.
WordPress
WordPress has been worked on by hundreds of designers and programmers for years to build a competent platform for anyone to use. It is versatile, expandable, flexible and can grow in any direction that your business wants to grow.
WordPress has a massive number of plugins available. These plugins are like apps for your website that you can install in order to add any desired feature/functionality that you want.
There are currently more than 54,000+ free WordPress plugins listed in WordPress.org plugin directory alone. There are also thousands of premium WordPress plugins available from third-party websites.
Because WordPress is the most popular platform to build your website on, all top email marketing services, SEO tools, lead generation tools, etc. offer seamless integration with WordPress. There are specialized plugins to create an ecommerce website, build a membership, sell online courses, and more.
Squarespace
Squarespace comes nowhere close to WordPress when it comes to functionality and integrations. However, they do provide some third-party integrations, but even those are limited and not all popular services are supported.
While ecommerce is available on Squarespace, it is limited in comparison to WordPress. Overall, Squarespace may lack the functionality that you might need for your business (whether now or in the future).
Conclusion
WordPress is the clear winner because there are so many different plugins and integrations for you to choose from.
Summarizing Squarespace vs WordPress Comparison
WordPress is by far a more superior platform than Squarespace when it comes to building a website. Here is a quick breakdown of pros and cons of both platforms.
Pros of using Squarespace
- Easy to use
- A variety of templates
- Custom HTML/CSS isn’t needed
Cons of using Squarespace
- Higher costs
- Limited design choices
- Limited set of features
Pros of using WordPress
- Easy to use
- Huge collection of themes and plugins
- Custom HTML/CSS isn’t needed
- Low cost
Cons of using WordPress
- You are responsible for updates, backups and security
You could spend hours (or days) trying to decide which platform is best for you and your needs. But the truth of the matter is, there is only one that really stands out (in my opinion) and that’s WordPress.
I have been designing websites for more than 6 years now and I’ve worked with both WordPress and Squarespace. WordPress is the only one that provides a lot of power and functionality in one place. It is a lot more customizable and offers countless add-ons that can help your website AND business be even more successful!
Nowadays, WordPress is the only platform I use because when you need something done right – or even just made so that your business can stand out from other businesses in its niche – it really does what no one else can do!
If you’re ready to get started on building your own website, then be sure to grab my FREE Beginner’s Guide to WordPress!
This guide covers everything from getting your own domain name and hosting, to setting up your self-hosted WordPress site, to choosing themes and plugins, and more!!
Download the 5-Minute Website Guide so you can plan and launch your website with ease!
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