WordPress vs Squarespace

It’s no secret, I have a love affair with WordPress!  But truth be told Squarespace is incredibly beautiful and it definitely has it’s benefits when it comes to creating a beautiful website, especially for those that are not all that tech savvy.  Today I am going over a popular debate lately in order to help you decide which platform is better suited for you – WordPress vs Squarespace.

WORDPRESS

EASE OF USE: There is a steep learning curve with WordPress, and unless you are familiar with coding, HTML, etc it will probably take you quite a bit of time to get your site up and going for you.

DESIGN: WordPress has an endless amount of theme designs and plugin options that you can choose from to customize your site to create the look you are going for. Find a theme which is responsive, otherwise there will be an added cost that you would have to pay for.  You will have to install them yourself, or hire someone to do it for you.

CUSTOMIZATION: There is an insane amount of widgets, plugins, and tools that you can use on your website. The possibilities for customization are endless. Again, if coding is your thing, then you will love the capabilities and flexibility that you will have with WordPress.

ECOMMERCE: eCommerce in WordPress is definitely not a simple task, unless you are willing to pay a decent amount of money for it! While there are plugins and other features available, not all work well or are all that visually appealing.  The security behind it is also a work in progress and is not that stellar.

MAINTENANCE: Anyone who uses WordPress and maintains their website will tell you how annoying the regular updates that are required for various plugins to the overall platform can be. You have to check these maintenance messages on a weekly basis to keep up with changes to ensure your website is up-to-date and secure.

PRICING: You will have to pay for your domain name and hosting through whichever service you choose (I personally use DigitalOcean), before setting up your website. Once you’re up and running some other expenses that can add up include: themes, plugins, developers, etc. You can easily spend a couple of hundred dollars to just get your site going.

SQUARESPACE

EASE OF USE: Squarespace basically does all the hard work for you and makes it very user friendly. For Squarespace most of necessary things are already prepared for you and lays everything out nicely so it just makes sense.

DESIGN: Squarespace’s slogan is “Build It Beautiful.” It is the simplest way to build a truly beautiful site that tends to gravitate towards the clean white design that is so popular these days. They only have a certain number of templates to choose from and they are all mobile responsive, which is obviously an added bonus!

CUSTOMIZATION: The customization tools with Squarespace are limited to what is already on the platform. You can easily drag and drop elements around to make your website look the way you want.  You can easily customize the fonts and colors, and you can even customize it a bit more by using some code . However, you are limited to widgets, plugins, and tools that you can download to your website.

ECOMMERCE: Since the eCommerce feature is something that is built-in to Squarespace, so there are no worries about finding the ‘right’ plug-in, making sure everything is good to go! Updating your shop is fairly simple with Squarespace as well.

MAINTENANCE: Squarespace automatically tests and updates all necessary changes, which makes things much easier for the user. This means that you never have to worry about updating to a new version or swapping out old features.

PRICING: There is no free version of Squarespace, but your domain name, hosting, and all the website tools you need to build your site are included. They offer 3 main packages: Standard which is $8-10/month, Unlimited which is $16-20/month, and Business which is $24-30/month.  Each package drops in price when you pay upfront for the entire year too, which is a nice bonus.

I truly love to design on both the WordPress and Squarespace platforms.  But when it comes to designing for customers it simply comes down to what they are willing and able to do to maintain their website.  If someone is asking for my opinion and they are planning on designing their own website I let them know that Squarespace is fantastic to quickly and easily design something beautiful, while WordPress is for those that are more experienced working on websites, or who don’t mind the learning curve.

If you want to learn more, or if you simply have questions let’s chat!  Be sure to check out a few other posts regarding websites:  3 Reasons Why It’s Important to Have a Well Designed Website, Creating a Website From Scratch, WordPress Plugins to Improve Your Website.