WordPress vs. Squarespace: Which is Better?

Both website building platforms, in recent years WordPress and Squarespace have both made major changes in how they approach the idea of website design and content management. But which is the better tool for your business? In this WordPress vs. Squarespace comparison, we take a look at the pros and cons of each in terms of how well it’s suited to your goals and expectations for your website.

Is Squarespace Right for You? 

Squarespace is a Software as a Service which means that you pay a monthly fee to use it. The amount you pay depends on how many pages you want to create, as well as the customization options you want. For example, if you want to be able to sell products from your site and have e-commerce functionality, you’ll understandably pay more than if you were just using the platform as a personal or basic business website. You can save money on Squarespace if you elect to pay yearly versus monthly. 

Squarespace Templates

Squarespace has beautiful templates, and a decent number of them (around 100). However, if you want to use your own custom coding or CSS (cascading style sheets, responsible for allowing you to customize your design with greater control), you’ll need to upgrade to a higher plan. Squarespace purposefully makes their templates user-friendly and easy to edit without any programming or coding experience, but they do so at the cost of greater customization.

It’s worth noting that all of Squarespace’s templates are mobile responsive and leverage fast mobile loading technology to strip out excess code so that the page loads faster on mobile devices like smart phones and tablets. 

Squarespace Verdict: Best for Beginners with Some Room to Grow

Squarespace is admittedly geared toward beginners. With its user-friendly interface, you can simply drag and drop and intuitively customize some aspects of your site very quickly and easily. Since Squarespace provides its software as a service, your hosting is also included in the monthly (or yearly) fee. If you purchase a higher tiered package, you also get a free domain name. 

Squarespace is not the best option if you’re looking to sell products online or otherwise get involved in e-commerce. If you’re looking for something more than a basic corporate website, with a lot of customization options to tweak and tailor it to fit your needs, Squarespace will likely not give you the freedom and flexibility you’re looking for. However, it’s certainly a decent starting point if you’re new to the world of website building.

Is WordPress Right for You? 

WordPress comes in two flavors: a hosted version and a self-hosted version. For the purpose of this article, we’ll be looking at the self-hosted version, which is much more customizable, since it’s hosted on your website, rather than on WordPress’ own servers — a service that’s similar to Squarespace. 

The self-hosted variety of WordPress is FREE, although you will need to pay for web hosting. Installing WordPress is simple and straightforward and can be done in just a few clicks from your administrative area or hosting control panel. 

There are even robust plugins for WordPress that allow you to sell products from your website through an easy to use e-commerce system. Popular plugins like WooCommerce are free and loaded with many features that allow you to easily launch your digital storefront. 

WordPress Themes

In comparison to Squarespace, WordPress has hundreds upon hundreds of themes. Many of them are free and come with a great deal of customizable options. Paid WordPress themes also exist which provide you with support, upgrades for a set period of time, as well as some extensible features like integration with popular page builders. 

Since WordPress was first and foremost a blogging platform, it has since gone through several iterations to become more of a full-spectrum website builder while still staying true to its blogging roots. In addition, many, if not all of the WordPress themes available today are mobile responsive as well as optimized for search engines, so you can be assured that your site loads quickly, looks great and is ready to rank well in the search engines: all you have to do is add content. 

WordPress Verdict: Great for Intermediate and Advanced Users as well as E-Commerce Professionals

Whether you’re looking to sell online, or set up a corporate site beyond the basics, WordPress can help you get there, quickly and easily. There is a slight learning curve but with the many options available for WordPress page builders, the variety of customizable themes and the wide variety of tutorials and videos out there, WordPress is the kind of platform that will grow with you. 

WordPress Maintenance and Management

If you’ve started using WordPress or you’re considering it, one of the most important points to keep in mind is how you plan to manage and maintain it. WordPress can be extended and improved with a variety of plugins that can help you add everything from image galleries to social media in just a few clicks. 

Keeping your WordPress website and your plugins up to date, as well as being able to easily make changes to your site beyond the basics is something you’ll eventually want to take care of. But if you don’t have the time (or the desire) to handle it yourself, why not work with WPDandy?

Our programming experts can make changes to your WordPress website quickly, efficiently and affordably. Want to update your theme? Add custom coding? Keep everything up and running smoothly and securely? Let WPDandy help! Our WordPress management and maintenance service saves you time and money while letting you concentrate on growing your business. 

Plus, our versatile administrative area dashboard will help you get more done with less time while taking care of common WordPress administrative tasks with a comprehensive yet easy-to-use overview. Contact us today to learn more about our services or try our administrative plugin for yourself to see how easy it can be to maintain and manage your WordPress website!