Squarespace VS WordPress; the old guard VS the upstart. One of them is the most trusted name in the world of website builder; the other is a name that is on everyone’s mouth today.
Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to the web, WordPress is still the king. But Squarespace, a newcomer, is making a lot of noise. Their marketing campaign is attracting a lot of people to their platform and this has prompted this comparison with WordPress.
As of January 1st, 2018, WordPress powers 29.2% of all the world’s websites, whereas Squarespace powers less than 1%. But you can hardly surf the web without being bombarded with an ad for Squarespace.
Squarespace knows their audience really well. Their ability to ‘hit’ at the right spot has generated a lot of buzzes. And that is why a lot of people are thinking whether Squarespace can really overtake WordPress in terms of quality and service.
1. Squarespace VS WordPress: What they are
Squarespace
In more simple terms, it is a SaaS or Software as a Service website builder. People have to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to continue the advantages it provides.
Squarespace is a hosted platform. Being hosted means the company will take on the responsibility of providing both the software and the hosting.
The main attraction of Squarespace is that it takes care of everything while you focus on your business.
Although this provides lots of benefits to those who don’t want to manage every part of their website or business, it does entails some huge disadvantages.
WordPress
It is quite possible that even if you don’t know anything about building websites you still heard of WordPress. Essentially, WordPress is a content management system; but it is also so much more.
It is the ultimate Lego, where you can customize your website just the way you want it. It’s an open-source and free platform that is based on PHP, MySQL.
It is available as both hosted and self-hosted platform. As a self-hosted platform, you are only provided the software.
WordPress is a vast entity with many branches and options. WooCommerce, one of the most popular ecommerce platforms available today is a plugin for WordPress.
2. Squarespace VS WordPress: Ease of Use
Squarespace
The best feature of Squarespace is, it is very easy to use. You rarely have to have any technical skill to make changes. However, those changes that can be made are very basic.
Squarespace has a very flat learning curve. It does not come with too many options and thus requires only a few things that need to be learned.
Simple tasks like adding images or videos are simpler in Squarespace than it is in WordPress. Users can also make changes to the content using the drag-and-drop function in the content editor. Furthermore, they can customize the template and pages using a visual editor.
However, all of it is very limited and which soon after make you feel constrained.
WordPress
To an untrained eye, WordPress might seem overwhelming. But that is because you are just being introduced to a whole new world of opportunities.
The learning curve for WordPress is a bit steeper than Squarespace, but when you get are a bit more familiar with it’s just like riding a bicycle.
WordPress presents users with a whole lot of options that just aren’t available on Squarespace. You can pick and choose what you want according to your know-how.
And the best thing is, you’ll never be shackled by constraints it might have. WordPress gives users the ultimate freedom. From beginners to more advanced levels, you can adjust your site according to your need.
In terms of Ease of Use between Squarespace VS WordPress, even though in the long run WordPress is better, Squarespace has the edge.
3. Squarespace VS WordPress: Design
Squarespace
It is aimed at providing limited but alluring designs. As a part of the package, users have access to all of their website designs. However, that number is very limited.
That’s not to say that they are not good. In fact, in most cases, they are what the people want.
The designs are developed by Squarespace themselves and only those are allowed to choose from. So the option, as said before, is very limited.
WordPress
In contrast to Squarespace, WordPress is like a skyscraper. It has thousands of themes that can be incorporated into their website. Some of them are free and some of them are paid.
Since WordPress is an open-source website builder, designers from all around have access to it and can design website templates for them.
Additionally, users can also hire designers to create a custom theme which can be used with WordPress if they don’t like what’s in the market (Which is HUGE!!).
4. Squarespace VS WordPress: Features
Squarespace
When it comes to features, Squarespace is very limited in comparison to WordPress. Unlike WordPress, Squarespace doesn’t want people to mess around with their codes and features.
Users are bound by the features that Squarespace provides which are although, not much, is adequate for their target customers.
However, this restriction of feature can also slow down your business, especially when you have to scale it up. Squarespace isn’t flexible. Users can only add a little bit of HTML CSS or JavaScript to modify it.
Furthermore, if you want to create an adjacent site to the original, you have to sign up for another new premium subscription.
WordPress
Whenever someone talks about features in Squarespace VS WordPress, there is only one clear winner; WordPress.
The best aspect of WordPress is that you can virtually modify it whichever you want. WordPress is an open book. It has given developers the power to go through its source code and use them to modify/update your site how you like.
The power of modification for WordPress sites stems from its vast reservoir of plugins. Currently, close to 50,000 plugins are available for developers to download. Both free and paid plugins are available to satisfy any requirements.
Since WordPress sports a GPL 2.0 license, with the help of some talented developers & designers, it is possible to have a truly unique and tremendous website.
WordPress offers users something no other website building can, unequable freedom and flexibility.
5. Squarespace VS WordPress: E-Commerce
Squarespace
Ecommerce has seen an unprecedented rise in recent years. Revenue from ecommerce is expected to $653 billion US dollar in 2018.
Both Squarespace and WordPress has ecommerce integration ability. However, ecommerce very limited on Squarespace. For example, users can only incorporate Stripe as a payment method for their ecommerce site, which is available in only a few countries.
This will hamper the growth of ecommerce businesses in the long run. Also, as your business gets bigger, the cost rises as well.
Third-party services are very rare in Squarespace that might help your ecommerce business reach its maximum potential.
WordPress
WooCommerce is a plugin that can be easily installed on your WordPress site to convert it into an ecommerce site. It is the most widely used ecommerce platform, and it’s free to download.
WooCommerce has all the resources that are backing up WordPress. Thus, users can integrate a whole array of plugins, tools to enhance their site and productivity.
The easy plug-and-play nature of the ecommerce platform means it only takes a few minutes to convert your website.
With countless themes, payment options and features, WooCommerce is undoubtedly the winner of Squarespace VS WordPress.
6. Squarespace VS WordPress: Support
Squarespace:
Everything about Squarespace is centralized, including support for users. Squarespace has a dedicated team that works around the clock to provide help to any user that requires it.
They also created a library of articles, videos and live chat platform to help those who are having a problem. The scope of support is in accordance with their customer base.
Squarespace also has a community forum, but that is hardly as useful as the one for WordPress.
WordPress
WordPress has an endless amount of resources when it comes to support. Thousands of people are active in the WordPress community to help people. Developers from all around the globe form a close-knit community solely dedicated toward improving WordPress.
This is immensely beneficial if you are just starting out or taking care of your own site. There are lots of documentation in the form of articles and videos among others.
7. Squarespace VS WordPress: Price
Squarespace
It offers a range of pricing plan for both personal/business websites and ecommerce sites. The pricing plan is further subdivided to cater to the need of the users. They can also go for either monthly or annual subscription option.
Annually, it would cost a user $144 dollar per year for the personal plan and $216 for the business plan.
For the basic store plan, it would cost $312 per year and $480 per year for the advanced store plan.
Squarespace is fine for businesses that have a low possibility of growing, however, as your business grows the cost piles up.
WordPress
WordPress is an open source website builder and thus is free to download. As your business grows, you can add stuff that as you scale up it. A lot of free and paid tools & plugins are available.
Most things that are required for operating a website or ecommerce store is available for free. More advanced features that are available to enhance a site can cost a few dollars.
However, what you include on your site depends on you. Therefore, the cost is fully dependent on your need.
Wrapping Up
A lot of young people are choosing Squarespace as their website builder without doing much research. That is good an all.
However, as we went through different aspects of Squarespace VS WordPress, we found out that it is WordPress that comes out on top in most cases.
WordPress is a trusted name for a while now and continuous to do so.
Squarespace is perfect if you don’t want much customization or want to hand over most of the controls and sit back & relax.
Whereas, WordPress is equipped to handle any and all types. It gives you total control and you (or your developers) are able to define what it should be. That’s why WordPress is definitely the superior of the two for website building.
