Squarespace vs. WordPress: Which Platform is Right for Your Business?
Choosing the right platform for your website is a crucial decision that can significantly impact your business’s online presence. The two options I offer are Squarespace and WordPress. I often get asked which one I recommend so I thought I should write a blog to explain each!
Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice depends on your specific needs and goals. In this blog post, I’ll compare Squarespace and WordPress across several key categories to help you make an informed decision.
Required Maintenance
Squarespace: Squarespace is a fully hosted platform, which means all the technical maintenance, including server management, updates, and security patches, are handled for you. This makes it an excellent choice for those who want a hassle-free website management experience. Low maintenance, no backing up or updates of plugins required!
WordPress: WordPress, specifically the self-hosted version (WordPress.org), requires more hands-on maintenance. You’ll need to handle your own hosting (or jump onto one of my Care Plans), manage updates for the core software, themes, and plugins, and take care of security measures. While this offers more control, it also demands more time and technical knowledge. You'll need to factor this into your budget if you don't want to look after this yourself
Price and Upkeep Costs
Squarespace: Squarespace offers several pricing tiers, starting at $12 per month for a personal plan and going up to $40 per month for advanced plans. These prices include hosting, security, and support. While this makes budgeting straightforward, it can be more expensive in the long run compared to WordPress if you need advanced features or customisations. If you are wanting to add a memberships area or email capabilities, this is an additional cost on top as well
WordPress: WordPress itself is free, but you’ll need to pay for hosting, which can range from $3 to $30+ per month, depending on your needs. You might also need to purchase premium themes or plugins, which can add to the cost. Additionally, if you’re not technically inclined, you might need to hire a developer for setup and maintenance, which can increase expenses. My Care plans cover hosting, back ups and updating.
Functionality and Customisation
Squarespace: Squarespace has a great drag-and-drop editor and it’s ideal for users who want a stylish, professional-looking site without having to delve into code. However, it has limitations in terms of customisation and functionality compared to WordPress. You’re limited to the inbuilt features that Squarespace , although there are a few external plugin options becoming available now such as Squarekicker for design features or Will Meyers has some great plugin options too.
For courses or membership areas, they do have this ability but I’m not in love with it (yet) because you cant drip feed content or have milestone automated emails. They also require equal amounts for payments plans so if you are needing to have a higher amount at the start of the payment plan to cover costs of testing or an extra service at the start,you will have to consider this.
WordPress: WordPress is incredibly powerful and flexible, with thousands of themes and plugins available to extend its functionality. Whether you need an e-commerce site, a membership platform, or a complex content management system, WordPress can handle it. The trade-off is that it has a steeper learning curve and requires more effort to set up and manage.
Wordpress has multiple plugins you can add but I like Learn Dash. There is a fee for this but it is comparable to Squarespace and has way more functionality.
Which Platform is Best for Which Type of Business?
Squarespace:
Small Businesses and Startups: Ideal for businesses that need a professional website quickly and without technical hassle.
Creative Professionals: Great for photographers, artists, and designers who want visually stunning portfolios.
E-commerce: Suitable for small to medium-sized online stores, especially those focused on design and simplicity.
Shop Costs: Most businesses will need to be on the Business or above plans If you are on a Business plan, you will incur an additional 3% transaction fee on top of the payment gateway (Stripe/Paypal) fees for selling in a shop.
WordPress:
Growing Businesses: Perfect for businesses that need scalable solutions with advanced features and customisations.
Bloggers and Content Creators: Favoured by bloggers due to its powerful content management capabilities.
Large E-commerce Sites: Best for larger stores with complex needs, requiring advanced e-commerce functionalities and integrations.
Shop Costs: There is no fee for WooCommerce plugin and they dont take a transactional fee like Squarespace. So you will just have the payment gateway fees
SEO Capabilities
Squarespace: Squarespace includes built-in SEO tools that cover the basics, such as page titles, meta descriptions, and clean URLs. It’s sufficient for most small businesses, but more advanced SEO strategies may be limited.
WordPress: WordPress excels in SEO due to its flexibility and the availability of powerful plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. These tools provide advanced SEO features and allow for extensive optimisation, making WordPress a preferred choice for those who want to focus heavily on search engine rankings.
SEO is only as good as the work you put into it though. Both require great on-site SEO set up at the time of build either way
Troubleshooting, Support and Community
Squarespace: Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support via email and live chat. Their support team is known for being helpful and responsive, which is great for users who need quick assistance. However, being an all in one platform, you will only have them to fall back onto for support. Whereas wordpress you either have the option to use a different plugin or have a developers support instead. In my 6 years of using Squarespace, I have never had an issue with the platform breaking down for extended periods of time but with anything, theres always a risk. You also can't take a backup of your website off Squarespace so that if something does happen to the platform, you can restore it somewhere else (you can do this with a Wordpress site.
WordPress: WordPress has a vast community and countless resources, including forums, tutorials, and documentation. While there is no official support team, the community is very active, and you can usually find answers to your questions. For those needing dedicated support, hiring a developer or a maintenance service is an option. In saying that, problems with Wordpress sites are more common. This is because the themes and multiple plugins are all developed by different developers. If one breaks or has not been updated in a while, then it can cause a flow of affect. This is why it’s important to keep your site backed up, up to date and your security plugins a high priority.
Ease of Use
Squarespace: Squarespace is designed to be user-friendly, with a drag-and-drop interface that makes building and managing a website straightforward. It’s a great choice for those without technical skills.
WordPress: WordPress offers more control and flexibility but comes with a steeper learning curve. While it can be user-friendly with the right theme and plugins, it generally requires more technical knowledge to get the most out of it. I’m very tech savvy and even I struggled getting my head around it all after being on SQSP for so long. If you have a professional design it and upkeep it though, they can teach you to do blog posts and then leave the rest to them.
Both Squarespace and WordPress are powerful platforms, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Squarespace is ideal for those who want an easy-to-use, all-in-one solution with beautiful design capabilities and minimal maintenance. WordPress, on the other hand, offers unmatched flexibility and scalability, making it suitable for businesses with more complex needs and the technical ability to manage it.
When choosing between the two, consider your business’s specific requirements (not just for now but a few years down the track too), your budget, and your level of technical expertise. By understanding what each platform offers, you can make a decision that best supports your business’s goals and growth.
Book in a discovery call to have a chat about it further.
