Why I choose Squarespace over Wordpress
As a website designer, I have used both Wordpress and Squarespace to build websites, and I remember when I was first starting out, trying to decide which one to specialize in. They really are very different.
I did a lot of research and read a lot of blogs comparing them both, and of course tried both of them out to see which I preferred, and which would be best for my business and clients.
After doing my own experimenting with both platforms, I ended up choosing Squarespace to specialize in. But, disclaimer, I do realize there is a place for both of these platforms, and Wordpress may suit your needs better. And if you're perfectly happy with Wordpress and have never experienced any problems with it, I'm not here to bully you into using Squarespace. But if you're not happy with Wordpress and are considering changing, this is the article that may fuel your fire even further.
The following is an easy-to-understand, this vs that, where I explain the main differences between each platform and how you should be considering these when you’re deciding which platform to use.
If you want the shortened (TLDR) version, head to the bottom of the page where I’ve done a summary of the main points!
Flexibility vs Security
Wordpress: high flexibility, low security.
Wordpress is an open source platform. This basically means that it’s an open system, where every man and his dog can go in and design their own tools and plugins which anyone else can use.
This is great, because it means there are thousands of different plugins you can choose from to enhance your site, but the downside is that most of these plugins are non trustworthy, not secure or could actually do more damage to your site than good, like create bugs or crash your site. So you really have to know what you’re downloading and be careful. You also have to make sure these are constantly updated, otherwise your website will be much more prone to hackers. Hackers = dangerous. I’m not using that word lightly, either, there’s some really shady sh** that goes on in the back of hacked Wordpress websites, and it happens way more than you could imagine.
Wordpress is high maintenance, and any updates and security problems have to be updated and fixed manually, and regularly I might add. You couldn’t create a Wordpress website, not touch it for 5 years and expect it to still be standing. What you’d probably find is something much worse in its place.
So basically what I’m saying it, Wordpress is extremely flexible, you can essentially create ANYTHING you could ever imagine with Wordpress. It’s so flexible because it’s open-source, which means basically anyone can get in there and design add-ons and other bells and whistles, so you really have to know what you’re doing and pick and choose these add-ons wisely, as they can be dangerous.
Squarespace: high security, low flexibility
You may have guessed it, Squarespace is a closed source platform. This means that only the head honchos at Squarespace can design any sort of fancy functions.
This is fantastic, because you know everything you use on Squarespace is completely safe and conveniently integrated with the platform.
The downside is that there isn’t as many options, as there’s probably only a handful of professionals working on these. But it’s a quality over quantity situation. This ensures that your website will be conflict-free. No bugs or hackers. And when it crashes (this happens occasionally on any platform) you know that the Squarespace team is busy doing everything they can to fix it (unlike Wordpress, where you’re left all on your own to figure anything out).
The Squarespace team is constantly working behind the scenes to make sure your website is updated and free of any problems, making it so easy for the user. All you have to worry about is what your website looks like and what’s on it, they take care of the hard, techy stuff. You could literally create your site, and not touch it for 5 years, come back and it would still be there, breathing on it's own, just as you left it.
All in all, Squarespace will give you pretty much everything you need for a simple and professional website, and you don’t need all of those extra bells and whistles that come with Wordpress.
Summary
This is where Wordpress and Squarespace are the most different, and probably the main reason I choose Squarespace for my clients. Low maintenance = less cost, less stress, happier clients.
Pricing
Wordpress
Initially, Wordpress is free — this is how they get a lot of people signed up and onboard.
But you have to pay for Hosting, a Domain name, a theme if you’re DIYing and usually some Plugins (we talked about earlier).
And a big one is, unless you want to spend time learning Wordpress, you will probably need to be paying someone to make updates for you and maintain your website.
Squarespace
Squarespace has a few different pricing tiers, from $12 p/month to $40 p/month. Then on top of that you will need to purchase a domain which are usually around $20 p/year. Squarespace offers a domain name free for the first year.
$12 a month is pretty darn cheap for a great website. $40 is pretty pricey, but, this is a super-advanced plan for someone who is selling a lot of products, so you might not even be up to that level yet!
And because you can easily maintain Squarespace yourself, you won’t have to pay extra maintenance costs.
Summary
When it comes down to it, Wordpress and Squarespace are actually very close in pricing. There’s a myth that Squarespace is more expensive, but by the time you buy everything you need to run a Wordpress site successfully, they’re about the same.
The real crunch comes if you plan to hire someone to help you maintain your Wordpress website, which unless you plan to learn to do it on your own, you will most certainly need. With that in mind, you’re definitely looking at a much higher price with Wordpress.
Ease of Use
Wordpress
Unless you have experience with coding, or want to dedicate A LOT of time learning the ins and outs of Wordpress, you’re going to struggle using the backend of this platform.
As someone who considers herself pretty darn savvy, Wordpress is still confusing.
If you don’t mind paying for help, this isn’t a problem. But it’s one or the other, a lot of invested time learning how to be a developer, or paying for help. There’s no easy way around the complexity of running the Wordpress backend.
Squarespace
Much easier than Wordpress. I love this about Squarespace.
Now, I’m not saying it’s easy to design a custom, unique Squarespace website (you can check out some of our premium templates here, if that’s what you want!). but once the website design is complete, it’s SO easy to make minor changes.
Squarespace is designed to be a DIY friendly builder. Their whole business model is to empower people to DIY their websites.
It definitely requires learning, don’t get me wrong. But once you learn your way around the backend of the platform (which is pretty simple) then you can really start having fun with it (dare I say building a website can fun!)
It’s pretty much as simple as typing where you want text to go, drag and dropping images, easy blog post manager, easy store manager. This is a huge money saver for clients and they love to feel like they have complete control over their site (aka their business home!)
Summary
There’s no comparison here for me. For the DIY user, Squarespace is hands down easier than Wordpress, and I think the Wordpress fans would agree.
Customer Support
Wordpress
Wordpress doesn’t have a support team. Though, they do have a community forum of help.
Much like we talked about before, this is a case of quantity over quality. Because Wordpress is such a widely used platform, there are millions (not an exaggeration) of forum posts with questions and answers.
While that means there’s a lot of help out there, it also means that it could be nearly impossible to find an answer to your question. And if you can’t find the answer to your question within the millions of posts (likely…) then it’s time to hire someone to help fix your problems (more money).
Squarespace
Squarespace has a team dedicated to responding to questions about their platform and helping users.
They also have this HUGE free library of articles on exactly how to use EVERYTHING. Even I sometimes still refer back to this library, and I often send clients useful articles from this library to read.
They can do all of this this because they are in charge of the whole platform, so they know exactly how everything works.
I haven’t had to contact Squarespace Support much, but when I have they have replied to me within the a day. They have chat support (which is much faster), email support and a support forum. My experience with Squarespace support so far has been 10/10. All of their support is free.
Summary
There’s support for both platforms, but I think the main difference comes back to the flexibility vs security.
The huge flexibility of Wordpress means that there’s a huge amount of problems, which means there’s a huge amount of questions and answers all over the internet.
Because Squarespace is self contained, there’s very little problems, meaning it’s unlikely that you’ll need to contact them at any time. But if you do, they’ll be able to tell you what’s up, because whatever is going on is likely their problem and theirs to fix.
Squarespace vs Wordpress, what’s better?
Wordpress = Super Dooper flexible, you can build and design literally anything
Squarespace = Not as flexible, less features and capabilities overall (if you hire a good Squarespace Website Designer, they should know how to use custom code to add capabilities you couldn’t do on your own!)
Wordpress = Prone to security problems, crashing and hackers if you’re not maintaining and updating it regularly.
Squarespace = No maintenance required, Squarespace takes care of that for you and keeps the security problems and hackers at bay.
Wordpress = Much the same as Squarespace, unless you need to hire someone to perform maintenance (highly recommended) then much more expensive
Squarepace = For the quality of what you get, it’s very fairly priced
Wordpress = Hard to use. You would need to invest a lot of time or money, usually both, to run it correctly.
Squarespace = Easier to use, quick to learn and great free learning resources via Squarespace.com.
Wordpress = No direct support but millions of free articles to help you. Potentially might have to invest in paid support.
Squarespace = Free dedicated support team on call 24/7 + great free resource/tutorials library.
It’s probably clear to you now why I choose Squarespace over Wordpress. The only advantage of Wordpress that I see, is that it has a HUGE range of capability. But as a Squarespace designer with lots of experience, I can push Squarespace’s capability to much more than a regular DIY Squarespace user can do. There are still times when a Wordpress website is the best option, but 99% of the time, Squarespace is my top pick.
Oh and if you’re thinking, “you haven’t even touched on e-commerce!”, I would say… neither — Shopify all the way! Check out this post for a comparison between Squarespace and Shopify for online stores.
So what do you think? Are you on Wordpress or Squarespace? Are you ready to make the switch to Squarespace, or do you love Wordpress?
Liked this post? Pin it to Pinterest! 👇
