Which Is Better – Squarespace Or WordPress?

Squarespace and WordPress are both prominent website hosting platforms, but they offer different services and meet various business needs. The one that you choose will rely heavily on what your business website needs are.

Even though Squarespace and WordPress are different platforms, it’s not always easy to know which one is better for your business. So here’s a thorough guide to help you choose.

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Why Squarespace and WordPress?

Squarespace is a website builder, whereas WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System). What does this mean?

Squarespace is geared towards those without any prior coding expertise or with minimal experience. The platform provides all the tools you need to create your Squarespace site, and you won’t have to code any part of it. In addition, your website can be created and maintained on the same platform.

As Squarespace doesn’t require any coding or programming knowledge, it’s very user-friendly. In addition, you don’t need an IT team to manage it because the platform doesn’t require its users to have any web development skills.

WordPress, on the other hand, is a CMS platform. CMS platforms require more advanced skills and knowledge. Most WordPress users have a decent amount of web development experience before building a WordPress site.

WordPress requires you to find an additional hosting platform, but you have a lot more freedom in customization. Compared to Squarespace, though, you’ll have a lot more storage and your site will be much more scalable when built on WordPress. 

Although WordPress is geared towards users with prior web development experience, you can create a website on the platform without any prior skills. It’s certainly going to be a lot more complicated, but it’s possible.

In most cases, businesses will choose Squarespace to quickly build a website without much hassle and much coding experience. They want an all-in-one website and management platform, and available support at all times. Squarespace allows businesses to focus more on their website goals than maintenance, too.

Businesses should choose WordPress when they’re looking to build a larger website, and they have experience in web development and coding. In addition, these businesses often aren’t in a rush to launch their site, need more customization, and don’t mind taking on extra maintenance and technical tasks. 

WordPress is a very powerful tool for blogging and gives you complete control over the running and maintenance of your website. It’s not for everyone though, which is why only businesses that need very specific tools or features tend to choose it.

Understand the Difference Between Squarespace and WordPress

Squarespace and WordPress are very different when it comes to how you create your website. It’s important that you understand these differences before choosing your platform, or you might not get the features and services you need.

Squarespace makes building your website easy with a drag-and-drop system. There are readily available Squarespace templates, attributes, and security systems that you can add simply by dragging them into place. 

WordPress is not a drag-and-drop system. You get more control and have access to templates and features, but you’ll need to put in more work. It’s a very flexible and customizable system, but it comes with a price: extra work.

Squarespace vs. WordPress

Let’s dive into more specific differences between Squarespace and WordPress.

Ease of Use

As to be expected, one platform will be easier to use than another. While ease of use might not be something at the top of your considerations, it should certainly be kept in mind. Especially if you don’t have any prior web development experience. 

When it comes to simplicity and ease of use, Squarespace takes the cake. It uses a drag-and-drop system to create your website, perfect for those who don’t have any coding or web development experience. In addition, building your Squarespace website is quick and can be done in a day or less, thanks to the many Squarespace templates and features.

Squarespace can also host your website. You won’t have to find an external platform. There’s also no need for extra maintenance as Squarespace takes care of that for you. If you have difficulties changing or updating your site, they have a fantastic support team.

Beginners can use WordPress, but it will take much more time to learn and a lot more effort. In addition, as WordPress is an open-source platform, you’ll have to do your own coding to get custom features.

Additionally, WordPress doesn’t do any maintenance for you, so you’ll have to update and maintain your WordPress site regularly. Comparatively, WordPress support is a little lacking, and you’d mostly have to rely on forums for help.

Squarespace vs WordPress Plugins

Squarespace has many apps, plugins, and templates available that are quick and easy to use. The platform offers in-house apps for analytics, blogging, notes, and a portfolio. If you want extra apps, you can visit the Squarespace Extensions market and purchase more. 

However, due to its easy-to-use and simple nature, Squarespace doesn’t offer a lot of options. You’ll easily find all the basic apps and plugins, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find more advanced or unique ones. 

Since WordPress is an open-source platform, you can find almost any app or WordPress plugin you want. Different developers may code, and design apps or WordPress plugins, then offer them free or sell them through WordPress. You can also design your own WordPress plugin if you have web development experience.

WordPress offers a lot more when it comes to apps and plugins. There are over 55,000 available, which means you’ll probably find whatever you need. If you want a more customizable website, WordPress is the better platform.

Content Management

If you’re looking for a robust content management platform, WordPress will be a good choice. WordPress allows you to look over the modifications made to your website over an extended period, unlike Squarespace. As a result, you can see multiple versions history and re-implement them anytime, should you decide to do so.

WordPress allows both HTML and WYSIWYG. You can switch between the two while creating and editing your content. The platform also offers a full media library to store, edit, and access all your documents and media. 

Squarespace is much more limited. Not only do they not offer version history access to each page, but they also don’t have an auto-save feature. So if your computer crashes or you hit the wrong button, you could quickly lose all your work.

With Squarespace, you don’t have access to the HTML on your pages. You can use code blocks, but you don’t have access to the HTML behind the scenes. The platform is also severely lacking in a media library, despite recent updates and improvements. 

WordPress makes it easy to tag and categorize your pages, unlike Squarespace. So while Squarespace might be easier initially, you’ll be much more limited in content management with it.

Flexibility

The prize for flexibility goes to WordPress without a doubt. The platform offers thousands of features, apps, and plugins. You can easily find a free WordPress plugin, while you might have to pay for some. If you don’t like any of your options, though, you’re free to code and create your own.

No matter what type of website you’re building or what function you need it to perform; you can make it happen in WordPress. For more advanced projects, you can find an experienced WordPress developer like Get The Clicks to help you create exactly what you need.

Overall, the platform allows complete customization and flexibility when it comes to creating your ideal website.

Squarespace doesn’t have the same level of flexibility as WordPress, but there are ways to enhance your Squarespace website and make it a bit more customized. A handful of functions and features are readily available, but not nearly to the same extent as WordPress. In fact, there are only around 30 Squarespace extensions. 

As with WordPress, you can find Squarespace developers to increase the functionality and enhance your website through code. They’ll be more limited in what they can do, but they can open up doors that allow your website to do what you want it to.

E-commerce

E-commerce is a growing industry as many more businesses turn towards it, often building an online store to complement their brick-and-mortar business. Fortunately, both WordPress and Squarespace offer rather efficient ecommerce plugins or functions for this.

Squarespace has a great built-in e-commerce system. With it, you have access to essential features such as a shopping cart system, a POS (point of sale) system, an unlimited number of products, an automatic abandoned cart recovery system, both gift card and discount options, and the ability to sell any good (physical, digital, subscription, or a service) on your online store.

Unfortunately, Squarespace doesn’t allow multiple currencies and doesn’t support Google Pay. You can, however, use Apple Pay and PayPal.

Although there are limits on Squarespace’s e-commerce system, it’s a pretty robust system. It offers all the basic and necessary features that are easily accessible. 

WordPress doesn’t have a built-in e-commerce feature, but the amount of flexibility you have with the platform makes up for it. As e-commerce is such a popular feature these days, you’ll be able to find any ecommerce plugin you need. Whether you use WordPress’ free plugin market, buy a plugin from a developer, or code your own, you can make it work.

As can be expected, creating an e-commerce feature on WordPress will be a bit more complex, but you’ll end up with a much classier system with many more features than a basic one built on Squarespace.

Content Ownership 

The last thing you want is to find out that you don’t actually have the rights to it once you publish content. Both WordPress and Squarespace aim to keep you happy with their content ownership policies, but there are a few catches.

On Squarespace, all your uploaded content is yours, but the licensing belongs to the company. While this may sound bad, it’s not any different from what you agreed to on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Squarespace doesn’t even use your content unless it’s for promotional services, and you can opt out if you want.

WordPress is an open-source platform, so all the code work is available for redistribution. Your content won’t be licensed, but you’ll also have to use a separate hosting site. Most hosting sites will use the same licensing as Squarespace, so you still have ownership over your website’s content.

Final Verdict

When it comes to building your own website, it helps to know what features you want and the purpose your website will serve. Working with experienced developers like Get The Clicks can give you a much better setup with WordPress, as there is so much more flexibility to achieve the exact vision you want.

When it comes to customization and sophisticated blogging tools, WordPress is unparalleled.

If you’re working on your own and trying to navigate the website development space without much technical expertise, Squarespace is easier to get started with and the learning curve isn’t so steep.

Either way, feel free to contact us if you have difficulty making your choice. We’ll be happy to share our advice and give you personalized recommendations based on your business needs.