Squarespace VS. WordPress, Wix and others
Five Reasons why Squarespace is a better website platform for Entrepreneurs than WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Weebly and Showit.
With all the website platforms for Entrepreneurs to choose from, it can be difficult to know which one is right for you.
As someone who’s obsessed with web design, I’ve tried out almost every website builder out there and some are definitely better than others.
Currently, the majority of websites on the internet these days are built with WordPress… but that is changing quickly.
Competitors like Squarespace, Shopify and Wix are the new favorites for “DIY” websites, with their “drag and drop” design features that make it possible for anyone to do the job that used to be reserved for web designers and developers.
In this blog post, I’ll explain why I believe Squarespace is the best platform for entrepreneurs and why I use it for more than 80% of my clients’ websites.
(If this sounds like a Squarespace advertisement … I swear they’re not paying me. I don’t even have a referral code. I’m just sharing my honest opinion from personal experience working with all these platforms. I use Squarespace for my own website and recommend it to almost all my clients for the reasons I’m sharing here.)
If you have any questions or want to know more, feel free to drop your comments below.
Now, let’s get into it!
1. User-Friendliness
The first thing want to know whenever I try a new website platform is … “How easy is it to use?”
It doesn’t matter how slick the templates look or how cheap the pricing is, if it’s going to take an unholy amount of time to design and manage your website.
Look at WordPress for example …
Most web designers love to recommend WordPress to their clients. Why?
Because WordPress gives you almost unlimited control over the website and design settings. It’s a web developers’ playground with endless plugins, templates, and features to choose from.
In my opinion, it’s clear that WordPress was designed for Web Designers … not Entrepreneurs.
The same thing goes for Wix, Weebly and Showit.
These platforms have all the tools you need to create a beautiful website … but what about after the website is done? How easy is it for the client to edit and manage the website on their own?
In my opinion, there are only two major website platforms that are designed for the busy Entrepreneur: Squarespace and Shopify (or Kajabi if you’re selling online courses).
Shopify is the king of e-commerce websites.
Squarespace is best for everything else.
2. Design Templates
Almost all of these website platforms offer clients a range of a templates to choose from and customize with your own content.
Most platforms have several basic templates for free, but the higher-quality templates you need to purchase or pay a subscription to use.
On Squarespace, all the templates are free and high-quality, making it really easy to choose a design and get started.
I also appreciate how there are no hidden fees with Squarespace. I would hate to tell a client the template they want is going to cost an extra $300 (screenshot below).
Wix and Weebly give their templates for free, but Showit and Shopify have a theme store where you can purchase premium templates as an add-on (not included in your website fees).
And WordPress is the worst of all because the most popular WordPress website template & builder (Elementor), requires an ongoing subscription for $99/year.
For large companies, this might seem like a reasonable price but for the average Entrepreneur who wants to keep their overhead expenses low … it’s better to choose website platforms that offer free design templates.
3. Pricing
(Note: The prices shown here may have changed since I’ve written this blog post. I’ve provided links to the pricing page for each platform so you can check for yourself.)
Let’s talk about one of the most important factors when choosing a website platform.
Pricing is a tricky one because many of these platforms have hidden fees once you get up close.
For example: WordPress is technically “free” but you’ll pay for hosting and most likely the Elementor template that we spoke about earlier.
Let’s look at the upfront costs first:
Almost all website platforms we’ve talked about here offer tiered monthly & yearly subscriptions (starting low and getting more expensive).
Out of all the subscription platforms (Squarespace, Shopify, Showit, Wix and Weebly)… Weebly is most affordable because they offer a free plan.
Wix is the second most affordable ($4.50/month) and the most popular choice for Entrepreneurs on a budget.
After that, it’s Shopify at $19/month for a basic website…
And then we have a Squarespace personal website for $23/month…
Showit is just one dollar more expensive than Squarespace but has less features for the price.
And finally, we have WordPress … which is technically “free” but you have to pay for hosting and most likely, you will also pay for Elementor ($99/year).
First, let’s see how much hosting costs.
WordPress recommends BlueHost and Pressable as their chosen hosting providers.
BlueHost requires a yearly subscription that would cost a minimum of $71.28/year with security.
Pressable starts at $19/month which is already on par with Shopify and Squarespace.
So between hosting costs and template fees, WordPress is already starting to look expensive. And that’s just the beginning…
Because you’ll also need to pay for plugins on your website, like WooCommerce for an online store, or Yoast SEO for search engine optimization.
But the biggest expense will be the ongoing fees to your web designer… because WordPress is the least user-friendly platform for Entrepreneurs.
It’s rare to meet an Entrepreneur who has the time to manage their own website, much less a WordPress website.
Most business owners end up in long-term contracts with their WordPress web designers, relying on them for support every time they want to upload a new blog post or make a simple page edit.
It’s infuriating for most Entrepreneurs and frankly … one of the main reasons I get so many website redesign projects. 😏
4. Customer Support
Customer Support is an important factor in this discussion because every now and then … your website will malfunction and have small problems that you’ll need to fix.
Maybe your customers will complain about the checkout process, and you’ll want to know if you can add a button here or a checkbox there to make things easier.
Or maybe you’ll launch a new blog or product, and want to set up analytics tracking on your website to see which posts are getting the most readers.
Whatever the reason, you’ll need support for your website eventually.
Most issues can be solved with a simple google search and video tutorial, but there are some problems that you’ll need to speak to a real human in order to solve.
There are many times that I’ve been stuck on a website or needed an answer to a very specific question … and I’ve jumped on a live chat with a Squarespace support rep and got my question answered right away.
This has generally not been my experience with other platforms, although maybe they have improved their customer support lately.
Another thing I appreciate about Squarespace is the Help Center, which is basically a large digital library with tutorial videos for anything you want to do on Squarespace.
I’ve used it many times to learn how to use new features and find answers to questions that my clients have about their websites (without having to search Google or YouTube).
5. Website Features
Website Features is something most Entrepreneurs don’t think of when they’re choosing a website platform.
Most people tend to think that all websites can do the same things.
On the surface, they can.
But certain website platforms were built with specific customers, problems and features in mind.
For example…
Shopify specializes in e-commerce websites. They are arguably the best and most popular website platform for online store owners.
Kajabi and Teachable specialize in online courses. They are arguably the best and most popular website platforms for course creators.
Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Weebly and Showit are not specialists in any particular website category (in my opinion).
They can all roughly do the same things, although some do it better than others and the costs vary. The biggest difference is the audience that they serve.
WordPress is designed to grow with any business, and serve the largest companies in the world.
While the others (Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Showit) are designed for small business owners who need affordable website solutions.
Wix & Weebly serve the most price-sensitive Entrepreneurs with their low-cost website plans (the two most affordable options).
Squarespace & Showit serve the rest.
These are both very suitable options but Squarespace provides better customer support, is more user-friendly for Entrepreneurs and is more reasonable on pricing.
Showit has better templates, I’ll admit. 😒
But it’s my job to make the client’s website easy for them to manage on their own and for that, Squarespace is still my number one choice.
Conclusion
Compared to the other major website platforms (Shopify, WordPress, Weebly, Wix, Showit) … Squarespace is my top recommendation for Entrepreneurs because the company caters to Entrepreneurs (not Web Designers).
This focus on serving Entrepreneurs is reflected in Squarespace’s user-friendly website builder, upfront & affordable pricing, live customer support, quality templates and rich website features.
Out of all the website platforms I’ve used, Squarespace is most aligned with my goals as a designer … which is to give my clients a website they love and can easily manage on their own.
The only time I would not recommend a client to use Squarespace is when they need to build an online store (Shopify) or sell an online course (Teachable).
If you’re still unsure if Squarespace is right for you, drop a comment below and let me know what’s holding you back.
