[ad_1]
WordPress vs Squarespace! Which is the Right Web Builder for Your Needs? I am trying to choose those best website builder for your new website or portfolio can seem like an impossible task, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience in the field. There are tons of high quality options, each with their own selling points and use cases.
In our WordPress vs Squarespace comparison, we take a closer look at two of the world’s most popular portfolio building options. But before we begin, it’s important to understand the fundamental differences between the two.
For one, Squarespace is a popular website builder known for its extremely attractive templates and great native tools. It offers all-in-one website building solutions, which makes it a decent option for those who want to get online with minimal hassle.
On the other hand, fully hosted WordPress solutions are available through the WordPress.com website builder. These contain practically everything you need to start a new site, but it’s a pretty limited platform with terrible design flexibility and high prices.
For this reason, we have focused on the extremely popular platform WordPress.org in this comparison. It offers great design flexibility and virtually any tool you can think of, allowing you to create virtually any type of website or online store.
Our top 3 webbuilders of 2021
WordPress vs Squarespace: head to head
01. WordPress vs Squarespace: Features
Both WordPress.org and Squarespace bring a lot to the table, with a number of advanced features to help you build the website of your dreams.
WordPress and Squarespace both stand out on the template front. With either option, you can find a high quality design to build a portfolio, online store, or virtually any other type of website.
Squarespace is known for its excellent, professionally designed templates. Although the library is on the small side, each design is unique and you shouldn’t have any problem finding something that suits your needs.
On the other hand, WordPress.org is supported by a huge library of themes with over 8,000 versatile designs. You can also import a design from a number of third-party libraries, or hire a developer to create a custom design if necessary.
WordPress and Squarespace are both great options for ecommerce.
Squarespace makes it very easy to set up a new online store, with a range of advanced selling tools and great templates. In addition, you can sell digital products, subscriptions, and various other types of content, which makes it an attractive option for creatives looking to monetize their work.
WordPress can now be combined with a plugin like WooCommerce to build an extremely powerful shop. Add practically any tools you want or program your own custom widgets as needed.
Squarespace offers a small number of extensions that you can use to connect your website to third-party platforms. These are a bit limited, however, so don’t expect too much functionality here.
On the other hand, the WordPress plugin library is huge. Here you will find add-ons for everything from search engine optimization (SEO) to portfolio creation and more. There are also numerous tools available to help musicians, artists, and other creatives showcase and / or market their work.
Overall, expect to have access to much more advanced features with WordPress.org than with Squarespace, although Squarespace is certainly not a bad option.
02. WordPress vs. Squarespace: Performance
To compare the performance of WordPress and Squarespace, we took a close look at the management interface and website editor for each platform.
For one, WordPress clearly excels in terms of design flexibility. While it’s nowhere near the most beginner-friendly platform we’ve used, you can customize practically every aspect of your website.
Now the native WordPress editor is pretty straightforward. However, you are in full control of your site’s code, which means that you can make changes here as needed. Or, use a website builder plugin like BoldGrid to unlock full drag-and-drop editing.
Meanwhile, Squarespace’s Builder UI is nowhere near the best we’ve used. While it has drag-and-drop functionality, you will be largely limited by the template you choose.
Additionally, the editor is quite cluttered and will take some time to get used to. Many of the design elements are not where you would expect them and just getting familiar with the platform will take a fair amount of time.
Ultimately, neither platform is a great option for beginners. However, if you’re looking to create a highly personalized website or portfolio, the design flexibility of WordPress.org is sure to beat it here.
03. WordPress vs. Squarespace: Support
Squarespace clearly excels at customer service, with fast, reliable live chat and email support. The only downside here is that live chat may not be available periodically, but at least it’s there as an option.
The Squarespace Help Library now contains a variety of self-help resources. This includes a selection of guides and tutorials as well as videos detailing various aspects of the website creation process.
Unfortunately, support is the only area where WordPress has really fallen behind. As an open source platform that is free to use, it offers absolutely no live support services. However, it is extremely popular with web developers all over the world, which means there are tons of resources available on the internet.
04. WordPress vs Squarespace: Pricing and Plans
As an open source CMS, the basic software WordPress.org is forever available free of charge. However, it is important to understand that this is not a stand-alone platform and you will almost certainly incur some costs during the website building process.
For one, you need some type of web hosting that you can use to store your website and its files. Although free hosting is available, we recommend paying for a premium plan from a reputable one Web hosting provider, with prices starting at a few dollars a month.
You’ll also have to pay for a custom domain name, any premium themes or plugins you use, and, if you need help building your website, developer fees. You will likely end up going through multiple providers for the different services required.
Squarespace, on the other hand, offers four different subscription options. There’s no such thing as a free Forever plan, but you benefit from a 14-day free trial and great annual payment discounts.
A basic personal subscription ($ 12 per month) has everything you need to build a basic portfolio or informational page, but it lacks marketing and ecommerce tools. Upgrading to a business plan ($ 18 per month) unlocks advanced analytics and basic online sales features.
The Basic Commerce ($ 26 per month) and Advanced Commerce ($ 40 per month) plans add increasingly powerful ecommerce tools.
All in all, Squarespace and WordPress are both great options for creatives looking to start a new portfolio or website. But they are also very different platforms with different sales arguments.
Squarespace offers a streamlined editing interface, a range of extremely attractive templates, and advanced integrations to help you maximize your content exposure. The design flexibility is somewhat limited and quite expensive, but it remains a great option for those who just want to get an attractive website online quickly.
However, to unlock the ultimate design flexibility and create a truly personalized website, use WordPress.org. It’s certainly not the easiest platform to get started with, but you will find that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages if you are willing to invest the time and effort.
Related articles:
[ad_2]
