When developing your website, there’s debate over which platform is better – WordPress or Squarespace. We’ll take a look at the pros and cons of each to see which is right for you.
Before we begin, it’s important to work with a professional company that offers web development services when planning to launch a website. From proper UX design to implementing mobile application development, there’s more that goes into building a website than you might think.
Now, let’s dive into which platform might be best for your needs.
Squarespace Pros
If you’re not incredibly familiar with web design and coding, Squarespace is the platform for you. It’s user-friendly, so even a novice can figure out how to navigate basic web elements.
There are dozens of templates to choose from. All you have to do is plug in your products, images, and text. It also allows for the more experienced designer to utilize the backend to provide additional coding.
Squarespace is great for every type of business. Their designs offer elements for creators, businesses of all sizes, wedding websites, and even resumes with portfolios. Plus, there are great additions you can upgrade such as email marketing or membership programs.
Squarespace Cons
The biggest downside to Squarespace is the price. The cost of an available domain is $20 a year and the annual fee for a basic website is around $144 annually. If you choose a monthly plan, the price increases substantially.
If you choose to pay annually, you do get a free domain. But when you compare these costs to self-hosted WordPress sites, you’ll see you can get more bang for your buck with WordPress and purchasing your domain through a site like GoDaddy.
WordPress Pros
First, let’s note that there are two different types of WordPress hosting: self-hosted and hosted.
- Self-hosted means you have a third-party platform or on your own server. This gives you access to coding to customize your site more freely.
- Hosted means WordPress is providing you full access to their hosting, storage, and other additional features.
Overall, the benefits of WordPress come from the idea that it’s significantly more customizable. You’re given more freedom over the backend to a large degree. You also have plugins you can easily download to your site.
WordPress is also more impactful when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). Through plugins like Yoast SEO, you’re able to keep track of how well your SEO is doing on a certain page or article.
That’s not to say that Squarespace doesn’t have SEO integrated into the platform, but overall, WordPress is more effective because it gets more active search results.
The other major benefit of utilizing WordPress for your website is the cost. It’s much cheaper, starting at around $3.95 per month, especially given how much flexibility you have with the platform.
WordPress Cons
This is where your level of expertise comes into play. For those who don’t have education in coding or website hosting, it can become more aggravating than helpful.
Any minor changes to a plugin update that doesn’t coincide well with the coding on your website could cause an error. If you don’t know how to resolve this, you could find yourself at a dead end.
Hosting issues may arise you’ll have to deal with and let’s just say their online support isn’t the best. Squarespace, on the other hand, rarely has any substantial errors and its support team is very responsive.
Summary
To say which platform is better suited for you is based on a few factors: experience with web design and hosting, cost, and what your website is being used for.
More simplistic websites could easily be hosted on a page or two on WordPress. But if you’re starting a business and have no experience with these platforms, Squarespace might be a better alternative for you.
At the end of the day, outsourcing your web services is always going to be the recommended approach. Your website is a crucial element of your brand.
