Squarespace vs WordPress: A Comprehensive Comparison 

Whilst you create a website to boost your business, the very first thing you need is to find an easy-to-use but effective site builder. Undeniably, an adequate site builder can make the entire process of building a site simple and hassle-free. With dozens of site builders like available in the market, it becomes difficult to pick the right one. Some are easy-to use whereas others offer rocust functionalities. So how can one pick just the right one?

Having said that, I at Templatetoaster, would like to help you out. Here is a comprehensive comparison of two well known and established site builders: Squarespace vs WordPress. We point out the benefits as well as downfalls of both the site builders to help you pick the right one. Read this comprehensive comparison to get the answers to your questions.

Squarespace vs WordPress: What are they?

What is Squarespace ?

If you are looking for an absolutely easiest way to build a site without having to write a single code, then Squarespace is your solution. It offers a drag and drop editor to build a site by simply allowing you to add features and functionalities by dragging and dropping the elements around. It gives you the ability to make your site live by simply clicking on the Publish button, once you’re satisfied with the final look of your site.

What is WordPress?

If you are a beginner and are a bit familiar with scripting and programming languages like HTML, CSS, and PHP, then WordPress can work wonders for your site. You can develop aesthetic sites with advanced features, considering it offers more than 11,000+ themes and 55,000+ plugins. However, if you are not from a technical background and coding is not your cup of tea, then we suggest you to hire a professional. Unlike Squarespace, you’d have to sign up for a domain name, hosting service to start using WordPress. While we are at it, we’d like to suggest you to go for Bluehost hosting service, it is highly compatible with WordPress and is also officially recommended by WordPress.org itself.

Squarespace vs WordPress: Which one to use and when?

When to use Squarespace?

• When you are a beginner and want to build a site hassle-free, without coding with responsive designs, compatible with different viewports.
• When you want your site in no time, because Squarespace offers ready to publish themes with minor changes.

When to use WordPress?

• When you want an abundance of themes and plugins to choose from as WordPress more than 11K themes and 55K plugins.
• When you are a proficient developer and want to develop a fully-fledged site with robust features and advanced functionalities.

Squarespace vs WordPress: How do they work?

Working of both Squarespace and WordPress differs from each other. Here take a brief look at the working of both-

Squarespace

Building a website using Squarespace is relatively easier. Firstly, go to squarespace.com and sign up. Then, proceed by choosing the plan you think is sufficient for your site. Now, select a template of your choice. Next, choose the domain name and an URL for your site. Then, you will be redirected to the editor where you can make changes like pictures, text, animations, and other changes. Next, start adding pages like online store page, blog page, about us page, contact us page, etc. when you think your site is ready to go live, just click on Publish. You see, easy-peasy.

WordPress

Squarespace makes building a site pretty easy, however it’s not that simple as WordPress. Before you start building your site, first you need to register your domain name and sign up with a hosting service. Then, install WordPress site builder and pick a theme of your choice. It’s interface is also similar to Squarespace where you can edit the text, pictures, animations and other elements easily. However, you might need to write codes to make changes in the background, integrate functionalities, etc. simply put, WordPress itself is not just a drag-and-drop editor and you will definitely need a professional developer if you are not a proficient developer yourself. You can use TemplateToaster which is a website maker for it.

Squarespace vs WordPress: What are some useful features?

Learning curve

Squarespace offers a dashboard with minimalistic stylish design and easy to use interface. The drag and drop editor is relatively easier for the beginners to get a grip on. Furthermore, its editor is resizable which allows you to make responsive websites. On the other hand, WordPress also offers an easy to use dashboard and is considered a much better solution for multilingual sites. However, it requires at least basic knowledge of HTML, PHP, and CSS programming language. Therefore, it is suffice to say that the learning curve of Squarespace is lower than WordPress because Squarespace can be used without  programming languages.

Website Ownership

When it comes to website ownership than WordPress is the better option. It gives you a lot more control over your site, even if you choose an existing theme and customize it, build the site from scratch, or outsource a developer to do it for you. With WordPress, you get full ownership over site. Alternatively, Squarespace offers a fair control over your site. However, it doesn’t allow you to download a complete database copy or server files. Relatively, you don’t have as much control over your site with Squarespace as you have with WordPress.

Themes and designing

Squarespace offers 100 customizable templates to choose from. With Squarespace, you get some of the most attractive, bold, and unique templates that will make your site stand out. Moreover, you will also be asked the purpose of your site, so that Squarespace can recommend relevant templates to you. Furthermore, all you need to do is make some minor changes like pictures and texts, and your site is ready to go live.

On the other side, WordPress also offers a huge library of more than 11,000 themes and 55,000 plugins, both free and paid. These themes require more than just changes in text or pictures. With WordPress, you can create an aesthetic site if you’re proficient in HTML, CSS, and PHP. However, you at least need to have basic knowledge of programming languages to make changes in the themes. Indubitably, it offers a large themes library, but you can always run into compatibility problems. Then again, the  library is quite large, you can always find and alternate to encountered problems.

Online stores or eCommerce websites

If you are creating an online store or making changes to an existing one, then prefer WordPress over Squarespace. WooCommerce is an open-source WP plugin with WooCommerce ready themes, specifically designed for eCommerce development. No other solution can beat the combination of WordPress and WooCommerce. At the same time, Squarespace offers just enough features to create basic online stores with average functionalities. Moreover, to incorporate advanced features like PayPal and stripe services, you’d need to upgrade to advanced subscription. On the positive side, Squarespace allows you to sell digital products and services, therefore, many freelancers prefer Squarespace eCommerce platforms.

Blogging preferences

Both Squarespace and WordPress are established blogging platforms for quality blogging. You can do basic blogging options like commenting, geolocation tags, track tags, reblogging, etc with Squarespace as well as WordPress. Moreover, Squarespace also offers some additional blogging features like podcast hosting, RSS feed, iTunes tagging etc. While WordPress allows you to add page titles, meta descriptions, etc, which is good for the SEO of your blog. Therefore, if you care about the performance of your blog in terms of SEO, then it’s better to go with WordPress.

Security

Every feature and template of Squarespace is built by their in-house team of developers and designers and they also test it for security issues before launching it officially. It means you can be assured that your website is safe and not collapsing anytime soon. On the other hand, we can’t say the same about WordPress. You will have to be very careful with their implementation in order not to install an incompatible plugin, unsecured one, or the one with a history of crash downs. Therefore, we suggest you to test the themes and plugins thoroughly before installing them on your WordPress website. You can also install a WordPress security plugins to your site.

Squarespace vs WordPress: Comparison table

In case, the above given detailed comparison of features doesn’t clear your confusion, there here is a side by side comparison of the important features of each:

What is Squarespace vs WordPress Pricing?

Squarespace

With Squarespace, you get a flat pricing structure, which makes it fairly easy to understand. It offers 4 main monthly plans-

• Personal ($16)
• Business ($26)
• Commerce basic ($30)
• Commerce Advanced ($46)

In case, you decide to commit to annual plans instead of monthly plans, you can avail these plans at $12, 418, $26, and $40 a month, respectively. Moreover, they also offer a free trial of 14 days, therefore, try it out and see how it works for you.

WordPress

You must have heard that WordPress is free, however, it’s not exactly true. It might be installed free of cost but you’ll still need to pay to a third party for hosting, themes eCommerce integration, plugins, and other expenses. Well there are some free themes available, and for free hosting you can also go for Bluehost, it offers a free plan. However, you still have to spend as little as $4 a month.

What are some pros and cons in Squarespace vs WordPress?

Pros of Squarespace

• Easy to use editor
• No need of coding at all
• 100 ready-to-publish templates
• 27/7 support via email, live chat, and calls
• Integrated image editor
• In-built SEO friendly structure
• Integrated social media features

Cons of Squarespace

• Relatively limited customization available
• Less control over website
• Only high resolution images can be integrated with templates

Pros of WordPress

• 11,000+ free and paid themes
• 55,000+ free and paid plugins
• Budget friendly
• Advanced SEO-friendly plugins
• Social media integration is available through plugins
• Relatively better platform to create online stores
• Relatively less expensive than other site building platforms
• A large online community

Cons of WordPress

• No direct support, only an online forum
• Huge library but frequent incompatibility issues
• At least basic coding knowledge is required

Squarespace vs WordPress – In Conclusion

So, which site building tool among Squarespace and WordPress you would choose is your decision? I would definitely recommend you WordPress. However, Squarespace is equally valuable and capable of giving you impressive results. But the only drawback is it lacks the ability to build a complex site with robust features. However, A small business can go with Squarespace for it’s site with an attractive look, responsiveness, and above-average features. However, when it comes to potential, customization, control, and community. WordPress is the better option. In the meantime, you can check out our amazing site-building tool: TemplateToaster. Please let us know if this comparison helped you and also your experience with WordPress or Squarespace, or any other site building tool you use.