Squarespace VS WordPress: What is the Best Website Builder

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that “If it’s not online, it’s nowhere!” and that made businesses really think about taking their products and services to the platforms that reach globally irrespective of the shutdown. The businesses started creating their website portals and literally everyone’s alarm rang almost at the same time!

Multiple businesses coming under small cap, the start-ups, the home-grown business ideas, every-single-one started creating their own website. And but-obvious, in order to stand out from the crowd, the website needs to be eye-catching.

The competition no longer remained in the quality of product and services, but the real question came as to how better you showcase your brand. The solution came up to create your own creative as well as attractive website which also has tools that can efficiently handle all of the infrastructure needs and does not require much of the coding language. Well, if you go and search about it, you will get hundreds of options, but WordPress and Squarespace are two of the most popular in the business. So, take a seat and we are going to help you solve this everlasting confusion of which website builder to opt for, by giving you a clear-cut comparison of features, templates, and hosting options for Squarespace Vs WordPress.

WORDPRESS- AN OVERVIEW

WordPress as we all are aware, is a free and an open-source management system (CMS). It is based on PHP and MySQL. It started as a simple blogging system in 2003 but powers more than a quarter of new sites today. It clearly is the choice for nearly a half of the top million sites making it the most popular on the web. Choosing WordPress, you get about 13 years of proven history and with more than 50 million sites globally that are created using the same platform, you know your work is going in the right hands.

SQUARESPACE- AN OVERVIEW

Squarespace is a creative website builder designed to help artists build their own attractive websites and showcase their work, no matter how well versed you know your technical terms, Squarespace gives you a home-like environment. If you are a photographer, artist, and anyone who simply loves design and is willing to make their website look as good as the content you generally show off offline, then we can assume your search very well ends here itself. But let’s say your business is not revolving around high quality images or the website demands loads of textual briefings – you may struggle to use Squarespace’s visual designs at its par.Unlike WordPress, Squarespace gives you 14 days trial period, post-trial period Squarespace plans starts at $12/month

DISCUSSING THE SUBSCRIPTION PLANS IN WORDPRESS VS SQUARESPACE:

WordPress currently is offering four plans: Personal, Premium, Business and eCommerce. The details of each plan is easily available on their official website WordPress.com. There’s also WordPress.org to create a website for free if you have a hosting provider. If you wish to create a website using professional templates and features, select the plan as per your requirements and you’re good to go.

Squarespace as well covers its plans in four pricing tiers: Personal starting at $12/month, it’s ad-free and includes a free domain name for a year. The Business plan costs $12/month. You get marketing features under a business plan. The online Stores Basic $26/month plan and the Advanced tier with $40/month adds Ecommerce features.

HOSTING IN SQUARESPACE VS WORDPRESS:

If simply explained, your WordPress subscription does not include hosting and Squarespace does.

But the supreme benefit while you select to create your website using WordPress is that you can easily download, edit and host the WordPress codebase anytime and from anywhere. Reputable hosts will have a server architecture which is WordPress-ready. None-the-less many will have one-click installation. But an important thing to consider here is that your host’s tech support might not cover WordPress itself, so by any chance you break something while editing, you’re on your own. Whereas on the other-side of the road, Squarespace might not give you availability in each of your hosts’ servers. No matter how time saving and attractive Squarespace codebase is, your host’s server might not be Squarespace ready.

TEMPLATES IN WORDPRESS VS SQUARESPACE:

Squarespace spoils you with dozens of pre-constructed attractive templates. The templates are designed before-hand according to  robust user interface principles. Your subscription plan contains all the pre-made designs and development, hosting and security certificates, everything in one price. But again, the debate comes down to whether or not it is advisable for the businesses which DO NOT deal with imagery or video contents to invest a wholesome amount over Squarespace subscription?

Whereas on the other hand there are literally thousands of WordPress templates, all of them with completely accessible code to let you make any changes you desire. WordPress literally has everything for everyone. If you’re artistic enough, you can easily design your site in a graphic application and then probably can just give it to a developer to program. There are countless designers out there, who offer custom WordPress design services. You’ll get exactly the look and functionality you wish, but it might add up a little to your costs.

DISTINCT FEATURES OF WORDPRESS:

The most unique feature of WordPress is that it gives you the power to run your website the ‘old’ way. No matter what the product or service your brand deals with, you will find everything you’re looking for way too easily. With easy access to CSS and HTML, one can make N number of tweaks until everything is exactly how one had envisioned it to be. If you are good at design or programming or say you have access to cost-effective pros who do, it might very well give you an ace and you can customise your website to behave and do what you want in limitless ways.

DISTINCT FEATURES OF SQUARESPACE:

Squarespace is a comparatively more controlled environment. There is absolutely no need to buy or source designs, extensions, hosting or any other services additionally. You can simply sign up, start building your pages, and deploy your site when you’re satisfied with the result.

But one thing to keep in mind is while using Squarespace you will have no direct access to codes. Meaning you can hardly make changes or make any tweaks in any of their given template or design.

CONCLUDING WORDPRESS VS SQUARESPACE

Given a choice to reserve a dinner table at a restaurant which has multiple cuisines and that avails you to enjoy the evening with your loved ones plus gives you options to make any required changes in the pre-decided menu versus a restaurant that offers delish food but has very limited items listed on the menu in addition to their ‘no changes allowed’ rule. Which one would you like to choose?

Who is not spoilt with the choices? In this analogy, the former restaurant clearly signifies WordPress, with its easy customizable and personalized experience. The latter is just similar to Squarespace. No doubt, Squarespace gives you a ready-menu. You don’t need to brainstorm much. It clearly holds your hand much tighter.

But the ready templates might not deliver you right exactly the way you had envisioned your dream website to look like. It would require some changes to give it the authentic look that your brand promises its customers.

But if you need to work with only the basics like email or social marketing or ecommerce, Squarespace would suffice for your needs and it will definitely be visually striking. But a basic WordPress will have your back just fine if you do not need a host of special or unusual features

Even so you might need to hire a service provider to take care of errands required to run a successful website, there are certain WordPress development firms like Technocrackers that help you hone your business growth with a compact yet elegant website design which fits perfectly fine for your brand.  Contact us today with your WordPress development requirements!