WordPress vs Squarespace: Which One Should You Choose in 2024?

WordPress vs Squarespace

Undeniably, it’s the website’s quality that can either make or create a brand’s online presence. A decade ago, people were fixated on hiring the best website developers to make their portal look attractive and professional. However, today, with the advent of self-creating platforms, things have become easier. So, if you’re ready to take charge but are confused between WordPress vs. Squarespace, this post will clear all of your doubts.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a popular open-source platform to build websites. As per the statistics, more than 24 million websites are built on this CMS. Not just it comes with tons of extensions but also provide complete liberty to edit the code of the website.

What is Squarespace?

On the other hand, Squarespace is another website building tool and has supported an approximate of 3.5 million sites so far. Be its qualitative template designs or the extensive collection of substantial features; this platform has a complete package to offer.

Comparison Between WordPress and Squarespace:

WordPress and Squarespace are two dissimilar platforms. Thus, it makes complete sense that they’d be appealing a diverse type of audience and would be adequate for different types of websites.

Squarespace is a website builder platform that comprises several advanced features, including templates, security measures, SEO tools, and much more. It’s a perfect platform for those who want a professional website without investing much of their efforts.

And, WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS), where you get to be responsible for every aspect of the site. Right from installing plugins to finding a theme, managing the security, running updates, website building and hosting, you get to control everything. Those who know how to manage things on their own can surely go with WordPress.

Hosting Solutions:

WordPress doesn’t come with the liability of hosting in comparison with Squarespace. Thus, if you’re choosing this platform to build your site, you’ll have to select individual hosting providers matching well with the requirements of WordPress.

In Squarespace, on the other hand, hosting is included in the package itself. There’re no limitations on bandwidth and storage. You can choose a package as per your requirements.

WordPress vs. Squarespace Design:

  • Mobile-Friendliness:

This is one of the most important factors to consider while choosing a platform. Templates available in Squarespace are completely mobile optimized. Every template comes with an inbuilt mobile view, ensuring that the website looks impressive, irrespective of the device.

However, for WordPress, the game is a bit different. Considering that this platform has innumerable themes, the quality differs for each of them. Some older ones might not have mobile-friendliness. Thus, you’d have to look closely while choosing a WordPress theme.

  • Usability:

With Squarespace, since the hosting is taken care of, the installation process becomes short and quick. All you’d have to do is sign up, purchase a domain inside the Squarespace dashboard, select a template, and customize it as per your requirements. And, if you’re not much of a DIY person, you can find an official list of Squarespace specialists who you can hire for the job. Also, the interface of this platform is minimal and clean too.

But, for WordPress, installation is more of a hands-down process. Since you’d have to take care of everything, the set up will be extended. It’d take more of your time and efforts. As far as the interface goes, WordPress comes with a cluttered dashboard and might be difficult for a newbie to navigate.

  • SEO Friendliness:

In WordPress, you can easily find SEO plugins that make it easier to execute proper techniques. With tools like Yoast SEO plugin and more, you can set the meta description, optimize content, and create a sitemap as well. All in all, everything remains in your hand.

Squarespace, on the other hand, doesn’t have any such plugin, and most of its SEO features are inbuilt. While it means you wouldn’t have to do much, it’d also consume more time to tweak or change anything required.

Extensions:

WordPress comprises an extensive repository with more than 55,000 plugins that can help extend the capabilities of the core of your site. You can practically find a plugin for almost everything in WordPress, in both free and premium versions.

In Squarespace, there’s no free official extension that you can get. However, you have the opportunity to purchase them from third parties.

Build-a-Website-Squarespace

Themes & Templates:

Undeniably, Squarespace themes and templates are pretty and outclassing the ones available on the competing sites. Also, Squarespace offers a reasonable number to choose from, divided into different categories.

But, the number of Squarespace templates cannot outrun the number available for WordPress. Although the exact number is difficult to depict, you can find at least 994 of them in the WordPress repository. Apart from that, you can find a wide range of free and premium themes on several other platforms, like CyberChimps and more.

Features:

In terms of features, you can expect the following things from WordPress & Squarespace:

Features of WordPressFeatures of Squarespace
Ease of having several contributorsMultiple templates in a single site
Different media uploadsHundreds of customizing options
Compliance with W3C standardFree Typekit fonts
Inbuilt commentsCustom CSS
70+ languages availableImporting & exporting
Easy upgradesDisplay effects
Importing option availableDrag and drop management

Pricing:

If you wish to start your website without paying anything much, you can go with WordPress.org. However, the domain and hosting charges would cost you around $50 a year, to start with.

If you’re choosing WordPress.com, there are five different plans, suiting varied niches and professions. These packages are priced at $3. $5, $8, $25, $45/month.

And, for Squarespace, four different packages, two for website and two for an online store. If you wish to start a website on this platform, you’d have to pay $12/month for a basic plan and $18/month for an advanced plan. On the other hand, the packages for an online store cost at $26 and $40/month.

Maintenance:

Considering how the online world is evolving, there’s always something that you’d have to work on or maintain on the site.
WordPress provides frequent notifications telling you whenever you need to update it, be it the plugin, theme, or the entire site.

Also, the maintenance is quite simple as well. You can even update with a few clicks. But, sometimes, while updating, one part might not be compatible with the other. In such a scenario, your site can crash just like that. That’s why it’s recommended to take a backup before updating anything.

Since Squarespace regulates everything on the backend, they always test before releasing an update. This makes sure that the update works similarly on all the pieces of the site, decreasing the chances of crashing.

Support:

Support is one of the primary things that’s required while creating a website. WordPress has a vast community, comprising of developers and contributors from across the globe. Thus, you can rest assured of having an adequate response whenever you come across a problem. But, this response might get delayed, or you’d have to navigate through different forums to find a solution.

Squarespace has a complete Knowledge Base page, covering almost every topic, to make things easier. Apart from that, they also have a 24/7 team ready to help you via live chat, email, and Twitter.

Reviews:

Fair and unbiased opinions can help you form a better decision. So, here are some of the reviews on both of the platforms to help you better.

WordPress.org Review:

“WordPress is hands down easy and intuitive to use. I have built many sites using WordPress and have always enjoyed the project. We use WordPress on two different websites, and it solves all our website issues.” – Christopher Joles (Source)

“WordPress is one of the best platforms for creating websites because it is easy to use, to update and change. And, it has many tools to customize how you want your page. It’s just a matter of having creativity. It has countless available templates, add-ons, and widgets that will allow you to start.” – Grady (Source)

Squarespace Review:

“Can’t fault Squarespace. Their customer service is impeccable, and they’re always on hand to help out. Their templates are seamless and a great way to set up a business website for low cost when you’re just starting.” – A Davles (Source)

“I enjoy Squarespace and have made a handful of excellent sites. But I don’t expect everything to be free and easy. I took the time to learn how to customize the site. They do well, and the price point is great for the support I receive.” – Rick Munster (Source)

Pros and Cons:

Squarespace Pros and Cons:

ProsCons
No coding skills requiredHigher costs
Drag and drop editing toolRestricted design choices
Preview changes as you make themLimited features

WordPress Pros and Cons:

ProsCons
No limitations for codersMore installs and frequent backups
Can be easily tailored to suit needsYou’ll be responsible for managing everything
Extensive collection of themes & pluginsRequires manual scaling of hiking hosting

Conclusion – WordPress vs. Squarespace:

While making a decision, there are a few aspects that you must look into that’ll help you make the right choice.

If you wish to create your website from scratch on your own, as per your own requirements, you can choose WordPress over Squarespace. And, it’s even a good option if you know how to code well and can take up the responsibility of managing.

However, if you don’t want to dig deeper, Squarespace would be the best website builder for you. You can choose this platform if you don’t know enough coding and want to keep the management responsibility at bay.

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