Squarespace vs WordPress- The Ultimate Comparison
Wordpress and Squarespace are two big website builders that let you seamlessly build a site without any coding knowledge or technical skills. Many readers want to see a comparison of Squarespace vs WordPress to know which one is suitable for their needs.
So in this article, we will talk in detail about Squarespace vs WordPress on the basis of their con and pros. We hope this comparison lets you decide which platform is right for you.
Note: This comparison is between Self-hosted WordPress ( not wordpress.com) vs Squarespace. As we planned to create the simple and straightforward comparison between Squarespace and wordpress, we ahve classfied them on the basis of categories.Here we will understand the comparison by examining each section and know which platform offers the best.
- Templates and designs
- Easy to use
- E-commerce
- Costs
- Data portability
- Integrations and extensions
- Internationalization and languages
1. Templates and designs
Both Squarespace and WordPress come equipped with pre-made design tools and templates to make it simple for you to build a custom site.So, let's see which one provides you with wide options and tools to build appealing websites.
Squarespace
It offers pre-designed templates well organized into varied sections. You will find here tons of themes for all popular website categories along with professional and unique designs that will definitely look great on both small and large devices.
But, the number of pre-designed templates offered by Squarespace is quite limited. This is where this platform falls behind. Its themes come with a few layout choices with templates. You can also check out the list of the best Squarespace templates.
You can only do basic fonts, colors, site logo and so on, but these site templates are not highly customizable as compared to WordPress themes.
Wordpress
It offers access to tons of free and premium templates for your website. All the templates are flexible, customizable, allow you to upload your own site logo, fonts, images, colors and many more.Various themes by WordPress come with drag and drop builders, multiple layout options, photo galleries, sliders, as well as other prominent features.
No matter what type of site you are creating, WordPress has a variety of templates to offer that fits your job.
Many WordPress newbies find this plenty of choices quite overwhelming. Also, if you are looking for the best WordPress themes for building different types of websites like blogs and others, let's check out these contents:
- Best-One Page WordPress Themes
- Best Podcast WordPress Themes
- Best WordPress Themes For Business Websites
- Best Photography WordPress Themes
Who is the winner?
If we talk about the design and templates, WordPress seems to be a clear winner. It terms of al choices, design, templates, flexible and customization options.On the flip side, Squarespace provides good looking templates, however, they are not flexible and are very limited.
2. Easy to use
Most beginner-level users and business owners are not aware of CSS, HTML, and other terms related to coding. they look for a platform that assists them simply build a site without appointing a developer or an expert.Let's see how both platform clash in this category.
Squarespace
When it comes to tons of choices, Squarespace lacks behind. The lack of options makes it very easy and simple to use. even beginners can easily write and post content.It uses a block editor tool similar to the WordPress platform. adding videos, images, as well as audio files is easy as compared to woprd[press. There is a boatload of layout choices and content b in the block editor tool.
It lets you modify your site templates and pages as per your need via a visual editor tool. But, you will lack the options accessible in the customizer. As its a controlled environment, you will not get a wide range of options.
Wordpress
When it comes to starting a blog, Wordpress is the most preferred choice by both small and big business owners. Around 325 of websites online are powered by Wordpress.
As WordPress is honestly easy and simple to use, there is also a little learning curve.
Newbies will have to familiarize themselves with its concepts and terminologies like understanding plugins and themes, the difference between tags vs categories, pages vs post.
The WordPress content editor comes with custom blocks to add elements to your site pages and is easy to use. This helps you easily create stunning layouts for your website with the media-rich article.
Most users in very little time adapt to WordPress.
Who is the winner?
Squarespace seems to be a clear winner in terms of ease of use for beginners. But due to its insufficient features, it might not be suitable for all types of business owners.On the flip side, WordPress provides newbies a number of options which may seem complicated initially, but later it becomes more flexible and easy for users to use.
It comes with a boatload of page builder plugins by WordPress that any WordPress owner can utilize in order to create a beautiful custom site with the help of an intuitive drag and drop page builder.
3. E-commerce
Wondering to build an e-commerce website? Let's understand the Ecommerce functionality offered by Squarespace vs WordPress.Squarespace
When it comes to creating e-commerce sites, here also Squarespace lacks so many functionalities. You are limited to PayPal and Stripe for payment procedures, which are not available in many countries.Squarespace comes with the limited mode of payments, this is not good for your website and business. As this can limit the opportunity to get business from a global market. It's not a good idea for a growing and big business to start with such limitations.
Besides this, you are limited to sell products in commerce and business plans.
Wordpress
WordPress is popular for all good reasons. It let you use and integrate any payment mode you want. Tons of WordPress plugin lets you simply receive payment online via PayPal, Google Checkout, Stripe, Payoneer, 2Checkout, Bitcoin and Skrill.Numbers of commerce plugins offered by WordPress can turn your website into an eCommerce site in no time. WooCommerce is a very popular and most used eCommerce platform around the world, it is also a reliable WordPress plugin.
Woocommerce comes with so many pre-ready themes, Add-ons and so on. No limit is given to you, you can add as many products how you show them, and how you sell them. One of the best parts of it is that it also allows you to run an affiliate program on your WordPress platform to expand your site and to the wider audience.
Who is the winner?
Clearly, WordPress is way above to Squarespace in terms of running an e-commerce site. limitations offered by Squarespace are not healthy for any growing online business.The best part of WordPress is that it let you use it along with Shopify.
4. The costs
Pricing plans of each platform is very important to know to make a sound decision. Now lets come to the main point, the pricing of both the platforms.Squarespace
Squarespace personal plan cost from $12/month or $16 monthly. This personal plan by Squarespace comes with very limited features. you are only allowed to add two contributors to your WordPress website and are not allowed to sell products.Squarespace business plan cost from $18/month or $26 monthly. this plan by Squarespace comes with e-commerce support, but they cost a 3% transaction charge.
It's business plan comes with advanced features and limitless contributors pages.
The platform has also individual plans for eCommerce stores beginning from $26 monthly with no extra transaction charges.
Wordpress
WordPress is a popular CMS platform, accessible for free to everyone. you can download and use it for free as its an open-source software. To build a website, you will require a domain name and register for a hosting account.As per your needs and budget, you can pick a VPS hosting, shared hosting or managed hosting plan. Usually shared hosting works best for most business and personal websites.
You can see our guide on Managed hosting vs Shared Hosting.
The cost of the domain name and web hosting diversify depending on which domain name you choose or which hosting company you opt for.
One of the most important steps that you should b taken from your side is to know your needs. you as a site owner must know the features and functionalities you need on your site as well as the resources. Aso, your budget should be known to you.
With around 54,000+ free plugin and 6800+ free templates, you can run your WordPress site for as little as $2.75/month.
The main reason for the popularity of WordPress is its overall pricing plans for building a site is extremely low.
Besides this, you can tweak your hosting plan in the future as your website grows. you can pay for the features you need without overpaying any amount. This helps you set a budget for your budget.
Who is the winner?
In this category also WordPress is ahead of Squarespace. Wordpress is a clear winner with its reasonable pricing plans available from a wide range of hosting services from around the globe.5. Data Portability
When you sign an agreement, you first go through the terms and conditions of that agreement to avoid any problem in the future. Like, if you are not satisfied, then you may leave immediately.This condition follows in the online business also, and it is named data portability. Suppose, you are not satisfied with the service/platform, then you should suppose to collect your work and shift to somewhere else.
Let's have a look at how Squarespace and WordPress scores in data portability and the liberty to switch.
Squarespace
Just like any other feature by Squarespace, the export feature by Squarespace is also quite limited. you are allowed to export only a few parts of your article in an XML format.This covers your galleries, pages, one blog page alongside all posts. your album pages, product pages, audio, text and video blocks can not be exported.
Wordpress
Wordpress has in-built tools that make the process of export all your site data seamlessly. Now only your images and content, but also you can take a backup of your plugins, themes as well as the entire site database.Without any hassle, you can export any content to any Content management system. You can keep your content anywhere and switch web hosts any time you want.
Who is the winner?
The article or content you post on your WordPress website is yours, and one should have the tools and right to move their content wherever they want.So, again in this WordPress beats Squarespace with simple to handle tools to export any data on your website.
6. Integrations and extensions
All website builders are come filled with a lot of n-built features.As your site grows, you would wish to add more features on your site to enhance its functionality and connect your website to work easily with third-party services and tools.
Now let's have a look at Squarespace vs WordPress performance regarding this.
Squarespace
Squarespace stands nowhere to WordPress especially when it comes to integrations and extensibility.You can add customizations and third-party integrations but Squarapace lacks powerful APIs. They may offer official third-party integrations, but they are also available in limited options and not support all popular services.
This platform lacks the feature to allow custom sites that you may require for your e-commerce site.
Wordpress
The best part about WordPress is its huge stack of plugins. WordPress plugins work as apps or your website that you can immediately install and use to add the latest features on your WordPress website.There are around 54,000 free WordPress plugins in wordpres.org plugin directory. you can also use paid plugins to enhance the functionality of your WordPress website.
If you imagine a feature to add on your WordPress site, you will find a plugin that does it.
Wordpress powered plugins are feature-rich and enhance the performance of your website.
Also, check out the ultimate list of plugins by WordPress that every website owners should have.
Who is the winner?
Well, you can easily guess the winner! Wordpress is again winning the game. with its unimaginable library of plugins and integrations, it's hard to win over WordPress.On the flipside, Squarespace has very limited extensions and plugins.
7. Internationalization and languages
We live in a world where various businesses cater to a multi-language audience in diverse geographical locations.Have a look at how Squarespace vs WordPress handle multi-lingual content, languages and geographical locations.
Squarespace
Squarespace can be translated into 6 languages ( French< German, English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish). You can anytime change your website language and select different countries/time zone.As mentioned above, you can only use PayPal and Stripe for receiving payments. You are supposed to create a website for each language. Also, you will be charged for each site individually.
Wordpress
WordPress can be translated into a number of languages. The audience on a WordPress site can select their own language by changing the language from the profile setting.The majority of WordPress themes are retina ready and translation ready and all top WordPress plugins are also translated into different languages.
Overall, you can create a website in a multi-language of your choice. Wordpress may lack the multi-language feature, However, there are some amazing plugins to build multilingual sites that are feature-rich and SEO friendly.
Who is the winner?
The comparison says it all, WordPress is again the clear winner in terms of localization functionality and languages.On the flipside, Squarespace again falls behind as of its limited features to build multilingual websites.
In the end, without a second thought, the choice is very simple to make. it's pretty obvious that Wordpress bashes Squarespace in almost every category.
If you are seriously planning to build a new website, we heartily recommend choosing up WordPress over Squarespace.
On the flip side, if you just want to create a simple website with fewer functionalities, then Squarespace can be a good option.
Also, You can share your opinions on Squarespace vs WordPress.
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