Do you want to build a website? WordPress and Squarespace are two famous website builders that make it simple to build a site without requiring any professional or coding ability. Which one, though, emerges as the winner?
According to an online poll, WordPress is the most extensively used content management system (CMS) framework, with 39.6% of the websites that are available online using it to control their content.
However, WordPress and Squarespace are powerful platforms for building attractive and effective websites.
Both take quite different methods to website creation and offer various features and capabilities which is why I’ve put together this guide to clarify everything about WordPress vs Squarespace.
In this article, I’ll compare WordPress vs Squarespace in terms of available apps and plugins, ease of use, templates, blogging, eCommerce features, SEO, customization, pricing, and other factors.
Let’s get started…
See Also: Fastest WordPress Themes That Can Help You Rank #1 on Google
Quick Review
WordPress vs Squarespace – A Detailed Comparison
1. Ease of Use
The ease of use is a big selling point when determining either to use WordPress or Squarespace. Is it feasible for you to use Squarespace to develop a website? Is it simple to use WordPress as a beginner? As a result, the ease of use of your site will influence its performance.
A lot of businesses and novice users are unfamiliar with CSS, HTML, and other code-related terms. They want a platform that allows them to establish a website quickly and easily without having to hire a developer. Let’s take a look at how WordPress or Squarespace compare in this regard.
You probably noticed that you won’t have to buy a name and hosting individually before creating your Squarespace website.
Instead, you simply needed to create a Squarespace account, complete a few questions about your site and its goals, choose a template, and your website will be up and running in minutes.
Squarespace has a visual editor that allows you to change your layouts and pages. You are, however, limited to the customization possibilities accessible in the customizer. Due to the fact that you’re in a restricted setting, your alternatives are limited. Yes, you’d have to fill in the blanks with actual images and text, but you get the idea. It’s that easy.
In contrast to Squarespace, you’ll need to buy a hosting and domain to get started with WordPress. You’ll need to download and install WordPress after setting up your hosting and registering your domain to your host.
While this may appear to be a daunting task, most hosting companies now have a WordPress auto-installer in their control panel. You’ll successfully install WordPress with just a few clicks.
Winner
Squarespace is the clear winner if you want a simple approach to building a simple website. It helps you build your website easily. As for WordPress, it is still a simple platform for building websites. It’s simply not as simple as Squarespace.
On the other hand, WordPress gives beginners a variety of options straight away, which might be bewildering at first but makes it a lot more adaptable in the longer term.
2. Templates and Design
Both WordPress and Squarespace offer pre-built designs and template tools to make creating a bespoke website a breeze. Let’s see which one provides you with more options and tools for creating attractive websites.
WordPress has hundreds of paid and free website designs available. These templates are fully configurable, allowing you to add your own photos, colors, and logo, among other things.
Many WordPress themes have a variety of layout options, sliders, drag-and-drop page builders, image galleries, and a variety of other capabilities.
Thousands of beautifully designed templates are available for each type of website you want to create. You may also start with the Divi theme, which is a master theme with a ton of custom skins and total drag-and-drop flexibility.
Squarespace has a variety of pre-made website templates that are nicely arranged into categories. There are themes for every major website category, all with excellent designs that work on any device.
Squarespace, on the other hand, lags far behind in this area. The amount of pre-made templates is restricted, and your design possibilities are likewise limited to the Squarespace customizer’s capabilities.
With each theme, there are a limited amount of layout options. Fonts, basic colors, website logos, and other options are still available, however, these templates are not quite as customizable when compared to WordPress themes.
Winner
In terms of customization options, design options, and versatility, WordPress is the clear winner. Squarespace has several beautiful designs and templates, but they are restricted in number and flexibility.
3. Features
WordPress is well-known for its extensive capabilities. Much of this is due to the countless plugins available, but there are also built-in capabilities to take advantage of. Here are a few examples:
- Tools for publishing, such as scheduling
- Multiple contributors
- Customizable designs
- Options for international use
- Image editing software
- Comments management
- Pages with password protection
These features are designed to make creating your website using WordPress as simple and efficient as possible. WordPress isn’t left in the dust, despite having less straightforward features than Squarespace.
WordPress is a unique platform. Since you’re in charge of your own website, you’ll need to keep track of new upgrades and update your site accordingly.
However, on their customized WordPress plans, web hosting services like Bluehost offer automatic WordPress upgrades for you, making your life smoother and ensuring the security of your website.
Squarespace comes with a plethora of built-in functionality. To mention a few features, Squarespace offers excellent marketing, blogging, customization, and design tools. The list continues on and on, here’s a quick rundown of just a few of Squarespace features:
- Free Google fonts and Typekit
- Multiple templates Installation
- File synchronization using Dropbox
- Audio collections
- Adobe Photoshop Image Editor
- Email marketing campaigns
- Social integration
- Blogging features
- Product quick review
All of these features, as well as a lot more, are included by default in your Squarespace editor. You don’t need to install any additional apps or plugins; just go to your dashboard and choose the function you want to utilize.
Winner
Squarespace beat WordPress in this category, it includes everything you’ll need to build a beautiful and efficient site. However, WordPress relies on its extensive plugin library rather than in-house functionality.
4. Support and Assistance
WordPress has a large community, as well as a wealth of tools and tutorials to assist you. However, due to information overload, we have found it difficult to get excellent and appropriate help.
The core software of WordPress does not have a dedicated support channel. The WordPress community, on the other hand, is global, and there are countless groups, blogs, videos, and online training available to assist you in getting started with WordPress and answering any issues you may have.
Nevertheless, when you purchase a premium plugin or theme, you’ll usually get excellent assistance, and if you’re truly stuck, you can hire one of the hundreds of web engineers available.
Before you hire a developer, think about your hosting provider’s support programs Bluehost, for example, provides in-house WordPress customer 24/7 service.
Squarespace has established a robust community around the channel and provides in-house customer support. They offer a well-organized and comprehensive knowledge base, as well as webinars, video lessons, and other resources.
You can also contact a Squarespace customer support staff member by live chat or email, which is available 24/7.
Although WordPress has a substantial community forum and assistance, Squarespace’s knowledge base is considerably easier to utilize. Squarespace’s in-house support ensures that you’ll get a response to your question.
Winner
In terms of aid and assistance, which of the two website builders performs better? Squarespace outperforms WordPress in this area.
See Also: Most-Downloaded WordPress Mailing List Plugins: Free & Freemium
5. Integrations and Extensions
In the form of plugin integrations and built-in applications, both WordPress and Squarespace provide a wealth of flexibility and capabilities. These extensions can enhance your site’s functionality without requiring you to write code from scratch.
You can install WordPress plugins to add new functionality to your website, much like you can install Squarespace applications. Let’s take a look at how WordPress and Squarespace fare in this area.
WordPress has thousands of services, extensions, and tools that it can integrate with. In the WordPress.org plugin directory alone, there are currently over 56,000+ free WordPress plugins. Thousands of paid WordPress plugins are also accessible through third-party websites.
Since WordPress is an open-source website builder, most third-party services and tools have WordPress plugins that allow you to integrate its services with your WordPress site.
Some WordPress plugins are straightforward and merely add a single function. Other plugins provide a wide range of features and functions.
Even WooCommerce, one of the most popular eCommerce solutions, has its own network of WooCommerce plugins and themes. Plugins like this are like platforms built on top of the WordPress framework.
All of the most popular live chat software, email marketing services, lead generation tools, and SEO tools integrate seamlessly with WordPress.
When it comes to extensibility and integrations, Squarespace lacks in comparison to WordPress.
Squarespace provides apps that are directly integrated with your Squarespace websites, such as an analytics app, a portfolio app, a note app, and a blog app. In other words, there’s no need for you to download or update anything.
Squarespace, unlike WordPress, does not offer rich APIs upon which developers may build. They do offer some official third-party integrations, but they’re restricted and don’t cover all popular services.
You can utilize their built-in eCommerce platform, but you can’t customize it in any way. Squarespace lacks the ability to create unique websites, which you may require for your online business venture.
If you do find that you require additional functionality, Squarespace Extensions is a different software market. There are a few high-quality third-party apps available, but there aren’t many to pick from.
Winner
WordPress is the clear winner. They provide hundreds of plugins. Squarespace, on the other hand, has fewer integration options, most of which are limited.
See Also: 8 Reasons Why WordPress Is The Best Website Builder
6. Pricing
It’s crucial to know how much each website builder costs before making your business selection. Let’s compare the price of Squarespace to the price of WordPress.
WordPress is a completely free website builder. WordPress is a self-hosted platform that is available for free download, modification, and use, with a GPL license that provides you complete control.
You’ll need to register a domain and sign up for a web hosting service before you can start building your website using WordPress.
You can select between shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and VPS hosting, depending on your demands. Most small, personal, and corporate websites can be accommodated by shared hosting services.
The price of the domain name and web hosting varies based on the hosting company you choose. You will have to decide how much resources your website will use and how much you will spend on it.
You can consider the following web hosting alternatives:
BlueHost: A popular, low-cost hosting plan that provides a free SSL certificate and domain name, as well as 1-click WordPress installation and 24/7 customer support. The first month’s pricing is only $2.95.
DreamHost: A low-cost web hosting provider that provides shared hosting for $7.99/month, which includes a free SSL certificate and domain name.
HostGator: HostGator is a low-cost hosting option that includes 1-click WordPress installation, unmetered bandwidth, free emails, free domain name, and a free SSL certificate. The monthly fee starts at $3.
Hostinger: A no-frills service with a $3.49/month Premium plan that includes a free domain name and SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth, and other perks.
To learn more about WordPress hosting, take a look at our review of the best WordPress web host services for high-traffic sites.
The Squarespace business plan costs $18/month (paid annually) or $26/month on a month-to-month basis. It comes with eCommerce capabilities, although there is a 3% transaction fee. Unlimited website contributors, pages, and other advanced features are included in the business plan.
Squarespace also has alternative plans for online stores that start at $26/month and don’t charge any extra transaction fees.
Winner
With customizable pricing plans from several web hosting providers throughout the world, WordPress outperforms Squarespace.
The price is determined by how many resources you use, and by giving you immediate access to all WordPress tools. Squarespace, unlike WordPress, does not offer a long-term and free plan.
7. Security
The internet is an amazing resource. It has the potential to be thrilling, entertaining, social, and informative. It can, however, be frightening.
Your website, like the real world, needs security to protect it from intruders. You wouldn’t leave your house door unlocked, and neither should your website.
It is Squarespace’s obligation to ensure that your website is safe and functional. You might also add an extra element of security by using two-factor authentication.
You will receive an SSL certificate regardless of the Squarespace package you choose. The traffic transferred between the website and the browser is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
Not only can installing an SSL certificate increase visitor confidence, but it also helps your website rank higher on Google. If you’re setting up an eCommerce site and selling online, having an SSL certificate is even more important.
When it comes to backing up your Squarespace website, though, your options are limited. Since Squarespace is a closed system, there’s a slim chance that anything will go wrong with your website in terms of security.
Being that WordPress is self-hosted, this implies that you are responsible for security, and WordPress is more vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS) threats, but it all depends on the web hosting company you choose. It is your obligation to ensure the security of your WordPress site.
This involves obtaining your personal SSL certificate, performing frequent backups, and keeping your WordPress site up to date. Some plugins can assist you with various aspects of your site’s operation, but it’s ultimately up to you.
Web hosting companies like Bluehost and SiteGround offer free SSL certificates, automatic website upgrades, and backups to help you maintain the security of your WordPress website.
In addition, you must also select a reliable plugin with caution. When choosing a theme or plugin to install, look for frequently updated ones, have a large number of active installations, and, more significantly, have a high star rating.
Outdated plugins could contain code that compromises your website’s security and, in certain situations, causes it to crash.
Winner
Squarespace has a higher level of security than WordPress. This is due to the fact that all of its features are in-house, which makes it less vulnerable than WordPress, resulting in fewer security breaches. Squarespace provides experienced service and takes care of everything.
You don’t have to worry about security, unlike with WordPress, where you are in charge of everything starting with SSL certificates.
See Also: What are the 10 Best Website Builders For Blogging?
8. ECommerce
Which website builder should you use if you’re starting a new online store or redesigning an existing one: WordPress or Squarespace?
There are several plugins available that can transform WordPress into a completely operational eCommerce store.
WooCommerce will be the greatest option in this instance. It’s a free open-source WordPress plugin designed for eCommerce businesses. On GitHub, there are over 600 eCommerce themes and a strong developer community.
With WooCommerce, you get a flexible website. The ability to create special deals and coupons an unrestricted number of products, a statistical sales report, and integrated payment methods, among other features.
There are no restrictions on the number of products you can add to your store, how they are displayed, or how they are sold. You are free to create your own affiliate network and use all of the strategies to increase your sales.
WooCommerce has its own marketplace, with thousands of WooCommerce-ready themes and add-ons. Also included were simple digital downloads geared toward assisting you in the sale of digital products.
Squarespace provides a platform that allows you to sell your products online. However, when compared to WordPress, it is somewhat limited.
The Squarespace platform has in-built cart recovery emails in addition to typical eCommerce features. That is something you can achieve with your WordPress eCommerce store, but it will necessitate the use of a third-party plugin.
For payment processing, you can only utilize Stripe and PayPal, which are only accessible in a few countries.
There is no other payment option that limits your capacity to accept payments from a wider international audience. Starting with such limits is not a good strategy for a growing company. Aside from that, only the Business and Commerce plans allow you to sell things.
If you simply want to sell one thing, you’ll still have to purchase the Business plan, and the monthly costs of hosting your store with only one product to sell will be significantly greater than a shared hosting or a VPS plan for WordPress.
There are very few third-party services that you can integrate into your Squarespace store in terms of third-party services. This has an impact on how you promote your store and what you may do to increase sales and expand your business.
Finally, unless you switch to the more expensive eCommerce plans (beginning at $26 per month), Squarespace levies a 3% transaction fee as credit card processing fees, which is a significant disadvantage.
Winner
When it comes to creating an eCommerce store, WordPress is miles ahead of Squarespace. Squarespace’s constraints aren’t ideal for growing an online business.
The beauty of WordPress is that it can be used in conjunction with Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, and Shopify.
9. Website ownership
Squarespace gives you a lot of control over your website, but there is no way to download or transfer the entire database server files. It implies that you will have limited control over your website.
Even if you take a preexisting theme or alter it, WordPress gives you a lot more power over your website. You gain full control of your website whether you construct it from the ground up or hire a developer to do it for you.
Winner
If you’re worried about your site ownership, WordPress is absolutely the way to go. WordPress is a clear winner because it’s open-source and provides you complete control over your website.
See Also: How To Dominate Your Niche With The Best Keyword Research Tools
10. SEO
The process of having your website noticed by search engines like Google is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Every website owner aspires to rank on the first page of Google for targeted keywords, and that’s where SEO comes in handy. However, SEO is a process that takes time. WordPress and Squarespace can both assist you with this.
Squarespace includes SEO features built-in to help you enhance your website’s traffic. Searchable and indexed pages, automated and canonical tagging, clean URLs, automated Google Sitemaps, robots.txt, automated redirection, and more are all included. All of these are fully integrated, so you won’t have to install any additional plugins to get full SEO power.
WordPress is well-known for its ability to produce SEO-friendly websites. However, as with any WordPress plugin, there’s a lot more you can do with most of its popular SEO plugins.
Yoast SEO, for example, has a five-star rating based on over 27,300 reviews and has over five million active installations. Rank Math is another popular SEO plugin, with over 2,230 ratings and a five-star rating.
These plugins provide a checklist of best SEO practices, such as putting keywords in your title and Meta descriptions, inserting header tags, and keeping track of keyword relevancy and proximity, among many other SEO ranking considerations.
While SEO plugins in WordPress provide you more control, Squarespace’s built-in SEO tools accomplish much of the work for you without requiring you to learn much about SEO.
Winner
This category comes out to be a tie. Squarespace is better for beginners with in-house tools, whereas WordPress has more SEO strength.
You can choose strong tools like Yoast by installing SEO plugins on WordPress. Squarespace, on the other hand, is a great alternative if you want built-in functionality and a lot less labor.
11. Data portability
What if you go with either WordPress or Squarespace? You might want to migrate your website to a different hosting service or switch website builders at some time throughout your online adventure. Let’s see how WordPress and Squarespace stack up in terms of data portability and switchability.
There is no 1-click option for backing up or moving your Squarespace website and it comes with several constraints as well.
Squarespace is also not well-suited to transferring data between Squarespace sites. Broken photo links and other difficulties may occur when migrating data from one Squarespace website to another.
If you want to use the WordPress Importer to import your Squarespace data into your WordPress website, your data and images may not move. Instead, WordPress just pulls the image reference URLs, which implies that if you disable your Squarespace website, the picture links will be deactivated as well.
In addition, in an XML file, you can only transfer select elements of your material. This includes all of your galleries, pages, and a single blog page that contains all of your entries. You will not be able to export your product pages, audio, text, video blocks, album pages, and more.
WordPress has built-in capabilities for exporting all of your data. You can back up not only your text and images, as well as your plugins, themes, and your entire database. Check out our roundup of the best WordPress backup options.
Your content can then be easily moved to any other Content Management System. On WordPress, you are free to store your content elsewhere and switch web hosts at any time.
Winner
WordPress once again outperforms Squarespace in terms of easy-to-use facilities for exporting your full site.
You own the content you generate on your site, and you will have the flexibility and resources to move it around.
12. Maintenance
You don’t have to worry about maintenance because Squarespace is a closed platform. However, because WordPress is an open system, you’ll have to be more proactive in managing your website maintenance.
On WordPress, you will have to be in charge of your website maintenance as well as other updates. This may seem difficult, but it’s actually a lot easier than you think. Plugins can automate the majority of it.
You may, for example, locate plugins that handle maintenance for you. If a plugin causes an issue, you can always disable it until the problem is resolved or find a quick alternative to keep your site up and running.
Furthermore, if you choose a managed WordPress host, your host will handle a lot of the details for you. Alternatively, you can always engage a WordPress support service.
You won’t have to worry about nitty-gritty stuff like security or upkeep if you use Squarespace. Squarespace takes care of everything for you, which makes things a lot easier.
Squarespace, on the other hand, leaves you dry and high when it comes to key maintenance functions like backups. It doesn’t appear to provide a mechanism to backup your complete site, which is a major flaw.
Winner
When it comes to upkeep, Squarespace beats WordPress. This is because all maintenance is handled for you, it requires far less effort than WordPress.
Unlike WordPress, where there’s a risk of installing an outdated plugin to carry out maintenance; instead, everything is handled automatically in-house.
See Also: Best Free WordPress Themes (Most Popular and Hand-Picked)
13. Blogging
The free blogger templates are one of Squarespace’s top services for bloggers. You can select from a range of current layouts that display blog articles on the site in a compact magazine-style grid or a single reverse chronological feed. Many of them allow several authors, making it simple to run a blog with colleagues or friends.
Blog posts can be categorized, tagged, and changed within Squarespace. They can also be copied, with a link to each new post being posted to social media feeds like Twitter and Facebook automatically.
To put it another way, Squarespace enables you to simply complete all of the necessary tasks for running a professional blog.
WordPress, unlike Squarespace, has a plethora of free blogging themes. WordPress also has all of the tagging and categorization capabilities that a blogger requires. You can also share your blog content across all of your social media networks by using plugins.
However, if you want to expand your site commercially and possibly make a job as a blogger, you should use WordPress and learn how to do amazing SEO on your own.
WordPress also allows professional bloggers who wish to customize their own look to access HTML freely, something Squarespace does not allow.
In conclusion, Squarespace would suffice if you’re going to start a personal blog and just want to share your thoughts or ideas with your audience without any special business ambitions.
Winner
WordPress’s blogging platform is superior to that of Squarespace. Blogging is at the heart of what WordPress is created for, and owing to a plethora of plugins.
See Also: 9 Best SEO Tools That Helps You Rank High On Search Engine
14. Internationalization and Languages
We are living in a globalized society, and many firms cater to multilingual audiences in numerous regions. Let’s take a look at how WordPress and Squarespace deal with multilingual content and geographical areas.
WordPress is available in a variety of languages. You can select your preferred language from your profile settings on a WordPress site.
The majority of WordPress themes are translation-ready, and most of the popular WordPress plugins have been translated into multiple languages.
In general, you can create a WordPress website in multiple languages. If your language isn’t yet supported, you can translate WordPress yourself.
WordPress does not include multilingual support by default. There are, however, fantastic plugins available for creating multilingual sites that are both feature-rich and SEO friendly.
The Squarespace platform is available in six different languages Italian, German, Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese. You can change the language of your website and select a different country and timezone.
Duplicating your pages will allow you to generate multilingual pages. You’ll have to build a website structure manually or construct separate sites for each language.
Winner
In terms of localization and language possibilities, WordPress is far ahead of the pack. Squarespace once again proves to be extremely restrictive and unsuitable for creating multilingual websites.
15. Flexibility and Scalability
Since your brand is distinct, you’ll need a site builder that can adapt to your specific requirements. In this regard, both WordPress and Squarespace rely heavily on customization possibilities and the accessibility of plugins.
You’re bound to the main company’s hosting services if you are using Squarespace. This is because the website builder is part of any bundle you subscribe for and you won’t be able to use Squarespace software with any other web hosting services.
Squarespace claims to be able to handle heavy traffic volumes. There is no certainty, though, until you have complete control. If you’re ever dissatisfied with the service you receive, your sole choice is to create your website from the ground up on a different framework and migrate your content. As you can expect, this is a time-consuming task.
WordPress plugins, on the other hand, can help you achieve some unusual website goals. There are various solutions, for example, that you may utilize to transform your website into a social media platform with millions of users
WordPress also offers a Multisite functionality that allows you to construct multiple websites that are all linked together in one network.
Although WordPress is best known for being a blogging platform, it can be used to construct practically any style of website. This includes blogs, forums, subscription services, online stores, and a variety of other things.
Scalability, or how large your website can develop, is another factor that is slightly related to flexibility. As your website grows in popularity, you’ll see an increase in traffic and will likely want to add additional features to better your content.
In terms of practicality, this implies that you’ll need more powerful hosting. You can always switch to a better hosting plan because WordPress is self-hosted.
More importantly, you have a plethora of choices, like dedicated solutions, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), and the freedom to utilize any provider you wish.
Winner
WordPress wins this category. No website builder compares to WordPress in terms of flexibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is my domain owned by Squarespace?
Squarespace domains will remain yours and automatically auto-renew on their expiration dates. Before you terminate your subscription and lose ownership of your domain, think about your options.
2. Should I go with WordPress instead of Squarespace?
Squarespace makes it easy if you want to create a personal blog, but WordPress gives you more flexibility if you want to monetize your blog. However, it is worth noting that you won’t be able to transfer your data from Squarespace to WordPress.
3. Why are domains on Squarespace so expensive?
Domains on Squarespace are so expensive because it is a service charge. Squarespace makes it easy for beginners to purchase a domain by retaining it within its CMS and avoiding the need to log in to another platform, but then charges the user more for it.
4. Is my content owned by Squarespace?
You retain ownership of the content you upload to Squarespace. However, you’ll grant Squarespace permission to use your information to provide, improve, market, and defend its services.
5. Is it worthwhile to purchase a domain name from Squarespace?
One of the advantages of purchasing a domain from Squarespace is that privacy protection is included for free. Additionally, if you use Squarespace to design your website and subscribe to a yearly plan you will receive a free domain for the first year. This is a wonderful alternative if your finances are tight right now and you need to save some cash.
6. What happens if I deactivate Squarespace?
When you cancel a membership, your site goes down and your subscription payments stop. After 30 days, the contents of your site are flagged for permanent deletion after it has been canceled. When you now finally delete your site, all of its content is removed permanently.
See Also: 15 Best Email Marketing Services To Increase Your Conversion Rate
Overall Winner
There you have it, our detailed comparison between WordPress vs Squarespace. From the comparison, WordPress won in most categories, however, your choice will also depend on what you need.
Both WordPress and Squarespace are design titans in the realm of website creation. Either option will assist you in creating a visually appealing and functional website. However, there are some significant variances.
Squarespace is designed for those who aren’t tech-savvy. You don’t need to write any code before your website on Squarespace. You can code if you like, but it’s not required owing to the drag-and-drop editor.
WordPress can be more complexing for beginners and it’s more suited for those who are more technologically savvy. However, on WordPress you’ll need to be in charge of your update, maintaining, and securing your own website.
Blogamigo is an online resource that provides you with information on the best website builders, web hosting services, WordPress plugins, and tools that can help you make money blogging.