Feeling overwhelmed when choosing between Squarespace or WordPress? Fret not, this blog will cut down all your confusion. Be it Squarespace or WordPress, both are robust platforms designed to make powerful websites. But choosing the right one based on your needs can be challenging.
In this blog, we will compare Squarespace and WordPress.org on multiple parameters. This will give you a 360-degree view of the different aspects of both the website building platform.
Stay tuned to know everything about Squarespace and WordPress.org and which one best suits your needs.
Attention: Before we proceed with our comparison, we just want to make a clear distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a free and open-source platform, while WordPress.com is a subscription-based website builder with limited resources. Here we are going to compare WordPress.org with Squarespace and not WordPress.com.
Our Verdict: Squarespace Or WordPress?
When deciding between Squarespace and WordPress, consider your preferences and needs. If you prioritize quick and easy website creation with excellent support, Squarespace is the ideal choice. Its impressive templates and comprehensive assistance ensure value for your investment.
However, if you prefer complete control, customization, and a good understanding of website technicalities, WordPress might be the perfect fit. It is a ready-to-deploy tool, and the vast community of users makes it a top choice for larger projects.
Table Of Comparision Between WordPress And Squarespace
| Parameters | Squarespace Ratings | WordPress Ratings | Winner |
| Pricing Efficiency | 3.7 | 4.2 | WordPress |
| Search Engine Optimization | 4 | 3.8 | Squarespace |
| User-Interface | 4.5 | 3.8 | Squarespace |
| Content Control | 4 | 4.6 | WordPress |
| Plugins & Add-ons | 4.3 | 4.2 | Squarespace |
| Design and Templates | 4.5 | 4.2 | Squarespace |
| E-Commerce | 4 | 4.3 | WordPress |
| Blogging | 4.5 | 4 | Squarespace |
| Security | 4.5 | 4 | Squarespace |
| Support & Assistance | 4.7 | 4 | Squarespace |
Pricing: Which One Provides Value For Money?
Squarespace has a range of pricing plans, starting from $16 per month for the Personal plan up to $49 per month for the Advanced Commerce plan. These plans include hosting, templates, and customer support.
From building personal websites to larger e-commerce stores, Squarespace has something for everyone.
Squarespace offers an all-in-one solution with hosting, templates, and domain in a single plan. This can be helpful for users who prefer a more streamlined and intuitive experience.
Contrary to that, WordPress.org is a completely free and open-source platform. However, you will need a website hosting server to host your website on the internet.
A regular WordPress hosting plan starts at around $7-10 per month. As shown in the image attached below, GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans starts from $8.99/month and can go up to $20.99/month.
Once the hosting is sorted, you can use the vast library of free themes and plugins to create and manage your website. Even though paid themes are also available for users who are willing to add more functionality to their websites, none of it is a mandatory expense.
Bonus: WordPress offers Black Friday discounts during a specific period around November on their plans.
On one hand, Squarespace offers simplicity and a user-friendly interface in exchange for a monthly subscription; WordPress enables you to build on top of a free content management system.
With WordPress, you can also host your website locally and experiment with the build before investing in WordPress hosting.
Verdict: WordPress, being a free and open-source platform, is a clear winner in this segment. WordPress could be a perfect choice for you if you are looking out for a robust CMS for free.
User Interface
When we visit a CMS, the first thing we need is an intuitive user interface to interact with, and this is what Squarespace offers you. Squarespace focuses primarily on the experience of those users who are trying to build a website on the platform.
By cutting down all the complicated hassle, Squarespace presents a clean and controllable admin panel that is easy to navigate.
The editor used in Squarespace is also simple, easy to grasp, and self-explanatory. Another notable feature of Squarespace is its monochrome nature, which minimizes clutter.
Now that we have insights into Squarespace’s interface let us discuss the interface of WordPress as well.
WordPress, while not overly complicated, provides users with extensive control over their websites. Its user interface may appear outdated, as it hasn’t seen significant updates in nearly a decade. But it remains functional and highly efficient.
WordPress allows you to change almost every aspect of your website, offering a level of unparallel customization.
Despite the lack of visual updates, WordPress remains a reliable and powerful tool for website management. Both Squarespace and WordPress offer unique user experiences, catering to the different needs and skills of users. But as per my experience, I’d choose Squarespace’s user interface any day over WordPress.
Verdict: Squarespace emerges as a UI/UX extraordinaire with an intuitive design and a clear focus on the usability of its websites. Even though you can optimize your WordPress websites for better UI, Squarespace does it natively without breaking a sweat.
Design And Templates
Squarespace offers a wide range of high-quality templates that reflect the latest design trends. It personalizes your theme selection by asking relevant questions about your needs.
On the basis of this, it presents you with a specified set of templates particularly suitable for your use cases. Here are some of the types of templates offered by Squarespace:
- Blog
- Business
- Photography
- Portfolio
- Online Store
- Personal
- Non-Profit Organization
- Event Templates
All the templates offered in Squarespace have a minimal undertone that is subtle yet effectively pleasing to the eyes. Its designs take inspiration from modern-day design trends and promote artistic liberty.
And the best thing about Squarespace website templates is that most of them (the good ones) are free. However, it also has Squarespace premium themes that can be purchased.
WordPress offers an unparalleled number of options when it comes to customizing your website. Users can access a vast library of free and paid website themes to build their sites, allowing them to find the perfect fit for their needs.
A large number of versatile themes such as Astra, OceanWP, Neve, and GeneratePress allow you to build on top of their efficient templates. Astra is the most widely used WordPress theme and offers templates for websites such as agencies, blogs, personal portfolios, startups, fitness, restaurant, photography, and many others.
All of these themes are available for free and extra features of the themes can be unlocked by buying the theme. With WordPress, users can choose the way their website looks and make radical changes to the original theme.
Verdict: Squarespace comes out as a clear winner in this segment with its USP of minimal and modern-looking website templates. It enables the users to build a good-looking website with great attention to UI/UX.
E-Commerce Capabilities
Squarespace’s e-commerce capabilities cater to businesses of all sizes. Its business plan offers e-commerce tools such as pop-up ads and unlimited product listings.
With Squarespace, you can also accept multiple forms of payments from your website, such as donations. But, the dedicated e-commerce plans unlock a wide range of advanced e-commerce features. This includes 0% transaction fees, inventory management, and label printing right on your website.
Squarespace seamlessly integrates with Instagram, elevating your product listings and gift card options. You can also recover abandoned carts with Squarespace e-Commerce plans, along with video storage and subscription sales to diversify your business avenues.
It also equips you with an advanced analytics dashboard that provides real times sales stats and assists you in pivoting your marketing accordingly.
Now when we discuss building an e-Commerce marketplace with WordPress, it may involve a slightly more complex process. But, it offers a vast section of e-commerce plugins that cater to various store management tasks.
There are some popular plugins, such as WooCommerce and Shopify, but they come with a cost or have limitations in their free versions. However, the functionalities that they add to the website enable it to become a full-fledged online store.
WordPress also provides extensive scalability and flexibility for building an expandable online store. With WordPress, you can choose from different plugins and customize your e-commerce experience according to your needs.
Verdict: WordPress is a top choice for e-Commerce businesses for a very long time and it has adequate reasons to stay in that place. WordPress is reliable, scalable, and easy to manage. Even though Squarespace is great, it needs some time before overtaking as the best CMS for e=Commerce.
Blogging Capabilities
Squarespace offers a variety of professionally designed blogger themes. It supports many authors, making it easy to collaborate and manage content permissions while working with your team.
Squarespace beautifully blends function and style. Its intuitive features let you organize and schedule posts, effortlessly turning your ideas into engaging content. Its automatic social media sharing further extends your reach, delivering your voice to wider audiences without any extra work.
All the while, your blog sports a sleek, modern design, turning it from a simple blog into a curated experience.
WordPress also offers a wide range of free blogging templates with different functionalities. It includes built-in tagging, SEO tools, and categorizing features for content organization.
Apart from that WordPress also provides an efficient and productive workspace for creating and publishing blog posts. You can write, edit, and publish your content right from your WordPress editor while also utilizing the SEO plugins to optimize it accordingly. WordPress ensures a smooth and easy blogging experience while ensuring a substantial reach to your audience.
WordPress also offers social media plugins to add social sharing buttons and encourage engagement on your blog.
With HTML access, you can entertain greater control over the design and functionality of your blogs. Additionally, WordPress has a vibrant blogging community, offering opportunities for networking and support.
Verdict: As per my experience of publishing a blog and making it live on the website, I found Squarespace to be more productive and conducive to writing blogs. By adopting a minimal approach and automating the basics, Squarespace allows you to focus primarily on writing without extra distractions.
Security Features
Squarespace provides built-in SSL certificates, ensuring secure HTTPS connections for your website. It also offers GDPR compliance features, helping you adhere to data privacy regulations.
With built-in cookie management, you can also handle user consent and follow the cookie policies. Squarespace includes automatic malware scanning to detect and prevent any security threats. Additionally, it protects against DDoS attacks, safeguarding your site from malicious traffic.
WordPress on the other hand has a different take altogether on website security. Apart from the basic security tools provided in Squarespace, WordPress also has dedicated security plugins to patch up the security loopholes and provide stronger security for your website.
Apart from that, hosting providers also offer security features to safeguard your WordPress site. Tools such as SSL certificates are commonly provided for free by your WordPress hosting provider.
Note: Here are some of the things you should diligently practice to secure your website – using strong passwords, regular software updates, and cautious plugin installation. You should also monitor for any suspicious activity and enable 2FA on your website.
Verdict: For a hassle-free, secure web presence, Squarespace emerges to be a better choice. With automated updates and robust security, it elegantly handles the complexities, allowing users to focus on content and creativity.
Integrations And Plugins
Squarespace has a rich plugin marketplace where users can choose plugins to enhance the overall functionality of their website. Squarespace app market allows users to navigate through multiple categories of plugins and tools that they can easily integrate into their website. Using plugins on your Squarespace website provides you with enhanced functionality and specialized features.
From free to paid, Squarespace has a wide range of plugins available for its users. Here are some of the top-rated plugins on Squarespace:
- Bookly: Online booking system for appointments
- Contact Form 7: Customizable contact form for easy communication
- Mailchimp: Integrates Squarespace with email marketing
- Squarespace Events: Creates and displays events calendar
- Unsplash: Easily adds high-quality images from Unsplash
What sets Squarespace apart is its rigorous review and approval process for each app before it joins the marketplace. This ensures reliability and seamless compatibility with all Squarespace websites.
You can explore the App Market and empower your website with the perfect add-ons to optimize your online presence. With the right plugins, you can not only interact but also engage with your audience effectively.
However, the Squarespace app market may be regarded as a popular option, but it falls short when compared to the extensive range of features provided by the WordPress Plugin Directory.
WordPress Plugin Directory is much larger than Squarespace with over 59K plugins at your fingertips. At WordPress, you have plugins to automate almost everything. From optimizing SEO and improving performance, WordPress plugins got you covered for all.
Unlike Squarespace, WordPress does not review or approve plugins before they’re listed. This allows the developers to add a wide range of free and open-source options. You can choose from trusted sources, read reviews, and discover the perfect plugins to elevate your WordPress game.
Verdict: Even though it’s not an easy win, we have to give an edge to Squarespace for improving its overall plugin quality as well as its count. On WordPress, you have to take care of everything on your own but with Squarespace, you have got nothing to worry about. This makes Squarespace a better choice in this segment.
Related Read:
Final Thoughts On The Ultimate Website Builder Comparison!
Squarespace and WordPress are two popular website-building platforms with distinct advantages. WordPress is a free and open-source platform that offers complete control of your website. On the other hand, Squarespace makes it simple to design your own website.
Squarespace is a great choice for individuals who want simplicity and beautiful websites. With an easy-to-use interface and minimal designs, Squarespace has become a recent top choice. But if you are a tech geek or a power user who loves to tweak your websites, WordPress is made for you.
FAQs
If you want a seamless experience while building your website, Squarespace is best for you. But if you prefer more control and customization for your website, choose WordPress.
WordPress is free and open-source. However, to use it, you will need to buy a domain, web hosting, themes, and plugins. Which brings it almost equal to the cost of Squarespace.
Squarespace has pre-built features to enable SEO for your website. It ensures that your website gets adequate visibility by following all SEO good practices.
You can start building your Squarespace website for free, but to get it live, you will need to subscribe to their plan. Squarespace plans can range between $16 to $49 per month.
With all the options for customization and complete control over the code of your website, WordPress gives you better features.
