Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress?

which Platform should you use to build your website?

Making a website can be overwhelming.  With so many platforms to choose from, how do you know which platform to use?  While it ultimately comes down to preference, this post should help you narrow down your options to make it easier to pick the platform that gives you the website you want.

Squarespace

 

Pros

Cons

Customizable templates

Expensive – business plans using all capabilities get expensive quickly

Easy to navigate backend

Limited SEO and marketing – Google Analytics and advanced SEO requires workarounds

Built-in features (mobile view, analytics, email campaigns)

Extensions and apps require coding knowledge to integrate

 

Squarespace owns your website


Squarespace offers beautiful templates and design but requires external knowledge for complete customization.  It is easy to use the supported extensions, but the backend can be limited unless you pay for a more advanced plan or know how to code.  That being said, it is easy to change templates and switch from desktop to mobile view.

WIX

 

Pros

Cons

Easy to use – no coding required

Once you choose a template, you cannot change it

Low startup costs – there are multiple plans you can choose from, starting at $5 a month

The basic plans have Wix ads on the pages

Many add-ons and plugins, both free and paid, available

You cannot transfer your website to another host without completely rebuilding it

 

SEO and mobile view are difficult to use

 

Wix owns your website

Wix is useful when you want a simple website that doesn’t require customization or high upfront costs.  However, the lack of personalization makes it more difficult to change your website later without paying for premium packages and plugins, or completely starting over if you decide to move your website to another host.  It is easy to set up a website but becomes much more difficult and expensive if you require more capabilities as your business grows.

WordPress

 

Pros

Cons

Plugins – many plugins available, especially for SEO and e-Commerce

Requires frequent updates

Low cost

Monthly hosting fee

Completely customizable

Requires coding knowledge or a web designer to customize beyond a theme

Easily scalable

 

You’re the Owner

 

 

WordPress is named as the TOP Content Management System. About 35% of the Internet is powered by WordPress and around 20% of all self-hosted websites use WordPress, making it an extremely popular choice for website building.  It is a low-cost way to build a customizable website with the capacity to expand as your business grows.  The true advantage of WordPress is in the form of plugins.  It has numerous free and paid plugins that provide SEO, page speed, marketing, and e-Commerce capabilities, just to name a few.  WordPress itself is not a drag and drop website builder, but there exist drag and drop page builder Plugins to make the design process easier and possible without any coding. 

For full disclosure, I prefer and recommend WordPress to build the most professional looking website able to handle everything a growing business needs. With WordPress, I can host my own website at a low cost and make it look exactly how I want it to.  Every kind of business can use WordPress, and its capabilities make it easy to add new services or products. You can have multiple users with no conflict, so your entire team can have access without disruption. For the price, it can’t be beaten.


Looking to build your website, but don’t know where to start?  Let’s work together and create something amazing!