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WordPress vs Squarespace: Which One Is Better & Why?

Do you want to know the best blogging platform between […]

wordpress vs squarespace

Do you want to know the best blogging platform between WordPress vs Squarespace? Don’t worry, I will compare them with each other in this guide to find the best option.

WordPress is an open-source platform for starting a blog or website. It is the most popular platform and widely used to build sites. WordPress covers 1/3 of the internet. It gives you the freedom to do anything that you want for your site.

wordpress vs squarespace

It is open-source, which means anyone can use, change, or modify its codes according to the requirements. There are some big names that are using WordPress for their sites, Techcrunch, Beyonce, Vogue, etc. WordPress is very popular and mostly used but it does not mean that it is the only option to start a site. There are many platforms to start a blog.

Learn Best WordPress Alternatives

WordPress has its own two versions- wordpress.com & wordpress.org. Learn WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Comparison Guide.

Every platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. That’s why it is very confusing to choose the right platform for your site. Especially when you don’t know about their features and limitations.

Learn WordPress vs Blogger Full Comparison Guide

Our one reader mailed me with two questions-

  • Which is the best option to start a site WordPress vs Squarespace & why?
  • What is the main difference between them?

So, that’s why I am writing this article to clear all the differences and factors between WordPress and Squarespace. In this differentiation guide, we’ll discuss each term or factor from beginners to expert level to find the best one for you; WordPress or Squarespace.

wordpress vs squarespace

Squarespace is an alternative option to WordPress to start your website or blog and provides great features also. But without knowing the complete differences & factors between them you can’t choose the right one for you. So let’s start!

NOTE: we are comparing WordPress.org with Squarespace, not WordPress.com.

 Wordpress vs Squarespace: Full Comparison Guide (Step by Step Guide)

Learn and work

Most new webmasters or beginners have no knowledge of CSS, HTML, PHP, JavaScript, etc. so they want a platform that will help them to make their site without any programming and easily.

WordPress provides lots of choices. It is used by beginners as well as advanced or professional-level webmasters. You can use WordPress to start a personal blog or to start a fully professional site. WordPress is very easy to use but you have to need to learn some basics about WordPress concepts like as posts, pages, tags, categories, themes, plugins, etc.

WordPress post editor is very easy and simple to use for everyone. It has two options visual editor and a text for advanced level users. You can add Media very easily and optimize them.

Squarespace is a very simple and easy-to-use website builder. A new webmaster can easily publish content on it. Squarespace is a WYSIWYG builder to build a site. It means your changes; additions will look immediately after changes.

In simple words, Squarespace is a front-end editor. After changes, you can see immediately how your page will look to others, after publishing. You can see live changes on Squarespace that you are making.

But in WordPress, you can’t see live changes without previewing or publishing.

Summary

Squarespace is an easy way to make a site without any programming skills. You can build a drag and drop site within some minutes on Squarespace.

WordPress is also an easy method to make your site. You can also make a basic WordPress website in minutes. But you have to need to be familiar with WordPress basics. But if you want any further or advanced changes in the WordPress site then you need to know programming.

You can easily write and publish content in WordPress also like as Squarespace but have need to understand WordPress concepts like as tags etc.

But if you want a site without any programming skills, without wasting time and without any managing & troubleshooting issues then Squarespace is a good option for you.

DESIGN AND FEATURE

Sites, which look professional and perform well, is doing best and attracting more customers.

WordPress has limitless choices for your website. You can make any type of site on WordPress which you can imagine. WordPress offers you 100% control over design & customization of your website. There are thousands of themes from free to premium (paid) to give a professional and best look to your site. You can also use your own custom theme to make your website on WordPress. There are also a lot of choices of plugins (more than 45000+) from free to paid to improve the functionality of your site. You can find plugins to add almost every function in your website.

On WordPress, You can make any design and can any functionality to your site which you can imagine.

But Squarespace is far behind in this factor. Because Squarespace has limited templates to choose for your site. As well as Limited plugins to use on a site. On Squarespace, you can use only inbuilt plugins for your website. Squarespace provides Limited customization and fewer choices. There is very difficult to use an external plugin for your site on Squarespace.

Summary- WordPress is the best option when we compare them for design & features.

Flexibility

WordPress powers the 1/3 of sites on the Internet. Because it provides full control of your website.  Anyone can make their own tools on WordPress that’s why there is more variety of choices. But it may be confusing and time-wasting for newbies to find the right one. Because every developer is not highly skilled. There are some changes to vary the quality of tools.

Squarespace has limited but verified tools to use. Which are secure to use and have high quality. You can’t make tools for your Squarespace website. You can use only tools which are provided by Squarespace.

Summary

In Squarespace, you can use only inbuilt tools. Can’t make or use your own.

But in WordPress, you are free to use any tool which you like. But always use only verified & compatible tools. Don’t use untrusted and unverified tools.  All the popular plugins & tools are verified, so you can use them.

E-commerce

e-commerce functionality is used to make online stores.

WordPress gives you 100% control or power to start your e-commerce store. There are lots of themes that are specially designed for e-commerce sites or stores. In WordPress, you can use or integrate any type of payment method or gateways for your e-store. There is no limit to add products to the cart or Store.

There are many plugins to help you make your site e-commerce-ready. You can use any payment option for your users. You can use Bitcoins also.

There is no commission or percentage of WordPress for the transactions on your store. WordPress is totally free. You have the need to deal with your customers and with your payment channels.

Squarespace gives you Limited control on your e-commerce website. You can add Limited products to your cart. To add more products to your cart, you have to need to upgrade your plan. Which will be more costly. For every transaction, you will pay a commission to Squarespace or upgrade your plan to remove this commission of Squarespace.

In Squarespace, there are limited choices to choose a template or plugins for your e-commerce store.

Summary- WordPress is the best option to start an e-commerce site. Because WordPress have a variety of themes & tools to make your site e-commerce ready.

On the other hand, Squarespace has Limited featured and sources to make or start an e-commerce site.

Cost

In this option, we will check the cost to start a site on each of them. Let’s see which is more expensive in the WordPress vs Squarespace cost comparison:-

WordPress is a free option. You can download, use, change and build a site on WordPress, without any cost. But to start a website on WordPress, you have to need to buy a hosting and domain from the third parties i.e. hosting companies. You can buy shared hosting for your site. But if you want then you can buy a dedicated server. There are many hosting companies to buy hosting for your website. But always buy hosting from a good company. Personally, I recommended you to buy Bluehost hosting.

Other Recommended Hostings: Siteground | WPEngine |

You can buy a shared hosting in $3-4/ month and a domain in $8 for a year. It means you can start a WordPress website in just $45-50/year which is too low. In WordPress, you have to need to pay for that thing which you are using. You can also change your domain or hosting later.

Squarespace offers four plans to start a site with Squarespace-

wordpress vs squarespace

Squarespace’s personal plan starts from $16/month. It means, the minimum cost to start a site with Squarespace is $144/ year. Which is 3 times more WordPress. And the advanced plan of Squarespace starts from $40 per month when pay annually, otherwise its cost is $46 per month. Squarespace prices are varying from $144- $480/year.

Summary

WordPress is a more pocket-friendly platform. Because as we know that WordPress has lots of choices (free to paid) to choose themes and plugins. Your main cost is on hosting and domain. Because you can choose free themes and plugins for your site. But if you want to buy a premium theme, it will cost one time, mostly. You can also use free plugins like as Yoast SEO for your site. You have no need to pay more money in the starting.

But Squarespace doesn’t offer this freedom. I mean, only pay for those things which you are using. Squarespace offers monthly plans.

WordPress is the more cost-effective platform with 100% freedom.

Data Portability

data portability means, if you are not satisfied you’re your chosen platform then you can leave it and move your data to another platform, easily.

WordPress has inbuilt tools Which will help you to export your all data easily from WordPress. You can export every little thing from WordPress, like as- posts, pages, images, videos, theme-plugins backup data, and the whole database.

But Squarespace offers very limited features to export data from Squarespace. You are able to export only some parts of your content, like as- pages, galleries, and posts.

But you can’t export album pages, videos blocks, audios etc.

Summary

WordPress gives you more control & freedom to export your data than Squarespace.

Support

WordPress has a huge community and unlimited resources and tutorials to help & teach you. But WordPress offers only forum support. On this support forum, there are many experts and professionals to help & guide you. You can hire a WordPress developer to help you. But he will charge you for his service. You can find & watch thousands of videos on YouTube and can read thousands of articles and guides on the internet, for WordPress.

Squarespace offers live chat, email support, and forum support as well as a library of videos & guides. Squarespace support team will contact you within 1 hour for your question.

Summary- WordPress has a big community and resources. But you will have the need to find them.

On the other hand, Squarespace offers you dedicated support via chat & email in just one hour.

WordPress is far behind than Squarespace in support comparison.

Maintenance

WordPress is continuously improving it’s to increase security & features. So every time when they update their software. You should also have the need to update the version of the WordPress site. It becomes more difficult and risky when you do it manually.

But now WordPress offers automatically update option to update your site which is easy & secure. After WordPress update, WordPress themes and plugins developers are also update their tools. So you also have to need to update them.

But if you are running out of dated tools on WordPress then you are at risk. Because it may be the cause to reduce the performance, not working properly, hacking and crushing your site.

But On Squarespace, tools are created & managed by Squarespace. So you have no need to worry about the maintenance, backups, security of your site. It is the responsibility of Squarespace.

Summary- in WordPress you have to need to maintain your site by yourself.

But In, Squarespace handles everything for your site to maintain it.

Learn WordPress vs Wix Full Comparison Guide
Learn WordPress vs Weebly Full Comparison Guide

Conclusion of WordPress vs Squarespace

WordPress is more powerful platform and offers 100% control, flexibility, and freedom to you. You can make a WordPress site very easily and in small budget. I prefer to go with WordPress. Because there are lots of choices, full freedom & easy to use without limitations.

WordPress covers the 1/3 of sites on the Internet and 50% of CMS builders. These 50% webmasters can’t be mad or wrong whose go with WordPress.

What do you think about WordPress vs Squarespace? Tell me in the comments box and don’t forget to share this WordPress vs Squarespace Comparison Guide on Social Media.