Customization vs Convenience: Is WordPress or SquareSpace Right For Your Business?
Five factors to consider when choosing a website builder for your digital storefront.
A website is your business’s digital storefront. It’s where you promote your products and services. It’s where you showcase your brand, your values, and who you are.
In short, it needs to look good. It also needs to serve its purpose, whether that’s to capture leads, sell products, or showcase a portfolio.
Business leaders often ask me what website builder they should use. What’s better: WordPress, SquareSpace, or Wix?
Seasoned web developers recommend WordPress, without fail. But having worked with many small, lean teams, WordPress isn’t for everyone.
In this article, I’ll walk through five factors to consider when choosing a website builder.
What’s the big difference between WordPress, SquareSpace, and Wix?
Website builders fall into two broad categories: completely customizable platforms like WordPress on the one hand, and ready-to-go platforms like SquareSpace and Wix on the other. (For simplicity’s sake, for the rest of this article, we’ll group SquareSpace and Wix together since they function in very similar ways.)
Why People Love WordPress
Web developers love WordPress because of its flexibility. You can design anything on it–as long as you can code it yourself. Since you can customize every facet of your WordPress site, the platform is a must for anyone who is looking to create a unique web experience.
For those of us who are not tech-savvy, WordPress has a steep learning curve. The back-end is not intuitive. Many businesses rely on outside developers to design, build, and maintain their WordPress websites.
Why People Love SquareSpace
By contrast, Squarespace is quick and easy to use. It was created for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and people who aren’t tech-savvy. (Don’t be fooled, though–you can add in custom code to SquareSpace, and some very large organizations use the platform.) The pre-existing templates give you a beautiful-looking site from day 1, and the back-end is easy to manage.
SquareSpace has its limitations, however. The pages must be designed within the confines of SquareSpace’s capabilities: the elements are not infinitely customizable.
What factors should you consider when deciding on a website builder?
1. Are there specific functionalities that you need?
Make a list of things that you need people to be able to do on your website. This list might include:
Purchase a product
Book a meeting
Scroll through an image-forward blog
Create an account
You can also add back-end functionality requirements such as cybersecurity capabilities, payment processor specifics, and more.
Once you have this list, compare WordPress to SquareSpace for your business’s needs. For most of these examples, WordPress and SquareSpace are comparable. But it’s possible that you’ll have a requirement that only WordPress can fulfill.
2. How much design flexibility do you want?
If you need a simple website that will look good no matter what, consider choosing a platform like SquareSpace. It offers less flexibility in terms of design and scalability, but is easier to set up. SquareSpace has many design templates to choose from, allowing you to create a professional-looking website in a short amount of time.
If you’re looking for bells and whistles, Wordpress may be a better option because its endless templates and plug-ins allow you to customize your website infinitely. Two warnings on this front:
The template you choose may not be compatible with the plug-ins you need
Many plug-ins are managed by 3rd parties and may not be maintained forever, requiring updates and changes along the way
3. How quickly will your organization grow in the next 2-3 years?
If the answer is “not much,” a platform like SquareSpace may be better. As mentioned above, Squarespace is less customizable than Wordpress, but easier to set up and manage over the long term. If you know that your site will not need to change and grow with your organization, you can be safe with SquareSpace.
If you foresee that your organization is going to change or scale in the next few years, it’s worth choosing a website platform like WordPress which can easily accommodate customized design changes. For example, early stage startups may be showcasing their proof of concept today but will be generating leads and selling products in 3 months.
No matter what, consider your website investment to be for the upcoming 2-3 years. After that, you’ll need to revisit its content and perhaps even its design to make sure that it still accurately reflects your business.
4. Who will be managing your website?
Rarely do businesses take a “set it and forget it” approach to their websites. There’s always a blog post to be added, an event running, a promotion going. Knowing who on your team will be making those changes can influence what website builder you choose.
WordPress has a challenging back-end for those who are not familiar with it. It may require monthly maintenance due to updates and patches for templates and plug-ins. Moreover, WordPress customer support can take a long time, especially since it does not service non-WordPress templates or plug-ins.
In short, whoever will be managing and maintaining your website should be familiar with WordPress. If you have someone in-house who can do that–great! Alternatively, many businesses pay an external group a monthly retainer for website maintenance.
SquareSpace has a very user-friendly back-end, so it is easy to manage for people who are not tech-savvy. There aren’t any updates to run. SquareSpace customer service is very responsive and will provide support for any pages that do not have custom code.
Often, businesses with SquareSpace sites do not hire external groups for website maintenance, making it a more budget-friendly option.
5. What’s your website maintenance budget?
WordPress and SquareSpace have similar monthly fees for business plans. They’re in the $23-$49 / month range if you pay for an annual subscription. (You can see WordPress’s pricing here and SquareSpace’s here.) The differences here won’t make or break your budget.
The big budget difference can come from taking on a website maintenance agreement to support your WordPress site. Businesses choose to do this because backend maintenance and updates on WordPress can be challenging for people who aren’t tech-savvy. These maintenance agreements are often run through the web developer who builds the custom WordPress site.
Monthly maintenance agreements can be structured by the hour (assume 5-30 hours of work per month) or as a flat-fee retainer. Often, the retainers depend on the size of the website. Small teams should budget at least $300 / month for a maintenance agreement.
Conclusion
The right website builder for your new site depends on your design vision, your growth plans, your staffing, and your budget.
Do you need a unique design for a fast-evolving business? Go with WordPress.
Do you need something low-budget for a stable business that your team can manage internally? Go with SquareSpace.
Remember, plan for your website to last 2-3 years before giving it a significant overhaul. No matter what decision you make today, it’s always possible to switch between website builders in the future.
Here are two ways I can help you:
Serve as your business’s Fractional CMO.
Analyze and optimize your marketing strategy.
Interested? Send me a note.