In this article WordPress vs Squarespace, we are going to see which one is the best platform for website building and managing your content over the internet.
WordPress and Squarespace are both website builders by using any of the two platforms non-techy persons can also manage their websites.
Both these website builders are most popular among bloggers and small businesses.
They allow you to easily create a website without any technical skills or programming knowledge.
Here we will see which one is the best website builder and how you can decide which works best for you. In detail, we are going to explore what are the best features of WordPress and Squarespace.
Now, let’s compare and understand the features of both WordPress and Squarespace in detail.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is one of the Open-source website builders or we can say that it is a Content Management Software (CMS) that is built on the PHP programming language paired with the MySQL database.
WordPress is launched on 27 May 2003; it supports the architecture of plugins and a template system means that you can add more features using the plugin and change the design using the templates.
It is one of the most popular content management systems used all over the World, with around 42.8% percent of the top 10 million websites using WordPress.
As WordPress is an Open-Source software and it is now managed by the WordPress foundation.
It is free to use and anyone can download it from its official website https://www.wordpress.org, only the thing you need is the domain and the hosting.
WordPress is fully customizable and offers a lot of features such as you can add any function to your website using the plugins. As it provides thousands of plugins for adding different features to your website.
You can also use third-party plugins for extra features and functions on your website.
What is Squarespace?
Squarespace comes under the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) it is also one of the website builders and owned by the private American company Squarespace, Inc.
It is launched in January 2004, and worked on the feature of pre-built templates and drag and drop features to build the website.
The company also provides the hosting and domain with the website builder so that you will easily start your website. It provides software as a service and allows users to use pre-built website templates to easily design the website and drag and drop elements to create the web pages.
Squarespace is best when you just want to directly start the website by importing the pre-made template.
The motive behind Squarespace to start is that anyone without the knowledge of programming and coding skills can run a successful website.
It is a code-free solution that offers the drag and drops features to build the website and strong customer support as it is owned by a private company.
Squarespace charges some amount of money as per the subscription plan with their users as Squarespace is not open-source software and is owned by a private company.
According to the W3Techs report, Squarespace is used by 1.9% of the top 10 million websites.
Now let’s see what the features offered by both WordPress and Squarespace-
Features & Customization of WordPress and Squarespace:
WordPress and Squarespace both have more than one feature and offer a variety of customization options. So that you can make a website according to your need.
Let’s see the features of both WordPress and Squarespace one by one –
WordPress:
WordPress has the full flexibility of customization of the website as it has thousands of plugins to add different features to the website.
And one of the best things about WordPress is that it is free, you can make any kind of website by using WordPress.
WordPress website is highly scalable, and for more customization, you need to know some knowledge of the PHP programming language.
Some of the best features of WordPress are given below-
Themes:
WordPress has the functionality of changing the themes and users can install any themes according to the look they want.
Themes change the look and style of the website design without changing the core coding and the content of the website. WordPress users can switch among the different themes.
For the functioning of the WordPress website, it is required to present one of the themes in the WordPress website.
Users can install the new theme in the WordPress dashboard under the appearance section. There are two types of themes are present in the WordPress directory one is the Free and the second one is the premium theme.
If you have a good knowledge of PHP, HTML, and CSS then you can also develop your own custom theme.
Plugins:
In WordPress, Plugins are just like apps that add extra features to your website. WordPress has 50,000+ plugins in its directory for different features, some offer premium features.
The premium plugins are not listed in the WordPress directory they can be downloaded from their official websites. By taking the particular plans.
Developers who want to develop the WordPress plugin may have to learn the WordPress hook system. It contains 2,000 hooks as per the 5.7 version of WordPress.
Templates:
WordPress also has the features of the templates used to make the design of the WordPress website.
For making the template of the website you can directly import the templates to your website and your website webpages are created easily without knowing the code.
Other features in WordPress:
In WordPress, there are also many more features that make your website more user and SEO friendly.
It has an integrated link management system; you can create custom permalinks for your page and posts.
You can structure your content on the website using the category and tags features in WordPress. One can easily change the styling of the website using the custom CSS in your website.
Here you can also assign different users to your WordPress website for different roles and access to your website.
Squarespace:
Squarespace is also used by many users for building their websites, but like WordPress.
It does not give too much customization and flexibility.
As Squarespace does not have a lot of features and customization options.
That’s why it becomes easier for absolute beginners to use Squarespace.
And it is managed by a private organization that gives support for technical issues and managed the security vulnerability.
Now let’s see some of the features of Squarespace –
Templates:
Squarespace offers templates for the website and you don’t need to worry about the designs and all the frontend things.
There are pre-made templates available for the type of the website and users can use them as per the website type. In Squarespace, you don’t get too many options for customizations.
As there are not too much of customization options available in Squarespace it becomes easier for the new user and less confusing.
Hosting:
In the case of WordPress, you are free to choose any of the Hosting providers and can host the website by installing WordPress to any of the hosting companies.
But in Squarespace, your website is hosted on the Squarespace server and you cannot move Squarespace to any of the hosting servers.
And it also provides the domain name if it is needed.
Editing Options:
Like WordPress, it also uses block editing options. You can add the images, Audio, and video to Squarespace and gets plenty of content blocks and layout choices in the block editors.
There is a visual editor using which you can edit the templates and pages of the Squarespace website.
But the Squarespace customizer has the limited option of editing the website.
Conclusion:
When we compare both the platforms in terms of the use and customization features then absolutely WordPress will get the extra points in comparison to Squarespace.
Squarespace is best for absolute beginners who do not need a lot of customization functions on their website. You also have to pay for the use of Squarespace as per the monthly and yearly subscription plans.
But in the case of WordPress, you don’t have to pay a single amount of money.
you just need the domain and hosting for your website.
Ease of Use and Flexibility of WordPress and Squarespace:
For absolute beginners, Squarespace is one of the easiest and beginner-friendly options in comparison to WordPress.
As it has fewer editing and customization options which creates less confusion and easy customizations.
Squarespace also has the block editor option which is used to edit the template and themes. WordPress also has the visual block editor and many plugins to edit the templates. It has more customization options in comparison to Squarespace.
E-commerce:
Do you want to build an online eCommerce store?
WordPress and Squarespace also offer E-commerce features, Now let’s compare the E-commerce features of WordPress vs Squarespace in detail-
WordPress:
It has many plugins which turn a normal website into an online store. WooCommerce is one of the best E-commerce WordPress plugins.
It allows you to integrate and use any payment method on the WordPress website.
There are many plugins that provide you the feature to integrate the payment methods to your website such as Stripe, PayPal, Google checkout, etc.
Normal eCommerce website has many features which is requirement of the WooCommerce. It gives many add-ons that really make your E-commerce website amazing.
There is no limit in WordPress you can add unlimited products to your WordPress website and show them to your customers.
Squarespace:
Squarespace provides very less E-commerce features and you have to buy the business or E-commerce plan to sell the product on your website.
Using Squarespace, you can not accept all the payment methods to your website. You can only use the Stripe and PayPal Payment gateways to your website which is not globally acceptable.
In Squarespace, you do not have the full flexibility to expand your online store. Even to sell one product on your website you have to buy the business plan which becomes costlier.
Final Words:
Hope you like this article, and get the clear differences between WordPress and Squarespace.
And after seeing all the features and customizations. WordPress is the best platform to start the website for your business and blogging career.
WordPress gives full control to your hand and you are fully independent to use WordPress. So, it is the best idea to use WordPress, and if you have any queries related to WordPress you can comment down in the comment box.
Or you can read our WordPress tutorial and blogs.
