WordPress vs Squarespace: 5 Reasons Why WordPress is the Superior Solution

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Originally Posted On: https://www.clutchcreativeco.com/wordpress-vs-squarespace-5-reasons-why-wordpress-is-the-superior-solution/

In the 21st century, a website is a crucial part of your branding. Whether you’re starting a brand new business or just want to share your thoughts with the world, a good website is what you need.

Of course, you have plenty of options when it comes to creating your website. And two of the most popular options around are WordPress and Squarespace.

When you compare WordPress vs Squarespace, WordPress is the clear winner. Don’t believe it? Keep reading to discover why WordPress is the superior solution you’ve been looking for.

One of the best things about Squarespace is also one of the worst things. What are we talking about? The fact that you are forced to use the Squarespace hosting option whether you want one or not.

For very new site owners, Squarespace may work well as a starting point. And the idea of having an “all-in-one” destination for hosting and design may sound attractive. Eventually, though, it gets annoying to pay month after month for what amounts to very basic functionality.

With WordPress, you can create a completely customized site by developing a custom design and theme selecting the right plugins. We’re going to dive into more of what you can do with those plugins, but the bottom line is that you can get more functionality from WordPress than Squarespace. And all without paying a monthly cost for a hosted solution!

Despite billing itself as a great way to get creators paid, Squarespace is very limited when it comes to eCommerce. With it, you can only accept payments through Stripe and Paypal, and that means some worldwide customers won’t be able to buy anything.

On top of that, selling on Squarespace means signing up for a business plan no matter how little you end up selling. And even if you sell a lot, they are getting a 3% transaction fee on your sales.

As we said earlier, you can create a WordPress site customized to your every need (including online sales) without paying for a hosted solution. Meanwhile, Squarespace is going to take a bite out of every dollar you make, and they are going to charge you a monthly fee for the privilege!

Why not make more money while reducing your stress? WordPress plugins let you accept a wide range of payment methods from all across the world. If you want to tap into the potential of a global base of customers, WordPress is your best choice.

Both WordPress and Squarespace allow you to choose from various themes and templates to get your website started. However, this is another category where WordPress has a clear advantage over its competitor.

Squarespace looks pretty attractive at first because you have a variety of themes to choose from. That makes it easy to select a theme that catches your eye and then start designing your site.

However, you don’t have much flexibility when it comes to that theme. If you want to really customize the layout and put your own spin on things, you’ll soon discover that Squarespace theme and design options are extraordinarily limited.

With WordPress, you can have it both ways. Like Squarespace, it has plenty of themes and templates to help you get started quickly. But WordPress also offers a level of design versatility that Squarespace simply cannot match.

Do you want to create a customized site that integrates perfectly with your existing brand? The bottom line is that you can do that with WordPress and you cannot do that at all with Squarespace.

So far, we’ve been focusing on the actual design of your website. But it’s worth asking yourself the question: “how am I going to grow my website traffic?”

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps users find your site based on what they are searching for. And while both WordPress and Squarespace have built-in SEO tools, WordPress offers a more intuitive interface and more options.

Squarespace, for example, has some keywords analytics built in to help you discover the best keywords. But WordPress lets you use the Yoast plugin, which does a better job of gauging how Google-friendly your website is. 

Yoast is a lot like WordPress. For newer designers, it offers a user-friendly way to improve your understanding of your current site’s SEO. But as your design skills evolve, Yoast offers a number of ways for you to conduct an SEO audit of each page so that your site reaches its maximum potential.

Aside from keyword analytics, both WordPress and Squarespace make it easy to manage things like metatags. But thanks to the availability of plugins, WordPress allows you to analyze and alter your SEO on a much more granular level than Squarespace.

Long story short? The Yoast functionality alone makes WordPress the better choice for new site designers. And as your design and SEO skills grow, plugins provide you with additional information and control over your site.

We’ve mentioned this a few times now, but it’s worth driving it home once more: WordPress offers more customizability and flexibility than Squarespace does.

Squarespace bills itself as a great website solution that works well out of the box. And if you want a website solution that never evolves beyond its “day one” functionality, Squarespace may be a great choice. It’s basically the “starter home” of website design.

A starter home is great when it’s just you and your partner, but you’ll eventually need a bigger place as your family grows. And the same is true of your business. Would you rather be locked into the limitations of Squarespace or give yourself some room to grow?

At the end of the day, Squarespace is a great way to start your business. But if you want the flexibility to truly grow your business, WordPress is the clear winner.

Now you have a winner when it comes to WordPress vs Squarespace. But do you know who can help you make the most out of your new site?

We specialize in web design, web development, SEO, and much more. To see how we can transform your website, learn more about our WordPress website design and development services.