Choose a Website Builder or a Website Platform

Squarespace vs WordPress

This is the critical decision that shapes the look, functionality, and SEO performance of your website.

You should make a well informed decision here. But if you don’t know the difference, what can you do?

Listen to someone who has created and run both types of platforms, such as myself.

You are on one of my sites right now. Do you know which type?

Let’s start at the very beginning: What is a Website Platform?

  • A website platform serves as the digital home or store front of your business.

  • It’s software used to create and manage digital content on the internet.

  • Think of your website platform as the ground floor of your online presence.

It’s where everything from the design of your site, its functionality and user experience takes shape.

It’s the foundation of your site.

There are several platform options:

WordPress

Squarespace

  • Weebly

  • ShowIt

  • Wix

And many others!

While some platforms excel in simplicity and user-friendliness, they too also come with individual limitations.

Others offer advanced customization options that are suited for those with a bit more technical expertise.

(or those needing a bit more support.)

I’m ruling out a few options because they don’t truly “count” as websites.

I’ll be skipping Kajabi, Leadpages, and Canva sites as well as those offered by email marketing platforms like Mailchimp.

In the upcoming sections of this post, I’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each to help you confidently decide which

platform best aligns with your own goals.

What Really Matters?

First, let’s make our must-have list for picking the best platform for you!

Before we explore the options for a website platform, including Squarespace and WordPress, let’s make a quick

“must-have” list for a good website.

It isn’t just something that just looks pretty; a good website works hard for your business, 24/7.

What You are looking for in a website platform:

> Easy to use

> Reasonable cost to purchase and maintain

> Strong SEO performance

> Ease of embedding other tools, like forms and calendars

> Potential to expand and adapt as your business grows

For one example, do you have a smooth automation in place to have new subscribers receive your freebie?

This would involve an email system addition.

WordPress

The clear winner: WordPress.org, but it’s not perfect. If you have ever had one you understand

This is the gold standard when it comes to excellent websites that big businesses are creating.

It’s fast, flexible, and adaptable and has the best SEO /blog performance.

In fact, we have had many students in our program start their websites on a different platform and see their

web traffic go way up when they relaunch their website on WordPress. The drawback is the upkeep of the backend.

All of those plugins that need constant up-dating. You are on your own with this more or less. This can be a problem.

We added a page builder to WordPress site that was terrific until we stopped using it and removed it and couldn’t do a

any more edits.

It was drag and drop, so you can move things around. Using a page builder (our builder of choice is Divi from

Elegant Themes) You can create any kind of page design and configuration you’d like.

On a lot of other platforms, there are some major limitations to how much you can change and move the layout

and templates.

Not with WordPress – the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can design, and this also means you can keep

modifying your site and design as your business grows and evolves. The problem is adding things that can’t be

removed or plugins that don’t play nicely together. This can be a problem!!

(BTW: when we are talking about WordPress, we are talking about wordpress.org. Even though the name is almost

the same, do not build your website on WordPress.com)

Squarespace

Squarespace is one example of a website builder that has an easier learning curve than building a website on WordPress.

I was pleasantly surprised with Squarespace. All the help with tutorials was refreshingly helpful.

This is one example of a website builder that has an easier learning curve than building a website on WordPress.

Because it is a bit more user-friendly from the start, Squarespace is a popular choice for beginner entrepreneurs.

But (and this is a big but), the ready-to-use templates and structure come with limitations as well.

Squarespace websites are not as flexible or customizable as WordPress.

Showit

Showit is a website builder that lets you drag and drop all of the elements of your website; you don’t need to know

any coding to use it. Showit is not as customizable as a WordPress website. I found the price of Showit rather high.

Weebly

Weebly is a less-known “closed” website platform and I hope that it does NOT get more popular.

This is NOT my top pick for a few reasons, similar to our complaints about Squarespace;

it doesn’t have many options to adapt and grow with your business.

Weebly has rigid templates; this means if you want to change the look or flow of your website, it can be pretty tricky

if you change your mind.

On top of that, Weebly is the hardest platform to move away from if you change your mind.

Manually moving every single blog post that you’ve published on a Weebly site is really painful.

Sometimes it’s possible to export your blogs in bulk to WordPress, but even that has its challenges, especially if you

have built up a lot of content over the years.

So that’s why I am always a proponent of actually starting on the right foot and starting on the better website platform

for YOU and your business.

Which ones are the right ones?

I still firmly stand by WordPress being the best website platform for any business, whether you are a service-based

business, are selling digital goods and courses, or are aiming for ad revenue. A WordPress website will allow you to

lay out your services nicely and provide you with the flexibility and the performance you need.

And as your services and business change, you want a website and theme that’s flexible and adaptable, too.

WordPress is nimble and can do that for you easily.

In Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to read more about websites so that you can make an informed, empowered decision.

If you’re thinking that it might be time to create your own website or to redo your current website – we can help!

We can even take care of migrating your current website content to a new website on WordPress. It is a bit more

user-friendly from the get-go. Squarespace is a popular choice for beginner entrepreneurs with all the training and support .

But (and this is a big but), the ready-to-use templates and structure come with limitations as well. Squarespace websites

are not as flexible or customizable. Recommed for someone just starting out with a website.

Having a website on Squarespace is kind of like building a piece of furniture from IKEA vs. building a piece of furniture

from scratch. The furniture might be done more quickly, but it isn’t as easily customizable and it might not meet your

needs for as long.

Showit

Is a fancy website builder that lets you drag and drop all of the elements of your website; you don’t need to know any

coding to use it. Showit is not as customizable as a WordPress website.

Weebly

Weebly is a less-known “closed” website platform and I hope that it does NOT get more popular.

This is NOT our top pick for a few reasons, similar to our complaints about Squarespace;

It doesn’t have many options to adapt and grow with your business.

Weebly has rigid templates; this means if you want to change the look or flow of your website, it can be

pretty tricky to change your mind.

On top of that, Weebly is the hardest platform to move away from if you change your mind. I have worked with a

lot of entrepreneurs as they upgrade their websites).

Manually moving every single blog post that you’ve published on a Weebly site is really painful.

Sometimes it’s possible to export your blogs in bulk to WordPress, but even that has its challenges, especially if you

have built up a lot of content over the years. So that’s why I am always a proponent of actually starting on the

right foot and starting on a better website platform.

Please skip Wix

Please do not start a new website on Wix – this site seems to be more user-friendly at the beginning,

similar to Squarespace, but Wix comes with a major drawback – they make it incredibly difficult to export your materials

if you ever want to switch to a different website builder.

This isn’t as big of a deal if you have a few pages on your website and a handful of blogs…but what if you have 100s of

blog posts?

No one, and I mean no one, wants to manually recreate every single blog post, one by one. I’ve done it, never again.

Which website platforms are the right ones?

It really depends on what you need the site for.

I still firmly stand by WordPress being the best website platform for any business, whether you are a service-based business,

are selling digital goods and courses, or are aiming for ad revenue. A WordPress website will allow you to lay out your

services nicely and provide you with the flexibility and performance you need. It really depends on what you need.

And as your services and business change, you want a website and theme that’s flexible and adaptable, too.

WordPress is nimble and can do that for you easily with templates, plugins and backend work.

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about websites so that you can make an informed, empowered decision.

If you’re thinking that it might be time to create your own website or to redo your current website – we can help!

We can even take care of migrating your current website content to a new website on WordPress or

start a simpler user friendly website for you on Squarespace.

Ask to see my calendar to book a chat on a Thursday. 20 mins in a quick email and I will be happy to send it to you.

contact@kathrynmaclean.net