Differences between Squarespace and Wordpress
If you are thinking of creating a website to advertise your portfolio of work, a business, or a service, you may have heard of these two platforms: Squarespace and Wordpress.
If you have heard of them, take the opportunity to ask questions and understand the differences between them. If you have not heard of them, take the time to learn about them and to choose the one that’s the best fit for you.
Let's look at some specific points from these two competitors to help you choose which one best suits your style.
Most importantly, we have to look at two things:
- what is your comfort level with technology (and the problems it can cause)
- and how much time you can dedicate to the customization of your website.
Ah! And we cannot forget the budget. The budget is also an important consideration.
I bet you are already thinking: they are both website builders, how different can they be? There are many differences, my friend, many differences. Let’s take a look at them now.
SECURITY
Squarespace is a closed-source platform.
Closed-source means that everything necessary to edit and create a site is located within the Squarespace platform. You cannot enter Squarespace and customize anything just by using a plugin. All potential features are already available within their templates, and no one can change what was included or created by their experts.
Wordpress is an open-source platform.
Open-source means that anyone who wants to modify their original design can do so without any problem using code. You can create more elaborate and sophisticated functionality and design than what Wordpress itself offers. Many of the additional functionalities (or ‘plugins,’ as Wordpress calls them) are created by professional developers with a lot of experience and knowledge. The problem is that anyone can think of themselves as a developer and create a plugin. And this "anyone" may have taken code lessons with an older cousin twice a week in high school, and not really be sure what he is doing. And you, as a common user, have no way of knowing the difference between one developer and the other.
Okay, now that I've talked about the difference between closed and open source, what does that really mean?
Squarespace is easier to use because everything you need is within the system developed by trained professionals. You have no security issues and no one will hack your website anytime soon. When an update is made (which is often, as technology updates are made every day), Squarespace takes care of all the confusion of code behind the scenes and the little details you-don't-know-and-don't-want-to-know.
All you want is your beautiful website, always working perfectly online.
On the other hand, Wordpress is more flexible. You can add a billion plugins to make your site unique and exclusive, with features that are specific to your business.
But remember that "anyone" may have done some nonsense (surprise!) in the code of one of the plugins you included on your site, leaving the door open to compromise your security. And that, my friend, will cost you money to resolve. Because you are not a code ninja and you will need to hire someone to get your site back on track.
So, summing up security:
Squarespace is closed-source: less flexible yet more secure. The Squarespace team of professionals takes care of all the updates for you. Once your web designer develops your website, you can choose never to touch it again and it will continue to work perfectly.
Wordpress is open-source: flexible as you never imagined, but not as secure. You cannot hire a web designer to create your website, make it live, and then forget about it. You need to constantly invest time and money to hire someone each time the system updates to make sure your plugins still work.
Support
Squarespace has email and live chat that you can reach at any time (ok, maybe not during some hours of the morning) to get the necessary support for your questions.
That is, you have a trained professional, not a user, giving you tips and walking with you through your website to answer your question in a personalized way and in your time.
They may come up with solutions you never thought of, as they know the system inside and out, since it was developed by them.
Wordpress is used by many more people than Squarespace, so there are several online discussion forums with lots of details that can help you. Wordpress doesn't have live chat; if you can't do it on your own, you have to find and pay someone to help you.
Budget
Wordpress is "for free". You develop your website by buying the templates and plugins you want only once and voilá, your website is ready for you to upload to any provider you want, right?
Wrong. It is free, but if something goes wrong, because of an update or virus, you will have to pay someone to get it right again.
With Squarespace, you pay a monthly fee, but it's all inclusive, like an all-inclusive hotel. You will be entitled to a template, hosting, and live chat with experts.
If you decide to change templates, you don't pay an extra penny. The plans range from US$12/18 monthly for a common website (depending on the number of pages) and US$26/40 for an e-commerce site (prices from October 2020). And that's it. There are no hidden extra fees, just your fixed cost.
Going back to Wordpress, it's free but it will be more expensive in the long run. Wordpress is theoretically free of charge, but you may want to buy some templates or plugins to make your site more presentable.
A template can cost between US$0-200.00. A plugin can cost $0-500.00. And, if in the future you decide to change the template / plugin, you will have to pay again for the new one. In addition, you will have to pay for hosting, which will cost around US$15-50.00 per month, not including site backups or any support.
In both cases, you will need to purchase a domain. This costs around US$10-20.00, regardless of the platform you choose.
In summary, your costs will be:
SQUARESPACE (annually)
- US$144-216.00 annually, depending on your plan and / or number of pages
- US$20.00 domain purchase (cost for 12 months)
WORDPRESS (annually)*
- US$50.00 for a basic template
- US$200.00 (5 basic plugins)
- US$300.00 hosting
* This price does not include support, system updates or backups of your website, so you cannot know with 100% certainty what your fixed cost would be.
If you, like us, choose to work with Squarespace because it is:
- a 100% secure platform,
- easy to update without code,
- with 24/7 support and
- fixed costs that do not change, let’s talk
