Wordpress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace - The Pros and Cons of Each
Trying to determine which platform you should use to build your website isn’t easy. In fact, it’s an important decision that shouldn’t be made in a whim. Every business has different capacities and needs, and the platform that your website is built on can impact efficiency and revenue depending on your unique situation.
Some businesses have the resources to pay a web developer to make every single change, others hire an internal or external marketer, and some small businesses & entrepreneurs go the DIY route and make website updates themselves.
No matter what level of business you own, you’re probably a very busy person. Is updating and managing your website the best use of your time? Probably not.
So which website platform should you choose? We are asked the question constantly. “Which website builder do you prefer?”
There is no cookie cutter answer in fact, our answers are always different depending on who we’re talking to. Each platform has its own set of pros and cons, but we’d recommend them all depending on the needs of the business at hand.
In this blog post, we’ll cover the major pros and cons of Wordpress, Squarespace and Wix.
We hope this helps you narrow down your selection and if you have any questions while reading, please don’t hesitate to contact our team.
Wordpress:
Wordpress is, without question, the most popular website CMS used today. It’s preferred by most developers for its limitless customization.
Wordpress is an open source platform, meaning their code is available for others to customize. This makes it the preferred choice for most developers and programmers, because they can build their own themes and plugins and either house them for free or sell them.
When it comes to building a Wordpress website, the world is your oyster. You have the option to customize just about every nook and cranny of your site. However, the downside of an open source platform is that it can come with a lot of bugs.
In fact, a majority of the plugins available in Wordpress are downright terrible. Open source code also increases your chance of experiencing hackers.
Don’t let that scare you away - there is a large reason why Wordpress is still the most popular website builder today.
In terms of managing or updating a Wordpress website, it requires having a thorough understanding of the platform, something that is not realistic for most small business owners.
Small business owners with a Wordpress website will typically need to have an ongoing relationship with a web developer in order make any cosmetic changes or updates to the site.
While it can be easy and efficient to work with a developer to maintain your Wordpress website, this can get expensive. Most decent website developers charge around $60 an hour, and the hours can rack up quickly. This makes it a less affordable option for a budding entrepreneur or business.
PROS:
+limitless customization
+beautiful free and paid themes
+seo optimized
+mobile responsive
CONS:
+susceptible to hackers and low quality tools
+plugins require regular updates
+wordpress sites in general require a professional to create and manage
Squarespace:
Squrespace is one of the fastest growing website design platforms out there. Their selection of templates is stunning and they are all highly mobile responsive and optimized for SEO.
Unlike Wordpress, Squarespace is a closed source platform. This means that their source code is not available to the public and is carefully tested and optimized by the internal Squarespace team.
With closed source platforms, you do not have the range of customization that you have with Wordpress. Squarespace has a library of stunning themes to choose from, but if you need something super custom, this might not be the platform for you.
Also unlike Wordpress, Squarespace is a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) and that allows you to drag and drop and see exactly what your website will look like as you go. With Wordpress, you need to preview or publish the page to view the changes you have made. This might seem like a simple task, but to an unskilled designer or business owner trying to DIY, this can eat up a lot of time.
Which brings us to our next point…
In terms of needing website design/development experience to create a Squarespace website, you don’t need much. The templates are easy to navigate for micro businesses or entrepreneurs who need to create their sites on their own. This can be advantageous if you are budget conscious.
We still highly recommend using a web designer to create your Squarespace website, because it will still save you considerable time. We’ll say it again… Is your time as a business owner best spent designing a website? We think not. Leave it to the highly skilled web designers so you can focus on what you do best.
A Squarespace web designer will be able to create a stunning and functional website for you for a fraction of the cost of a Wordpress site.
PROS:
+Stunning, SEO friendly and mobile optimized themes
+Affordable - plans start at $18/mo for businesses
+Easy for the inexperienced to navigate and manage
CONS:
+Limited range of customization
Wix:
Like Squarespace, Wix is a WYSIWYG editor, but in overdrive. With a Wix website, you can drag and drop a complete website to creation in minutes or hours as opposed to weeks.
Wix is the easiest drag and drop website platform out there. Sure, you should have a keen eye for design in order to make a beautiful website, but Wix truly makes it as easy as it can be.
For very small business owners, entrepreneurs and side hustlers with limited budgets, Wix is the perfect website creation tool for you. Wix allows you to create a professionally designed website in the blink of an eye. Managing and updating a wix website is also easy for just about anyone.
I do appreciate how simple it is to create your own website using Wix, and I have created several wix websites for my hobbies and businesses over the years. Not having a budget for a $1500+ website, Wix allowed me to create something beautiful without needing the help of a professional.
But before you get too excited, designing a website, even on a drag and drop platform like Wix, is still hard work. You’d be surprised at how much time it takes to build a decent looking website, even using their builder. It takes skill and a keen eye for design to curate something beautiful that represents your brand. Don’t neglect to think about this.
Wix websites are also hosted by Wix servers. This means that their internal teams are there to ensure that your site keeps running, fast. However, because Wix websites run off a lot of Javascript, they may respond fast but they do take longer to fully load.
Another factor to consider about Wix is that you are limited to their themes and functions and don’t have the customization that you get with Wordpress. That being said, not all businesses require that much customization.
And probably one of the biggest flaws, in our opinion, is the technical SEO functionality with Wix. Wix comes at a serious disadvantage in the SEO world. They’ve invested incredibly to improve this, but it still not up to par with SEO experts, like Dynamic. It’s also not easy to install tracking pixels and tags like Google Analytics or Google Search Console. We’ve personally had issues with this that would be non-existent on Squarespace or Wordpress. We hope Wix works to improve this.
We don’t recommend Wix websites to our clients because SEO is typically a long-term part of their marketing strategies. However, if you’re an entrepreneur or small business and a majority of your leads come from referrals, word-of-mouth, or social media, you can get away with Wix.
PROS
+A wide range of professional templates
+The easiest drag and drop builder of all time
+Customer Support
+Fast to respond
+Very affordable - monthly plans for business start at $14 per month
CONS:
+Limited customization
+Not great for technical SEO
+Sites still take a long time to create
+Can be slow to load
+Wix places limits based on your subscription plan (limiting # of blog posts you can publish, scheduling/online booking features, etc)
+Can be difficult to integrate pixels and integrate 3rd party apps
To conclude, we hope this helps shed light on the key differences and functionalities of Wordpress, Wix and Squarespace. You have a plethora of website builder options at your fingertips, and it can feel overwhelming when trying to decide which one you should use. If you have any questions about website platforms, please reach out to us.