Ahh, the debate about WordPress vs. Squarespace. WordPress has so many different customization options while Squarespace makes it super easy to design a beautiful website without any design experience. I’ve tried both, and while there are merits to each one, I have a strong personal favorite when it comes to which platform to use for online bloggers or entrepreneurs.
Drumroll please…
I definitely recommend WordPress! Why?
Here’s a few reasons why I recommend WordPress vs. Squarespace:
1. You have total control over your website.
Yes, you do have “control” over a Squarespace website, but in essence, with WordPress you install the software on your OWN hosting and domain, and you still own everything. WordPress is open source, so even if they change owners or do something funky, people are allowed to contribute to the software and develop their own enhancements like plugins. In other words, you don’t have to worry about WordPress going anywhere.
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On the other hand, with Squarespace, you’re essentially renting permission to use their service because they have a monthly subscription model. If you wanted to switch to a different provider, you’d have to manually move everything over and you’d lose everything as soon as you cancel your subscription. If Squarespace were to shut down, you would also lose everything and have to start over.
2. WordPress is better for blogging.
Although Squarespace has some options for starting a blog with their service, WordPress is still definitely the best platform out there for bloggers. So even if you’re a service-based entrepreneur, if you ever plan on blogging then WordPress is your best bet. There are awesome plugins like Yoast that easily help with SEO, plus WordPress has pretty good search engine optimization built into the platform automatically. WordPress is also DESIGNED for blogging, so instead of trying to create some workarounds to get it to do what you want, blogging is pretty much the main purpose of WordPress.
3. Unlimited design options.
– If you’re thinking about DIYing your website, WordPress has thousands of free and premium themes that let you create any kind of design you can possibly think of. My personal favorites are the Genesis framework themes. I will say that Squarespace has some absolutely gorgeous template options, but you’re kind of limited to what you can do with their templates. Even if you wanted to use a premade WordPress template too, there are just thousands and thousands of them available compared to a couple dozen for Squarespace.
4. WordPress has plugins to add extra functionality to your website
Want a newsletter signup form on your website? There’s a WordPress plugin for that. Want a popup optin form? Easy. How about social media sharing buttons? Super simple. Although you can do some of these things in Squarespace, it’s usually a little more complicated or requires using code.
Ok, those are just a few of the reasons why I like WordPress vs. Squarespace. Squarespace is awesome, for sure, and if you’re a service provider and really just want to get up a website fast with a couple pages, then maybe it’s the right choice for you, but for a blog or a more complex website, I would definitely recommend getting started with WordPress.