“Your website is the center of your digital ecosystem – just like a brick-and-mortar location. The experience matters once your audience enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.”
– Leland Dieno
Choosing the right website builder for your business is just like being at Disneyland. No matter how hard you try, you will always find yourself confused about which ride to go on.
I know – it’s hard.
In today’s digital world, having a fully functional and visually appealing website is not an option anymore.
It’s a necessity.
4.88 billion people have access to the internet. That’s 61.8% of the overall global population. People spend about 6 hours 58 minutes, on average, each day using the internet. And trust me on this one – these numbers have been predicted to rise exponentially in the near future.
With an ever-increasing number of people using the internet, you can’t afford not to establish a strong online presence. Bill Gates once said, “If your business isn’t on the internet, then your business will be out of business.”
If you’re reading this blog post, I guess – you’ve already made the decision to build your website. However, the one big problem you might be facing is choosing the right website builder.
And that’s where we come in.
We’re here to help you make the right decision. In this blog post, we’ll be directly comparing three of the most popular website builders – WordPress, Wix & Squarespace – based on different criteria.
Without further ado, let’s dive straight into it.
WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace – Which Web
Design Platform is the Right Fit for Your Business?
Following are the critical points we’ll be taking into consideration:
- Ease of Use & Design Flexibility
- Tools & Features
- Pricing
Excited? We are as well.
Ease of Use & Design Flexibility
Not everyone is a coding champion. And these days, with drag-and-drop website builders like WordPress, Wix & Squarespace, you don’t need to know how to code to get your business website up and running.
However, another point you need to take into consideration is the ease of use. Your website builder should be easy-to-use. After all, you’ll be spending a majority of your time and efforts accessing the backend.
So, let’s directly cut to the chase.
WordPress
There’s a lot you’ll see going on inside WordPress. Sometimes, you’ll find it to be complete chaos. And as a new user, you may find it to be overwhelming. However, WordPress is highly customizable – the design options are virtually limitless, all thanks to thousands of themes (free and paid) available.
To make some heavy customizations, you may have to code your way through.
Your initial setup may not take much time – about 10 minutes. Learn how to get your own website up and running in 10 minutes.
The big problem with WordPress is that they don’t have a dedicated support team. This means if you face any kind of trouble, there’ll be no one helping you out.
Wix
Wix is the easiest to use – of the three website builders we’re talking about. It offers a fantastic user experience. One of the big challenges most business owners face is designing a beautiful website and, at the same time, making it fully functional.
And with over 500 plug-and-play, mobile-friendly web design themes, Wix turns the process simpler for every party involved. Also, they have dedicated themes for specialty websites like ticket sales, event promotion, online stores, and more.
Wix will help you build a website that works the way you want it to, all thanks to its top-notch drag-and-drop functionality. Website design builders like WordPress & Squarespace let you change your complete look by swapping themes.
However, that’s not the case with Wix. The only downside of using Wix is that once you have published your Wix website, switching to another theme isn’t easy.
Squarespace
When compared with WordPress, Squarespace is extremely easy-to-use. However, it’s a bit more complicated than Wix. With Wix, there’s a steep learning curve. No – you don’t need to learn how to code while using Squarespace. But – its powerful tools need getting used to.
Squarespace has a section-based website editor. It’ll take you a little bit of getting used to. However, its modern and sleek designs offer various drag-and-drop customization options.
Squarespace offers about 40 plug-and-play design templates. That’s nowhere near Wix’s 500 and WordPress’s infinite options. However, every single one Squarespace has in place is visually stunning.
Features & Functionality
With more and better tools, you’ll be opening up the doors to a world full of possibilities. Let’s look at how these three website builders rank in terms of features and functionality.
WordPress
The three words I’ll use to describe WordPress’s features and functionalities scope – vast, endless, and unlimited. If there’s any functionality you’d like to add to your website, there’s probably a WordPress plugin available to help you with it.
A few of the most popular WordPress plugins include:
- WooCommerce
- Yoast
- Jetpack
- Contact Form 7
- Classic Editor
- Akismet Spam Protection
- Really Simple SSL
- Yoast Duplicate Post
And these are just a few of the plugins you can install. Step into the world of endless possibilities on WordPress.org or Themeforest. Most themes come with pre-loaded plugins to help businesses easily set up their website. At the same time, it most generally cost around $20 and $150.
Wix
Wix offers various promotional as well as online selling features to suit your small business needs. Every paid plan includes a custom domain and professional email address, built-in search engine optimization, email marketing tools, social media link icons, chat and analytics tools, and more.
If you’re planning to launch your online store, we’d advise you to go with Shopify. However, Wix gives Shopify a head-on-head competition with its wide range of features as well as functionalities – including support for online bookings as well as prepaid services. The platform doesn’t directly offer built-in membership plus subscription sales. Instead, you need to install third-party applications for the purpose.
Blogging is another one of the great features – however, when compared with Squarespace and WordPress, Wix’s blogging functionality is pretty basic.
Squarespace
When compared with Wix, Squarespace’s blogging feature is a step above. If your business model is content-rich based and will likely have multiple blog categories, visuals, tag options, then Squarespace should be your go-to platform.
Bloggers, publications, affiliate marketers use Squarespace over WordPress or Wix. And if you’re planning to kickstart a media business, Squarespace should be your go-to option. Along with top-notch blogging functionality, Squarespace offers outstanding built-in social media, SEO, and site analytics functionalities. And the best part is that you got to consistently update the plugins and themes – just like in WordPress.
That being said, Squarespace’s eCommerce functionality is mind-blowing and is great for image-focused eCommerce stores that sell digital products like downloads, music subscriptions, artwork, etc.
You can integrate various popular third-party services for shipping, marketing, bookkeeping functions like Xero, ShipStation, and MailChimp.
Pricing
Another factor that you will most likely consider while determining which website builder you’ll go with is pricing. So – let’s look at the pricing structure for WordPress, Wix & SquareSpace.
WordPress
Calculating WordPress pricing is tricky. While the software is itself free, you’ll have to pay for web hosting, plugins, themes, SSL certificates. Basically, it can range from $3.95 per month to unlimited – depending on the factors we’ve mentioned above.
Wix
Wix is widely popular for its free plan. However, if you need to unlock different functionalities, you’ll have to upgrade to one of the seven premium plans they have in place.
Website:
Business & eCommerce:
Squarespace
There’s no free plan for Squarespace. However, you can opt for a 14-day free trial – so that’s good news. You can get your hands on the platform, and when you are completely satisfied, you can opt for one of the 4 paid plans they have in place.
Either you may choose to pay monthly or annually – depending on your needs.
Which Website Design Platform Should You Go With?
Honestly, the answer is – it varies. There’s no single platform that’s a perfect fit for business across all industries. WordPress is a bit complicated to use; however, it’s action-packed and loaded with numerous exciting features, functionalities, themes. Using WordPress is like stepping into the realm of endless possibilities. However, it needs a bit of getting used to.
At the same time, Wix & Squarespace are easy-to-use; however, you’ll be limited in terms of features and functionalities when compared with WordPress.
Rather than having to go through the trouble of selecting the right fit, building a website, and maintaining it from time to time, we’d advise you to get in touch with one of our highly-skilled website designer and developer team members – who’d love nothing more than to build a custom, visually-appealing front desk for your business.
So, what are you waiting for?
