After writing my Squarespace review a few weeks ago, I find some people asking whether they should use Squarespace or just go for WordPress to create a new blog.
Fair question! I’ve been there too.
But this one is easy to explain. It all depends on your style and needs.
So let me explain the advantages and disadvantages of each CMS platform and help you select the best for YOUR NEEDS. Here’s my Squarespace vs WordPress comparison:
Which one is better for you?
Squarespace vs WordPress – User interface (A.K.A. Dashboard)
Squarespace tells us their interface and design is easy to use, and it actually is. However, WordPress is easy to use too. The main difference relies on the capabilities and quantity of options and features on each CMS.
Squarespace gives you everything you need to start your blog, add pages, format posts, add photos etc, everything in a friendly and elegant interface. Even the typography and spacing is great, and it looks great no matter where you’re reading it. That’s why I called it “The Apple” of the CMS.
WordPress in the other hand, has a pretty decent interface, but non as pretty and elegant as Squarespace. WordPress gives you the ability to install and modify everything you want for your blog. This means you can go deep into your CSS or functions.php file and modify a line in the code. But this also means you can screw it and lose access to your blog (other than FTP).
I’d say it really depends on how deep you want to go on your design and functionality. WordPress is the biggest CMS contender nowadays, and offers everything you need no matter if you know how to use it or not.
Squarespace on the other hand, is prepared with powerful options and elegant designs. You’ll lose some capabilities but maybe they’re not important for your. All the basic stuff is there.
Squarespace vs WordPress – Design and Templates
When you signup to Squarespace, you’re loaded with a full set of BEAUTIFUL templates to start a blog. Squarespace has different categories including: Portfolios, Blogs, Photography and Business. But that’s basically it.
I admit I can do a lot of things with the templates on Squarespace, but it could different for you. In fact, some of the things I wouldn’t ever to on Squarespace are: Magazine Style (News) websites.
Update (February 2013): Squarespace now supports E-commerce. This is great news and one of the features it was lacking off. Read here for more information: Squarespace E-Commerce.
On the other corner, with WordPress you have bazillions (really!) of free WordPress Themes for your blog.
Most of them are almost junk and pretty simple, but they work. I’d say 90% of the free themes aren’t worth it. But when you decide to go pro and grab a Premium (or even a Framework) Theme, you get the best of the best, including SEO, Layout, Plugins, Support and more. This can cost from $10 and up to $100 or more, depending on the package or enterprise you’re looking into.
I’d call a draw here. Why?
Well, with Squarespace you’ve got a relatively small quantity of options, but almost all of them are great. So you have a hard time deciding which one to use.
With WordPress, you have A LOT more options, to decide, but plenty of them are crap. Except of course, when you’re trying to create a website that differs a lot from photography, portfolios, business or blogs.
Squarespace vs WordPress – Pricing
Oh yes. Pricing is one important factor to consider when building a blog/website.
Especially if you’re just starting your business or blog, you want to invest a small amount that you can later recover with a good ROI.
Squarespace offers 2 different plans for your needs.
You can either pay $10 or $20 per month, but you get a 20% discount (on both plans) if you pay a year in advance. If you’re just starting or you don’t need more than 1-2 blogs, this standard plan is for you. You get an additional discount if you use the following coupon for 10%: GIMME10. But I’m not adding it to this analysis.
If you’ve got big plans for a business or you’re looking forward to create 3 or more blogs, then you should better go with the unlimited plan.
Mainly because the unlimited plan has unlimited pages, galleries and blogs, and you can link your service with an email account and more. But again, if you’re just starting, the standard plan is more than enough.
So, that gives a sum of: $10 x 12 = $120 per year. Or $8 x 12 = $96 in advance.
Double that for the unlimited plan.
To create a WordPress blog (initially) you need:
- Domain Name: $10 per year
- Host Service: $5-10 per month. Hostgator and Bluehost both cost around $7 per month with the “unlimited” plan. So $7 x 12 = $84
- WordPress Theme: If you want to compete with a Squarespace Template, you’ll pay at least $30. Probably more if you go for a Framework and a child Theme. But this is normally a one time payment. Let’s use Elegant Themes as an example because you pay $39 on a yearly basis subscription.
- Additional Plugins: (not necessary, but useful and recommended): $30 (one time payment or subscription)
- Total: $10 (domain) + $84 (Hosting) + $39 (Themes) + $30 (Plugins) = $163
Now we’re talking…
It seems that the WordPress blog can cost you at least 50% more if you want to match something like Squarespace in terms of design and functionality.
However, you can make it definitely less expensive. If you use free plugins or even a free WordPress Theme, you can cut the final amount to $94 or so. That’s the beauty of WordPress!
In fact, you could get a free hosting service or get a very cheap domain (totally not recommended) and cut your costs to $20 a year. Again, doable but not recommended.
So to wrap things up, I think this one is really a draw. The price won’t change a lot between one or another. It all depends on how premium you want to start, but to put them on the same level, you need to pay around the same or even a little more on WordPress. So, which one do you prefer?
Oh, and I forgot to tell you that with Squarespace everything is integrated. That means you pay everything with the same account (Squarespace). They take care of everything including host, domain name and themes. So if you’re struggling to start because you don’t want to know about so many different services and remembering different passwords, Squarespace could be the winner here. It all depends on you.
Squarespace vs WordPress – Traffic Statistics
With WordPress you can add all the traffic statistics codes you want (i.e. Google Analytics, Quantcast, Alexa, etc.). Just add the code on the template or add a plugin to manage all of your codes and you’re done.
On the top of that you also have Jetpack which comes integrated with a WordPress.com account which displays decent results.
I like it, but analytics can drive some people (including me sometimes) crazy!
With Squarespace you’ve got your own Traffic dashboard (simple but elegant) similar to jetpack. But you can also add your Google Analytics code to have detailed information.
Do you really need more? I’m OK with that.
So, unless you want to add massive traffic analytics to your blog, Squarespace should be OK. Still, WordPress wins this round.
Squarespace vs WordPress – Plugins and functionality
As explained before, you have tons of plugins (free and premium) to add with WordPress. You can basically search for anything you want and find a plugin on the WordPress repository.
Plugins are very important, especially if you’re looking forward to customize your website and add functionality (aside from the basics).
With Squarespace you’ll miss plugins.
Want to add related Posts? Nope
Want to inject a code or add a plugin for affiliate links? Haha, nope.
So consider this before going for Squarespace. There might be some workarounds to different features, and I know Squarespace is already working on many plugin solutions, but until now, stay away from SQS if you want to use specific or premium plugins.
WordPress wins this round without a doubt.
Squarespace vs WordPress – Advertisement and Banners
Monetizing your blogs can be very important. I know in fact most of you are here to know how to improve your earnings and traffic, so I can’t leave this behind.
With WordPress, you can add as many banners as you want. You can also add Google Adsense code (no more than 3 banners per page) and basically post a banner or any advertising script whenever you want.
Please don’t confuse this with WordPress.com (free). You can’t have Adsense Banners there.
With Squarespace I was a little worried about this, but after digging up in the forums and their support team, you can easily add banners and even Adsense Code to your blog via 3 options:
- Sidebar Widget (pretty much the same as WordPress)
- Content (using an Squarespace form)
- Design (you literally modify your website’s design to add a banner
So, it’s pretty much another draw here. Both of them allow you to monetize your blog without problems. It all depends on your website’s design/template.
Squarespace vs WordPress – Mobility and Apps
When I talk about mobility, I’m talking about mobile responsive Themes. This is a “new” factor you can’t miss if you want to stay in the game. With the increasing sales of Tablets and Smartphones there’s a big probability that your site will be visited using a mobile device. And when that happens, you want to be ready.
What do you need? Either a Mobile version of your site (typically used in the past), or a mobile responsive theme.
With a mobile responsive Theme your visitors can ready your website from any device and it will automatically fit their screens dynamically changing the layout.
With WordPress, you need to buy a mobile responsive them, and there aren’t a lot of them right now.
Squarespace has you covered already. So hands down with Squarespace.
Additionally, if you’re looking forward to craft and publish – or at least, moderate comments and check statistics – posts on the go, both WordPress and Squarespace have their own iOS/Android Apps. Squarespace even has a Note App so that you can write down your best ideas and read them later on your account. Nothing you can’t do with a 3rd party app, but it’s nice to have.
Summary and Conclusions
Let me start this with the Summary and the Winners:
- Traffic Statistics = WordPress
- Mobile Responsiveness = Squarespace
- Mobile App = Draw
- Design and Themes = WordPress, but almost a draw
- User Interface = Squarespace
- Price = Draw – Subjective
- Advertising and Banners = Draw
As you can see, both contenders did pretty well on this comparison. Both WordPress and Squarespace offer you a great CMS (Content Management System) to start a website/blog.
So, which one should you choose?
Choose WordPress if…
You want a powerful robust platform that allows you to modify everything you want. Expect to mess up with code sometimes, install and test tons of plugins and themes. At the end it will be a 100% unique site, and you’ll be satisfied, but the learning curve could take days, weeks and even months depending on how tech savvy you are. Also, expect to pay and manage all of your services separately.
I’m a proud WordPress user, and I wouldn’t go back to Joomla or any other nowadays.
Choose Squarespace if…
You want a stunning design and an easy user interface. Think of it as the iPhone. You get functionality, great support, a great product and performance. Everything you probably need is there, at a touch of your hands. You won’t mess up with anything difficult and don’t expect to test tons of plugins and themes. However, you’ll be able to integrate everything in one platform, including payments, statistics and notes.
After testing Squarespace I can clearly see that the idea here is to focus con content, and content is King. Instead of losing hours/days on themes, plugins, statistics and more, I just focus on content and it works.
Am I moving everything to Squarespace? I don’t think so. But I’ll start some projects there and see how it goes. I’m tech savvy, and sometimes I want the ability to modify (and screw) everything with a click of my mouse 
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I hope I was able to make things clear for you. If you’re looking for more information please let me know and I’ll be back to you as soon as possible.
Greetings and let me know which one you decided to go for! Cya
About Servando Silva
I keep going back to Squarespace. Personally I prefer their original format where the owner could easily control every aspect of the website, not so easy now that they added fancier templates. Each template has differences in the way things can be controlled, if they can be changed.
I do question myself every month when the payment comes due, you can pay for a year at a time and save money. Two things Squarespace excels in, customer service and security. WordPress frequently has had its security issues. Squarespace seems to really take care of this issue better than most companies.
I got tired of WordPress having frequent security issues as well as having to have this plugin and that plugin to do simple things that are included in Squarespace. I do hope Squarespace will somehow combine great looking templates with the simplicity it once had in making changes.
Hello Lynda. What kind of security issues did you have with WordPress? I mean, aside from reading the news and that stuff, did you actually had one in your blog?
I love Squarespace for many reasons, and also the hosting service and page load is great. Of course I’m still waiting for them to include functionality as we can get from WordPress with some plugins, especially for Internet Marketers or similar stuff.
I need to say a negative about SQS. Their customer service is quick but the learning curve is steep. the biggest negative is that I purchased my own domain and my own host and spent hours “mapping” it onto SQS. I have a good following on Twitter and I go to tweet my articles and every single one of them said http://www.websitename.squarespace.com.
How embarrassing! What’s the point? I felt futile at that point. I didn’t want it so obviously known I was using squarespace. You only have one chance to make a first impression. That was a bad one. If I’m trying to be competitive in a very competitive field and have a website, it’s game over.
It was never properly fixed either. I was very disappointed since I had my domain and everything. I quit SQS and decided to start over on Word Press.
—> YOU CANNOT EXPORT YOUR BLOG with SQS TO ANOTHER PLATFORM, YOU HAVE TO START OVER.
I still think it has strengths and a nice interface (although certain elements are maddeningly complicated and perform inconsistently) and their support is good so it might work for some but it just can’t compete with WordPress, imho.
Hello Anon.
Thanks for your insights. In fact, I have heard of some of the problems you’ve mentioned before too.
The Squarespace subdomain is definitely bad, thta’s completely true and somehow they always redirect your domain name to theirs and happens what you said about it. And yes, it’s not been fixed yet… Let me add this con to the analysis this weekend, as it might be important for some people.
About the export function, I guess we all think about importing but not always about exporting things. I gues when I started a blog in Squarespace I never thought about changing it later back to WordPress.
I’ll add that too.
Thanks for your feedback.
FYI. I just did a quick search and it turns there’s an export to WordPress function included. I didn’t see it before, but it’s there: http://help.squarespace.com/customer/portal/articles/724556-can-i-export-my-site-
Thank you Servando for your review on Squarespace vs. WordPress. The comment above from anon has me a little worried about Squarespace. I’m primarily a print graphic designer that wants to get more into the interactive space and am deciding between the 2 builders. I think it would be easier for me to get up and going, but still have some control, if I used SS. I’m not really sure if I need a lot of different plug-ins?
I usually leave technical stuff up to my coder, but I really want to learn more myself so I can upload new projects to my site without another person helping me.
So my 3 questions are:
1. How do you merge existing domains from another hosting site to any web builder? Or do you have to at all?
2. If I use my pre-existing domain name will the builder add on an automatic tag to my site like it did to anon’s tweets? And if I ever got into more social media would these tags exist? Do they only add on tags to social media like tweets?
Example: If I had preexisting site http://www.rumrunner.org, would SS change it to read in the search bar to http://www.rumrunner.squarespace.org? Would WP change it to read http://www.rumrunner.wordpress.org?
I don’t really want people viewing my end site to know I used a template since I’m a designer, so adding on tags seems like a huge turn-off.
3. How do you know if you will need plug-ins? Should plug-ins or lack thereof be the sole purpose you would or not use SS?
Sorry if I’m not using the correct verbiage. New to doing it myself!
Hello Lisa.
First of all, thanks for expressing your concerns. So let me try to take on your questions one by one.
1. You don’t merge domains. You just point your domain name (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com) to your Squarespace server (appears in your account). Once it’s done, when people type the URL they’ll be redirected to your Squarespace page.
I’d reconsider doing the change if you already have a blog with lots of content and traffic, however. Mostly because in order to avoid losing your SEO you’ll need to copy all your link structure to Squarespace. If it’s a new blog, then no problem.
2. The problem with Anon seems to be a general problem with Squarespace. However, I just tried 5 different Squarespace websites and non of them auto tag the “Squarespace” keyword in the URL when trying to retweet or share an article in any form or by any social network. I don’t know why, but I think there’s a difference between buying your domain with squarespace directly and mapping it trough another domain vendor.
I wouldn’t worry that much anyway. You can always check and strip that tag when posting your articles. If not, you can try Squarespace support.
Additionally, if you install a site with WordPress.org, then the URL would be clean. If you use WordPress.com (the free version), then they add the “WordPress” keyword to the URL and you CAN’T use plugins.
3. Plugins usually add functionality to your blog. Sometimes it can be done via code or HTML directly, but sometimes it’s just easier to use high quality plugins. For example, in my site, you can see an optin form at the end of each article and in the sidebar. You can also see related articles and the sharebar right on the left of my content. All this was done with plugins, and probably won’t be easy on Squarespace.
Finally, I’d just like to let you know that installing a website in WordPress is quite easy. In my case (as an example), it doesn’t take me more than 60 minutes or so to do it. In fact, if you’re looking for some help let me know and we’ll see what we can do
Don’t worry, I’ve always been a tech savvy guy but we’ve all been there, where we don’t know how to proceed and we see everything as difficult tasks.
Take care.
Thanks Servando for getting back to me so quickly because I really want to make a decision soon on who to go with. I am not trying to write a blog right now, but just have a portfolio site up with my samples (not that I wouldn’t want a blog maybe attached at a later date to reinforce it.)
I’m thinking of going with SS just because I like the idea of starting with templates that are already very clean and professional. I also like that they sound very responsive to people who will have questions (which will be me!) : )
I also think that if they put that much thought into the design of their web builder and templates, but are still smaller than WP, that means they won’t slack on their product because they’ve become complacent by being on top. I feel like they too, will probably have more plug-ins available at a later date, but probably designed better in the long run.
I’ll get back to you once I’ve built something to let you see who and what I’ve created with their tools and report back on how easy/difficult the whole process was.
Thanks again!
No problem.
You know, it’s hard to compare things like that. Squarespace isn’t as big as WordPress and probably will never be, because WordPress is an open source project meant to be free for developers. While Squarespace is more like an all-in-one service.
However, if you like the design and templates of Squarespace and want something similar with WordPress here’s something that could work for you: http://demo.studiopress.com/modern-portfolio/
Just an example.
Please let me know if you need anything else.
Thanks for the help. I have been on SQS 5 since June last year and overall enjoy it, but keep getting told by other more successful bloggers or developers to migrate to WP. I am trying to make a decision – I have a lot of time and some $ invested in SQS. Most important right now is I am looking for a commentluv style widget or plugin that works with SQS. SQS can’t offer me something similar that has a space for a commenter to add their website. Any thoughts or suggestions?
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Yeah. WordPress is so open and widely used, that you can find a plugin for almost everything you want. That’s something you can’t do with Squarespace. Unluckily, I don’t know a way to do that.
For many niches I think it won’t matter, but if you try to get comments and engagement, commentluv is a great plugin.
This was awesome! Man, thanks for writing up such an in depth review. Just tweeted it out and followed you. I think Square Space does have such a clean professional look that you can’t mess up, but taking on an additional yearly expense just because I can’t wrap my head around. Especially since I know how to build sites using self hosted WP. Now if I could easily had a great minimalist WP theme for my new blog …
Oh cool! Just noticed your stuff below…The creator of comment luv is awesome!
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Hello Espree. If you’re looking for a similar template for WordPress, then you might be able to make use of this article I wrote before: http://stream-seo.com/squarespace-templates-wordpress/
However, Squarespace creates love at first sight, that it’s so difficult to look away!
Hey Servando,
That’s a pretty decent in-depth review of both interface.
I’m on wordpress and will be sticking with it.
thanks for the share!
Akos
Thank you Akos. Most people could stick with WordPress, especially if you’re already using it and understand a lot of things.
But for those who’re just starting or have problems with technical stuff, Squarespace is the best alternative.
When you start new business or blog you must look for longevity. You never know how much you’ll grow and how large space you need to fly high. Rather than experimenting with different things (let the designers and developers do it) you should adapt the top notch technology and most standard and popular options. Looking at all the factors you’ve discussed, I still suggest to go for WordPress. You’ll never find the heard of people involved anywhere other than in WordPress.
Thanks for this nice comparison. Your views is really useful for anyone confused.
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I’m still with WordPress, but for many people who don’t rally care about tech and coding, squarespace is still a great option.
If you just want a website for your business (not online business), Squarespace could be the best way to go.
But yeah, for most of us, WordPress will still be the best option.
I understand the points you make for Squarespace vs WordPress design, but I can’t help feeling that the quality of designs on Squarespace are leaps ahead of anything WordPress makes (easily) available. Trawling through lists of poor quality themes can be a pain!!
Really? I’ve seen really nice and elegant WordPress Themes too. You just need to know where to buy. Of course there are a lot of cheap free themes too.
Check out this portfolio and you’ll find some interesting themes (some of them similar to Squarespace): http://stream-seo.com/portfolio/
That’s true, a curated list of quality themes makes all the difference. Personally I was lazy and wanted to skip the hassle. I suppose you only get out of WordPress what you put in.
So, is your website running on Squarespace already? Would you like to share the link with us?
The link is http://www.samandkatietravel.com. Humble beginnings and all that, but it’s more of a creative project for me to keep my brain ticking. Thanks for the interest!
Well, that’s simple and I like it.
Which Squarespace template are you using?
It’s called Amelie, it’s one of my favourites! The Squarespace portfolio themes are extremely nice too, they enhance your photos rather than distracting from them.
Ah Yes. I like that too.
It’s just you’ve customized it and I couldn’t recognize it at first sight.
And yes, Squarespace has been doing great for portfolios, even though I like my new portfolio here with Studiopress. Additionally, Squarespace recently added E-commerce services too.
WordPress is very easy to use cause wordpress is free to use and there are lots of people who is using wordpress for this main reason.You have discuss about the squarespace vs wordpress and shared some good points about it.
Thanks for this. You put things in a fair perspective. Usually with the “X vs. WordPress” articles people forget or de-emphasize the extra costs for running a WordPress site like plug-ins and a decent theme.
Yeah. Because WordPress is technically free. Most people think there are no extra costs involved. But creating a good site requires some money or good coding skills.
You have shared some valuable points about Squarespace Vs WordPress.I Didn’t know about the Squarespace but after reading this post i have gain some important ideas and points.You have shared nice information here.
Thank you. Maybe you could use them as an alternative in your services.
Best Regards.