Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress?

Ease of Use

We all want to know just how easy it is to use each of these website builders.

Squarespace has become a popular option for entrepreneurs interested in getting a website live quickly and focused mostly on the overall look of the website. Users attempting to do-it-themselves that are mostly concerned with the design are likely to choose Squarespace. This builder enables you to choose a pre-made template, upload your quality images, and start building a beautiful website.

Wix has a reputation for being easy to use. In the setup process, Wix has you classify your website into a category and subcategory and then suggests design templates more likely to work for your business. The templates include stock photos, but we recommend replacing those with media of your own to avoid ending up with a cookie-cutter site.

Unlike Squarespace or Wix, WordPress is a content management system (CMS). WordPress offers thousands of customizable themes and even allows you to use the visual page builder of your choice through the use of plugins. Though the customization process can be more complicated than other platforms, there are tutorials and other resources available to give your site an extra advantage.

Flexibility

When building a website, flexibility is essential. Don’t be afraid to take creative liberty- your website should work for you!

Those who aren’t professional designers or developers will most likely be satisfied with the themes and templates Squarespace has available. However, users looking for more customization find the builder to be limiting in terms of functionality. Squarespace doesn’t offer add-ons or plugins, meaning integrations or other changes to the website are only possible by making changes to the website code. If you ever decide to transfer to another platform, you run the risk of the website not exporting properly, as much of it relies on the Squarespace platform to function.

Unlike Squarespace, Wix has apps available to add additional functionality to your website. The Wix App Market features paid and free applications to further customize your website and make it work for your brand. However, any customizations made using apps remain in the Wix platform, which can be problematic if you ever transfer your website to another platform. Users don’t technically own any of the design or code used.

WordPress remains on top when it comes to flexibility within the platform and is one of the most popular used among the developer community. There is a massive amount of plugins available to help users add functionality. WordPress also makes it a breeze to move your site to another platform, as it gives the user ownership rights to the design and code.

SEO Functionality

With Squarespace, users experience a trade-off between ease of use and SEO functionality. Squarespace websites don’t make it easy for search engines to identify and index the information needed to determine the site’s ranking. There are ways to improve SEO on a Squarespace site, but those options are limited, as the platform doesn’t build websites with SEO in mind.

In the past, Wix had a big problem with SEO functionality, but it has made some massive improvements. Some issues remain, but now Wix offers “SEO Wiz” to guide users during the process. It also allows you to customize meta descriptions, edit image alt tags, and update URLs.

WordPress is the most SEO friendly of these platforms, and for those who know a more about SEO, it can be a game-changer. WordPress has a broad library of plugins to boost SEO. Because WordPress is open-source, anyone can create themes and plugins for it, so the number of available plugins keeps growing. WordPress templates are built with SEO in mind, making it easy for search engines to index your content.

And The Winner Is…

WordPress comes out on top as the best website platform. While other builders make it easier to build a site that looks good, WordPress gives users the broadest range of functionality, customization, and is best for SEO. Its popularity among the web-dev community and massive library of plugins ensures you’ll find a solution for any problem.