32: Squarespace vs. The World: Choosing the Right Platform for Your Website
This episode of ThinkinsideTheSquare tackles the question: is Squarespace the ultimate website building platform? Even as a Squarespace enthusiast, I can admit that Squarespace isn’t the best choice for every website.
In this episode, I’ll cover a high level overview of the strengths and weaknesses of Squarespace popular alternatives like Wordpress, Shopify, and Showit. Whether you're a Squarespace devotee or just starting your website journey, this episode will help you decide if Squarespace reigns supreme for your specific needs. Plus, there’s cake. 😉
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I'm a squarespace user, a squarespace expert, a squarespace educator, and a squarespace enthusiast.
I don't have a squarespace tattoo, but I might get one someday, and I'll be the first one
to admit that Squarespace is not the best platform for every website out there.
In this episode of ThinkInsideTheSquare, I am spilling the tea,
my friends, and sharing my thoughts on WordPress, Shopify, and showit.
In case you're thinking about changing things up,
if you're not sure if Squarespace is the right choice for you, you're going to love this episode.
Welcome to ThinkInsideTheSquare, a podcast full of quick tips
and tricks to help you create a website that you're proud of.
I'm your host, Becca Harpain, Squarespace expert and creator of InsidetheSquare.co
And in this episode, I am flipping the script to talk about when you might want
to consider building your website using something other than squarespace.
For a transcript of this episode, along with the links
to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast
The term squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace, Inc. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace, Inc.
I legitimately don't know what it was that brought me to squarespace.
It was a long time ago, and it was probably a pretty template or a screenshot,
something I saw on Pinterest that caught my eye.
Whatever it was, as soon as I discovered squarespace, I felt like I finally
had the answer to all of my WordPress worries, and I was ready.
Their sleek and polished templates made it so simple to build a beautiful website for my clients,
and it still is simple to create something that looks really good in just a few clicks.
As soon as I discovered it, I was ready to move over any and every client
of mine to this magical new land of WYSIWYg editing.
But once I started working on some larger projects, that honeymoon phase was over.
Squarespace can do a lot of cool things.
It's easy to build a good looking website fast.
I'll say it time and time again, their templates are well designed,
their interface okay, it's easier than others.
We'll go with that.
Not the best, but it works.
But the truth is that there are other website platforms
out there that might be a better fit for your project.
So that's what we're going to dig into in this episode.
The reason why a Squarespace fan like me would consider using a different program.
Starting with WordPress, I found some 2023 stats from w three text,
and they say that around 43.1% of all websites on the Internet use WordPress 43.1.
That is a huge number.
There are so many websites out there using WordPress.
But let me let you in on a little secret.
That number seems so gigantic because WordPress is the structure those sites are built on.
Those websites are hosted on a ton of different platforms.
Those websites have purchased domains through a ton of different companies.
We're talking about a ton of different themes and templates.
WordPress has a gazillion and one plugins that can help you build anything you want to.
The WordPress template itself is really.
WordPress itself is really more the structure that it's built on.
It's not an all inclusive platform like Squarespace.
It's like a gigantic blank canvas that can have layers upon layers
of data that connect to something beautiful.
But the truth is, creating all those layers, it can be a little complicated.
So I like to explain the difference between WordPress and squarespace with a cake metaphor.
Stick with me here.
Building a WordPress website is like creating a cake from scratch.
You can source the finest ingredients, use the best utensils and tools and appliances,
and take your sweet, sweet time separating eggs and churning your own butter for the frosting.
It's going to take you a while and it's only going to be delicious if you know what you're doing.
Squarespace is a cake mix, a basic box cake.
And it can taste pretty darn good if you just follow the directions.
You can even get fancy.
If you want, add a little extra vanilla or some lemon zest.
That's your custom CSS right there.
And that cake, it can be the hit of the party.
It's going to taste great.
It's going to take you less time to bake,
and you don't have to be a professional to know exactly what to do.
It's right there on the box.
So if you're a business owner and you want to build a website for, I don't know, your restaurant,
your farmer's market stand, your niece's graduation party, you don't need WordPress.
A box cake mix is fine.
But if you want to build a huge blog or create a powerful website for a multi location car dealership,
complete with inventory management and online booking for test drives and all the things,
you're going to need something that can handle that level of customization, Squarespace can't do that.
You'll need WordPress and all of its magical plugins.
But if you don't have the time to learn a new skill
and you don't want to invest in the finest of ingredients.
Stick with Squarespace and you'll have a pretty good cake.
Now let's dig into one of the other big ones in the website platform world.
Shopify.
A lot of people think that Shopify is a huge competitor for Squarespace, and it's really not.
Here's why.
A website that is one part of what you get when you use Shopify.
Shopify is for inventory management and selling products.
It's for your shop.
It's in the name Shopify.
If you have a massive amount of inventory, or even just a decent size inventory,
we're talking about physical products that people can buy in person and online,
you'll need a program to manage it all and a website to sell it.
Now to help you keep track of what you sell.
Technically, Squarespace can do that, but it's not great at it.
Shopify is Shopify was designed to help you sell your products.
Did you know that Shopify was actually created to sell snowboarding equipment?
Save that one for your next trivia night.
In 2004, a company called Snow Devil started selling snowboard equipment online.
But they were struggling to find a program that could help them
manage their inventory and sell it in the way that they wanted to.
So one of the founders just made their own software,
and it worked so well that they decided to sell the software.
And in 2006, Shopify was born.
It was designed for selling.
It was designed around the idea of taking your physical inventory and offering it online.
Squarespace was started in 2003 because its founder,
Anthony was frustrated by the lack of design options out there.
Squarespace was made to look good.
Shopify was made to sell things.
Both have evolved an absolute ton in the last 20 ish years, but at their core,
they are still focused on the same missions that they started with.
So if you have a lot of inventory to sell,
especially if you're selling both in person and online, I think you should use Shopify.
But if you only have a few products to share with the world,
Squarespace can be a great way to sell them in style.
So to recap here, if you need a lot of fancy features,
need some bells and whistles to really make this website wow your future customers,
and you have the time to learn how to use different programs and plugins.
You're going to want WordPress.
And if you sell a lot of inventory both in person and online, you definitely want Shopify.
But what about show it?
Have you even heard of showit it?
It's been around for a while,
but it hasn't sponsored as many podcasts as Squarespace and it isn't as popular as WordPress,
but it is a platform that comes up a lot when we're talking about creating design focused websites.
Showit was created, or well, incorporated in 2006
with a goal of, and this part's directly off their website.
Give creative freedom to photographers photographers,
not website designers, not store owners photographers.
But show it has started to be used by so many other businesses and for some, it is a great fit.
Show it started out on Flash.
Do you remember Flash?
That old program we used to use to watch cool website interactions?
Yeah, that changed.
And show it five was released.
When they released it, they redid the entire
framework it was built on and they made some really cool changes.
Showit is a drag and drop editor like squarespace, but there isn't a grid to work on.
It's literally drag and drop wherever.
And if that sounds like a dream, I want you to imagine a parking lot with no lines.
If the world was full of organized, efficient and design focused people, that parking lot could end
up being the most organized, efficient, and well designed parking experience of your life.
But let's be real here.
People struggle to park in between the lines even when they're visible.
If you don't have any UX or UI experience, the second you start to drag a placeholder around
to a different spot on a showit template is the second things can start to get really dicey.
But just like our WordPress cake analogy,
if you already know what you're doing, it could turn out really great.
The other WordPress similarity here is plugins.
Showit isn't designed to do much more than a basic website,
so if you want some really fancy features, you'll probably need to invest in a plugin or two.
And by invest, I mean money and time to learn how to set it up and use it properly.
So keep that in mind.
Before we call this episode a wrap, I've got to bring up the question.
I can hear some of you thinking right now, but what about SEO?
Becca, which one is the best one for search engine optimization?
How do I get my site to the top of Google search results?
Surely one of these is the best, right?
And the answer is no.
There is no one program.
That is a surefire way to reach the number one search result
in Google for the specific word you want to rank for.
And if any person or company tells you they can do that, run far away, my friend.
Here's why the Internet is always changing.
Google is always updating its algorithm.
Your competition wants to rank for your keywords just as badly as you do.
And guess what?
Sometimes they will.
Because the platform you build on, WordPress, Showitz, Shopify or squarespace,
these major players all have their pros and cons when it comes to SEO.
You can find plugins and programs that will tell you they
can help you rank higher, and some of them absolutely can.
But you have to do the work.
You have to create high quality content that answers people's questions.
You have to be the authority in this industry or niche showcasing your expertise.
You have to have other people pointing to your website saying, this is the one, this one right here.
They know their stuff and none of that is going to be a part of a website builder.
At the end of the day, what really matters when it comes
to your SEO is the quality of the content that you put out there.
Every one of these website platforms can do some things better than others.
And what really matters is the content that you create.
So let's recap this episode.
If you're building a website and you have a lot of information that you need to share, and you need
all the bells and whistles and fancy plugins that exist, start with something like WordPress.
You'll need to invest a lot of time, but it can handle huge projects like that.
If you're going to sell a lot of inventory physical products both in person and online,
start with something that was built for selling things like Shopify.
It's a great platform for inventory management and you can use it to create a website.
And if you've got a ton of visuals because you're a talented photographer ready
to share your art with the world and find new clients, Showit could be a great choice.
There are plenty of platforms out there that you can use
to build a website, and I've used quite a few of them.
And hands down, Squarespace is still my favorite.
They do a lot of things right, including incredible designs
starting out with the templates that they have for free on their website.
You can create a really good looking website lightning fast.
And all it takes is a little bit of extra time and a couple of tutorials
from yours truly to add a little bit of magic to make that website uniquely yours.
So no matter what ingredients you decide to use, what tools, utensils or appliances you have on hand,
what level of baking skills you're working with, creating your own website should be a piece of cake.
And me, I'm going to start with the box mix.
Okay, that was so cheesy, but I'm totally going to end on that note for a transcript of this episode,
along with the links to any resources mentioned.
visit insidethesquare.co/podcast and if you want to learn more about all the cool things that squarespace
can do, be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you happen to be listening to this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
And most importantly, have fun with your squarespace website.
Bye for now.
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My favorite Wordpress theme, Divi: elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi
Shopify free trial: shopify.com/free-trial
Shopify & Squarespace Expert I trust: kristineneil.com
Showit website bulider: showit.com
