SquareSpace vs WordPress

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Our analysts compared SquareSpace vs WordPress based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Web Design Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

WordPress Software Tool

Product Basics

Squarespace is a website builder that helps create portfolios and blogs, track web traffic and manage content on mobile applications or desktop. It offers customizable templates, product merchandising, custom CSS, inventory management and more. Other attributes include scheduling, email marketing and commenting. Users can track orders, manage taxes, handle payments, analyze sales and design logos and manage social media posts. It is helpful for small businesses, photographers, bloggers, artists, restaurants, musicians, wedding planners and students. 
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WordPress is a leading free, open-source software that helps enterprises manage and publish their digital content online. It enables website design with custom CSS, domain registration and automatic updates with secure server hosting. Users can build blogs, mailing lists, forums, media galleries, online stores, LMSs and membership sites. Its responsive themes and thousands of plugins empower users to create and edit content that includes audio, video, images and documents.

Teams can collaborate on creating content in Google Docs and then save it on any website while retaining the original formatting and images. Users can create income streams by selling products, services and subscriptions from within the same portal. With built-in SEO, it integrates with Search Console and Google Analytics to help track website traffic and performance metrics.
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$16 Monthly
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$4 Monthly, Freemium
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Quick Setup: Purchase a domain or transfer to an existing one and launch an online store with a few clicks. 
  • Automate Backend Maintenance: The vendor manages overall performance and security updates. Update purchased plugins and add-ons automatically according to needs. 
  • No-Code Content Layout: Make new pages, layouts and content without complicated coding using the drag-and-drop editor. 
  • Centralize Management: Localize marketing, analytics, payment processing and social media workflows in a unified platform. Monitor developments and functioning from the dashboard. 
  • Enhance Customer Experience: Build a secure environment for transactions, provide multimedia descriptions for products and services, create member zones, and manage paid content. 
  • Build Brand Awareness: Design emails with website content, track responses and maintain contact information. Generate leads, streamline metadata and boost social media posts using SEO and social media tools. 
  • Create Engaging Content: Record, edit, share and track quality videos on multiple channels via a video studio mobile app. 
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  • Cost-Effective: WordPress is open-source software, meaning it is free to use, which significantly reduces the initial investment for website development.
  • SEO-Friendly: WordPress is designed with search engine optimization in mind, offering plugins like Yoast SEO to help improve your site's visibility on search engines.
  • Customizable: With thousands of themes and plugins available, WordPress allows for extensive customization to meet specific business needs and branding requirements.
  • User-Friendly Interface: The intuitive dashboard makes it easy for non-technical users to manage content, update pages, and add new posts without needing coding skills.
  • Scalability: WordPress can handle websites of all sizes, from small blogs to large e-commerce sites, making it a versatile choice for growing businesses.
  • Community Support: A large, active community of developers and users provides extensive support, tutorials, and forums to help troubleshoot issues and share best practices.
  • Security: Regular updates and a wide range of security plugins help protect your site from vulnerabilities and cyber threats.
  • Mobile Responsiveness: Many WordPress themes are designed to be mobile-friendly, ensuring your site looks good and functions well on all devices.
  • Multilingual Capabilities: Plugins like WPML allow you to create multilingual websites, making it easier to reach a global audience.
  • Integration with Third-Party Tools: WordPress seamlessly integrates with various third-party services such as email marketing tools, payment gateways, and social media platforms.
  • Content Management: The built-in CMS features make it easy to organize and manage large amounts of content, including posts, pages, and media files.
  • Regular Updates: WordPress frequently releases updates to improve functionality, security, and performance, ensuring your site remains up-to-date with the latest web standards.
  • Accessibility: WordPress strives to adhere to web accessibility standards, making it easier to create websites that are accessible to users with disabilities.
  • Analytics and Reporting: Integration with tools like Google Analytics provides detailed insights into website performance, helping you make data-driven decisions.
  • Flexible Hosting Options: WordPress can be hosted on a variety of platforms, giving you the flexibility to choose a hosting provider that best suits your needs and budget.
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  • Templates and Design Tools: Access customizable templates that support all major content types, like blogs, galleries, pages, calendars and more. Use the latest HTML, Javascript and CSS transcripts to edit templates. Use customized color palettes, video and background banners, images via Unsplash, Google and TypeKit fonts, a built-in photo editor and more. 
  • Layout and Pages: Use pre-designed structures to create websites and add blocks, menus, links, maps, forms, files, buttons, charts, custom codes and social media icons. Duplicate text pages, use CSS editor and create custom redirect pages. Design websites that automatically adapt to the device it is accessed on without changing the overall style of the website. 
  • Commenting System: Incorporate a commenting system that helps with community management, flagging spam messages, disabling comments, threading comments, counting individual likes and moderating content. 
  • Multiple Contributors and Access Levels: Restrict permission to access based on role and use a single login to handle multiple sites simultaneously. Provide access levels, including content editing, reporting, store managing, administrating, billing and more. 
  • Passwords and Page Lock: Lock websites with a password while editing it, use a password to create private sections and customize page displays for visitors when locked by a password. 
  • Built-In Mobile Websites: Design websites that automatically adapt to the device it is accessed on without changing the overall style of the website. 
  • App: Use an app available on Android and iOS to manage websites, add or edit pages, add images, write and edit blogs and review traffic analytics. Manage inventory, orders and customers as well as add products and issue returns while on the go. 
  • Extensions: Use third-party tools to manage sales transactions, handle inventory and accounting, file taxes, streamline bookkeeping, promote products, ship products and more. Connect with Google Analytics and Disqus. 
  • Blogging: Publish, draft, schedule and mark posts for review. Use markdown block to add text, change layouts as per the blog content and automate the process of reformatting content for email campaigns. Manage audio blocks, blog post options and podcast support for better visibility. Save excerpts and source URLs, use accelerated mobile pages to create lightweight web pages, add subscribe buttons, access built-in RSS feeds and link titles to external URLs. 
  • Portfolios: Drag and drop images, add videos and audio files to pages or blog posts, and set videos or images as backgrounds. Access a built-in image editor, create landing pages with links to sub-pages, use lightbox to highlight images, define focal points for images and auto-fill tags, tiles and descriptions when importing images. 
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  • Content Publishing: Share content with a click of a button. Insert content from Google Drive while maintaining formatting or type it in directly to the content editor, place images and then simply publish the content to make it go live on the web. 
  • Plug-ins: Customize tools by choosing from over 55,000 downloadable plugins. SEO optimization, anti-spam protection, site-building features and more are available for download. Browse product descriptions, ratings and support content on the vendor’s site. 
  • Themes: Choose from over 8,000 different, preset themes or customize your own theme, utilizing the Theme Developer Handbook to assist in the development process. 
  • Mobile App: Draft, edit, publish and more from anywhere via the mobile app, available on both iOS and Android devices. Activate push notifications to keep in-the-know with the site’s activity and follower communications. 
  • Security: Keep your content and site safe with a dedicated security team made up of approximately 50 experts that use sophisticated security tools to continuously monitor common security issues identified by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). Report potential security breaches using WordPress HackerOne. 
  • Versatility: Create a blog or website of any kind, from photo blogs to business sites, a magazine site and more. 
  • Search Engine Optimization: Comes with built-in search engine optimization (SEO), encouraging search engines to gather information included in the content to increase traffic. SEO plug-ins are also available. 
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Product Ranking

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#4

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Analyst Rating Summary

68
71
80
95
70
91
96
88
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Design and Layout
Security
Reporting
Accessibility
Collaboration
Security
Design and Layout

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

SquareSpace
WordPress
+ Add Product + Add Product
Accessibility Collaboration Design And Layout Platform Capabilities Reporting 80 70 96 75 85 95 91 88 72 68 0 25 50 75 100
67%
33%
0%
100%
0%
0%
60%
0%
40%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
83%
0%
17%
64%
9%
27%
45%
9%
46%
100%
0%
0%
50%
0%
50%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

45%
0%
55%
64%
9%
27%
80%
0%
20%
80%
20%
0%

User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 5450 reviews
Great User Sentiment 22244 reviews
91%
of users recommend this product

SquareSpace has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 5450 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

89%
of users recommend this product

WordPress has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 22244 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.4 (19)
4.4 (870)
4.3 (7872)
4.57 (2539)
n/a
4.6 (1944)
4.6 (13061)
4.2 (97)
4.2 (1292)

Awards

SquareSpace stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Website Builder: It’s simple to create a professional website without any coding using the drag-and-drop editor, according to 70% of users mentioning this feature.
Ease of Use: The platform is intuitive and straightforward, according to 100% of users mentioning this aspect.
Domain: Squarespace helps transfer existing domains without any hassle, according to 90% of reviews mentioning domains.
Customer Support: Vendor’s support team offers quick and quality responses, as noted by 92% of reviews on customer support.
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Flexibility: WordPress is known for being highly customizable, allowing users to tailor their websites to their specific needs, from blogs to e-commerce sites.
Plugin Ecosystem: Users consistently praise the extensive plugin library available, which extends the functionality of WordPress websites, offering solutions for various business needs.
Community Support: A strong and active community provides ample resources, tutorials, and support forums, making it easier for users to find solutions and get help when needed.
Theme Availability: A vast selection of themes allows users to easily change the design and layout of their website, offering both free and paid options to suit different budgets.
User-Friendly Interface: WordPress is often commended for its intuitive interface, making it relatively easy for users to manage content, even without extensive technical expertise.
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Rigidity: The drag-and-drop website editor lacks customization features, according to all users discussing personal customizations.
Cost: According to 92% of users reviewing the pricing structure, the solution is costlier than its competitors based on the features provided.
Performance Speed: 82% of users who mentioned this element said that the platform uses a lot of RAM while running and is prone to crashes.
Data Analytics: In-depth analytics is only available with the enterprise pricing plan, according to 67% of reviews discussing this aspect.
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Technical Issues: WordPress' reliance on plugins and themes can lead to technical difficulties, especially for users without technical expertise. Troubleshooting plugin conflicts, theme compatibility, and website errors can be time-consuming and require additional support.
Security Vulnerabilities: The open-source nature of WordPress and its reliance on third-party plugins can create security vulnerabilities if not properly maintained. Regular updates, security plugins, and strong passwords are essential to mitigate these risks.
Website Maintenance: WordPress requires ongoing maintenance, including updating plugins, themes, and the core software. Neglecting these updates can lead to security risks, performance issues, and compatibility problems, potentially disrupting business operations.
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Squarespace helps businesses and individuals promote their brands digitally by launching professional websites and integrating every social account in a unified platform. According to reviews, the drag-and-drop website builder and intuitive user interface are the primary pros of the software.But, users have noted that the drag-and-drop editor lacks intricate customizations like moving image blocks, using multiple fonts, changing website structures and more. If you’re looking to deploy the software, we advise having technical expertise in WordPress coding or CSS editing for in-depth personalization. In conclusion, Squarespace is ideal for creating fashionable landing pages for individuals and smaller businesses, especially those looking for a simple option. It’s less effective for larger organizations with big inventory and that need hyper-detailed websites.

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Is WordPress still the word on the street for website creation this year? While starting as a humble blogging platform, WordPress has evolved into a robust content management system (CMS) powering a significant portion of the internet. Users praise its flexibility and extensive plugin ecosystem, which allows for a high degree of customization and scalability, making it suitable for simple blogs and complex e-commerce sites. This adaptability is further enhanced by the availability of thousands of themes and the ability to modify the platform's code directly, giving developers granular control over the final product. However, this strength can also be a weakness, as the learning curve for WordPress can be steep for beginners unfamiliar with web development. Managing security and updates can also be challenging without technical knowledge, potentially leading to security vulnerabilities or site downtime. Users often point to the need for additional plugins, even for basic functionality, which can lead to performance issues if not carefully managed. Despite these drawbacks, WordPress remains a popular choice for businesses and individuals seeking a powerful and adaptable platform to build their online presence, particularly those with some technical expertise or the resources to hire a developer.

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Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Web Design Software


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Wix

WordPress

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