Choose Squarespace over Wix (or Wordpress). Here’s why
I have spent over a decade working with Wix, Wordpress and more recently, in the last 5 years or so, Squarespace and I have come to the conclusion that in order to have a thriving and well-organized business Squarespace is everything. Keep in mind that I am speaking specifically to service providers in this post so if you are a coach, therapist, sexologist, consultant, etc. this post is for you!
Earlier this year I made the decision I had been battling with for a couple of years and decided to ONLY design websites on Squarespace. I’m going to go over the reasons I made that decision so you can decide for yourself if it’s right for you. Please note that all of this is solely my opinion based on my own experience not only as a website designer but as a business owner myself.
In this post we will explore:
Why Wix doesn’t work for long term growth or DIY websites
Why Wordpress will probably make you want to throw your laptop out the window
What makes Squarespace different from Wix and Wordpress
What Squarespace offers
How to simplify and organize your business using Squarespace
How to setup Squarespace for your business whether you are hiring a designer or DIYing
First, you might be thinking “why does it matter what platform I choose for my website?” and I want to assure you that it matters a great deal not just for your website but for your business as a whole. A lot of business owners don’t realize how important their website is to the success of their business. Your website is actually the center of the universe that is your business. There are so many things that connect directly to your website and without realizing it your business can quickly become chaotic and out of control if you don’t set it up correctly in the beginning(ish).
You might already be experiencing this; having several apps, plugins, and platforms that you consistently have to login to in order to manage even a fraction of your business. As you grow you need more tools and eventually you’re paying a ton of money to multiple subscriptions and wasting time trying to remember passwords to all of the different apps you’re using and it's exhausting.
My goal as a website designer and business owner myself is to always simplify operations so everything works together cohesively and is easy to manage. I have spent years helping businesses do this and having the experience of being a part of businesses that quickly got out of control as they grew.
I’m going to share with you all that I have learned over the years so you don’t have to figure it out on your own, so let’s get into it!
Why Wix doesn’t work for long term growth or DIY websites
Wix is extremely complicated. And for me that’s the bottom line. There are some things about Wix that I really do like though so I am going to list those first before we get into the cons that really outweigh the pros.
Wix has a drag and drop builder that gives you complete control over your design, it's more similar to Elementor on Wordpress so there is lots of flexibility and creativity that can go into building a website on Wix and this is one of the reasons I have always liked it and worked with it for as long as I did. However, the builder is very complicated (I find Elementor much easier to use) and often frustrating and will take you a lot longer (I mean months longer), to DIY your website vs. Squarespace. So if you are thinking about DIYing your website I would not recommend Wix for this reason alone.
Wix has a whole suite of tools you can use for your business all located in one place with one login. This is another point for them - no matter what you are building out within your business there is probably a tool or plugin within Wix that can help you manage it. There is scheduling, blogging, email marketing, ecommerce, memberships, etc.
So you’d think that Wix would be great for long term growth of a business because everything you need to grow is there right? Wrong.
The backend of Wix is a complete mess. It’s hard to navigate and understand, it takes way more time to find what you are looking for then it should and it's just all around not user friendly at all. This means as you grow and add more apps and options to your website your backend gets more and more complicated and way harder to manage. So while the idea, “hey you can get everything you need for your business in one place” exists, the execution of that idea is a hard fail for me.
A few more cons include:
Wix’s email marketing leaves very little to be desired (not only is it more complicated than most email marketing platforms the emails are not cute)
The analytics section is a mess - good luck trying to understand your traffic or any data related to your website without spending a full hour or more looking through the analytics. This is terrible for growth or for understanding changes needed to increase traffic or engagement. You’ll just end up frustrated and confused.
Somehow Wix has made things even more complicated by introducing AI into their builder (and other areas) and it’s just simply made things worse not better in my opinion.
They are more expensive than Squarespace
Bottom line is this: If you want a platform that is simple, user friendly, easy for you to DIY or make changes whenever you want, and will be easy to manage as you grow your business Wix is not it.
Why Wordpress will probably make you want to throw your laptop out the window
I’ve worked with Wordpress the longest and so on some level I just love it. It's the OG website platform. But I have learned that it just doesn’t make sense if you want a system for your business that connects everything cohesively to your website. Wordpress has always been a bit complicated, it's not for DIYers at all and if you do have a designer create a website for you on Wordpress it won’t be easy for you to make changes whenever you want.
Wordpress works differently than Squarespace and Wix. You purchase hosting (this can be around $800-$1000/year through Siteground), and then you need a separate plugin to build your website. I liked using Elementor (although they started making updates to their plugin that I hated and made it less fun to use). In addition to Elementor, you will also need several plugins to add things like expanding the builder so you have more creative options, SEO capabilities, Forms, Image compression, security and backups, speed/caching and more! Most all of these plugins require an additional fee on top of your hosting, domain and builder. You can easily spend around $1500+/year on a very basic Wordpress website.
In addition, the plugins often don’t like each other and it will break parts of your website until you go through each and every plugin you have to find the culprit! It’s beyond.
And there is no easy way to manage things like email marketing, online programs, memberships, scheduling, etc. all from one place. You will have to add additional platforms and yes, more subscriptions in order to have all the pieces you need for your business to work.
So, yeah I don’t recommend Wordpress - I’ve managed businesses that used it and built many a website on it and it's just so complicated it gives me a headache, and I don’t want that for you.
What makes Squarespace different from Wix and Wordpress
Enter Squarespace…a breath of fresh air if you ask me. When I first started using Squarespace I was a bit frustrated with the limitations their builder offered in the areas of creativity and freedom to move things around at will like I was used to with Wordpress and Wix. It’s not a drag and drop builder, it's based on sections so at first I was like UGH! Of course that was several years ago and they’ve made some changes to it since I first started using it but after I got used to it the constraints didn't bother me as much and it was almost like I could do more (not less).
I also quickly realized that my clients could easily go in and make changes to their website without relying on me (and this felt more in alignment with my ethical website design practices). My clients don’t have to pay me for every little change they want to make, because it’s so user friendly they can go in and make changes without breaking their site.
The backend is amazing as well. It's very easy to find things you need, the analytics section is easy to understand and navigate. The email marketing is a dream - very easy to use and the email templates are gorgeous.
And almost everything you need to run your business is included in the backend so you have one login for nearly every aspect of your business.
Squarespace basically takes every good part of Wix and Wordpress and combines it into one place that's easy to use, understand and navigate with a dash of its own magic. And for me this is what set it apart immediately.
What Squarespace offers
Squarespace offers a lot and they keep making it better! Here is the short list and the main reasons why I recommend it above anything else.
Built in blogging that is seamless, easy to use and pretty
A great builder that makes DIYing so much easier than the alternatives
Scheduling built in via Acuity (at a small additional fee)
Forms built in and super easy to setup and use
Email marketing built in (at a small additional fee) that is easy to use and beautiful
Domain purchasing/hosting that you can setup in like 3 steps
Invoicing and purchase links built in (they take a percentage of every purchase but it’s less than Paypal and you can easily integrate Stripe if you prefer)
Courses, Memberships, Evergreen programs built in and easier to setup than Kajabi
Events/Workshops pages that are seamless
Great pricing (around $300-$400/year)
All of this and more with one login.
How to simplify and organize your business using Squarespace
So here’s why I LOVE Squarespace and what I help my clients do. I believe that your website is the HUB of your business. Everything links back to it. On the front end all of your marketing efforts come back to your website where people either book, buy a program or get on your list.
On the backend of your website you need to manage your courses, clients, email lists, etc. and doing that through several different applications is a nightmare that eats up your precious time and makes your business harder to run. BUT with Squarespace you can do all of that from one place and that saves you hours upon hours of time. Not only that, it simplifies your business, saves you money and makes you feel like a Queen because your whole business is running smoothly with the least amount of effort.
The idea here is to create a little Universe for yourself and your business that runs smoothly and is organized and this is what Squarespace helps you do (and what I set up for all of my custom design clients).
How to setup Squarespace for your business whether you are hiring a designer or DIYing
If you’re hiring a designer let them know what you want included on the backend of your new Squarespace website (if they offer that as a service.) I ask all of my clients what they need such as scheduling, email marketing, courses, etc. Then when I build their website I also set up all of those things for them so they are ready to go once the website is done and I walk them through how to use each option.
If you are doing your own website look through Squarespace and at the different options. Squarespace has a great help center that can walk you through how to set up the options you want to use for your business.
As I said before everything is super user friendly and I highly recommend running your entire business solely from Squarespace. There’s lots of room for growth and it will just save you so much time and make your whole life easier and that’s what we want right?
xo,
Kate
Ready to simplify and organize your business while getting a website that is SUPER AWESOME?
Reach out to me here for a free consultation!