Squarespace vs WordPress: Price, Features & What’s Best in 2019

Squarespace and WordPress are popular platforms for building websites, with a major difference in how users create sites. Squarespace is an all-in-one site builder with a drag-and-drop editor best for building a site easily. WordPress is an open-source CMS that requires web hosting. It’s best for those with technical aptitude building a fully customizable site.

When to Use Squarespace

Squarespace is a site builder platform and host with a drag-and-drop site editing interface. Plans come unlimited storage and bandwidth as well as extras such as a free domain name and free templates, making it very easy to use—especially for those without design experience. It’s best for nontech-savvy businesses looking to build a professional and informational website quickly and easily for as little as $12 per month.

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When to Use WordPress

WordPress is the world’s leading content management system (CMS) that third-party hosting. It’s one of the most customizable platforms available with thousands of themes, plugins, and tools, giving sites nearly any capability imaginable. Given its complexity, WordPress is best for those with web design skills looking to build a fully custom site.

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Squarespace vs WordPress at a Glance

How We Evaluated Squarespace & WordPress

While Squarespace and WordPress are similar in many respects, many small business owners aren’t sure which best suits their unique needs. To help, we evaluated both based on price and contract terms, ease of use, features, and inclusions such as the amount of storage included, free domain names, secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates, and analytics. We also considered the customer support and customer reviews.

We looked at the following criteria to evaluate Squarespace vs WordPress:

• Price: The cost to build and host a website can vary greatly, and small businesses generally need to keep costs low. So, we looked at the cost of plans from each provider, including contract length and terms, to determine which offers the most value for the price.
• Ease of use: The best website solutions make it easy for businesses to build and maintain a professional site easily. We considered how easy each platform is to use, from connecting your domain name and SSL certificate to building pages and managing a site over time.
• Features & inclusions: Every website building and hosting platform comes with different features and inclusions, such as storage and bandwidth limits, built-in search engine optimization (SEO), drag-and-drop editing interfaces, and mobile-ready templates. They also often include extras such as a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and free business email. We considered which features and inclusions each platform offers to help determine overall value.
• Customer support: The quality and availability of customer service is important to users who may struggle with technical issues. Therefore, we considered when support is available to customers, as well as the channels offered.
• Customer reviews: By considering customer reviews and average ratings for both Squarespace and WordPress, we were able to offer a more holistic view of each platform’s quality. Where relevant, we included review information in our comparison.

Based on the criteria above, we found Squarespace to be the best website builder for non-tech savvy businesses, given its all-in-one, site-building offerings, especially the intuitive drag-and-drop builder. WordPress is the best option for those who have unique website needs and require a good deal of customization.

Squarespace vs WordPress: Pricing & Features

At first glance, WordPress is the cheaper option as it’s a free-to-use platform. However, it does require third-party website hosting and a domain name, and many users pay for premium themes and plugins, which can quickly increase the overall cost of using the CMS. On the other hand, Squarespace plans start at $12 per month and include everything a business needs to build and launch a professional business website.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace plans start at $12/month with an annual contract, which includes full access to its drag-and-drop site builder, dozens of templates, web hosting, and unlimited storage and bandwidth. Plans include extras such as a free domain name and a free SSL certificate, giving businesses everything they need to build a professional website.

Squarespace Tiered Pricing & Features

Personal Plan

Squarespace’s Personal Plan costs $12 per month with annual billing or $16 per month with month-to-month billing. It includes everything a small business needs to build a website, including dozens of pre-built templates, access to its drag-and-drop site editor for two contributors (or users), web hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth, and extras like a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and built-in analytics.

This plan is best for small businesses that are looking for a quick and easy way of building a basic, informational business website in one central place. It provides an all-in-one website solution with a drag-and-drop editing interface that makes it a lot easier to use than WordPress. Those looking to use Squarespace to sell online will need to upgrade to the Business Plan for ecommerce capabilities.

Business Plan

The Squarespace Business Plan costs $18 per month with annual billing or $26 per month with monthly billing. It includes everything from the Personal Plan, but with ecommerce capabilities. This includes ecommerce templates with pre-made product galleries, product listings, inventory management, and online payment processing. The plan also includes unlimited contributors, or users, enabling businesses to have multiple site managers and editors under different accounts.

The Business Plan is best for companies with teams managing their site or, given its ecommerce features, small businesses building a site to sell a few products online. However, the plan doesn’t allow users to complete the checkout process on a business’s domain. Instead, it directs users to check out over Squarespace, which might appear unprofessional. Businesses that want to keep their domain front and center should consider the Commerce Plan.

Commerce Plan

The Commerce Plan costs $26 per month with annual billing or $30 per month with month-to-month billing. The plan includes everything from the Business Plan but is geared toward ecommerce-focused businesses, given the ability for users to check out on a business’s unique domain and the ability to set up a customer login for future purchases.

With robust inventory management and user accounts, this plan is designed to meet the needs of those who sell most or all of their products online. That said, larger companies will likely find WordPress to be a better fit as it has more ecommerce capabilities and endless customization options.

WordPress Pricing

WordPress CMS is a free, open-source content management system used to create heavily-customized websites. While it costs nothing to use the platform itself, you will incur costs for web hosting (Bluehost offers plans for under $3 per month) and a domain name ($12-$15), and possibly for premium themes ($25-$300-plus) and plugins ($5-100-plus).

WordPress Tiered Pricing & Features

WordPress.org

WordPress is the leading open-source CMS. WordPress comes with hundreds of free themes to choose from, as well as thousands of plugins that add nearly any functionality from forums to live chats to websites. WordPress sites are completely customizable with PHP and MySQL code, though noncoders can use the menu-based editor to build sites. While it is free to use the platform, those looking to build a website with WordPress will need third-party hosting.

WordPress.org requires users to set up hosting via a third-party host to use the CMS. We recommend Bluehost, which offers reliable web hosting plans at for as little as $2.95 per month. Plans include many features, including a free domain name and one-click WordPress installation. Once you have this in place, WordPress can be used by larger businesses that need advanced customizations via hundreds of themes and plugins.

Bluehost Basic Plan

The Bluehost Basic Plan, which costs $2.95/month on a 36-month contract, includes 50GB of storage and unmetered bandwidth for one site. It also comes with many extras, including a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, up to five business email addresses, and one-click WordPress installation.

This plan is best for new businesses that are looking to build an informational website, such as a dental practice or a restaurant using WordPress. This is because it includes everything a business needs to get started with a website such as a domain name, an SSL certificate, and business email. The plan only includes 50GB of storage, so those looking to display large media galleries or portfolios should consider a plan with more storage, such as the Plus plan.

Bluehost Plus Plan for Ecommerce

The Bluehost Plus Plan is designed to give ecommerce companies a quality web hosting solution for sites built on WordPress. The plan starts at $8.95 per month on a 36-month contract or $16.95 on a 12-month contract. It includes unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth for an unlimited number of sites as well as many ecommerce-specific features such as domain name privacy, a free SSL certificate, and WooCommerce installed automatically.

The Bluehost Plus Plan is best for aggressive ecommerce businesses, such as those whose site is one of their primary sales channels. This is because the WordPress platform gives businesses immense customization and ecommerce capabilities through its extensive list of ecommerce add-ons. Those who are looking to build a basic online store with standard ecommerce functionalities and value ease of use should consider Squarespace’s Commerce Plan.

Squarespace vs WordPress: Ease of Use

Between Squarespace vs WordPress, Squarespace is the easier platform with which to create a website. Squarespace allows nearly anyone to create a website easily by customizing prebuilt templates with a drag-and-drop editor whereas WordPress was designed to give everyone a free platform to build a site using a menu-based editor with the ability to customize using code.

Squarespace Ease of Use

Squarespace is an all-in-one website building platform that gives users an easy and centralized place to build and maintain a website. Sites are built by customizing a prebuilt template in its code-free, drag-and-drop editing interface. Additional customizations and functionalities are available through its long list of available add-ons and custom cascading style sheets (CSS) modules.

WordPress Ease of Use

WordPress.org is not traditionally considered a very user-friendly platform, but it’s becoming easier to use for those without web design experience thanks to plugins such as drag-and-drop page builders. As an open-source platform, however, it does require users to source web hosting and a domain separately.

Squarespace vs WordPress: Customer Service

Between Squarespace vs WordPress, Squarespace wins by a long shot in regards to customer service. This is because Squarespace offers dedicated 24/7 customer support via email and live chat whereas WordPress does not offer any dedicated customer support. Instead, WordPress users rely on the WordPress forum for help or support through their web host.

Squarespace Customer Service

Squarespace provides well-regarded customer service via live chat and email. Live chat is available weekdays from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time and email support is available 24/7. It does not offer support via phone, but it does include a comprehensive online help center packed with educational resources, including articles and videos as well as a community forum where users can post questions to be answered by other Squarespace users.

WordPress Customer Service

WordPress does not offer dedicated customer service. Instead, it offers a popular community forum where users can submit and respond to questions. Generally, WordPress users depend on support from their web hosting provider. For example, Bluehost offers its customers dedicated WordPress support via phone and live chat. WordPress users also receive support through theme and plugin providers.

Squarespace vs WordPress: Customer Reviews

Squarespace and WordPress are neck-in-neck in regards to customer reviews. On Fit Small Business, Squarespace has a 4.4 out of 5-star rating, and WordPress has a 4.3-star rating. Accompanying comments reveal that while Squarespace is the best option for ease of use and customer service, WordPress is the best when it comes to extensive customization capabilities.

Squarespace Customer Reviews

Squarespace has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating on our reviews page. Positive reviews typically revolve around how easy the platform is to use and how it enables anyone—regardless of technical abilities—to build a website. Negative reviews mention that, at times, the platform can feel a bit rigid in regard to its customization capabilities and that plans are sometimes costly. Read our full Squarespace review.

WordPress Customer Reviews

WordPress.org has a 4.3 out of 5-star rating on our reviews page. Reviewers frequently comment that they like the extensive customizable capabilities that are available through plugins. They also mention that they like how large the WordPress community is, leading to consistent updates and plentiful support from other site builders. Negative reviewers comment that it comes with a steep learning curve. Learn more from WordPress.org user reviews.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which website builder is better for me: Squarespace or WordPress?

Generally, Squarespace is better for those who want a very easy way to build and manage a site with an all-in-one website building platform that includes everything you need whereas WordPress is better for those who want to build a site with advanced capabilities and customization options. Get a better idea of which is better for you by seeing how each platform is used to build a small business website.

What are the best website builders?

The best website builders are those that make it easy for anyone to build a professional website quickly and affordably. The best overall options available include Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress, Shopify, and Joomla. Each website builder has unique capabilities, features, and pricing; to find the one that’s right for you, read our best website builder reviews.

How do I build a Squarespace website?

Squarespace is designed to make it very easy to build a professional website. To do this, start by browsing and selecting a template on Squarespace.com. Then register for an account for as little as $12 per month, customize your template and update pages with your content using the drag-and-drop editor, add plugins, connect your domain, and launch your site. Follow along with our step-by-step instructions on how to build a website with Squarespace.

Can you transfer a site from Squarespace to WordPress?

Yes, it is possible to manually migrate a website from Squarespace to WordPress by downloading your Squarespace site to an XML file and then importing that file into WordPress. Before you begin, you will need to get web hosting for your new WordPress site and install WordPress. Then, export your Squarespace content under “Advanced Settings” and import that file using “Import” under “Tools” in your WordPress dashboard.

Bottom Line: Squarespace vs WordPress

When comparing Squarespace vs WordPress, it’s clear that each has its strengths and weaknesses. While Squarespace makes it very easy to build a professional site quickly, WordPress gives users immense customization opportunities and functionalities. Those who value ease of use should choose Squarespace, and those with special site needs should choose WordPress.