WordPress vs Squarespace: Which CMS should you choose?

If you're about to launch a website, blog or online store, the first thing you need is the right content management system. How does WordPress fare against Squarespace? We take a look at which of the two systems is right for your project.

Content Management System or CMS for short - it sounds complicated. But don't worry, it's actually just the technical term for the software used to build a website and manage the content (content management). Publishers use content management systems to fill their online magazines. Bloggers use them for their blogs and online stores also use such a tool. Their aim is to make it as easy as possible for you to maintain your website.

Comparison: WordPress and Squarespace

WordPress is probably the world's best-known content management system. For every 10 websites you visit, an average of four of them run on WordPress. 40.8 percent of all websites in the world today are built with this software - and the number is growing every day. There are also all kinds of other, sometimes more and sometimes less comparable systems and website builders. Perhaps you've heard of Wix, Jimdo or Chimpify?

Squarespace is also one of WordPress' (paid) competitors vying for the favor of website operators. In this article, we want to compare the two systems and make it easier for you to decide which one you should use to build your next website. Because even if it is always possible to migrate from one system to the other, you should definitely try to avoid the high costs.

The obvious: Website construction kit versus open system

Let's get the obvious out of the way right from the start: Squarespace is a website builder. That's not a bad thing per se, you just have to be aware of it. WordPress, on the other hand, in its self-hosted version, is a largely open system that - in contrast to a construction kit - can be expanded and adapted as required. This is particularly important if you want to expand your website in the future or add larger components such as an individual online store.

There is also WordPress.com, where you don't take over the hosting yourself, but this is less flexible. See our comparison of WordPress.org and WordPress.com. In this article, we are talking about self-hosted WordPress, i.e. the .org version.

In practice, you can feel the freedom of WordPress when choosing a hoster, for example. While with WordPress you have the freedom to choose which server provider you want to host your website with (for example with Raidboxes for particularly fast and convenient WordPress managed hosting), all Squarespace websites are hosted by Squarespace itself.

This makes sense as long as you are satisfied with the hosting. If you want an upgrade, have individual wishes or are not satisfied with the support, you are trapped. As already mentioned, migrating to another system is usually very complicated. As a result, the actually commendable simplicity of Squarespace restricts users in their options.

WordPress vs Squarespace: visuals and individuality

In addition, a website builder is almost always more restrictive when it comes to individual customizations. You won't be able to achieve the level of customization that you can with WordPress with Squarespace. On the one hand, this is due to the almost infinite number of WordPress themes and WordPress plugins that you can use to change the design and functionality of your website at any time. On the other hand, there are also the individual customizations that you can implement yourself with a little coding skill or have implemented by developers or an agency.

In addition to the advantages mentioned, this also has disadvantages, where Squarespace scores with its simplicity. With Squarespace, you don't have to know exactly what you're doing. The restrictive system always nudges you back into the right direction. For example, through a smaller selection of themes, which are always compatible. Something that is not necessarily the case with WordPress, depending on the site type, WordPress and PHP version, memory limit, etc.

After all, you can of course also customize your Squarespace site to your liking. Even if not to the same extent as with WordPress, for which you have to be able to program yourself or spend money at a certain point.

Functionality: pros and cons of plugins

When it comes to the question of functionality, the result is similar: here too, WordPress has a moat with its community of developers who have programmed hundreds of thousands of extensions (plugins) over the years, which no comparable system is likely to come close to. No matter what problem you are facing, no matter how unique it may be, the chances are high that someone has programmed a solution for it in the form of a plugin.

On the one hand, this provides the freedom that WordPress offers. Whatever you want to implement, it can usually be done somehow. But this freedom also costs you something (apart from money, if you buy paid plugins). Because the more plugins you use, the more you "artificially" expand your WordPress, the more complex your website becomes. And this can make it slower, less secure and you have to keep an eye on a lot more things in the event of problems. For example, the compatibility of the individual plugins with each other and with WordPress and your WordPress theme.

Squarespace comes with a little more functionality out of the box. It also offers a solution for third-party applications via its own app store that seems comparable at first glance. However, the selection here is very limited and cannot be compared with that of WordPress. The more unusual your site becomes, the higher the chance that you will reach your limits with Squarespace at some point.

E-commerce and online stores

When it comes to e-commerce, both systems have solutions that differ significantly: With Squarespace, you already have the option of setting up a store from the Business package (24 euros per month). However, if you want to use the full e-commerce functions, you need the extended e-commerce package, which costs 42 euros per month.

It comes as no surprise that WordPress has a plugin for the store system. With WooCommerce, you can implement your online store easily and free of charge. However, you will need extensions and plugins for some functions, which may cost money. You also need to make sure that your theme is compatible with WooCommerce.

Updates, security and (personal) responsibility

Of course, you don't build your website once and then leave it like that forever. A website evolves over time. Your own requirements or ideas change, you need new functions, you want to welcome your visitors to your site with the latest technology.

This requires regular updates. On the one hand, of course, this is of a visual nature, which we have already discussed above under "Appearance and individuality". On the other hand, you also want to keep your themes and plugins technically up-to-date. You can do this by regularly checking whether there are new updates in WordPress (and whether they are compatible with your site) and installing them. Alternatively, you can also have them updated automatically - but this requires a lot of trust in the respective plugin and your site.

If something goes wrong here, you need a backup that you can restore to bring your website back to the state it was in before the change. With WordPress, nobody takes care of this for you(except us at Raidboxes, of course). You also need to make sure that your website is secure. In short: you need to take personal responsibility if you want to actively run a WordPress website.

That sounds more dramatic than it actually is. Of course it takes a bit of time and practice. But if you regularly look at your site and question things, you will quickly reach a level of knowledge where this is no longer a problem.

With Squarespace, you already have all of this included: there are updates that are installed, a TLS certificate is always included and your website is backed up by Squarespace. Backups are also worth considering here, for example with the "Duplicate website" function. By the way: You can also "clone" WordPress websites with Raidboxes and thus realize further projects particularly efficiently.

Costs: WordPress Hosting vs Squarespace

As already mentioned, Squarespace is subject to a fee. The service costs between 15 and 42 euros per month if you pay monthly and between 11 and 36 euros per month if you pay annually.

Smaller websites and hobby projects can get by with the "Personal" package for 11 to 15 euros, while companies should upgrade to the "Business" package for 17 to 24 euros. And with an online store, you can choose between the "Business", "E-Commerce Basic" and "E-Commerce Extended" packages for between EUR 17 and 42 per month, depending on the complexity.

WordPress is basically free of charge. However, there are also costs for the domain, hosting and possible premium plugins or themes if you need them.

Conclusion: freedom or simplicity?

The bottom line, as you have probably already noticed, is that this topic comes down to one question: Do you want freedom or do you want simplicity? If you want freedom, you won't be happy with website builders. No matter whether you use Squarespace or one of the others. You will always have limits in several places that don't exist with WordPress.

On the other hand, you also have more responsibility with WordPress. You have to take care of a lot of things yourself or outsource them, which in turn costs money. Only good managed hosting can relieve you of a large part of the work with WordPress. Systems like Squarespace, on the other hand, take over many "annoying" tasks for you from the outset, but also limit you.

A basic recommendation: start with WordPress, learn the basics and test the system without incurring major costs. You're not taking any risks here - and what you've learned will also help you with a website builder like Squarespace. If you realize after a while that you can't cope with WordPress, then look around for alternatives. One of them is Squarespace - with many useful functions and simplicity. But also with some limitations.