Wordpress vs Wix vs Squarespace: What builder is best for you as a service-based business?
Are you trying to decide what website builder is right for you? The good news is that there are lots of choices out there! Here’s some just name a few: BigCommerce, Duda, GoDaddy, Google, Showit, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow, Weebly, WordPress, and Wix.
If you’re just starting out the decision can be paralyzing. I know, I’ve been there.
I’ve created websites for my clients on the top three builders:
I’m making a list of pros and cons for each builder to help you decide what builder is right for you as a service-based business.
WordPress
WordPress has been around for a long time. Since 2003, it has been built and maintained by an open-source community that believes in software freedom.
WordPress is truly amazing! I mean it’s completely customizable, meaning there are no limitations. You can truly create whatever you want. You have options like adding e-commerce, membership or hosting online courses.
Simply make sure that you aren’t confusing it with WordPress.com which is a hosting service that is best suited for bloggers. WordPress, aka WordPress.org, is the installation you’ll need to access the full functionality of the software.
Pros of WordPress
Open-source software
That means that you don’t have to worry about licensing fees, all you need to get started is a domain and hosting service.
Easy to use
You don’t need to be techy to install WordPress. Plus, there are some great page builder plugins like Elementor or Beaver Builder that will allow you to customize your website with the ease of drag and drop.SEO friendly
Out of the box, WordPress plays well with Google. WordPress sites tend to be easily crawlable by search engines and the SEO can be easily enhanced by plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math.Completely customizable
You can do almost anything on WordPress. You can go wild with the look of your website, host online courses, have an e-commerce shop, a membership site, monetize your blog and have the ability to migrate your website to another hosting provider at any time.
Cons of WordPress
WordPress is 100% free, until…
You add the cost of any paid plugins, your hosting service, maintenance fees, security and CDN services, and more. It’s a big investment, which is why I don’t recommend it for someone that’s just starting out.Plugins
If you want additional features, then you'll need plugins. Most plugins are free, but often you’ll need to upgrade that plugin to a paid version to get the complete functionality. Some of the most common plugins are SEO enhancers, security packs, backups, cookie banners, and page builders.Maintenance
Unless you want to log in to the backend of your website every day to update software, plugins, and themes, then you will need to hire a developer to maintain your site. They will ensure that your site is backed up, up-to-date, eliminate vulnerabilities, and test those updates for functionality.While I like the fact that technology is ever-evolving and constantly making things better for the users, the need for constantly maintaining your website can become overwhelming for a small business or entrepreneur. If it was as simple as hitting the upgrade button and voila the updates are done, that would be great, but in my experience, you need to test updates to make sure your site is not broken. And if there’s a glitch, how do you as a small business or entrepreneur make that fix without spending a lot of time on it or hiring a developer?
Slow loading pages
If you are hosted by one of the premium WordPress hosting companies, and paying good money for it too, then you may not notice slow page speeds. But if you simply chose the most affordable plan, then you may be on your way to a bloated database.With every plugin that you add, every image, every blog post, every page, or with every theme that is not well coded, you're adding bloat to your database. In WordPress, your database is basically “storage” space for all your data. A database that is not well-optimized will lead to pages loading slowly. There are many options you can use to avoid this like adding a CDN (Content Delivery Network), upgrading your host, or hiring a developer to optimize your database. All fine options, but again it may be a bit much for a small company or entrepreneur.
Pages that load quickly are not only important for your SEO ranking on Google, but also because you only have 3-5 seconds to capture your audience. If your page is loading at 7 seconds, then you won’t get the traffic you may be hoping for. People are accustomed to the internet at a swipe of their fingertip, if your page is loading slowly they will assume something is wrong with your site and simply leave.
Security flaws
Failing to regularly update your software, themes and plugins can create security holes that hackers are more than willing to take advantage of. You’ll need to make sure you have a WAF (Website Application Firewall) installed on your site, plus the daily upkeep of keeping your site up-to-date to help you avoid potential security breaches.
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Pros of Wix
Templates galore!
There are many templates or themes to choose from in Wix, with over 500 designs that are categorized by industry. You can choose a single-page website design or a full build.Drag and drop design
The drag and drop editor is fairly simple to use with no coding required to make edits. The mobile version can also be customized directly from the editor.Wix App Market
If you need additional features than what you can find on the drag and drop editor, look to the Wix App Market. It’s got a huge plugin store for almost anything you need.Built-in SEO
I loved the way that the Wix SEO wizard walks you through most aspects of optimizing your SEO. It makes it very easy for a DIY website builder to get organic traffic.Integrated marketing tools
If you are just getting started and need a logo, you can customize one of the templated options with your business name and colors. Plus, you can create social media content directly from Wix too. The functionality of the software is similar to Canva. It also has a built-in email marketing tool, which could be useful if you’re looking for an all-in-one builder.Site security
Wix offers a free SSL certificate with its hosting. You’ll need it to verify with Google that your site is secure, and an SSL certificate ensures that your site is HTTPS (not HTTP).Support
Wix integrates support throughout the editor, and step-by-step guides accessible via a button click.Versatility
Tools like built-in payments for e-commerce stores, a customer quote generator, project management, and autoresponders are just some of the options available to you in Wix.
Cons of Wix
Married to a template after choosing it
After you’ve chosen a template, you can’t switch to a new template without losing all of your content, so that’s a bummer.The free plan has the Wix branding
If you choose to start on a free plan, it comes with a built-in ad for Wix in the announcement bar of the header. It’s not a terrible-looking thing, but it is the first thing your visitors will see.
Analytics is not built-in
You’ll have to set up Google analytics outside of the builder to get any of your website metrics.You can’t migrate your site to another builder easily
As your business grows, you may decide that another builder is better for your business. Unfortunately, you can’t migrate your site to another builder easily, you’ll need to rebuild.More time-consuming to design and build
If you’re not a designer, the flexibility that the editor provides can be more time-consuming than you might expect. You’ll find yourself spending more time than you should on design and layout decisions, rather than on building up your business.
Squarespace
I won’t lie, I love Squarespace, and it’s the number one builder I recommend for my small business clients. It’s so easy to use and maintain. (And no I’m not an affiliate!)
Pros of Squarespace
User-friendly interface.
Squarespace is perfect for beginners and is DIY friendly. Each template is highly customizable through the design menu and all the tools you need to design and manage your site are in the same place. Plus, you can switch between templates at any time, and you don’t need to know any code!Affordable plans at any budget
The pricing for Squarespace begins at just $12 per month (when you pay annually). You also get two weeks to try Squarespace without the need for a credit card.
Good for blogging
Squarespace blogging tools are simple, yet powerful. You can have more than one blog on your site, or categorize your blog into multiple categories and tags. You can also enable AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) on your blog posts which will allow your content to load quickly. Not to mention that you can save posts as drafts, schedule posts, and write as many posts as you’d like – with the number of posts allowed being unlimited.Built-in security
Similar to Wix, Squarespace offers a free SSL certificate for your website. Your site will be recognized by Google as secure for visitors by ensuring that it’s HTTPS, not HTTP. For example, https://www.mywebsite.com.
SEO optimization included
Squarespace features include a site map, clean HTML markup, auto-tagging, clean URLs, automatic redirects, search engine and page descriptions, and Google Search Keyword Analytics.
Built-in analytics
You can track your site metrics practically from day one with an integrated analytics tool. I love opening my Squarespace app on my phone and taking a peek at my website traffic.All-in-one web builder
Again, like Wix, Squarespace offers integrated tools like email marketing, social media post creation, logo maker, and video maker.
Support
With a live chat button, it doesn’t get any easier to find help. The Squarespace help center is full of guides and video tutorials for any question you may have, and you may contact them via email.Multifaceted
Squarespace offers plans for service-based businesses, e-commerce, and membership sites. So if you’re a service-based business, but you also want to sell products you can include your shop directly into one builder.
Migrate your content
Unlike Wix, Squarespace allows you to migrate your content via export. So if you decide that the Squarespace builder is no longer right for you, then you may take your content and import it into another builder.
Maintenance-free
By far, my favorite thing about Squarespace is that it’s practically maintenance-free. Sure, it’s best practice to back up your content regularly on your device, but other than that you don’t need to do much in terms of upkeep. There aren’t any plugins or themes to update since Squarespace handles all of that in the background. Beyond updating your content, you are hands-off on the technical part of maintaining your site.
Cons of Squarespace
No free plans
After a two-week trial period, your website is locked down and you aren’t able to edit the site further until you’ve activated the website with a payment.
No autosave
I think we’ve all gotten used to the autosave feature, especially if you use Google docs, and not having an autosave feature built into WordPress is surprising and disappointing.No version history
In addition to the lack of autosave, you don’t have access to version history like in WordPress. If want to return to a previously saved version of a blog post, for example, it’s not possible on Squarespace.No phone support
While you can reach support via live chat or email, you can’t speak to a live person over the phone. Sometimes, when troubleshooting a problem a live person on the other line can make things much faster and easier to solve.
One more builder: Showit
I also want to make mention of the Showit builder. I’ve tried it for a personal site. Although the builder was originally marketed for photographers, it has since become popular for other service-based creative businesses.
It’s not the easiest builder to use if you’re not a designer, you may need to spend a lot of time and effort tweaking the design to get the website you want.
However, if you’re a designer you will love it! Design freedom has no boundaries in Showit! What you design in your sketchbook can easily be created digitally all within the builder.
Showit has a WordPress component for blogging. I honestly can’t say much about that aspect yet as I need to do more testing, but it seems to function exactly as a WordPress website does.
More to come on the Showit builder soon.
To sum it up
You can’t go wrong choosing WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace. All of these builders have their strengths and weaknesses, and it will come down to what features are most important to you.
Let me know what you decide. I’d love to hear about it!
Hi, I’m Monica. I’m a brand and website designer with a background in graphic design. I am a mom, creative, and entrepreneur. I started my side hustle about 10 years ago. When I became a mom, I knew it was time to leave my day job and take on my business full-time. The last 5 years of my business have been full of growing pains, but also many wins. I’ve been blessed with wonderful clients that have helped me survive the pandemic, and in turn, I’m here spilling design and business knowledge on these pages. My goal is to help small creative businesses thrive and accomplish their biggest dreams. What’s your dream?
