Squarespace vs. WordPress: 6 key differences + an alternative

Whether you want to run an online store, showcase your marketing portfolio, or build a blog, Squarespace and WordPress are two popular website builders for getting your site off the ground.

Squarespace is known for its beginner-friendly simplicity, providing built-in tools and templates for easy customization. On the other hand, WordPress offers greater flexibility with thousands of plugins to expand functionality. 

With so many features and options, it can be difficult to decide which content management system (CMS) is right for you. Learn more about Squarespace versus WordPress to help you choose the right platform for your needs.

Squarespace or WordPress: 6 differences to consider

Both WordPress and Squarespace have pros and cons that will help you decide which is best for your needs. Here are six key distinctions.

1. Blogging

When comparing WordPress versus Squarespace for your blog, consider whether you want a beginner-friendly interface or an advanced feature set. 

Squarespace offers built-in, ready-to-use tools that suit beginners. You can schedule posts, manage multiple authors, and categorize content without diving into complex settings. It's easy to get started — add a blog page to your Squarespace site, and you're good to go.

WordPress has a more advanced feature set. It offers extensive customization with multiple templates, scheduling options for large volumes of posts, and hundreds of blog-specific plugins. The platform also lets you interact with other WordPress blogs through comments and likes.

2. SEO

Squarespace has many built-in SEO tools, letting you manage URLs, alt text, and image sharing directly within the platform. Squarespace also automatically generates sitemaps and provides options like redirecting pages and hiding specific web pages from search engines.

WordPress relies on Yoast, a dedicated SEO plugin for the platform. Yoast offers more flexibility and granular control, so you can fine-tune SEO settings. For example, depending on your hosting provider, you can decide how much storage your WordPress site should have, which can affect page loading times.

Here are a few SEO features both platforms provide:

• Customizable meta titles and descriptions
• Cleaner, search engine-friendly URLs
• Descriptive image alt text
• Page redirects that send visitors to updated links
• Automatic sitemaps that tell search engines about your site's various pages and the relationship between them

Both platforms share this feature set, but Squarespace does most of the heavy lifting for you, while WordPress allows you to customize features to fit your needs.

3. Pricing

Squarespace’s pricing structure is relatively straightforward:

• Basic plans start at $16/month
• Core plans cost $23/month
• Plus plans cost $39/month and unlock ecommerce features
• Advanced ecommerce functionality costs $99/month

You get hosting, a free custom domain, a mobile-optimized website, and templates for every Squarespace plan. It's easier to manage costs in one payment, but there’s less flexibility and customization than with WordPress. You can also opt for a 14-day free trial to test Squarespace before committing.

WordPress offers more flexibility, but it also requires additional setup. Here are their plan options and prices:

• Personal plans start at $4/month
• Premium plans start at $8/month and unlock integrations and additional themes
• Business plans start at $25/month and offer perks like plugin installation
• Commerce plans cost $45/month and give you access to advanced ecommerce tools and WooCommerce hosting
• Enterprise plans for large businesses cost $25,000/year

While paying for the more advanced features can add up, WordPress lets you control each element based on your needs and budget, making it a customizable solution.

4. Customer support

Squarespace's live chat is available from Monday to Friday,
 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, but you might face wait times due to high demand. They also offer 24/7 email support. For quick answers, you can access their support resources by choosing from a list of common issues and finding the relevant guides. There are dedicated help centers for Squarespace and non-Squarespace users looking to sign up for the platform.

WordPress.com has a dedicated support page with quick links, resources, and over 300 guides for specific problems. WordPress.org, where you self-host, is an open-source platform and doesn't offer centralized customer support. Instead, you have to rely on WordPress' broader community for help. 

Support comes through forums, tutorials, and documentation that plugin or theme developers provide. Some premium themes might come with direct help, but most assistance depends on your WordPress hosting provider and third-party resources. 

5. Integrations and plugins

Squarespace's plugin collection is curated. Each integration is vetted for quality and integrates with the platform. While the selection is on the small side, the extensions fit into Squarespace's ecosystem. Squarespace provides plugins as add-ons, depending on your use case.

WordPress has about 60,000 plugins. You can add capabilities like SEO tools and blockers. The sheer number of integrations can be overwhelming, and narrowing them down for your needs can be a challenge. Some plugins are free, but others come at a cost, and you'll have to check whether they're up-to-date and compatible to avoid security risks.

6. Ecommerce

Squarespace includes built-in ecommerce features, but you'll need the Core plan to access all of the business features. For lower payment processing fees and tools like API integrations, you'll need to upgrade to a Plus or Advanced plan.

The more advanced Commerce plan includes higher-end functionality, including abandoned cart recovery, subscription-based product sales, and dynamic shipping rates. Squarespace also offers Acuity Scheduling for appointment-based services, making it a suitable option for different business types.

WordPress relies on the WooCommerce plugin for ecommerce. WooCommerce is free to install but requires additional plugins for advanced features, which increases costs. But like the integrations, you can opt for anything you need and leave out features you don't.

Webflow: A powerful alternative

If you’re still unsure which is better — WordPress or Squarespace — consider Webflow. The platform is a flexible and powerful alternative:

Blogging

Webflow's blogging capabilities combine a user-friendly interface with customization and flexibility. The CMS lets you fully customize your blog layout within a visual editor, offering creative control with or without coding. You can scale your Webflow blog without relying on engineers and add extensive plugins and integrations for additional blogging capabilities. 

SEO

Webflow has built-in SEO features, offering code-level control without additional plugins. Structured semantic code, customizable metadata, and automatic sitemaps make your Webflow site faster — a metric that search engines favor when ranking websites. Webflow provides control over technical elements like in-app SEO suggestions and localization.

Pricing

Webflow's pricing structure gives you flexibility as your site grows. Workspace and site plans include advanced features like a composable CMS and hosting.

World-class support

Webflow provides extensive customer support through an expert community, unrivaled partner network, dedicated consulting, and step-by-step tutorials on Webflow University. For more personalized assistance, Webflow offers email and live chat support. The structured support system is easy to navigate and provides advanced resources for those who need guidance on complex design and development issues.

Integrations and plugins

Webflow strikes a balance between plugins and extensions by providing integrations without overwhelming users. The platform integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Google Analytics, Figma, and HubSpot but also allows for more advanced customizations through APIs. The Webflow Apps page categorizes plugins with brief descriptions, so you know each tool's purpose without needing to sift through third-party options.

Build web experiences with Webflow

Squarespace and WordPress are both solid options for building and managing websites. While one option is straightforward and beginner-friendly, the other is more advanced and customizable due to its vast plugin ecosystem. But scaling becomes a challenge with Squarespace, and leveraging WordPress' flexibility requires more technical management.

With Webflow, you get the best of both worlds without needing third-party plugins or outside developers. Webflow’s built-in SEO tools, flexible pricing, and visual-first CMS make it an ideal choice for building your site.