Which Website is Right for YOUR Business? Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, or WordPress
This is probably the most debated website-related topic of all time. Which one is right for your business?
Over the years, I’ve recorded 2 YouTube videos and even hosted a Clubhouse room about this topic. Today, I’m sharing my opinion of each website builder, because believe it or not I’ve designed on all 4! Crazy, I know. I’m comparing Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, and WordPress on ease of use, mobile view, and if they are good for online shops or service-based businesses.
Squarespace
I love Squarespace! I recommend it to my clients not only because I use it for my own site, but because it’s easy for my clients to make changes themselves. I made my first 2 Squarespace sites in winter 2019, and I’ve been in love ever since. Squarespace sites are very responsive meaning they look just as good on mobile as they do on desktop.
Ease of Use: I think it’s easy. Some people think it’s hard. I admit 7.0 version can be intimidating. Everything feels like starting with a blank canvas. The 7.1 version includes “Designer Pages” which are entire pages you can customize and “Designer Layouts” which are sections that you can add your content to and customize. Squarespace also rolled out a Drag and Drop version of the builder which saves a lot of time and makes the user experience more enjoyable. You can literally move things exactly where you want them.
The ease of use with Squarespace depends on if you want an out-of-the-box solution or if you want to make a website with a custom look and feel.
If you want something custom with little or no code, then it is EASY. If you want something straight out of the box they have plenty of free themes(templates) to choose from included in your monthly fee. To make your site stand out I suggest investing in a premium theme. Premium themes range from $200-$500+ Whether you DIY the install or get a web designer to help the premium theme will save you lots of time and headache because theme designers usually provide tons of support in the form of video tutorials and written instructions. I even have a few Squarespace Templates I’m designing for entrepreneurs :)
For Services: Squarespace is great for service-based businesses. It has a ton of options for showing off portfolio projects and case studies. And the newest version has Service Page layouts included to make your offers shine. If you book services with consultations or appointments you’re going to love that Squarespace works with Acuity. You can also add Calendy or other booking software to the site too. And let’s not forget about the lead forms from Dubsado and Honeybook. You can add those too! You can also integrate your payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, ApplePay) and accept client payments directly on the site.
For Products: The e-comm features of Squarespace are underrated. There are actually some pretty big brands using Squarespace for their online stores. They make it really easy to add product photos, descriptions, and tags. You get to set the shipping costs manually. Not sure if they offer shipping automation. They are also updating the e-commerce features to be more robust to compete with the other platforms.
Shopify
I love Shopify! I designed my first Shopify store in 2018. I’ve loved seeing the platform evolve. I recommend it to e-commerce owners. Especially those with more than 100 products. Shopify has made it easier to upload several products at a time.
Ease of Use: Very user-friendly. The login dashboard is pretty easy to navigate. Shopify makes it really convenient to bulk upload products and even import products from other stores. They have simple layouts and themes for you to customize for your brand. To make your online shop look like the big shop websites we will need to do some graphic design. Canva, Adobe Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator, and PickMonkey can help us with this. The sky is the limit with Shopify. Especially as your brand grows you can use Shopify.liquid to add even more bells and whistles to your site. Don’t panic! Most Shopify sites don’t need that additional code. Whew! I know you are relieved to hear that.
For Products: Shopify puts the spotlight on your products. Each theme has different features that really show off your collections. You can have an online store that is very calm, minimalist, and airy OR you can have an exciting store with bold colors, fonts, and graphics. It’s completely up to you. I always recommend using a premium Shopify template. In Shopify’s marketplace, the template alone ranges from $150-$300. I suggest hiring a designer to set up your Shopify store and/or re-brand it and then having them update it for new collections or specials. That way you can focus on making awesome products and providing amazing customer service. Another great feature of Shopify for online shops is the apps. You can set up Buy Now, Pay Later - which is super popular right now- services like Klarna, AfterPay, and ShopPay right on the site. You can also accept ApplePay and GooglePay. Other apps that will come in handy are e-mail marketing and SMS text marketing. And what shop is a shop without Abandoned Cart reminders and countdown timers to checkout?
For Services: If you are a service-based business that offers a lot of products then Shopify could be a great place for your online store. I’ve seen several businesses have a website for their services and courses on one website builder and the products are on Shopify. The great news! Shopify integrates with Squarespace, WordPress, and Wix.
Wix
I like Wix! They’ve stepped up their user interface, features, and layouts since I started using it in 2017.
Ease of Use: Very user-friendly. Wix comes with a lot of pre-designed elements like About sections, gallery sliders, and stylish buttons. Wix premium plans offer variety of templates for different industries to use as as starting points. It also has a drag-and-drop feature that makes it really easy to add these elements exactly where you would like them.
I tried Wix Editor X a few years ago and it was cool too. Keep in mind that with Wix and Wix Editor X, you will need to edit the mobile-version seperatley to make sure it looks how you would like it to on phones and tablets.
For Services: Wix keeps adding capabilities beyond just the website which are great for service-based businesses. Now, you also can book appointments, create inquiry forms, email marketing, send agreements, send invoices, recieve payments, and host courses all inside of Wix. It’s like a website with the power of a CRM. And if you use Dubsado or Honeybook for your CRM, you can add those lead forms to your wix site too.
For Products: The e-comm features of Wix are simple to use. No code is required.
WordPress
My very first website/blog was on WordPress in 2011. I like learning things the hard way… that’s why I started with the hardest platform.
I thought that using themes/templates was cheating…HA! I have a completely different opinion now. Without a theme you can expect to spend a few weeks or even a few months building a WordPress site completely from scratch to look how you see it in your mind. I wouldn’t recommend it. Also, when you do decide to get a Wordpress site get a Wordpress.org site. You have to sign up for hosting and get the site, but it will save you a LOT compared to signing up with Wordpress.com.
If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have designed my first site on WordPress. Be prepared to learn lots of code and watch A LOT of tutorials if this is your first time designing a WordPress site.
Ease of Use: Advanced users only. This is the hardest platform. Why? Even with a theme/template the platform is confusing. You can’t see what you are designing while you are designing it. Unless you upgrade to a paid feature like Elemontor, you will not have drag-and-drop. Entrepreneurs NEED drag and drop. We wish we wanted to be the coding gurus of the world, but we don’t. We need to get our websites up like Yesterday! One of the perks of WordPress is the amount of free plugins. There’s a plugin nearly for everything you can think of. Wordpress.com automatically updates the plugins and themes. Plugins are available on paid Wordpress.com plans. Wordpress.org does not automatically update themes. You will need to stay on top of this.
For Services: Wordpress has some great features for showcasing services, portfolios, and testimonials. The options are limitless with how beautiful your website can truly be. When you or your designer pick out a theme make sure that it is catered specifically to service-based businesses. Integrating the payment processors can be a little tricky. BE PATIENT.
For Products: Wordpress is great for e-comm stores that plan on expanding. Whether you have 5 or 5,000 products the Woocommerce plugin isn’t changing. The trickiest part with Woocommerce/Wordpress is adding the product variations. Pay very close attention in tutorials for how to add products and variations. It can save you a ton of time. Also, make sure to at least monthly check your inventory to make sure it’s accurate. One of my favorite features is that it automatically integrates with Facebook shops now! Just make sure your Facebook and Instagram business accounts are already connected.
FRIENDLY REMINDER: YOU’RE IN AT YOUR OWN RISK With WordPress.Org keep in mind that you will need to stay current on WordPress Updates. You’ll also need to set reminders to manually update plugins so that your website doesn’t run into any techinical issues. I have a blog right now for my podcast that has constant error messages because 1) WordPress update 2) Theme was updated, becuase of the WordPress update and 3) A anti-spam plugin that was never updated -____- . It only sounds fun to be tech support on your own website. The host provider WILL NOT help you. If you run into this type of issue be prepared to read several forums and lots of help documents.
