Like Mac & PC, Squarespace & WordPress are for two totally different kinds of small business owners, which are you?
If you're like Worstofall Design and The Dude, you'd rather be drinking White Russians than updating plugins...
Squarespace is Apple.
For those that want their website to do everything they need, right out of the box, it’s intuitive and beautifully designed. It’s for people who want a sexy looking website, quickly and painlessly, that is easy to edit. It’s not for people who sweat the small stuff, but for people who are focused on the big vision instead. And lastly, for people who were weirded out, yet still intrigued by, Jeff Bridges recording a meditation tape during the Superbowl.
WordPress is PC.
For those who love, and know about, computers and enjoying tinkering endlessly with code. It’s for people who want to play with pixels, plugins, CSS... have we lost you yet? It’s also for larger companies who may have major or special functionality needs and the budget to pay experts to build and manage it for them. Indefinitely.
As Squarespace quickly goes from being unknown to dominating the world of website creation platforms, there are still those that have invested so much time and effort into WordPress that they are slinging mud to save their biz, which we totally get. But as long-time Squarespace fans, here are our not-so-polite rebuttals:
WORDPRESSERS SAY IT HAS BETTER SEO
We say if you are an SEO expert and like to spend the wee hours writing meta tags while watching reruns of Adult Swim, OR if you are going to invest thousands of dollars a month in an SEO company, then WordPress may be a good fit. And if you decide on the punishment of doing it yourself then make sure to read "SEO Like I'm 5" to have a fighting chance. For everyone else, Squarespace has it all built-in. In fact, Squarespace regularly scans the top installed WordPress plugins to ensure that they include all the same functions automatically for all their users. Spend your time creating better content on a regular basis; that's much more useful if you want to get found online.
WORDPRESSERS CLAIM OPEN SOURCE IS BETTER
WordPress is a constant frustration for those of us who just want our website to work without having to think about it. WordPress boasts being “open source,” which means any coder can develop “plugins” that you can use to add functionality to your site. The problem is that all plugins are not created equal. They usually cause glitches and problems when the website is updated, which WordPress requires if you don't want other parts to break. WordPress allows anyone to do anything-- and that is exactly what happens. This free-for-all leads to your site breaking often, or at best, becoming a Frankenstein-ed clunker.
Squarespace is not open source, which means that the company is in total control of the quality of all functionality. In other words - everything works all the time and when it doesn’t, they're on it like white on rice. True, you cannot do "whatever you want" on Squarespace, but we think that's doing all you small business owners a favor! Often the "pixel-perfect, custom features" that WordPress developers tout are more for personal preference than any real business goal. Don't overcomplicate getting your badass business idea online ASAP and out there into the world. Small Business is about building relationships and credibility with your consumer and getting them to take action that will ultimately result in making sales. Where's that plugin? Oh there it is, it just broke my website.
WordPressers cry "You can’t customize exactly as you want on Squarespace"
"I can't sell a product with only three header font styles"
- Said no one ever
We say thank god you don't have endless options! Unless you are a website expert who loves to spend long nights futzing with code and CSS (what's CSS? exactly...), or consider yourself a website artist of some kind, whatever customization you’re looking for is likely just a personal preference. Put that energy and time towards something more valuable - like building your business, growing your network, marketing your brand, sharpening your skills, and selling your product. Just because you can tinker with a website for months until it’s exactly what you want, doesn’t mean you should. (And more importantly, since websites aren’t your expertise, your tinkering is likely hurting your business.)
MYTH: WORDPRESS IS BETTER FOR GROWTH
Stop stalling by getting ahead of yourself and buying today what you think you will need 5 years from now. Your website is going to be a constantly evolving creature. Make the website you need now, and update it as needed, which, gasp!, may even include changing platforms two or three times. If your business develops such that a simple marketing website will no longer be sufficient and instead you need a special functionality website, you’re going to need to reimagine and build your website from scratch anyway, and you’re going to need to hire a well-respected company to do it (which costs a lot of dough to do correctly.) Most small, service-based businesses will never need that functionality, and it's certainly not a requirement for growing into a multimillion-dollar business.
SO WHY DOES WORSTOFALL ONLY USE SQUARESPACE?
In addition to everything above, it has the added benefit of being able to create a site in real time, which is perfect for our no BS Brandups, it allows us to hook people up with badass brands in days, not months. We're able to design and build a badass website while the client is in the office, so that they leave with their site online, ready to sell, immediately.