Is Squarespace, Shopify, or WordPress right for you?
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When it comes to building a website, it can be super daunting because there are so many options out there. Should you build a site from scratch or should you use a builder? Or maybe a CMS will be better for you? What about open-source versus a contained system? It can be difficult to discern which option will be right for you and the current stage of your business. That's why I've decided to break down my three favorite website builder options: Squarespace, WordPress, and Shopify for you today.
Why specialize in specific platforms as a web designer?
Ok, truth be told there are a ton of website editors out there. And just because they aren't the ones I've listed as my favorites does not mean they are bad. For me personally, it comes down to specialization. that When I was younger I thought diversity in my knowledge was the way to succeed. As I've grown older I've realized the opposite is true. Specialization is key to maximizing your skills and, for me, I've specialized my coding skills to the Squarespace, WordPress, and Shopify platforms. This includes having an in-depth knowledge of HTML and CSS, JavaScript and jQuery, Liquid, PHP, and how all 3 systems work. Basically, specialization allows me to be an expert in the platforms that I work with. This helps me give a better experience to the clients I work with as well.
But enough about me and making my life easier. Let's break down the options and determine which one is best for you and your business at this time.
Is Squarespace right for you?
One of the main reasons I love Squarespace is it’s technically easy to manage. There's no weird billing associated with your account, so you always know what you're getting charged for. With a team of developers managing the core Squarespace code for you, you don't have to worry about servers or hosting and technical things like that. Security is built-in too and managed for you by Squarespace itself. Being a closed platform makes it really easy for you to create your site and never have to worry about it. Plus, if anything goes wrong, Squarespace offers award-winning support to help you with any issues that may arise.
Squarespace is also a super customizable platform. Since taking Standout Squarespace, I've realized how much room to play there is within the Squarespace platform. The course opened up my eyes to the possibilities of Squarespace, once you bring code into the picture. I love website development and use code on 99% of the sites I work on. It's how we take a bland website to the next level. I know Squarespace gets a bad rep for looking like a templated platform, but that's far from the truth. When working with a trusted and experienced web designer, they can take Squarespace to heights you never knew were possible. Take a look at the Squarespace sites I've built or any of my Squarespace Templates and I promise you won't be able to tell they're built on Squarespace.
Another thing that makes Squarespace great is how robust the platform is. It has so much built-in functionality that makes it a really strong platform for most use cases. Some of the functions my clients love in Squarespace include built-in scheduling features with Acuity (Squarespace owns Acuity), the ability to build landing pages directly on your Squarespace website, email marketing, membership areas, and robust integrations with other platforms. If you have something you're trying to build on a website, chances are Squarespace can probably do it.
I do have one caveat though. Squarespace's built-in eCommerce capabilities are not the most advanced. If you have under 20 products and aren't looking to expand much beyond that, I think building your eCommerce site on Squarespace is fine. I personally use Squarespace eCommerce on my own website, and I do so because it's easy to use and I don't need a lot of advanced eCommerce features. If you're looking to sell many more products though, or need specific eCommerce capabilities for your business, I would recommend you check out Shopify. Squarespace started out as a portfolio site platform, so didn't focus a lot on developing its eCommerce tools until much more recently compared to other platforms. This means that for Squarespace, that area of its platform has room to grow. It isn't the worst, but it isn't the best either.
Overall, Squarespace is my top choice of platform for most of my clients. It has all the bells and whistles that most people need in a website management tool today without having to deal with the headache of managing the backend of a webstie. If you’re building a website that shares a lot of information and is content-driven, then Squarespace is for you. I really only recommend Shopify or WordPress if absolutely necessary, which I’ll break down in more detail below.
Is Shopify right for you?
As I mentioned above, if you're an eCommerce business, I most likely will recommend Shopify to you. Shopify is a platform built specifically for eCommerce and offers the most robust eCommerce options to be able to sell products online.
Some of the eCommerce features that make Shopify stand out include:
Taking payments in multiple currencies
Bulk inventory importing via CSV
Bulk inventory editing options
Extensive drop shipping options
Integration with a wide range of third-party apps to add additional functionality to your online store
Advanced point-of-sale options, including an in-person POS system, if needed
More robust tax calculation functionality
Wide range of payment gateways
If you are a non-US online store looking to reach out to customers in an international market, then it is a no-brainer to build your shop on Shopify. Shopify integrates with over 100+ different payment gateways, allowing you to process credit card transactions from pretty much any country and in most currencies (with some exceptions.) This is in stark contrast to Squarespace, which only offers 3 payment processors—Paypal, Stripe and Square. Ultimately, Shopify offers more flexibility when it comes to accepting payments from a wide variety of potential customers.
There are two primary ways to build on Shopify. Option 1 involves creating a custom-coded website with a Shopify developer to create a bespoke online experience for your brand. Option 2 involves using a pre-built Shopify template and customizing the template for a semi-custom experience. Obviously, the two options vary greatly in price and customizability. I personally build semi-custom Shopify websites and I’ll explain why below.
The thing about Shopify that deterred me from it for a long time is its use of the coding language Liquid. This is a unique coding language specific to Shopify and is only used on its platform. Because of this, I resisted learning it for a long time, wondering how acquiring this knowledge would help me as a developer in the long run. Fast forward to now and I realize now that Liquid and Shopify aren’t going anywhere. That’s why it is one of my 2022 goals to continue expanding my knowledge of Liquid, giving me even more flexibility when I build Shopify sites in the future.
That being said, Shopify does offer some drag and drop features, making it easy for you to manage your site on your own post-build. The system isn’t 100% full proof though and in my experience isn’t as easy or intuitive to use as Squarespace.
Another cool thing about Shopify that I absolutely love is that it's a carbon-neutral platform. They run on Google Cloud servers as of 2018. They also have a commitment to be carbon negative, have carbon-neutral operations and have LEED-certified offices. If sustainability is something that matters to you a lot, then Shopify can help you toward not negatively impacting the environment through your use of technology.
Ultimately, if you want to build an online shopping empire online, then Shopify is probably right for you. For stores with a large inventory or specific eCommerce needs, Shopify will probably have the tools necessary to bring their vision to life.
Is WordPress right for you?
Ok, but what about WordPress? When is this a good website-building option for your business?
WordPress is a content management system that was launched in 2003. This means it is one of the oldest website builders ever to exist and powers over 27% of websites today. It has built a positive reputation for itself because of how long it has been in the market.
WordPress is an open-source CMS system available for anyone to use, for free, online. It is a technology that is enhanced and evolved over time, and a dedicated team of developers from all over the world contributes toward it over time. If open-source technology and the democratization of tech matter to you, then WordPress is a no-brainer for you.
Because WordPress is open-source, this means it can be used to create a website with basically any functionality you are looking for. Need a blog? WordPress is unmatched for its blogging potential. Need an eCommerce store? Integrate WooCommerce to build it for free. Need advanced SEO potential? WordPress has robust SEO capabilities. What about scheduling or other needs? There is probably a plugin you can integrate into your site that has that functionality. Or, you can hire a professional WordPress developer to build you the functionality you need from scratch. WordPress is unmatched when it comes to the freedom and flexibility of building a website. You can build absolutely anything on it and there is an inherent beauty in that.
The fact that WordPress is open source makes it extremely difficult to understand and build on though. There are thousands upon thousands of ways to build a WordPress site. You can build it from scratch, you can use a template, you can use an extensive array of plugins to add functionality to the site. All this variability makes each WordPress site unique, which is amazing in theory, but also a nightmare to manage from a building perspective.
For me as a website designer, there is no way of knowing what I’m getting myself into when I take on a WordPress website build. I build WordPress sites in a very specific way, using an array of plugins and templates that I have found to be trusted and reliable on the projects I have worked on in the past. The way I build though is not set in stone though, and many WordPress developers build differently than I do. This can lead to a lot of variability within each WordPress site I come into contact with and this can be a huge disadvantage for building expertise and knowledge about WordPress.
WordPress can also be frustrating because you need to be technically savvy to manage it on your own. One thing you will have to do with a WordPress website is manage your own servers. In most instances, I do not think most people want or care to manage hosting on their own. It’s too technical and can be extremely confusing if you’re not familiar with it. It’s even confusing for me because I’m not a backend developer (I’m a front-end developer; so I focus more on building out the visual composition of your site live on the internet, as opposed to managing how your website interacts with servers.) That being said, since you are able to manage your own servers, you are able to choose more sustainable ones when building on WordPress. This can make it easier to build a more eco-friendly website with WordPress.
You also have to maintain and update the backend of your site on your own, which can be cumbersome and annoying if you’re not familiar with doing it. For example, WordPress routinely updates its core code which doesn not automatically update on WordPress websites. Furthermore, templates and plugins also update from time to time, which you’ll also have to keep track of. It can be really risky updating these on your own because you run the risk of crashing your website and losing all your data if you do it incorrectly.
I started out my web design career building WordPress websites. There is an expectation among people online to be able to build on WordPress, so it is a service that I offer. In my opinion, WordPress is outdated and cumbersome. With the robust options available in both Squarespace and Shopify, there really is no need to create a website on WordPress anymore. If ease of use is one of your top priorities in building your website, then you probably shouldn’t build it on WordPress.
I only recommend WordPress to my clients if they absolutely insist on it. I prefer building on other platforms and make it clear to my clients in advance that this is the case.
Conclusion
Ultimately though, it is up to you to decide what platform is best for you and your business needs. That being said, it is important to keep in mind the recommendations of the web designer you decide to work with when putting together your website. Together, you will collaborate to ensure all your needs and requirements are integrated into the website you build, regardless of which platform it is on. I hope this guide gives you some clarity about which platform will best serve your needs as you embark on building a website in 2023.
