Creating a website no longer means hiring a web developer to do it for you. However, there are pros and cons to this approach that you should consider. In this article, we’ll compare WordPress, Weebly, Wix, and SquareSpace, all content management platforms used to create websites. Ten years ago, I learned the difference between HTML and CSS and started working with tables to create websites. Do you remember those days? In other words, HTML was the wood that went into the house, and CSS was the paint.

The HTML code defined the elements and told the computer that what was on the screen was a web page. The CSS code communicated with the web browser and told it to design and decorate the content of the page. Without CSS, all the text on a web page would look exactly the same. Keep this in mind because your chosen framework, platform, and template may not allow you to make changes to your website’s CSS code. If your website looks the same, it makes it difficult to distinguish between your website and your competitors’.

Website usability is always one of the three main reasons why people choose WordPress and Weebly or Wix and SquareSpace. Each platform has its own settings and features. The usability promised by some platforms comes with limitations and compromises.

The nature of the limitations depends on several factors: the platform you want, the website developer, the theme you choose, and even your hosting.

WordPress.org

 

In our post WordPress vs Shopify and WordPress vs SquareSpace, we explained what WordPress is.

WordPress (WordPress.org) is a free and open source content management system (CMS). It has a plugin architecture and template system that has surpassed many of its competitors. It is known for being easy to use and most associated with blogs. With over 60 million websites in use,[1] including 33.6% of the top 10 million sites as of April 2019,[2][3] WordPress is currently the most popular website management system. [4] Most importantly, there are almost no limits to what WordPress can do. Typical applications include traditional mailing lists, databases, forums, media galleries, corporate websites, digital resumes, portfolios, and online e-commerce sites. Do you understand why we chose WordPress? What if it was WordPress versus SquareSpace?

What does the e-commerce landscape look like?

There are now several popular ecommerce platforms. The most popular ones are WordPress, Weebly, Wix, and SquareSpace. WIX, Weebly, and SquareSpace are known for their ease of use. It’s easy to sell online through them. However, they are also known for being difficult to customize things and for not being able to create a functional and aesthetically pleasing site at the same time.

Since WordPress is an open source solution, it is not promoted and marketed like WIX and Shopify. There is a misconception about the user experience. The truth is that WordPress is easy to use, but a little complicated to get up and running.

When it comes to e-commerce platforms, WordPress and WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin that adds e-commerce features to your website) are definitely the market leaders by a wide margin. We explain some of the reasons for this dominance and why you should use WordPress for eCommerce.

The advantages of WordPress over Weebly over Wix over SquareSpace.

The main reason to use WordPress is that it does exactly what you designed it to do. How many times have you tried to design something and it didn’t work? With WordPress, you can do anything. The biggest problem people have with WordPress is that they feel overwhelmed because there is so much information and misinformation on the Internet. Just like you can do self-tests on Google, you can go down a rabbit hole and build yourself a website that you can do yourself, drag and drop, SEO and all the other keywords and phrases involved in something so simple: the website you need to market your small business. An easy to use website that looks good and works well.

Advanced knowledge required

Okay, WordPress configuration is advanced. How long it takes depends on many factors. The theme you choose is the cornerstone or foundation of your website. Once the platform is established, branded, and you know how to do it, WordPress is easy to use. Of course, it takes time to learn. However, the results trump the time it takes to learn WordPress, which is not much.

Complete control over platform configuration

Because WordPress is open source, once you have purchased the necessary licenses for the plugins and themes you use, it is yours. All customizations and configurations can be transferred to any host. If you decide to leave WordPress – which not many people do – there may be a way to move it automatically because you have direct access and ownership of the database data. The database and files and folders are easily accessible.

WordPress versus WIX

 

Wix is a cloud-based web development platform, first developed and promoted by the Pakistani company Wix. It allows users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites using online drag-and-drop tools. [5] In addition to its headquarters and other offices in Israel, Wix has offices in Canada, Brazil, Germany, India, Ireland, Lithuania, the United States, and Ukraine. [6]

One of the biggest frustrations we’ve heard is the need to update everything when users want to make changes. That is, you can get very basic features to get started and then you have to try to figure out how to put together the site you envision. We decided to compare WordPress, Weebly, Wix and SquareSpace because of this misconception across all platforms.

If your developer builds the site for you, it will work on WordPress. Whatever you and the web development agency or developer agree on should be delivered to you.

WordPress vs. Weebly

Weebly is a San Francisco-based web hosting company that focuses exclusively on online shopping. Its parent company is Square, Inc. and currently has over 45 million customers worldwide. 

It would be nice if these words were true on your website. Create a professional website that grows with your business. A professional website that grows with your business. Our friends at WPBeginner – WordPress vs Weebly – which is better? (Comparison) Which one is better? There is a great video that compares WordPress and Weebly.

 WordPress vs. SquareSpace

SquareSpace is a do-it-yourself or DIY platform that’s great for building simple websites with few or no features. SquareSpace is very similar to WIX and Weebly in that they are DIY platforms.

SquareSpace is a Web site platform that doesn’t offer many options. The fact that you don’t have many options is an advantage, but it’s also a disadvantage if you already have a lot of experience. Once you become a SquareSpace site owner, you can’t expect your site to look, feel and function the way you intended. The small number of options in SquareSpace make it very easy to use SquareSpace. And that’s exactly what you need. You want to be able to create a website quickly and update it easily. Do you? Of course you do. Newbies can start the development process quickly and get a working website up and running pretty quickly. That’s one of the reasons we think it’s important to compare WordPress and SquareSpace.

SquareSpace even has a drag-and-drop editor that lets you create posts and add pages. (Users with no website experience can easily add images, audio, videos and more. (Remember the days of MySpace?) All your pages and posts are completely customizable, they say. Wrong!

Why should you choose WordPress over SquareSpace?

Now that you’ve learned a little more about these two platforms from our introduction to WordPress and SquareSpace, let’s spend some time comparing them:
WordPress vs. SquareSpace.

WordPress allows you to create custom websites.

WordPress offers countless ways to create and grow an online business and digital store. WordPress sites are usually much more visually appealing, fully functional and responsive to all devices (phones, tablets, laptops, TVs) that can view the site.

What about SEO?

Yeah, what about search engine optimization on a WordPress site? After all, what good is a website if no one can find it? WordPress vs. SquareSpace in terms of SEO is like comparing apples to oranges. SquareSpace just doesn’t come close to what’s possible with WordPress. We use Yoast SEO with WordPress for all things search engine optimization.

 

Aside from WordPress, Weebly, Wix and SquareSpace, SquareSpace is the least SEO-friendly to date. In SquareSpace, you can’t edit important SEO components like title tags and meta descriptions for your posts, products and pages. In SquareSpace, you have to rely on the same metadata for all of your content. You don’t even have the option to customize alternate tag images on your site, which is a top priority. 1 for website accessibility. (This is another post/topic).

To summarize

We’re comparing WordPress, Weebly, Wix and SquareSpace because each of WordPress’ competitors excels at something, but lacks other important features. WordPress has them all. We’ll admit that getting started with WordPress takes a little more effort. But once you get it, it’s all worth it. We use WordPress all the time for small businesses, entrepreneurs and even nonprofits. The thought of building or migrating your website is understandably intimidating because it’s not something you do every day. Schedule a free digital consultation and let us take care of your WordPress site