WordPress vs. Squarespace – Wix – Weebly

Posted by Christina Hills | Popular WordPress Tips, Tech Tips, WordPress Tips | 3

Over the last few years, other website platforms have tried to compete with WordPress. Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are the most well-known. These website builders became a popular way to create a simple website. Since I teach WordPress, I frequently hear questions like:

“What’s better – WordPress vs Squarespace”?

“My friend says I can build a website with Wix very easily. Is Wix better than WordPress?”

Those are great questions! The bottom line is that I don’t recommend Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly for online business owners! Why…? Because these other tools have too many limitations for anyone who wants to grow a real business. In addition, all of the leaders in our industry use self-hosted WordPress just as I do!

Watch this 1 min video:
WordPress vs Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly :

WordPress Grows with Your Business

As your business grows, you’ll want your website to have more functions. With WordPress, the possibilities are endless. It’s such a flexible, yet solid website platform that allows you to add plugins, modify the look and feel of the site and even update any code or scripts you need.

You can grow from a 1-person operation to a large muti-team company. If you want to know more go here to learn the difference between the self-hosted WordPress.org and the WordPress.com version

Most of those other website builders are limited in how far you can take customizations. In many ways, they control what you can do, while *you* are in control of what do with your WordPress site.

Advantages of WordPress

Hundreds of free and premium themes and plugins are available.
A visual editor or drag-and-drop builder is available with some themes.
It’s very flexible.
Allows for customization at all levels.
You can edit the HTML & CSS code.
The platform is free. You just get a domain and hosting service you like (which often comes with emails and many more functions), and install WordPress on the hosting server.

Here are the Problems with…

1) Squarespace

Provided tools cannot be modified.
Cannot integrate non-Squarespace codes or widgets. You need to use its third-party extensions, which are relatively limited.
Free plans are not available (14-day free trial only).
Hosted on Squarespace without emails (to get emails from them, you need to pay extra for each email user).
You can only export certain content from your Squarespace site if you want to switch systems later.

2) Wix

Provided tools cannot be modified.
Cannot integrate non-Wix codes or widgets. You need to use the Wix Apps (free or paid) available from the Wix App Market.
You cannot change templates (themes) once a site is built.
Hosted on Wix without emails (to get emails from them, you need to pay extra for each email user).
The free version assigns you a URL (ie. you can’t use your own URL) and shows ads.
Storage space is pretty limited with the basic plans.
You can’t export blog content if you want to switch systems later.

3) Weebly

Provided tools cannot be modified.
Cannot integrate non-Weebly codes/widgets. You need to use the Weebly Apps available from the Weebly App Centre (free or paid).
The free version assigns you a URL (ie. you can’t use your own URL) and shows ads.
Hosted on Weebly without emails (to get emails from them, you need to pay extra for each email user).
You can export only certain content from your Weebly site if you want to switch systems later.
Many users report that the variety of templates is limited compared to other platforms.

WordPress is the only way to go!

Of course, I’m biased. I’ve taught WordPress for over a decade and watched it grow and adapt to better serve its users.

These other tools are deceiving. In the beginning, they seem to be quick and easy. However, they’re not the best platform to use to grow your business.

Some of these tools might claim to own your content. However, be sure to read the fine print. While they might let you create a simple website quickly, they’re not as scalable, flexible, or professional as WordPress.

Why set yourself up one way and have to change down the road? WordPress is designed to grow with you as your business grows.

(Originally published in Aug 2017, Updated August 2022)

About The Author

Christina Hills

Christina Hills helps entrepreneurs setup their websites using WordPress without having to rely on a webmaster. Her trainings are fun and she makes it easy! Get the free PDF "The Do-It-Yourself Website Creation Checklist" Report Here

3 Comments

Michael on August 22, 2017 at 12:32 pm

I was considering some of the Word Press, but you’ve convinced me otherwise.
How would you recommend installing Word Press?
How did you do it?
Manually or through the set-up wizard, which is best?
Have you got a video resource you can point me in the direction of?

Always love getting your emails & videos.

Thanks
Michael
- Christina Hills on August 29, 2017 at 5:52 am
  
  Michael,
  
  you are in luck as I am starting a new WordPress training class in September! In my course I teach you how to install and build a WordPress site. And I am doing a free webinar on a big picture overview of building an online business. Sign up here:
  https://websitecreationclass.com/simpletruth
Kris Heller on August 31, 2017 at 12:15 am

I got this site from my pal who shared with me on the topic of this website and now this time I am browsing this web site and reading very informative content at this time.|

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Jim Phillips

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