Squarespace vs WordPress: Making the Right Choice for Your Business Website

It's one of the most common questions we hear from clients: "Should we build our website on Squarespace or WordPress?" It's a fair question, particularly when well-meaning agencies insist that WordPress is the only "serious" option for business websites.

The truth is more nuanced. Whilst WordPress powers over 40% of the web and offers incredible flexibility, it's not always the right choice for every business. Let's cut through the noise and look at what actually matters for most business websites.

Understanding the Fundamental Difference

Before diving into comparisons, it's crucial to understand what you're actually choosing between.

Squarespace is an all-in-one platform. You get hosting, design templates, security, support, and updates all bundled together. It's like buying a new car—everything works out of the box, and the manufacturer handles the maintenance.

WordPress (specifically WordPress.org, the self-hosted version) is open-source software you install on your own hosting. You're responsible for choosing hosting, installing plugins, managing updates, and maintaining security. It's more like building a custom car—you have unlimited options, but you need to know what you're doing or hire someone who does.

The True Cost of Ownership

This is where many businesses get caught out. WordPress appears cheaper on the surface, but the total cost of ownership tells a different story.

Squarespace costs between £20-55 per month depending on your plan. This includes everything: hosting, SSL certificate, security, unlimited bandwidth, templates, and customer support. It's a predictable expense you can budget for.

WordPress itself is free, but you'll need hosting (£10-80+ per month), a premium theme (£40-100 one-off or annual), essential plugins for forms, SEO, security, and backups (£200-500+ annually), an SSL certificate (sometimes included with hosting), and regular developer support unless you're technically proficient. When you add it up, most WordPress sites cost £1,500-4,000+ annually once you factor in all the components and occasional developer hours.

More importantly, there's the hidden cost of time. How many hours will you or your team spend managing updates, troubleshooting plugin conflicts, or dealing with security concerns? For most businesses, this time is better spent serving customers.

Security and Peace of Mind

Security is non-negotiable for business websites, yet it's often underestimated.

Squarespace provides enterprise-grade security as standard. Automatic updates, DDoS protection, SSL certificates, and regular security patches all happen behind the scenes. You don't need to think about it, and neither do we. It simply works.

WordPress requires active security management. Because it's so widely used, it's the number one target for hackers. You need security plugins, regular updates to WordPress core, themes, and plugins, and constant vigilance. Miss one plugin update, and you could face a security breach. We've seen businesses lose days of work and thousands of pounds recovering from compromised WordPress sites.

This doesn't mean WordPress is inherently insecure—properly maintained WordPress sites are very secure. But that's the key phrase: "properly maintained." Can you guarantee that level of ongoing maintenance?

Ease of Use and Getting Things Done

When you need to update a product, add a blog post, or change your opening hours, how quickly can you do it?

Squarespace shines here. The interface is intuitive enough that most team members can make updates with minimal training. Add an image, change text, publish—it's straightforward. This independence is valuable.

WordPress has a steeper learning curve. The dashboard can be overwhelming with its multitude of options, plugin settings, and technical jargon. Whilst some businesses appreciate this level of control, many simply want to update their content without feeling like they're operating a spaceship control panel.

Design and Customisation

This is often WordPress's strongest argument, and it's valid—to a point.

WordPress offers virtually unlimited customisation. With thousands of themes and plugins, plus the ability to custom-code anything, you can build almost any type of website imaginable. If you need a complex membership site, marketplace, or custom web application, WordPress's flexibility is unmatched.

Squarespace has limitations on customisation, but here's the question: do you actually need unlimited customisation? For most business websites—whether you're generating leads, showcasing your work, or selling products—Squarespace's templates are more than sufficient. They're professionally designed, mobile-responsive, and regularly updated to stay current.

The paradox of choice is real. Having 60,000 WordPress plugins available often leads to analysis paralysis, bloated websites, and compatibility issues. Squarespace's curated approach means everything works together seamlessly.

SEO Capabilities

"WordPress is better for SEO" is perhaps the most persistent myth we encounter.

Modern Squarespace includes everything you need for effective SEO: clean code that Google can easily crawl, fast loading speeds, automatic mobile optimisation, SSL certificates, customisable meta titles and descriptions, automatic XML sitemaps, and integration with Google Search Console and Analytics.

WordPress certainly offers more SEO plugins and granular control, but here's the reality: most businesses never use 90% of those advanced features. What matters for ranking isn't having the most plugins—it's having good content, a fast site, mobile optimisation, and proper technical setup. Squarespace provides all of this without the complexity.

Support and Troubleshooting

When something goes wrong—and eventually, something always goes wrong—support matters.

Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support via email and live chat. If you encounter an issue, you contact one company that's responsible for the entire platform. Response times are typically quick, and they can actually fix your problem.

WordPress support is fragmented. You might contact your hosting provider, theme developer, or individual plugin creators—each pointing fingers at the others. Stack Overflow and community forums are helpful, but when your website is down and you're losing leads, you want someone who can fix it now, not a forum discussion.

Making Your Decision

So, which should you choose?

Choose Squarespace if you:

• Want a professional website without technical headaches

• Need predictable costs and timelines

• Value your time over endless customisation options

• Want to focus on your business, not website management

• Need a standard business site for lead generation, portfolios, or straightforward e-commerce

• Don't have in-house technical expertise

Choose WordPress if you:

• Have specific custom functionality requirements

• Already have technical expertise in-house

• Need extensive third-party integrations not available on Squarespace

• Are building a content-heavy site with thousands of pages

• Genuinely need that level of flexibility and control

• Have budget for ongoing development and maintenance

The Bottom Line

The question isn't which platform is objectively "better"—it's which platform is better for your specific situation. WordPress is an incredibly powerful tool, but power without purpose is just complexity.

For most businesses, Squarespace offers the sweet spot: professional results without the overhead. It's not about settling for less; it's about choosing the right tool for the job. Your website should be an asset that drives your business forward, not a technical burden that drains resources.

We recommend Squarespace to most of our clients not because it's easier for us (if anything, WordPress projects are more lucrative), but because it's genuinely the better choice for their needs. They get better results, fewer headaches, and more time to focus on what they do best.

Whatever you choose, make sure you're choosing based on your actual needs, not someone else's opinion about what a "serious" business website should be.

Thanks for reading,
Ollie

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