Squarespace vs WordPress for Portfolio Websites
Having an online presence is crucial for writers, artists and crafters to showcase their work and services. Even if you’re not clued up on marketing and SEO to drive traffic to your website, your prospects need to see what you can do and most expect you to have a website.
However, choosing the right platform for your website can be overwhelming, especially if design isn’t your forte. In this guide, I compare two popular platforms, Squarespace and WordPress.
Understanding Your Needs
Before we dive into choosing a platform, we first need to understand your requirements. As a freelance writer or creative, your main goal is likely to create a visually appealing portfolio site that effectively showcases your work and services. You may not be a technical wizard or have time to invest in a complex website build. You need something easy to use, low maintenance and hassle-free.
With this in mind, let’s explore the pros and cons of Squarespace and WordPress for portfolio websites.
Squarespace: Simplicity at Its Best
Squarespace is renowned for its user-friendly interface and visually stunning templates. It provides an all-in-one website-building solution that requires no coding knowledge, making it accessible to users of all skill levels.
With Squarespace, you can effortlessly customise layouts, fonts, and colours to create a portfolio website that reflects your brand. Its seamless integration of features such as analytics, SEO tools, and e-commerce functionality ensures that your portfolio site not only looks great but is optimised for visibility.
Squarespace Pros
Let’s explore some of the great features Squarespace boasts:
1) User-Friendly Interface
Squarespace uses a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to create stunning websites without any coding knowledge. Its intuitive design makes it easy to customise layouts, fonts, and colours. Once your website is set up, adding new blog posts or portfolio pieces is a breeze, so keeping your website fresh and up-to-date takes no time.
2) Beautiful Templates
Squarespace offers a range of professionally designed templates specifically crafted for portfolio websites. Whether you’re a writer, photographer or artist, you’ll find a template that suits your style and showcases your work effectively.
3) Integrated Features
From built-in analytics to SEO tools, Squarespace provides everything you need to optimise your portfolio site for search engines and to track visitor engagement. You can seamlessly integrate social media, blogs, and e-commerce functionality to enhance your online presence. Your Squarespace subscription comes complete with an SSL certificate, securing your website and ensuring professionalism. No external plugins or extra features are needed when creating a simple portfolio website.
4) Mobile Responsiveness
It should go without saying that having a website that looks good on mobile is essential in 2024, but there are still websites that are missing the mark. Squarespace ensures that your portfolio website is fully responsive across all devices, providing a seamless user experience for your prospective clients. It has an easy-to-use interface for editing the mobile view of your site, so you can make doubly sure it looks great!
Squarespace Cons
Although it is an all-in-one solution that ticks many boxes, Squarespace does have its limitations and isn’t perfect for everyone. Squarespace cons include:
1) Limited Customisation
While Squarespace offers a wide range of customisation options, some users may find it restrictive compared to WordPress. Advanced users looking for extensive coding flexibility may feel constrained by Squarespace’s design limitations.
2) Monthly Subscription
Unlike WordPress, which is free to use, Squarespace operates on a subscription basis. While its pricing plans are competitive, they may be a consideration for budget-conscious users, especially those just starting their freelance careers.
3) SEO Capabilities
It is widely disputed that Squarespace lacks the SEO power of other web platforms, so it may take longer for your website to rank for your chosen keywords. Or, if you’re transferring your website from WordPress to Squarespace, you could see a drop in traffic. However, many studies are inconclusive on this matter, and many Squarespace websites do perform very well. Various factors affect your website's performance in search results, so consider the SEO requirements for your website carefully before choosing this platform.
WordPress: Flexibility with a Learning Curve
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system, powering millions of websites globally. As an open-source platform, WordPress offers excellent flexibility and customisation options. It has an extensive library of themes and plugins, allowing users to tailor their portfolio website to their specific needs.
While WordPress requires more technical know-how than Squarespace, it provides complete control over your website’s design and functionality. With WordPress, you can delve into themes, plugins, and backend settings to create a highly personalised portfolio site that stands out.
WordPress Pros
As the industry standard for website creation, used by individuals and professional web design agencies, WordPress has a lot of pros. Let’s explore some of them:
1) Open Source Platform
WordPress is an open-source platform, meaning it’s free to download and use. This makes it an attractive option for those on a tight budget. However, you still need to pay for hosting, domain registration and an SSL certificate.
2) Extensive Plugin Library
With thousands of plugins available, WordPress offers excellent flexibility and functionality. Whether you need to add a portfolio gallery, integrate social media feeds, or enhance SEO, there is a plugin for almost everything.
3) Complete Control
Unlike Squarespace, which operates on a closed platform, WordPress gives you complete control over your website’s code and customisation. If you have coding skills or prefer to work with developers, you can tailor your portfolio site to your specifications.
WordPress Cons
Despite being loved by professionals, there are some drawbacks to using WordPress for your portfolio site. Let’s take a look at them:
1) Steep Learning Curve
While WordPress offers unparalleled flexibility, it also comes with a steep learning curve, especially for beginners. Setting up and customising your website may require technical knowledge of themes, plugins and backend settings. WordPress might not be the right option if you’re not looking to learn the ins and outs of website development and simply need a stunning portfolio site.
2) Security and Maintenance
As an open-source platform, WordPress sites are more susceptible to security vulnerabilities if not properly maintained. Regular updates and security measures are essential to protect your portfolio site from potential threats. A professional should carry out these updates to avoid losing your website and hard work.
Making the Choice
When it comes to choosing between Squarespace and WordPress for your portfolio website, it ultimately boils down to your preferences, skill level, and budget. If you’re a freelance writer, crafter, or artist who values simplicity, elegance and ease of use, Squarespace may be your ideal choice. Its user-friendly interface, beautiful templates, and integrated features make creating a professional portfolio site effortless without the hassle of coding and ongoing maintenance.
However, if you’re comfortable with technical aspects and crave complete control over your website, WordPress offers unmatched flexibility and customisation options. With its vast plugin library and open-source nature, you can create a highly tailored portfolio site that aligns perfectly with your vision and objectives.
Why I Choose Squarespace
I consider myself to have a decent level of technical capabilities. In my career, I have designed and built websites from scratch using HTML, CSS and Java. I have created many WordPress websites for clients and spent endless hours redesigning my own website in Squarespace.
I was very happy creating WordPress websites with the support of a team of web designers and developers when I worked for a marketing and design company. However, I saw what can go wrong when your website is not maintained correctly.
I’ve been involved in a WordPress project where the client's old, unmaintained website had completely broken and had to be rebuilt. I’ve seen WordPress sites hacked and, as a result, SEO metrics crashing, undoing months of hard work and investment.
When I went freelance, I wanted to offer web design, but without the support of a team of developers, I knew I wouldn’t be able to fix these kinds of issues for my clients. So, I transitioned my website to Squarespace to see if Squarespace web design is a viable alternative to offer as a freelancer.
The transition to Squarespace wasn’t easy. Not because it's a complex platform to use, but because of its limited options when it comes to design. I couldn’t design some pages the exact way I wanted to, even with the ability to add custom CSS. To start with, this was frustrating. However, I had previously had issues with connecting my SSL certificate and knowing WordPress's security issues; the all-in-one, low-maintenance nature of Squarespace is worth the frustration for me.
I now embrace the constraints of Squarespace; it encourages simple, minimal web designs that work. It might not be for you if you want your website to have custom, complex functionality or need complete control over the design to create your exact vision. But if you’re looking for a simple but stunning portfolio site to showcase your work, I think Squarespace is the perfect solution, which I continue to use for myself.
To Sum Up
As you weigh up your options, consider your priorities, skill levels and long-term goals to determine which platform is right for you.
Remember, your portfolio website is a reflection of your talent and professionalism. Whether you choose WordPress or Squarespace, focus on creating a visually stunning and engaging website that captivates your audience and showcases your unique skills and services. And if you’re a good-with-words but bad-with-design kind of person, check out my Squarespace web design service and email me to see if I can help with your next web project.
Author's Note: This article has been written with the help of ChatGPT, with human oversight and input to ensure quality, coherence and authenticity.
