Website Design Services: Choosing the Best Platform to Build Your Website

Did you know the internet houses over 1.8 billion websites? While you don’t have to compete with all of them, odds are you’ll have some competition for views and customers.

Because of that, you need to choose the right web design services and a web design platform where you can customize your site and optimize it. Then, you can make your site look good and help people find it.

Read on to compare popular website design options: WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: Costs

When considering your web design options, WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace are the most popular choices. Each offers unique pros and cons, so you should consider which is best for you.

Website building is crucial to growing your online presence, and you need something that works for your business. While some prefer WordPress, others prefer Wix, and others like Squarespace.

One of the most significant factors in your decision is how much your website design will cost. Consider how the platforms vary.

WordPress (Cost)

WordPress offers a variety of hosting plans at different price points because it isn’t technically a host. When you use WordPress, you will need to select a third-party hosting company.

Then, you can install WordPress on your site with the host. WordPress hosting is available for as low as a few dollars a month, but you can also find plans that cost hundreds of dollars a month.

Pricing depends on the host itself, the bandwidth the plan offers, and any other available services. Many hosts offer free WordPress installation, so you can work with a host that you like.

Wix (Cost)

Wix is both a website builder and a host, meaning you can set up one account for both needs. However, it has fewer plans available compared to WordPress because of that.

The cheapest plan available from Wix is free, so you can start building a site immediately. It does have limitations, such as the presence of Wix ads. You also can’t use a custom domain, so your site will be a subdomain of Wix.

Wix offers multiple premium plans that cost $14 per month up to $500 per month for an enterprise plan. The higher tiers offer more features, but the custom plan is great for web building.

Squarespace (Cost)

Squarespace is similar to Wix in that it functions as a website builder and a host. However, Squarespace doesn’t offer a free plan outside of a free 14-day trial.

Fortunately, their plans start at $12 per month if you pay for the whole year at once. Plans go up to $40 per month for an annual subscription or $54 per month if you pay for a month at a time.

If you pay annually, you’ll also get a free custom domain to use with your website. But you’ll need to pay separately for a domain if you pay each month.

Verdict (Cost)

WordPress offers the best deals when it comes to the cost. Not only are the cheapest plans lower than Wix and Squarespace, but you can choose a host that suits your needs.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: Ease of Use

Another crucial factor when deciding which platform to use for your web design, you should consider how easy it is. Whether you’re a designer or not, you want a platform that allows you to create the website of your dreams.

Then, you won’t have to worry about messing something up when you need to edit a page. Instead, you can take control with the right website builders.

Consider how each option is to use so that you can select the best one for you.

WordPress (Ease of Use)

Out of the three, WordPress can have a steeper learning curve. However, it’s easy to use once you learn the basics. You can use code if you want to, or you can install a page builder so that you never have to touch code.

WordPress has many page builders available, and each lets you drag and drop elements on a page. That way, you can make changes and know how the page will look.

Even if you don’t use a page builder, the backend editor is easy to use. It has a visual option, so you don’t need to use HTML or CSS to build your small business website.

Wix (Ease of Use)

Wix uses a drag and drop editor by default, so you don’t need any coding knowledge or skills. Whether you need to write the content for your site or add images, it’s all easy to do.

Website building with Wix is one of the best options for people who aren’t very technical. You can see your changes in real-time so you can determine if a design looks good or not.

Squarespace (Ease of Use)

Squarespace is another excellent choice if you don’t want to spend much time learning how to use it. While it doesn’t offer as many features as WordPress, the simplicity makes it easy to start using.

It uses a block editor where you can write, add media, and edit your site. The visual editor allows you to customize your pages and template, but there aren’t as many options as WordPress.

Verdict (Ease of Use)

While it may take time to learn, WordPress offers more website design options to make it easy to use. That way, you can your website look and function how you want it to.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: Design Options

The best web builders offer multiple options when it comes to website design and layout. If you can’t customize your site, you’ll have a hard time standing out from your competition.

Each website platform offers different features that help you design your site. Consider the various design capabilities that each website builder provides.

WordPress (Design Options)

WordPress offers tons of design options, so you can make your website look unique. You can choose from thousands of free or premium themes, so you don’t need to pay more to design your site.

There’s a theme for almost anything, whether you want to start a blog or build an eCommerce store. Your WordPress admin panel lets you access tons of themes, or you can buy one elsewhere and upload it yourself.

Page builder plugins make it even easier to design the individual pages. That way, your site will look good and be easy for visitors to view.

Wix (Design Options)

Wix offers hundreds of free website templates, but you can also buy a premium template from a web designer. Once you select a template, you’ll be able to adjust the layout and make other changes to customize the design.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to choose your template carefully. After you publish your website, you can edit the template, but you can’t change it.

Still, the Wix templates are easy to customize, so you can use the same one for a while without any issues.

Squarespace (Design Options)

As with WordPress and Wix, Squarespace offers free templates you can use to design and customize your site. You can also buy a premium template from a designer if you can’t find a free one that you like.

However, Squarespace doesn’t offer as many templates as Wix or WordPress. When you choose a theme, you can’t customize it as much aside from fonts or colors.

Verdict (Design Options)

WordPress stands out over Wix and Squarespace due to the variety of available themes. And it’s easy to customize a theme and make it your own.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: Plugins and Apps

Another area to compare when choosing between web builders is plugins and apps. WordPress uses plugins, Wix has apps, and Squarespace offers extensions.

They all do similar things, so you can use these tools to expand your site. Whether you want to use email marketing or make your site easier to design and use, you can do so.

Consider how each platform performs when it comes to adding functionality.

WordPress (Plugins and Apps)

Without plugins, WordPress sites would be harder to use and manage. Fortunately, there’s a plugin for almost anything you would want to add to your site.

Some plugins focus on backend things, such as SEO, while visitors can see other plugins, such as for eCommerce. You can find plugins that help you write blog posts or sell products.

Plugins are available for free or a small fee. Many free plugins also offer premium versions with extra features, so you can upgrade if you want.

Wix (Plugins and Apps)

The Wix equivalent of a WordPress plugin is an app, and you can choose from about 200 of them. You can use apps to add comments, create an image gallery, or install a contact form on your site.

Some of the apps are available for no cost, while others have a subscription fee. You can use many of the free apps to add certain functions to your site.

The apps that do exist are great for many website owners, so you can probably get what you need for free.

Squarespace (Plugins and Apps)

Squarespace comes in last place when it comes to apps and extensions. While the platform offers a few third-party extensions, they’re few and far between.

Developers can’t access a Squarespace API to create apps, so you don’t have many choices. You’ll need to settle for the Squarespace platform and use their own services to build your website.

While that may be okay at the start, it can limit you and your business in the future.

Verdict (Plugins and Apps)

Once again, WordPress comes out on top. Not only are there thousands of plugins available, but many developers create them, and there’s something for everyone. If you don’t find the right plugin, keep searching until you do find one.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: Blogging

Another important step in website building is creating a blog. A blog can serve as an informational hub where customers can learn about what you offer and your overall business.

Whether you want to hire blog writing services or create the blogs yourself, you should consider if you want to do so. Then, you can make sure you select a website platform that offers a blog function.

WordPress (Blogging)

The initial purpose of WordPress was to create blogs, so it’s the perfect website design option for current and aspiring bloggers. With WordPress, you don’t have to worry about adding features like a comment section.

Once you create your WordPress site, you can make your blog the home page, or you can create a separate page. Then, you can house all of your blog posts in one spot.

WordPress uses a block editor where you can write posts, add media, and design the layout. Your blog posts can look professional, so you can use them to promote other areas of your business.

Wix (Blogging)

Wix is another great option if you want to start a blog. While its main purpose is to work as a general website, adding a blog section is quick and easy.

Unfortunately, you can’t use the same drag and drop editor to write your blog posts. Instead, you’ll use the plain text editor. You also can’t backdate posts or create private posts.

It’s also not as easy to manage comments with Wix because it doesn’t offer a native comment section.

Squarespace (Blogging)

You can add a blog page to your Squarespace website, and you can create blog posts to go on that page. The blog settings let you select categories and tags to help organize your blog.

And the comments section is easy to add using your settings. You won’t need to use a third-party comment box like you would if you used Wix.

Verdict (Blogging)

WordPress is hands down the best platform for creating a blog. Whether you want your site to mainly be a blog or you want to promote your offers, you can’t go wrong with the platform.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: eCommerce

If you want to take your website to the next level, selling something online is the way to go. Whether you want to use PPC ads to promote your eCommerce store or promote it organically, you need a good website builder.

Once you get customers to your website, you need your site to be easy to use and shop on. That way, you can increase conversions and sales.

Consider how the three main website platforms compare in this area.

WordPress (eCommerce)

With WordPress, you can create an eCommerce store that does what you need and want. WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin, and you can use it to sell anything.

Easy Digital Downloads is a great option if you want to offer digital products. And plugins such as MemberPress allow you to sell courses and memberships.

WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are free and have free and paid extensions that offer more features. MemberPress costs money, but there are free membership plugins as well.

Wix (eCommerce)

If you want to use Wix for eCommerce, you’ll need to select one of the paid plans. When you set up your store, you can sell using their native apps and payment methods.

You can also look at a few third-party apps to build and promote your store. However, there are quite a few limitations, so you may need to use other websites and tools to manage your eCommerce business.

Squarespace (eCommerce)

Squarespace also offers eCommerce features, but you’ll need at least a business-level plan, which can be expensive. Once you do set up your shop, you can only accept payments through Stripe or PayPal.

This may be okay when you start, but you can’t take payments from all countries. That means you may not be able to grow your business as easily.

And if you want to start your store with one or two products, you will need to pay more for the right plan. That may not be worth the extra cost.

Verdict (eCommerce)

While all three platforms allow you to sell things online, WordPress still comes out ahead. Not only can you sell digital and physical products, but you can create and manage memberships without needing third-party tools.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another vital part of any website builder. Some of the best web design options can look good, but they’re impossible to find.

You don’t want to spend time and money on web design only for people to never visit your site. Whether you use SEO services or learn SEO yourself, you need to choose a platform that makes it easy to optimize your website.

WordPress (SEO)

WordPress offers a few plugins that you can use to help improve your SEO. Yoast is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins, and it can help you create a keyword and optimize each blog post or page for that keyword.

Like other plugins, Yoast has a free and premium version. The free version has plenty of features, so you can create your page title and meta description to help search engines learn about your content.

There are also sitemap plugins that you can use to create a sitemap. A sitemap can tell search engines even more about your website, which may help you rank better.

Wix (SEO)

In the past, Wix had a bad reputation for not offering SEO features. Luckily, that has changed in the past few years.

With Wix, you can do some basic SEO for your website. You can create a meta title and description for each page. Wix also allows you to create custom URLs that use keywords.

However, you can’t create or manage your sitemap within Wix. You’ll need to go to the Google Search Console to make any changes to your site map.

Squarespace (SEO)

Like Wix, Squarespace wasn’t always very good for SEO. But the platform has added more features, such as custom meta descriptions and page titles.

You can also generate a sitemap automatically. But you can’t change blog post titles, which can make it hard to keep blog posts relevant year to year.

Verdict (SEO)

As with each option, WordPress is the best for SEO. You can choose from different plugins to help optimize your content and make sure your website ranks as high as it can in search results.

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace: Data Portability

Perhaps you choose one web design platform now because it suits your current needs. But you don’t know that you won’t want to switch platforms in the future.

Data portability gives you the option of moving to a different web builder. Compare data portability with each platform.

WordPress (Data Portability)

You can easily download your website content in WordPress. In the admin panel, you can go to Tools, then Export. Then, you can export all of your content or some of it.

If you’re creating a new WordPress site, you can use Tools, then Import to import the content from your old website. Exporting will create an XML file that you can then upload or save as a backup.

Wix (Data Portability)

Unfortunately, Wix makes it almost impossible to move your content to a different platform. While you can export your blog posts to an XML file, that’s it.

You would need to copy and paste each of your pages, and you’ll need to download media files individually. Wix doesn’t want users to move to a different platform, and they make it clear with their settings.

Squarespace (Data Portability)

Squarespace also has limits when it comes to exporting and moving your website. You can only export your pages, blog posts, and galleries.

However, you can’t move your product pages or other types of media. That can make it hard to move off of the platform, so consider if you like Squarespace enough to set up your website there.

Verdict (Data Portability)

WordPress is the best website builder for data portability. Of course, you may not think about moving your site now, but you never know when you will want to.

Whether you want to move to a different platform or a new WordPress host, exporting is quick and easy.

Summary: Which Web Design Platform Is Best?

Web design is a vital part of creating a website for yourself or your business. Selecting the right website design platform can make the process much easier.

While Wix and Squarespace have some useful features, WordPress consistently outpaces both of its competitors. Not only is WordPress more affordable, but it offers more plugins and themes to help you customize your site.

Do you need help designing your website? At AllWeb Solutions, we can create a custom-made website that stays on budget and is on time. We can help you determine what is the best website platform for you based on your requirements, budget, and objectives.