Squarespace vs Wordpress vs Shopify vs ... - why this comparison is flawed
Key questions you need to answer before committing to a website platform
If you want to create a new website or redesign and relaunch an existing website, at some point you are faced with a decision to make - which platform to use? What is better - Wordpress or Squarespace? Something else entirely? In this article, we look at possible answers to these questions but also argue that the whole comparison game might be quite wrong.
Nowadays launching a website is easier and more streamlined than it's ever been. Most platforms allow you to use a website template, extend functionality with plugins, and cover most website needs. Be it a blog, an online store, or a series of landing pages (or all of the above combined!), to name just a few. Gone are the days when you absolutely had to hire a website developer to create a website for you from scratch.
Even large-scale businesses and teams turn to existing platforms to power their online presence. Yet, thinking about a platform before considering your brand and design choices can be quite flawed. If you are launching a website for a small business or you are a digital marketer or a social media manager, anyone, really - we say start with the design.
Starting with the website design
Looks are important, no way around it, especially when it comes to websites that sell. So before you even think about the platform to power your website, you need to think about the visual style you want your future amazing website to have. That’s one of the reasons we at Applet Studio start with the design before beginning any platform-based development.
Consider the key elements of website design, like a call to action blocks, menus, landing pages, testimonials, product or service pages, etc. Think of your perfect client and imagine what a perfect client journey on your new website would look like. Do you want people to see the contact form immediately or after they have read an article / browsed through a certain landing page? When do you want to show a popup with a special offer?
You can’t think of everything, of course, especially if you’re not a website designer / architect yourself. But you can definitely think about core messages you would like to expose your visitors to and about the best use cases and implementations you have seen on other websites.
Think of the website architecture (no coding required)
Close your eyes and yet again imagine that perfect client journey through your new website. What would they see? What decisions would they make? How would you consider retargeting them if they left without buying your product or service or without signing up for your email list? Now create a list of things you would like your new website to be able to do in order to ensure that perfect client journey.
You don’t need to be a developer or a designer to do that. Here’s an example of how your list might look like:
My website needs to be able to process forms people fill out and send me email notifications each time that happens.
I would also like those signing-ups to a newsletter to automatically be added to a Mailchimp audience.
It needs to be able to store products and product descriptions and process payments seamlessly.
I need to have a client-only section of the website, accessible by people who’ve made a purchase from me with their order details listed conveniently.
The list goes on...
Platforms like Squarespace and Shopify all offer store functionality out of the box (on various payment plans) and Wordpress can be extended with a plugin to allow that. Other platforms like Weebly or Wix also have that functionality.
Plan your website content strategy
No website can exist without content. Unless you plan to build the next social media platform where your users would be the ultimate content creators, you will need to put something on your website. You need your core business information, product / services descriptions, content for landing pages, and so on. If you plan to run a blog, you need to think of content for at least 5 or so posts to start with, including images and other appropriate visuals.
Create a series of google docs (plain Word text documents would suffice too), each representing a future page of your website. Believe me, moving things around and editing is usually much easier and faster with a setup like this.
This way you will have pretty much a full picture of what you need to have as the end result - your dream website that sells - complete with design ideas, vision for the website architecture, and content.
Looking for the best website template
This is the section we’ve all been waiting for! Time to choose a platform, right? Well, not necessarily. Remember we spoke about design and content above? And about the fact that multiple platforms can support multiple business models, be it a shop, a blog or even something like an event booking service?
Many platforms, like Squarespace and Wix per se, also offer a set of free templates to choose from. But customizing then can prove to be a rather tedious task and custom templates are usually both much more specialized and versatile. Our advice - take the notes you made as part of the quick exercises we mentioned above, look at your content, at the design ideas you like and start searching!
A clean and beautiful design and a working website architecture can be much more important for the success of your business. We have a collection of hand-crafted premium Squarespace templates for sale that you can choose from. But if you just can’t find what you’re looking for there, you can check out templates sold on the Creative Market or via the Envato Market, to name a few.
Templates come with the platform. So guess what - if you found a template you like, one that has the elements and the design you need, supports architecture you need, and one that comes backed by a dedicated website development company, you’re basically 95% set. All you need to do is purchase it and populate it with content you already have prepared!
Hiring website design and development help
If for some reason you still find yourself in a situation where there just isn’t a template that fits your needs, no need to despair. Talk to a professional. We offer custom design and development services and will be glad to help. That said, of course the market for design work is quite large these days and you can find pretty much any type of creative assistance via platforms like Fiverr or Upwork, besides stand-alone design and development companies. Just make sure you value your tasklist properly and avoid shady deals and irresponsible contractors.
Conclusion
Making a choice between a website platform, be it Squarespace, Wordpress, Shopify, Weebly, Wix or something else completely, does not need to be hard. In fact, it shouldn’t even be something you do before you have anything else besides your idea! Collect examples of websites you like, put together content, and then go ahead and get a premium website template.
Need advice or have questions? Let us know what you’re dealing with, contact us via email or send us a DM on Instagram.