Squarespace, Weebly, or Wix vs WordPress

Our new clients often ask us which is better WYSIWIG Hosts such as Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace or something else. The one we get most often is: which is better WYSIWIG Hosts Compared to WordPress? The answer is 100% dependent upon your needs and skill level.

What is Weebly, Wix, Squarespace?

Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace are WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) drag and drop website builders; meaning if you can work a mouse you can build a website. Elements like picture location, text blocks, font styling & colors, payment processing, and more are just a click away. WYSIWIG is literally that easy.

What is WordPress?

Originally designed for bloggers, WordPress is a free software referred to as open source.  The possibilities are virtually limitless: Want a slider? There’s a plugin for that. Want to add a store to your website? Contact form that links to your newsletter service? Manage your lending library? Make a copy of your website? Notify people automatically of new content? WordPress has FREE plugins for all of that and more. There is HUGE community of amateur and professional programmers working nonstop to constantly improve the software and increase its capabilities.

Pros and Cons

Obviously, every system has its ups and downs, there is no one size fits all for every person, business, or application. So, what are the pros and cons of each?

WYSIWIG Builders

Designed for the lay person to quickly and efficiently design a website, Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix have an excellent, user-friendly system. They take the technical support burden off the user and place it on the teams at those companies. While there are some opportunities for minor HTML changes, the vast majority of it is taken care of on the backend, and unavailable to the user. Packages start as low as Free and go up, on a per feature basis. These WYSIWIG providers have taken care of the space issue imposed by some webhosts and offer unlimited pages and webspace.

Because of the streamlined user interface, the opportunities for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) could be better, but it does exist. Blogging is available but is not as robust as WordPress. Expanded features such as e-commerce do come at a monthly cost.

WordPress

While the initial software for WordPress is free, the space to store and setup WordPress is not. Hosting packages range in prices from $3 to $10 a month, depending on a variety of factors. Since WordPress is open source, if you can dream it, they probably have it available. Once the initial costs have been covered there are generally no additional costs. WordPress has a large variety of free themes and plugins to choose from so customizing a site can be as easy as clicking a button to install a new piece of software. The original purpose of WordPress was blogging, and that is what WordPress does best. The filesystem and organization also allows for robust SEO. Additional free plugins are even available to assist in the tricky task of being listed on the front page of Google.

There is a learning curve to using WordPress though. Depending on your skill set a professional may need to be hired for initial setup. Technical support is the sole responsibility of the end user but is provided in the shape of forums. With literally thousands of laymen using WordPress, 9 times out of 10 the answer can be found with a pointed Google search.

How do the two compare?

In Conclusion

If you are the type of person whose strengths lie in thinking outside the box, in learning by watching YouTube videos and researching problems via online forums and articles then WordPress is probably a good choice for you. If you are the type of person who is generally satisfied once you have your website up or even believe in the idea of a completed website, WordPress is for you. If you are the type of person who regularly likes to update the look and layout of things, who prefers technology to be point and click, or would prefer a more simplified solution, WYSIWIG hosts are your best bet.

Do you have a WordPress or Weebly site in need of professional help? Contact the professionals at Technology Did It today for a free consultation.