8 Reasons Why We Switched From WordPress to Squarespace
You may have noticed the fancy new look for our website. Well it's all thanks to Squarespace. And they made it super easy to import our WordPress content right over within seconds.
"But WordPress is the best and most popular blogging platform in the world! And it's FREE! Why the heck would you ditch it for some paid 'all-in-one' service?"
Good question, friend. Here are 8 reasons why:
1) Style
Sure, WordPress has an infinite selection of themes, many of them responsive and ready for mobile devices. More and more users will view your site on their smartphones and tablets, so making sure your site looks good on both big AND small screens is critical. ALL of Squarespace's themes and all of their "content blocks" (their equivalent to widgets) are responsive, so our site looks amazing on all devices from iMacs to iPhones and everything in between (even PCs). And their designers do a great job with the graphics and fonts (including offering Google Fonts and even Typekit). Everything is extremely easy to customize - even at the code level if you so desire. Squarespace is not just for website novices. Which brings me to my next point...
2) Simplicity
I've actually had a lot of fun creating our new site. Everything is drag and drop. But you can still nerd out and dig into code if you want to. HTML, CSS, Javascript... have at it. Or just click on the style button and use the sliders to adjust colors and sizes. It's actually fun to build a website, even for people who don't use pocket protectors. Squarespace's editing tools are elegant and simple to use - everything just makes sense. I built our entire new Squarespace site in less than three days, and we couldn't be happier with the results!
3) Speed!
WordPress can be slowed down by too many plugins, incompatible plugins/themes, and "affordable" (aka cheap) shared hosting server issues. Squarespace's servers are fine-tuned just for their custom platform. Have you noticed how fast our new site's pages load? Our old site was at least 5 times slower, often more.
4) Security
Our old site had frequent down time and was very slow at times - many times due to hacker attacks. And I've had a couple client sites that were hacked due to vulnerable plugins which I had to fix - not fun FYI. Since Squarespace handles everything top to bottom from servers to your site's code, they are able to keep guard on things that within WordPress setups can often be open doors for hackers. And if somehow Squarespace does get hacked, THEY will fix it. One less big problem for me to worry about.
5) Support
I could contact my old hosting company's support about server problems only. If you have a WordPress problem, guess what? You have to scour the WordPress forums or try contacting the plugin developer in Poland (or whatever country they are in) for help. I have wasted countless hours on many-a WordPress site just getting everything to work together. Since plugins are made by different developers, they sometimes (or frequently) don't play nice together. So support is a BIG deal.
If you can't find answers to your issues on Squarespace's well-maintained knowledge base pages, they offer 24/7 email support for both server AND theme/plugin issues, and they respond quickly. They also have live web chat Monday through Friday, from 11am to 7pm East Coast (US) time. No phone support, but I wasn't getting that anyway with my old service.
Their support however cannot help you with poor content. That's where we come in. :)
6) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
So far it seems that our site is much more visible within searches based on our traffic of late. (By the way, Squarespace includes awesome analytics tools built right in.) I don't know what kind of voodoo the Squarespace people are doing, but I'll take it!
7) Saves Time
Hosting and maintaining your own site is a lot of work. Installing WordPress and its plugins, updating plugins and themes, dealing with plugin and theme compatibility issues and bugs, contacting the hosting service when your site is down or slow, and so on. That was a regular part of my WordPress existence.
Now I'm paying Squarespace to do all security updates and bug fixes for me. Zero maintenance on my part. I just sit back and watch how fast my pages load. Now all have to worry about is content. Sweet sweet content...
8) "Scratch" (aka cash money)
My shared hosting account cost me $8.95 per month. WordPress and most plugins and many themes are free, but I did pay around $100 total or so for some "premium" plugins and themes. And then I had to pay to update them every year or so.
Squarespace starts at $8 a month! Shared hosting does include hosted email accounts that go along with your site, whereas Squarespace does not mess with email. But there are better email services out there anyway, like Google Apps and Hover.com (if you register your domain with them). I digress...
If you factor in time as an "expense" when dealing with WordPress and shared hosting issues I've mentioned above, the true cost of running a WordPress site really starts to add up.
I feel like I'm getting more for my money with Squarespace because of the quality of the finished product, and how much less effort it takes to get it and maintain it day in and day out. At the end of the day $96 per year is well worth it for what I'm getting! Especially since our website is vital for our business.
For me it comes down to this: would you rather spend time building and maintaining your site, or working on content to put ON your site?
Just because WordPress is the most popular blogging and CMS website platform doesn't mean it's the best. Just look where Microsoft and its popular Windows is heading...
Your readers don't care what platform you used to create your site - as long as it works well and is formatted correctly... AND has great content, of course.
Do you use Squarespace? Have you had similar problems with your WordPress site? How much time and effort do you spend working on maintenance for your site compared to creating content? Let us know in the comments section below.
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCE WITH SQUARESPACE?
READ OUR POST OF 8 NEW REASONS WHY WE STILL LOVE SQUARESPACE MORE THAN WORDPRESS...
