Squarespace vs WordPress for Small Business: The Ultimate Comparison Guide
Welcome to the Squarespace Showdown, a series where we'll be comparing Squarespace with other popular website builders so you can choose the right platform for you.
Let me guess: you've been going back and forth trying to figure out whether Squarespace or WordPress is better for your business. Every article tells you WordPress is "more powerful" and Squarespace is "easier," but nobody actually explains what that means if you're not a developer.
Here's something I've noticed from years of working inside service businesses: the non-technical solo business owners I've supported almost always end up on Squarespace, Wix, or another hosted platform. It's very rarely WordPress. That alone tells you something about who WordPress is actually for, before we even get into how the two platforms compare.
This post is going to break down what each platform actually involves day-to-day, what they really cost (including the costs nobody mentions), and which one makes the most sense depending on what kind of business you're running.
In this guide:
What you actually need to set up a website
What Squarespace includes and what it doesn't
What you need to set up a WordPress website
Why WordPress isn't the right choice for everyone
What are the costs of Squarespace vs WordPress
When WordPress is the better choice
What you actually need to set up a website
Before we can really compare Squarespace and WordPress, we need to talk about what actually makes a website work. Most comparison articles skip this part and assume you already know, which is part of the reason they feel impossible to read.
Imagine your website as a house.
You need to buy land to build your house on. That's what's called website hosting, essentially the internet land you're allowed to build your house on.
The actual address of your internet home is called your domain. Imagine that's like paying your council to be allowed to stay at your piece of land.
Then you need a foundation before you can build the house itself. That's the website platform or builder you're going to use, the thing you actually use to put your site together.
And then the house itself, what people see when they land on your site, is the website design.
The reason this matters when comparing Squarespace and WordPress is that Squarespace bundles all of those things together. WordPress doesn't. That's the first real difference between them, and it's what you need to know first before any other comparison makes sense.
What Squarespace includes and what it doesn't
Squarespace bundles your hosting, the platform, and the builder into one monthly fee. You do pay for a domain separately, either through Squarespace itself or somewhere else, it just makes things a little easier to manage if you keep it all on the same platform.
Then you pick a template or start from scratch, edit to make it yours, and publish. That's pretty much it.
The trade-off is that you're working within what Squarespace lets you do. There are things you can't customise as deeply as you could on WordPress. For the vast majority of service businesses, what Squarespace allows is more than enough. For a developer or someone with very specific technical needs, it can feel restrictive.
That's the deal. Less flexibility in exchange for the platform handling everything for you in one place.
What you need to set up a WordPress website
This is where things get more complicated, and where I think most articles do their readers a disservice by glossing over what's really involved.
When you decide to use WordPress, here's roughly what you're signing up for:
Choose and pay for a host. This is one of the biggest costs of your website on WordPress. There are dozens of hosting companies with wildly different pricing and everyone on the internet has an opinion about which one is best. You'll pay anywhere from $3 a month for the cheapest shared hosting to several hundred dollars a month for managed hosting at the higher end. And it's worth knowing: many of those cheap intro rates jump significantly at renewal once your introductory period ends, which isn't always made obvious upfront.
Buy a domain. You can usually buy your domain through your host, but not always, and sometimes you'll get a better deal buying it separately. Either way, this is a separate step.
Install WordPress itself. Some hosts have one-click installs, others require a bit more setup to get WordPress installed on your piece of internet land.
Choose a theme. Your theme determines what your site can do and how it looks. Some are free, some are paid, and others have ongoing fees. Some are drag-and-drop builders that work a bit more like Squarespace (Divi and Avada are well-known examples), others are more code-based and require more technical know-how.
Install plugins for almost anything you want your site to actually do. A contact form, spam protection, site security, SEO tools, backups: pretty much every feature you'd take for granted on Squarespace requires a separate plugin on WordPress. There are tens of thousands of plugins out there, free and paid, and figuring out which ones to trust, which ones are compatible with your theme, and which ones are still being actively maintained is its own learning curve.
Each one of these steps needs a decision. And each decision has its own learning curve attached to it. So "use WordPress" isn't actually one decision, it's five or six stacked on top of each other.
This is why I rarely see non-technical solo business owners running WordPress sites. It's not that they can't, it's that the upfront effort to even understand what they're choosing between is already a lot, before they've written a single word of website copy.
Why WordPress isn't the right choice for everyone
The main argument for WordPress is that it gives you more control. You can do pretty much anything on WordPress. Custom functionality, custom design, custom integrations. If you can think of it, there's probably a way to build it.
But more control is only valuable if you actually know what you'd do with it.
It's a bit like painting a picture, if you're not an artist.
If you don't know anything about different types of paint, paper, brushes, or canvas, it's going to be way easier for you if someone hands you a canvas, a palette with paints already squeezed onto it, two types of brushes, and says "go".
The other option is being let into a warehouse where you can choose from absolutely anything. Every type of paint, every brush, every medium you've ever heard of and several you haven't. But you can't actually start painting until you've worked out what medium you're using (canvas? paper? wood?), what paint you need (acrylic? watercolour? oil? ink?), which colours, how many of them, and which brushes you’re meant to use.
If you're an artist who knows exactly what you want, the warehouse is a dream and the pre-decided option would feel restrictive. But if you're just a regular person who wants to paint a picture, you're probably going to do a much better job with the option that was already set up for you.
That's basically the difference between WordPress and Squarespace.
WordPress is the warehouse. If you're a developer, work in tech, or have very specific technical things you need your site to do, you'll love it. You need that flexibility and you know how to use it.
But if you're a coach, a bookkeeper, a VA, a photographer, a celebrant, or any of the dozens of other service businesses where your actual job has nothing to do with web development, then having every possible option in front of you isn't an advantage. It's a problem. You're already trying to figure out your website copy, your photos, what to put on your services page, and now you're also expected to pick a hosting provider, a theme, and the right combination of plugins to make any of it work.
You don't need that much control. You need a setup that lets you focus on the parts of your website that actually matter for your business.
What are the costs of Squarespace vs WordPress
This is one of the things that gets searched the most when people are comparing Squarespace and WordPress, so it's worth covering properly.
Squarespace pricing is fairly straightforward. You pay one fee, monthly or annually, that covers the hosting, the platform, and the builder. You buy a domain separately (usually $20 to $30 a year). Their plans currently start around $16 a month and go up depending on what features you need.
That's basically it. Predictable, all in one place.
WordPress pricing is where things get harder to pin down, and where most articles oversimplify.
WordPress itself (the software) is free. But to actually use it for your website, you'll need:
Hosting: $3 to $30+ per month, with cheap intro rates often increasing significantly at renewal
Domain: $10 to $30 a year (sometimes included with hosting, sometimes not)
A theme: free for some, $50 to $100+ one-time or annually for others
Plugins: free for many, but the premium versions of the ones you actually need (good SEO, security, backups, contact forms) can run anywhere from $30 to $300+ per year each
So depending on how you set it up, WordPress can end up looking cheaper than Squarespace on paper, especially if you go for the cheapest hosting and use mostly free plugins. Or it can end up more expensive once you start adding premium plugins, especially if you go with managed hosting.
But the real cost of WordPress usually isn't the dollar amount. It's time.
There's a learning curve for your hosting provider's dashboard, another for the WordPress backend itself, and another for whichever theme you've installed. On top of that, you're picking and configuring plugins, keeping them updated, and occasionally troubleshooting when a plugin update breaks something on your site. When you can't fix it yourself, you're then working out who to ask, which often means hiring a developer for ongoing maintenance.
If you have a tech background and you enjoy that kind of thing, the trade-off can be worth it. You're getting flexibility in exchange for time you don't mind spending.
If you don't, that time cost is an invisible tax that doesn't show up on any pricing page, but it's the biggest cost of running a WordPress site as a non-technical business owner. By comparison, building a Squarespace website is fairly straightforward on the tech side and most of the time it takes is on your website content rather than the platform itself.
This is why so many people end up paying someone else to manage their WordPress site within six months of launching it, which adds another recurring cost the comparison articles rarely mention.
When WordPress is the better choice
So, fair's fair. There are absolutely situations where WordPress makes more sense than Squarespace. Three come to mind:
If you're a developer, work in SaaS, or are in the tech space, WordPress probably makes more sense for you anyway. You need that level of control, you know how to use it, and you're unlikely to ever outgrow it. If you want very specific technical things from your site, WordPress will give you the flexibility to do them.
If you're running complex offers like a membership or paid content that you want to host on your own site rather than on a platform like Kajabi or Kartra, WordPress can be more cost-effective long-term. You'll still have the start-up cost of learning which plugins to use and how to set them up, but if you're committed to keeping everything on your own site, it can pay off.
If you're really bootstrapping your business and you have time, patience, and a real desire to learn how websites work, WordPress can be a good opportunity. You'll come out the other side with a much more thorough understanding of how websites actually work, which can be valuable if you're in or moving into the web development space, or if you're looking to support clients in that area.
For pretty much everyone else, especially solo service providers who just want something they can set up quickly, easily, and without tearing their hair out from tech frustration, I'd recommend Squarespace over WordPress every time.
Frequently asked questions
Is Squarespace or WordPress easier to use?
Squarespace is significantly easier to use, especially if you're not technical. Everything is in one place, the interface is designed for non-developers, and you can have a basic site live in a few hours rather than a few weeks. WordPress has a steeper learning curve because you're managing more pieces (hosting, theme, plugins) yourself.
How much does WordPress cost vs Squarespace?
Squarespace plans currently start around $16 a month plus a domain. WordPress itself is free, but once you add hosting, a domain, a theme, and plugins, the total cost can range from around $10 a month at the very low end to $50+ a month with premium plugins and managed hosting. The bigger cost with WordPress is usually time rather than money.
Is Squarespace worth it for small business?
For most small service businesses, yes. The all-in-one pricing, the simpler editor, and the fact that you don't have to manage hosting, security, or updates yourself usually makes it a better fit for businesses that aren't tech-focused.
What are the disadvantages of Squarespace?
The main ones are less flexibility than WordPress (you're working within what Squarespace allows), you're tied to their ecosystem so moving your site elsewhere later is harder, and the monthly fee continues as long as your site is live. For most service businesses these aren't dealbreakers, but they're worth knowing.
How to decide between Squarespace and WordPress
The best platform isn't the most powerful one. It's the one you'll actually use.
WordPress gives you everything. Squarespace gives you enough. If you're a service provider whose business has nothing to do with web development, enough is almost always the right answer.
If Squarespace is right for you, the next decision is which template to use and how to set it up without spending months getting stuck on what to write and where to put it.
That's exactly what The Capsule Template is built for. A Squarespace template paired with a guided content workbook and step-by-step setup videos, so you can get a site live without becoming a part-time web designer in the process.
