After 20 years with Wordpress, I switched to Squarespace.

After nearly 20 years designing with Wordpress, I’ve switched to Squarespace.

I’m a photographer, filmmaker, husband and father. Finding a balance between work and family is important to me, and nothing makes me more frustrated than wasted time..

When it came time to update my website with my latest photography projects or videos I was creating, I found myself frustrated at the time it took. I know the importance of constantly staying in front of people, and getting my photo projects out there for people to see, but the time it took and the process it involved, the resistance factor was just too high.

More often than not, I just wouldn’t do it. There just had to be a better way.

As a former “professional web developer/designer” I had a lot of thoughts about Squarespace - none of them good.

As a freelance web designer, initial meetings with new clients usually went like this:

Potential Client: “Well, you come highly recommended and we love your work. How much will the new website cost?”
Me: “Between $5,000 and $10,000 depending on the scope of the design and my level of involvement thereafter.”
Potential Client: “Why would we spend so much when we can build our own website for like $25 a month with Squarespace??”

For the record, I never lost a web design project to Squarespace, because at the time there were a few critical selling points I used that always worked (mainly that all Squarespace sites looked the same and that they didn’t perform well with SEO - but read on - that’s changed. However, web solutions like Squarespace were a thorn in my side, and I knew that every meeting it would be brought up. As time went on, my selling points became less and less relevant.

BREAKING POINT

Last year, I reached my breaking point, and ultra-skeptic Ryan signed up for a free trial Squarespace account. I wanted to see what it was all about, and prove to myself (and those around me) that regardless of my frustration with Wordpress, it was still the best solution for my business. I fully expected Squarespace to be a major disappointment and that I’d continue down the long, painful Wordpress road. This is a very small glimpse into that process.

Reasons I didn’t want to switch to Squarespace:

WORDPRESS IS MORE POWERFUL THAN SQUARESPACE

Let’s be very clear, Wordpress is a very powerful website design tool. And yes, no doubt, it is (by a long shot) more powerful than Squarespace. The things you can do in Wordpress are amazing. No matter what you want to accomplish, there are at least a dozen great Plugins that help make it happen. From a design standpoint, Wordpress is extremely flexible and in the right hands, there really isn’t anything that it can’t do.

However, that was sort of the problem. The fact that it is so technical just became too much for someone who no longer works in the web design space. I’m a photographer and content creator, that is all - I want to take photos and make videos.

To me, it felt like every time I had to do something in Wordpress, I was having to go through ten steps and relearn code to make it happen. It took forever to make simple changes, add portfolio items, and keep things running smoothly.

Bottom Line: No, Squarespace is not as powerful as Wordpress - but for me, it simply doesn’t need to be.

WORDPRESS IS MORE ”PROFESSIONAL” THAN SQUARESPACE

Early on, this might have been the case. Squarespace didn’t exactly have a ton of “templates” to choose from, and some of my selling points that “all Squarespace sites look the same” and “no serious business should be on Squarespace” were probably pretty accurate. But that has changed.

From a pure design standpoint, WordPress is far more flexible than square space - no question there. But I constantly kept thinking, “does it really need to be?” Making a page look clean and professional shouldn’t be so time-consuming and technical. Working within the “grid” and confines of Squarespace’s layout can be frustrating. It really can be. But, if you take the time, and use readily available resources (mainly Youtube, Google, and Squarespace’s help forum), you can pretty much make it look how you like. And after little use, the design process becomes quite simple and natural.

I should also point out, in the hands of an experienced designer, Wordpress sites can indeed look extremely professional. I would argue though, if you don’t have the time to learn code and troubleshoot the technical issues of website design, you’d be far better off with a Squarespace site. Not only will you be saving yourself the frustration of trying to learn an overly-complicated and technical design platform, your site will look far more professional when built on Squarespace.

There are a LOT of resources out there on Squarespace formatting and layout that I found helpful throughout the process, and at the end of the day, every page and every part of the site that I built, I was very happy with. In fact, it stopped the OCD designer in me from “tweeking” every single element on every single page for hours on end.

Bottom Line: Squarespace is more limiting than Wordpress from a design standpoint, but I think it’s a blessing in disguise. It takes FAR less time to build a site from start to finish on Squarespace, and for beginners, Squarespace is clearly the better choice.

SQUARESPACE SITES = BAD SEO

Most web developers will agree, Wordpress is excellent with SEO. Historically, most wouldn’t necessarily say the same for Squarespace.

With Wordpress, depending on the “template” you’re using, the plugins you have installed and the on-page and code-based SEO you’ve set up - Wordpress can be amazing with SEO. On the right web hosting platform (shout out to WP Engine - my favorite), and with the right combination of SEO magic, Wordpress sites are honestly hard to beat, as the code that runs Wordpress sites is extremely efficient when it comes to crawlability and indexing from Google, Bing, etc.

BUT.. and this is a big but (snicker), after building a few sites on Squarespace, I noticed NO difference in web traffic, search engine results and visitor stats.

In fact, monitoring the sites (I’ve built 3) carefully with SEMrush, MOZ, Ubersuggest and several other SEO tools - my traffic and search engine results IMPROVED after switching to Squarespace.

I can’t say definitively that the switch to Squarespace was what made the difference, but the bottom line is that for me, the switch didn’t hurt anything, which I was initially concerned with.

Bottom Line: I have seen IMPROVEMENTS in SEO AFTER switching to Squarespace. Further, time on site and page views have also increased.

Why I made the switch to Squarespace

CONSTANT UPDATES

Wordpress updates a lot. I mean, like, a LOT. Some updates are for security to stop hackers from exploiting code within Wordpress, and some are simply to add new features and make improvements. The updates are necessary, and if you skip one, you leave your site vulnerable to security threats and major issues with downtime.

The problem that these updates represented to me was time, frustration and compatibility issues.

Bottom Line: With Squarespace, the updates happen automatically, and no need for “plugin” updating. Peace of mind, no frustration and no lost time.

COMPATIBILITY ISSUES

Most Wordpress users purchase store-bought themes from somewhere like Themeforest or ElegantThemes (excellent Wordpress resources BTW). Most users then typically have at least 5-10 Plugins (and often many more) installed to make things work as they should. These plugins are designed and updated by independent developers. Some developers update plugins regularly, some are slow to update, and some plugins get abandoned completely. This was a serious problem.

Not only do these plugins constantly need to be monitored and updated, but when Wordpress itself updates, sometimes plugins break and the site doesn’t look like it’s supposed to, the site loads slowly, or maybe doesn’t work at all. You’re then left to figure out what is causing the issue, and how to fix it. Often there isn’t a fix, and you’re scrambling to find another Plugin that will accomplish the same thing, that isn’t having compatibility issues. What a colossal waste of time.

Bottom Line: This is the primary issue that made me want to leave Wordpress. Not having to monitor, update, test and retest plugins and themes is HUGE to me.

MOBILE USE

This has been a pain point for me for a long time, but trying to edit on Wordpress through the Wordpress app, third-party app, or by logging in via mobile web browser doesn’t work well. At all. Try to update a link while traveling or on the road, change availability for products in my store, or basically make any changes to the site - just flat-out made me want my MacBook.

While the Squarespace app needs some improvement, you’re able to make basic changes, check analytics, see sales information for your store, and edit products and pricing. Furthermore, I’m guessing they’ll continue to add features to the mobile app over time.

Bottom Line: Squarespace is FAR easier to use on mobile devices than Wordpress.

COST FACTOR

As you’d expect, running your website on Squarepace is far less expensive than Wordpress.

My typical Wordpress setup & Costs:

Domain name Registrar - GoDaddy - $12 /year
Web Hosting Service - WPEngine - roughly $100 /month
CDN - Cloudflare - $45 /month
Theme - Themeforest Theme - $75 /year
Plugins - Themeforest Plugins - well over $300 /year
SSL Cert - $50 /year

Wordpress Cost - $2,177 per year

Squarespace Costs:

Domain name Registrar - GoDaddy - $12 /year (yes, I keep this separate for easier access to MX records, etc.)
Squarespace Business - $33/month
CDN - Cloudflare - Free Plan (with Squarespace, the free Cloudflare plan is all I needed)
SSL Cert - Included w/Squarespace

Squarespace Cost - $408 per year

My Switch - Time and Usability

At the end of the day, I needed to free up time and have my website “just work”.

In the end, I needed to reclaim time that would be better spent building my business, and I needed to reduce the headaches and stresses that Wordpress was causing me. If the ease of use isn’t there, it wasn’t going to get done, and that’s the problem I kept running into. The process of logging in to Wordpress to make updates, upload photos or make any other changes was was far too time-consuming. The site looked great, but at the expense of not updating content when I knew I should.

What I needed was a site that just simply “worked” and made things easy for me.

As I mentioned, I’m a photographer and filmmaker - not a web developer. To run my business, my website needs to be professional, easy to use and navigate, perform well with SEO and accurately represent me, my team, and the work we create.

With Squarespace, I no longer worry about having to update Wordpress, updating Wordpress plugins, or plugin compatibility issues. With Squarespace, I can concentrate on running my business, while easily - and quickly - updating my site content.

Also, let’s revisit the cost factor.. With Squarespace, I save nearly $1,800 per year on website costs. That is not an insignificant amount - roughly $150 per month in savings!

My Final Thoughts On Squarespace

I went into this “Trying Squarespace” experiment as a HUGE skeptic of Squarespace, with full expectation of disliking my experience and continuing down the frustrating, time-consuming path of designing with Wordpress.

What I found is that I’m more than satisfied with the sites I’m able to create with Squarespace. As I use the platform, I’m continually shocked at its capability for such a low cost, the ease of setting up shops and how good it looks. I’m thrilled that the site I’ve designed on Squarespace accurately represents the business I’ve created and the work that we do for our clients.

What I find the most surprising is that instead of dreading “having to update my website” with new projects, photos and videos, I actually look forward to it, now that I’m using Squarespace. Squarespace has removed the pain point I was experiencing with running my business on the web, and while I may be a tiny bit bias, I think my site functions, flows, and looks better than it ever did using Wordpress.

Wordpress, it’s been real..

I’ve been a Wordpress fan, user, designer and developer for nearly 2 decades, so the decision to leave did not come lightly - after all, it’s all I’ve known for almost 20 years.. Wordpress has been very good to me over those years, has allowed me to build a business around it, support my family, and create some incredible websites that I’m very proud of.

But… My relationship with Wordpress has run its course.

Squarespace - for me, it just works.

For my business, my need to free-up time while providing unequaled service to my clients - Squarespace simply works. It’s a no-nonsense solution for me to clearly and beautifully represent my business, and showcase my work to prospective clients, while making it easy to update my web pages, projects, and site content.

The nerd in me will certainly miss Wordpress, along with certain aspects of the Wordpress designing process. But the creator, photographer and business owner in me wishes I would have been less skeptical of Squarespace years ago..

If you’re interested in making the switch to Squarespace and have questions, feel free to contact me, I’m happy to provide additional information.

If you found this article helpful, and would like to try Squarespace, use this link to start your free trial.