I had been using Squarespace for over a year supporting a local non-profit. Overall it seemed pretty intuitive but some of the features were a little quirky. I got used to most of the quirks and I found Squarespace’s on-line help and available free tutorials helpful. And there is a fairly large user community so things like YouTube videos and on-line classes exist. At the time I did not realize how many aspects of supporting and designing a website were built into Squarespace. Squarespace is a website builder along with Wix, Weebly and the list go on… , so there are a lot of choices and most seem pretty completive with pricing and features. So why would you want to use CMS like WordPress.
Well here is a Pro’s and Con’s list that I have gleaned from working with WordPress for just a few weeks.
PRO’s
- WordPress supported by many web hosting providers. Pricing and options vary depending on the customers needs.
- Large user community with many learning resources from WordPress (https://learn.wordpress.org/) to on-line training like LinkedIn Learning (https://learning.linkedin.com/).
- Large number of Themes available to provide users many ways to customize your site and tailor it to you organizational needs ( e-commerce, non-profit, freelancer … ).
- Large number of plug-ins available to provide specific features to add to your website. SEO, Security, Anti-Spam and the list goes on and on. Akin to themes – thousands of choices. Some free, upgradeable or paid.
- Website migration – often web hosting companies make it easy to move your website to their servers. Giving the customer some flexibility on their hosting needs.
CON’s
- Need to acquire and administer a domain name separately.
- Need to administer a SSL certificate for your https:// website separately.
- Need to choose a theme that aligns to your organization or business needs.
- Need to choose plugins that work with you theme and provide required features.
- Need to choose a web hosting service.
- Need to monitor and update all the support files: themes, plugins and versions of WordPress.
- Need to learn interface of all the plugins and current theme, along with any changes to newer versions of WordPress (i.e. Gutenberg Block Editor in > WordPress 5.0 ). Steeper overall learning curve and user needs to learn new interfaces with every new plugin, theme, etc. , expect to spend much more time supporting your website.
So if you want to want less overhead and a shorter learning curve, then I would recommend a web builder that provides hosting, domain support and an integrated design environment.
But if you need additional capabilities and have the time to invest in learning WordPress and all the associated tools that are needed to have a functional website, then WordPress has the depth to create almost any kind of website you could want.
You will need to weigh the costs in time and resources invested to bring up your WordPress site. Cheers!