
Why WordPress Is Better for Your Business Than Wix or SquareSpace
If you are to survive in the modern marketplace, your business needs a website.
The current pandemic has made it clear that the ability to communicate with customers via the Internet is critical for even small, local businesses that might have relied on walk-up business before.
Although restrictions will loosen along with the vaccine rollout, online shopping habits are likely going to prove hard to break for many shoppers, so it’s critical for businesses of all sizes to have a website that helps them reach their customers no matter what.
But once you start researching building a website, you realize that there are dozens of website builders out there. So how do you pick the best one for you? The three leading builders are WordPress, Wix, and SquareSpace. Among these three, WordPress is the clear winner, offering benefits for building and maintaining your website.
Control and Flexibility
The most important things WordPress offers are control and flexibility. Wix and SquareSpace are builders that have a framework already installed for your website. While there are options for customizing many aspects of the appearance and layout of the site, much of the basic functionality is already determined when you choose Wix or SquareSpace. On the other hand, WordPress starts as a much more bare bones framework. It’s an open platform that programmers around the world tinker with to create better website designs and functions. You can build your website in a completely free fashion. You can also draw from tens of thousands of themes to get a dramatic appearance to your website with little to no work. And then expand the functionality with about 60,000 free and paid plugins (essentially apps) that help your website work the way you want. Think of it this way: choosing Wix or SquareSpace is like choosing a Ford or a Chevy. There are many body styles that you can further customize with colors, options, and detailing packages. Underneath, though, it’s still a Ford or a Chevy. Choosing WordPress is like being able to build your own car using the best components from all the car parts from all the car companies in the world.Cost
Another benefit is that WordPress sites can be essentially free if your willing to put in some leg work. You can find free software, free themes, and free plugins to build a great website. All you have to pay for is your domain name and hosting, which can be a relatively tiny expense. Even if you want functionality from paid plugins or themes, they are inexpensive. If you dont want to go through all the work, a web development company like us can help put everything together for you! Wix and SquareSpace, on the other hand, charge you for using their software to build your site. Then many of the apps and themes have additional costs. Plus, you have to keep paying monthly to maintain your website. This adds up over time, which can make your website a significant, ongoing expense. Free options for Wix and SquareSpace are very limited, and may come with display ads that they sell on your site–ads that might even be for a competitor!eCommerce
One place where the limited flexibility of Wix and SquareSpace hits worst is in terms of ecommerce. Both of these platforms are set up to accept only a few types of payment. SquareSpace, for example, only accepts Stripe, ApplePay, and PayPal. Wix starts out only accepting Authorize.net and PayPal, with additional functionality coming at a higher cost. WordPress integrates easily with WooCommerce, which has more than 60 different extensions for taking payments the way that will be easiest for your customers. But, again, you have dozens of other choices for ecommerce plugins that can help your website serve customers more easily.