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If you want to build a website but have no idea where to start, you’re in luck.
There are tons of website-building tools on the marketplace today, geared towards all levels of expertise and offered at a range of price levels.
Two of the most popular platforms are Squarespace and Webflow.
Both offer customization options and easy-to-use features, but which one really takes the prize?
This guide will give a breakdown of each platform and its pros and cons, and then decide an overall winner.
Squarespace Breakdown
Founded in 2003, Squarespace has since taken the market by storm and is now a leading competitor.
Primarily known for its stunning, minimalistic, and aesthetically-pleasing template designs, Squarespace is an award-winning, one-stop-shop for all your website needs.
Though the platform is primarily geared towards photographers, videographers, and other creatives to show off their work, any business can build a website with Squarespace in a matter of hours.
And, if you’re looking to scale your eCommerce operations and enter into new markets, Squarespace is a great place to start.
Pros Of Squarespace
1. A range of templates
Where Squarespace truly beats its competitors is in its stunning, detailed templates.
Squarespace’s attention to quality and design nuances will bring any website to the next level and, if all you need is a simple, clean website to fill with content, Squarespace makes it easy.
You can just install a template and plug in your features seamlessly.
Squarespace also offers a range of templates geared towards many different industries and business types, categorized in an easy-to-navigate search tool.
And, each template comes with the same features, so you don’t have to worry about re-adding a blog, store, social media integrations or other features if you decide to switch templates.
Fortunately, with Squarespace’s 14-day trial, you can experiment with a range of templates and even extend your membership if you’re happy with the results.
2. Easy to Build
Squarespace is one of the easiest platforms to use if you need to get your website up and running quickly and with little to no frustration.
Many users are able to generate a full-scale website with advanced portfolios and content displays within a few hours.
And fortunately, Squarespace is designed with the technically limited in mind.
You don’t need any prior knowledge of coding or plug-ins to design a website with Squarespace.
Though Squarespace does have a bit of a learning curve (for example, getting used to the drag-and-drop editing feature and understanding how to make minor technical edits), the platform’s structured editor allows you to drag and drop content blocks into pre-set rows and lines for clean design.
Keep at it and with a bit of practice, you’ll be sure to see your website come to life quickly.
3. Responsive Design
Squarespace templates are designed with a range of devices in mind and are tested thoroughly to ensure the best possible user experience, no matter where you access your website from.
Depending on if someone is viewing your website on a mobile device, tablet, laptop or full-screen desktop, Squarespace ensures the website will transfer over seamlessly with no interruption in design or use.
Now more than ever, buyers are turning to their mobile devices first to browse a website.
That’s why optimizing your website for a compact device is key, and it should carry all the same features as a desktop experience.
One great feature of Squarespace is that you are able to preview how your site will look in real-time on three different devices, allowing you to make changes that best optimize your website.
4. Seamless Integrations
Squarespace is truly the platform for modern business, allowing you to develop and complete multiple functions in one space.
If you’re just starting out, you can buy a domain, create a logo and brand assets and even add a blog feature to let your audience know you’re online.
When you’re ready to scale your eCommerce game, Squarespace also offers a variety of options.
You can add SEO plug-ins like Google AdWords to ensure your site is showing up at the top of search engines.
You can also access analytics to track your site’s performance, take advantage of email marketing or employ advanced eCommerce features like abandoned cart recovery, discounted shipping and promotion codes.
These are all simple to add and use – unfortunately, each feature isn’t available at every price level.
The more you pay, the better eCommerce features you get.
5. Dedicated Support
Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support, as well as a large knowledge database with helpful guides and processes.
If you’re new to website-building and have no idea where to start, having help at the ready is an invaluable asset.
If you decide to accelerate your business and want a more advanced plan, Squarespace offers Squarespace Select, a premium plan that comes with a dedicated account manager who will give you personalized onboarding and product training.
Cons Of Squarespace:
1. Can get pricey
With Squarespace, you have an option to pay either monthly or annually – unfortunately, there is no free version after the 14-day trial expires.
A personal website starts at $12/month and comes with a lot, but the other plans (which come in at $18, $26, and $40/month) offer far more at a far steeper price.
That cost adds up quickly. If you decide to use Squarespace, you should weigh the options and ask yourself what your business needs and where you see it going.
If you’re a photographer who simply needs to showcase your work, you most likely won’t need a Business or Commerce plan.
Luckily, Squarespace will let you downgrade or upgrade your plan at any moment if needed.
2. Hard to customize
If you have some background in HTML, CSS3 or JavaScript, you can customize your website’s code and really make it your own.
But if you don’t have this solid understanding, you may find yourself unable to add any custom design features or content blocks.
All-in-all, Squarespace prizes itself on its clean, well-designed templates that function as drag-and-drop.
Because Squarespace’s sites are SO easy to set up, you may find your options for advanced customization limited.
3. Not ideal for large-scale businesses
If you’re looking to sell a mass amount of products, need bandwidth to support thousands of users visiting from everywhere in the world or require fast loading speeds, Squarespace may not be able to support all of these requirements.
Webflow Breakdown
Webflow is another popular website-building tool that, like Squarespace, requires no self-coding to begin.
But where Webflow edges out the competition is that, in addition to helping you design your website, Weblow also acts as a CMS and hosting platform.
With Webflow’s multi-functioning editor, you can build a completely original, professional website with custom visual elements.
Pros Of Webflow:
1. Design and development are integrated seamlessly
With Webflow, you have full autonomy over your website.
This means that as you code and build the back-end of your site, you can also use Webflow to add in visual elements with no interruption.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but for years, user interface and user experience were two separate processes.
Often, designers had to wait for the complicated interface building procedures to finish before beginning creative mockups.
With Webflow, you can now design and build a website all within one easy platform at the same time.
In addition, Webflow also has over 100 templates to choose from, 40 of which are completely free.
2. A robust editor
Webflow uses an integrated editing feature called “The Box Model.” This refers to the process of creating a box for every element of your site.
After you’ve determined all your elements, you can overlay them on top of one another.
Once you’re done, you’ll have a mix of image boxes, text boxes and button boxes strategically placed to form the layout of your site’s content.
Webflow’s editor is incredibly multi-functioning and user-friendly, giving you tons of options to cut, paste, color and design.
3. Ecommerce & SEO options
Webflow offers many standard eCommerce options to set your business apart.
Weblow allows Apple Pay and PayPal integrations and you can process transactions through third-party app Stripe directly through your site.
Once a customer gets to checkout, Webflow will automatically calculate the sales total and all added taxes, eliminating the need for any manual data input.
And if a customer decides to go back to your site at another time, Webflow offers abandoned cart recovery.
If you’re looking to add social media integrations directly on your site, Webflow offers Facebook and Instagram integrations.
You can sync your Facebook and Instagram stores directly to your website.
This is crucial, as now more than ever, consumers are turning to visual sites like Instagram first to discover (and buy) new products.
You can also track social media marketing campaigns directly on your website, allowing you to analyze all your data in one platform.
In terms of SEO, Webflow offers premium settings to help you promote your site.
With all your CMS content, you’ll get auto-generated meta titles and descriptions based on customized fields, along with SSL for no extra cost.
4. Responsive design
Like Squarespace, Webflow allows you to preview your site on a variety of devices and easily adjust your layout accordingly.
Webflow uses a great feature called Flexbox to easily adjust any design problems that keep popping up.
It makes use of flex parent and child settings where you can define alignment and resize your content blocks according to specific devices.
Cons Of Webflow
1. A learning curve
Many users have said Webflow’s editor looks a lot like Photoshop.
And just like Photoshop, you may need a couple of hours or so just to get acquainted with all the available tools. While it may take a bit to get up and running, the results are well-worth it.
2. Lack of cool features
Unlike a lot of other website-builders, Webflow does not have its own marketplace.
So, all of its integrations are third-party, meaning there are limits to how advanced you can get.
While Webflow may not have as many cool features as Squarespace, they still have many standard options you’d expect from a sophisticated website-builder.
Parallax scrolling, animations and advanced security options are all available on Weblow and can really take your website to the next level, while keeping your content protected.
3. Customer Support
Though Webflow offers a lot of helpful guides and processes explaining every step of the website-building process, their support options leave a bit to be desired.
Webflow currently doesn’t have a 24/7 phone or live chat support option, meaning you must email their admin team if you have an issue.
They do, however, offer Webflow University, an integrated knowledge database where you can search for answers to any issue with no wait time.
4. Pricing
Webflow offers a lot of bang for your buck.
You get an advanced website builder with in-depth creative control and many third-party apps.
So, it’s no surprise that Webflow’s prices reflect their range of offerings.
But, if you don’t need advanced customization, you may not understand what you’re paying top dollar for.
For a basic plan where you actually publish your website online, you’ll pay just $12/month.
But for an enterprise plan (best for advanced eCommerce sites) you’ll pay over $200/month.
It really just depends on what you want for your business and how many items you’re planning on selling.
Winner: I’m Going With Squarespace
Both sites are great website-building tools and offer unique selling points.
If you want complete customization options where you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat for the entire building and editing process, Webflow is perfect.
Design and development come together in one easily-navigated platform and, if you have some kind of knowledge of HTML or JavaScript, the possibilities are endless.
But even if you don’t, Webflow is extremely user-friendly and with a little perseverance, you’ll have a stunning website to show off.
On the other hand, if you want to sit back and let the platform do the bulk of the back-end customization for you, Squarespace is your tool.
The site is visually amazing and really great for artists and other creatives to show off their work.
And because Squarespace is so established, you’ll likely to see even more cool, new features getting added in the coming years.
