If you’re a webmaster, blogger or involved with a business that maintains a website, chances are good you’ve encountered Squarespace at some point. There’s a reason Squarespace always comes to mind when discussing user-friendly site builders, and it’s because they do almost everything right.
A total newbie can have a working homepage in ten minutes and can add content, links, and menus as easily as typing them into Word.
Why Choose An Alternative?
However, while Squarespace is a tool you can recommend to most people, it won’t fit everyone’s needs. Squarespace doesn’t support plugins, meaning any widgets will come from third parties and vary in quality.
Their plans can be expensive, and their interface has some noticeable holes, such as the lack of a preview mode or ability to change the page title from a blog post draft. And those wishing to build a more complex website might find it aggravating that Squarespace only supports one level of navigation.
So, if you’ve tried Squarespace and are looking to try a full range of options to seek a better fit, read on to learn about 12 Squarespace alternatives that might be right for you.
1. WordPress
We might as well start with the most famous. 28 percent of the internet is powered by WordPress, which for a well-managed open-source project is truly impressive. But when dealing with WordPress, it’s vital to understand one thing beginners don’t always notice: it’s technically not one service, but two.
WordPress.org is the open-source design platform. If you go with this, you’re on your own to find a domain host, then you’ll download WordPress to set up the page before it goes live.
Who is it for? If you plan to customize at all, you’ll need some knowledge of code. WordPress.org is recommended for people with design experience, people looking to use specific plugins or those who plan to monetize their blogs. It’s also great for those who like to be part of a support community, as WordPress developers share information widely on the internet.
- Unprecedented control over design through code
- Intuitive for experienced designers
- Easy to add social media sharing buttons and donation buttons
- Vast customization possibilities, including user-created themes and third-party widgets
- Only as expensive as a domain
- A steep learning curve for beginners
- A common target for hackers
Cost: WordPress is 100% free to download and use. The cost of hosting a domain, as low as $4/month
Free trial offered? Yes
1a. WordPress.com
WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPres.org) is a blogging service designed on the WordPress.org platform to be simple and accessible. Like Squarespace, it’s got an intuitive design interface with a range of available themes.
Who is it for? Web design beginners, and users who just want to host a blog instead of setting up an entire website.
- Simple and free to set up a website
- More design options and higher site complexity than Squarespace
- Learning resources widely available online
- Updates can crash sites
- Difficult to make custom design choices without entering source code
- Hard to grow website beyond the initial template
Pricing Plans and Costs
- All billed annually
- Free (0$/month): Basic site building tools
- Personal ($4/month): Custom domain name without WordPress ads
- Premium ($8/month): Advanced design tools and ad hosting
- Business ($25/month): Extra themes, analytics, unlimited storage
Free trial offered? 14 days on any plan
2. Wix
Wix has jumped in popularity among basic-utility WYSIWYG web builders. Its drag-and-drop interface feels more like PowerPoint than navigating menus in Squarespace or WordPress, which is extremely appealing for beginners–as is the lack of a grid design to snap design elements too, which gives a lot of control over your web aesthetic.
One of Wix’s most interesting features is its Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). Just feed your social media accounts and info about your business into ADI, and it will generate a website for you, which you’re then free to adapt as you wish.
Who is it for? Beginners; anyone who wants to market a service or post content. People who like apps and templates, or those who plan to do a lot of SEO but aren’t sure how to start, will also find Wix useful. Experienced coders and designers will feel limited, though an advanced app called Wix Code allows more access to the source.
- Intuitive drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface with tips
- A wide range of templates and apps
- Cheaper than Squarespace with a free plan available
- ADI function and SEO wizard streamline daunting tasks
- Able to host a blog or forum
- Limited storage, especially in cheaper plans
- More advanced design options may not be available
- Difficult to access code in basic version
Pricing Plans and Costs
- Connect Domain ($5/month): 1 GB bandwidth, 500 MB storage, shows Wix ads
- Combo ($11/month): 2 GB bandwidth, 3 GB storage, video support, free domain for one year
- Unlimited ($14/month): Unlimited bandwidth, 10 GB storage, free domain for one year, site builder and form booster apps
- VIP ($29/month): Unlimited bandwidth, 20 GB storage, priority response, support for 10 email campaigns per year
Free trial offered? 14 days on any premium plan
3. PageCloud
PageCloud is only a few years old, but has distinguished itself for many of the same reasons as Wix: it’s a no-code, grid-free WYSIWYG web editor that is a solid choice for just about anybody who might want to make a website.
Also like Wix, it’s based on themes, which are easy to tinker with if you don’t feel inspired by any of them initially. You can even import layers directly from Photoshop to get that front-page feel exactly how you imagined it. And like Wix, it’s got a large range of apps and e-commerce tools.
At this point you might be asking: PageCloud may be better than Squarespace, but why choose it over Wix? After all, Wix has a mobile app to manage how your content flows to mobile, and video tutorials, neither of which PageCloud boasts. And while Wix’s freemium pricing model is flexible, PageCloud doesn’t offer subscriptions for less than $24/month.
That said, if you want your editor to mimic the experience of InDesign or Photoshop, PageCloud gets a lot closer to those environments. It also offers easier access to source code than Wix does, making it a better choice for those with CSS, Java, or HTML experience.
Who is it for? Everyone, though slightly less for coders.
- Drag-and-drop WYSIWYG that interfaces with other design apps
- App selections for almost any need
- Fully customizable templates
- Automatic image optimization
- Minimizes drop-downs and pop-ups
- Fewer starting templates than Wix
- No cheap pricing plan
- More difficult to preserve of design in mobile view
Pricing Plans and Costs
Only one plan, $24/month, that gives access to the whole range of features.
Free trial offered? 14 days
4. Weebly
Weebly combines the drag-and-drop intuitiveness of Wix and PageCloud with a menu interface that looks a lot like Squarespace. It keeps things minimal, prioritizing performance and ease of use over a plethora of features.
The snap-to-grid page layout themes might prove to limit even to those who plan to design without coding, but Weebly allows users to change their theme at any time without losing content.
Other things to recommend Weebly include its free plan, which includes access to all design features except for the ability to set up a store. Its ease of use, including a one-click app store, will endear it to beginners, and the mobile editor is nice. But it should be reiterated that Weebly is not a service for the deep designer. Like Wix, Weebly has an option to access its CSS editor, but if you want to achieve your goals by coding, there are better choices.
Who is it for? People who want a good-looking website without too much effort or coding, or people who might not have the budget for a plan from Wix, Squarespace, or PageCloud. Given its list of features for managing blog posts and marketing your writing, Weebly is a strong choice for bloggers.