Business
Show notes found at: http://kristyoustalet.com/48 Wordpress has been known as the one and only platform to build a professional website to build your business, but Squarespace has made a ton of improvements and have positioned themselves as true competitor in the space. Everyone has their opinion on which is best, but the real question is which is best for you and your growing business. Let’s dive into the pros + cons in each to help you make the best decision. Customer Support: Squarespace: is a paid platform that will answer questions and troubleshoot via email or live chat 24/7. A Squarespace site generally costs $10/mo. Wordpress: because the platform is free, it does not include support. For this reason, its important to choose themes that have good support forums and some even have how-to videos. Googling for answers can also be helpful. Nat Note: Headway + Genesis themes have great support forums for WP. Learning Curve/Dashboard: Squarespace: has a drag and drop builder which is easier for beginners to jump into quickly, but with less options. Website updates are done automatically. Wordpress: has a little bit more of a learning curve because it is more robust and has much more possibilities and more flexible. Updates are done manually. ECommerce: Squarespace: Creating an online shop in SS is possible, but the store can only process cards via Stripe. This creates a huge limitation on international sellers as Stripe only processes payments within the US. Also, you cannot customize the check-out process. Wordpress: can use multiple payment gateways to sell unlimited items virtually and internationally. Bells & Whistles: Squarespace: doesn’t let beginners get caught up in all the bells and whistles and can create a clean streamlined site. You have 19 responsive semi-customizable themes. Wordpress: you have the ability to use plug-ins which are essentially website apps to end endless functionality. The look depends a lot of the theme to choose from. You have thousands of themes to choose from Nat’s WP Theme Choosing Tips: pick one that you like the look of out of the box if you’re a beginner read the reviews from other users see how responsive the support forum is look for a theme that has been updated recently Three premium themes for complete customization: Headway, Thesis, and Genesis Theme Forest has thousands of WP themes to choose from Which one works best for you? Let me know what aspects of a site works best for you in the comments below. Did you like this episode? I would love for you to share it with your friends + subscribe to the show on itunes. You can easily do that by clicking here. All show notes can be found at http://kristyoustalet.com/48