When it comes to building a website, all the decisions you have to make can be overwhelming. We think that building a digital home for your business should be fun, not something you dread doing! One of the biggest choices entrepreneurs have to make is deciding where they want to build their new home. Our two favorite choices are Squarespace and Showit, which we recommend for pretty much everyone (except eCommerce businesses, then we’d suggest Shopify). 

Showit Vs Squarespace is an age-old battle that almost every designer has an opinion on. But the truth is, one isn’t always better than the other. Today we’re going to list out the pros and cons of each platform, along with who is best suited for each so that you can make an educated decision about what’s best for your business! 

What is Squarespace? 

Squarespace is a drag-and-drop website building platform that beginners can use to create a professional website without needing to know how to code. It is an all-in-one platform that you can use to house your website, book meetings, start email marketing, sell products, have a blog, and so much more! It’s typically used by small business owners — those who don’t have many employees and are looking for a DIY option. 

Unlike some website platforms, like WordPress, Squarespace allows you to build and host your website in the same place – and without having to download anything to your computer. Everything is stored digitally, so building your online home won’t take up any space on your laptop! 

While Squarespace is an amazing tool that we love, it can sometimes be limiting for DIYers, since you can’t bring every vision to life if you don’t know how to code. However, Squarespace has recently started to up their game and have been adding countless new features that have both been in high demand and tools we didn’t even know we needed.

View one of our latest and favorite Squarespace website design projects!

What is Showit? 

If you can dream it, you can create it – using Showit. It’s easy to use and requires no coding to create a website everyone loves. In the beginning, it was mostly used by photographers, but more recently it has become a popular choice amongst all kinds of business owners for its flexibility. While it has a bit more of a learning curve than Squarespace, the results you’ll put into learning the platform will be well worth it as you build your new website with all the design freedom you’ll have! 

One of our favorite Showit features is the mobile design and optimization options. Hubspot tells us that “in the first quarter of 2021, mobile devices generated 54.8 percent of global website traffic” (source). Of all the platforms we’ve designed websites on, Showit steals the show when it comes to mobile design! As you design a desktop site, it automatically translates to a mobile version, but that’s not where it ends. If you want – you can create a completely different mobile site from the desktop version. You can edit the mobile design independently of the desktop version, which means any changes you make won’t affect the final product of the website on desktop, and this is totally different from Squarespace and other platforms!

As we mentioned, Showit does have a bit of a learning curve. The backend design system is similar to Adobe Illustrator, and it can look a little intimidating. Showit also pairs with WordPress for blogging and SEO, which means that your one-of-a-kind website can also rank great on search engines! 

So now that we know the basics for each platform, it’s time to dive into the pros and cons so you can decide which is best for your business! 

View one of our latest and favorite Showit website design projects!

 

Download our Brand Strategy Workbook

Building a brand strategy is not only extremely important but it’s also a lot of work, especially by yourself! To make this task more enjoyable (and successful) for you, we have created an in-depth and interactive brand strategy workbook that you can download right now!

 

Pros and Cons of Squarespace

What are some of the best parts of Squarespace? Here are some of our favorite features…

• You can always get 20% off your new website. If you visit Squarespace.com, there’s usually a discount code at the top of the page. If not, you can use SOCIALCIRCLE20 to get your first year for less! 
• Squarespace has tons of prebuilt templates, and a super-easy quiz that asks a few questions about what you’ll be using your website for, then gives you a selection of templates to easily build your site. If you don’t like any of those options, you can browse even more options that you can customize. 
• You can sell anything! Squarespace makes it easy for people to book services, buy digital products, or purchase physical products that get delivered to your customer’s front door. 
• Easily integrate your business with an email marketing provider or scheduling software from Squarespace or another service (we love Calendly and Flodesk). 
• Edits take no time at all since you just have to hit the escape button when you’re on your site and starting editing. Just don’t forget to hit save! 
• There are built-in SEO features. While some people may say that Squarespace isn’t the best platform for search engine optimization, it’s a great place to get started with simple features that will put you ahead if you aren’t familiar with SEO marketing. 

We could go on and on about the benefits of Squarespace, but that would make for a very long blog post! Let’s move on to some of the cons… 

• Creative freedom is a bit limited if you don’t have any coding knowledge 
• Some designers argue that every Squarespace looks the same, and to an extent, that can be true when DIYers use the same popular templates 
• Pricing of Squarespace can be more expensive than platforms like Wix, Weebly, and others
• With the more affordable Squarespace plans, the platform takes a higher transaction fee on all purchases made through your website 
• You can’t add code to your website with the cheapest plan
• Mobile design is difficult to edit separate from your desktop site if you don’t know how to optimize the mobile design via code

What are the pros and cons of Showit?

There are many pros to Squarespace and a few cons as well, but we can’t forget about Showit! Some of the biggest reasons why we love the platform are… 

• One of the easiest ways to create a completely custom design that you can’t bring about elsewhere without using code 
• Uses WordPress as its blogging platform for better SEO opportunities 
• Ability to edit the desktop design independently of the mobile design 
• An easy platform to use if you’re familiar with Adobe programs 
• The most expensive plan is cheaper than Squarespace 

While the pros of Showit are amazing, there are a few cons we want to mention as well…

• The starting price of Showit is more expensive than Squarespace 
• It’s not the best option for product-based businesses 
• There’s more of a learning curve than with other drag-and-drop website builders
• Unlike Squarespace, you can’t purchase your domain name through Showit
• You have to integrate SEO plugins, blog plugins, and eCommerce plugins for additional features 

All in all, there’s no right answer to whether Squarespace or Showit is the right website builder for you, it all depends on what you need from your website! If you’re looking to have a custom website designed on either platform or confused about which platform is right for you, we would love to help! Take a look at that services tab to see how we can create your brand new website together!