As a web designer who's been in the game since 2018, I've had my fair share of experiences with a variety of clients – from medium-sized companies to my personal favorites: small-business owners and independent professionals like coaches, freelancers, and creatives. Over the years, my go-to recommendation has shifted significantly towards Squarespace, especially for solopreneurs and small-business owners, and I'm here to share why.

A little backstory… 

I’ve used different platforms to build websites, ranging from WordPress, WIX, Squarespace, ShowIt, Webflow, and for a long time, WordPress was my platform of choice due to its robust capabilities and the design freedom it offered. In recent years, WordPress has evolved into a much more non-developer tool with intuitive and semi-drag-and-drop theme builders like Divi Theme and Elementor. You can build and customize a website without necessarily knowing how to code. Also, in this day and age, who has the time to develop and maintain a fully-coded website really unless you’re a big or software company? So, I can confidently say that most website platforms today are no-code platforms. This then brings us to the question, if all platforms are easy to use and require no coding knowledge, then why Squarespace?

1.Most small-business clients don’t need advanced and complicated features

With more possibilities come more complexities. But do all clients need complicated features? No. Most of the time, business owners just need a beautiful static website with minimal update and maintenance to give information about their service, give ways for people to contact them, and grow their mailing list/ audience! All of this can be efficiently achieved with Squarespace, minus the plugin integration complexities!

2. Small-business owners have a lot on their plate and we’d like to keep things as simple as possible

Small-business owners and service providers like freelancers are usually a one-person show. Though website is crucial, it’s still just one task out of their long list of daily tasks. We want our small-business clients to spend as little time as possible maintaining their websites. Unlike WordPress, which can still feel overwhelming despite no-code builders, Squarespace is genuinely user-friendly, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on their business, not on navigating a complex website backend.

3. Keeping it all under one roof

Nowadays, Running a business website also includes extra bits and bobs like having personalised business emails (e.g: hello@yourbrand.com), email list, e-commerce, tracking your traffic, etc. With Squarespace, Unlike WordPress, where the reliance on plugins can lead to a juggling act of updates and compatibility checks, Squarespace offers an all-in-one solution. Essential tools for SEO, e-commerce, and security are built into the platform, offering seamless integration without the fuss.

4. What’s easy for me as a designer is not that easy for clients

While I, as a designer, can navigate WordPress’s complexities, it's a different story for my clients. Though I always support my clients with personalized tutorial videos when handing off the site, I sometimes can’t sleep well enough thinking about how my clients will manage the WordPress website where they did not even know the difference between domain and hosting. Furthermore, features that are straightforward for me as a designer may not be so for clients. Squarespace, however, keeps maintenance straightforward and costs predictable. So  I recommend Squarespace for small-business owners and freelancers because it’s much more simplified, especially for the non-techie customers.

5. Less learning curve

Squarespace's intuitive interface and simpler design options mean a shorter learning curve. Business owners can quickly become proficient in managing their site, making updates, and adding content to the site.

6. One customer support 

Though it doesn’t often happen that you’ll need help from customer support, it gives my small-business clients a relief knowing they just need to talk to one reliable platform’s customer suppor rather than to guess whether it’s the hosting company, or email or plugins developer that they need to contact.

Seriously, if I am going to start a new business beside my web design business, I will definitely use Squarespace, even though I have subscriptions and the knowledge to use WordPress. For these reasons, Fly High Design only creates Squarespace website templates, because I’ve done the heavy lifting and research for you!

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