Squarespace is a popular tool that allows customers to build an attractive website without coding. Squarespace offers hosting, domain registration, themes and templates, e-commerce, SEO, and blogging capabilities.
However, Squarespace has limitations, and many creators are looking for alternatives.
Why Should you Look for an Alternative to Squarespace?
Squarespace offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder. Users can choose their theme and use different templates to build their website quickly. While Squarespace offers popular integrations and offers the ability to add an e-commerce option, it doesn't offer the flexibility that other competitors do.
Squarespace can be challenging to customize. It's hard to add specific features or functions to your website. While sites like WordPress provide endless customization options, Squarespace is more limited. In addition, Squarespace doesn't offer free options, and their prices can be a little high if you are beginning to grow your online presence.
Squarespace offers e-commerce add-ins. However, if you're focused on building an online store, there are better options.
Here is the list of the Best Squarespace Alternatives:
There are dozens of Squarespace alternates, and different website builders have different features. As you look through the list, consider what your goals are with your website.
Are you looking for a free website? Are you looking to build an e-commerce site? Do you want the easiest builder, or do you want the option to customize code on the back-end?
Pixpa - Easy to Use, Feature Rich and Affordable
Name: Pixpa
Why Pixpa is an ideal Squarespace alternative: Pixpa is easy to use, feature-rich and offers affordable pricing
Introduction to Pixpa
Pixpa is an all-in-one portfolio website builder with built-in e-commerce, blog, and client galleries. Pixpa is a user-friendly Squarespace alternative for photographers, creators, and businesses who want to create a professional portfolio website, sell their work and grow their business effortlessly. Here are 25 top reasons why photographers and creators choose Pixpa to build their portfolio website.
Pixpa features customizable themes and professionally designed templates. Use the drag-and-drop website builder to customize your website in no time. For example, you can effortlessly start a blog with embedded photos and videos. Photographers can create public and private galleries to share their work with clients. Clients love the custom galley app! With Pixpa, you can easily add pop-ups and announcements.
Pricing Plans
Pixpa users can start with a no credit card needed 15-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Pixpa's Light plan is just $3 a month. This plan includes mobile optimization, beautiful, customizable themes, menu options, domain connection, SSL security, custom CSS & HTML editing, 24/7 support, and basic mailing list features.
Pixpa's Personal plan is $7 a month and includes 301 redirects, file storage, unlimited blogs, and e-commerce.
The Expert plan is $10 a month and offers unlimited gallery images, advanced email marketing, expert website set-up, and custom photo apps for clients. The Business plan is $16 a month and includes advanced discount coupons, store inventory management, abandoned cart recovery, and unlimited custom photo apps for clients.
Pros of Pixpa over Squarespace
Pixpa is easy to use and offers everything you need to showcase your work, share ideas, and sell products. Like Squarespace, no coding is required to produce a beautiful website. In addition, Pixpa's all-inclusive pricing is significantly more affordable than Squarespace.
Squarespace's basic plan doesn't include e-commerce, and their business plan charges an additional 3% per transaction.
One of Pixpa's best features is the ability to send custom, personalized mobile gallery apps to clients. In addition, Pixpa offers over 50 integrations so that you can customize your site with integrations such as Stripe, Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and more.
If you are a photographer, Pixpa is the best website builder to showcase your work. It loads images fast, offers a super easy template and theme builder, and seamlessly integrates e-commerce and customer management.
Pixpa is the best alternative to Squarespace for artists sharing their creative work.
Cons of using Pixpa as an Alternative
Pixpa focuses on making your photography and creative designs look amazing. If you're building a text-only website, you might not receive the full advantage of Pixpa's templates and themes.
Pixpa Website Examples
Check out Pixpa's website examples and see how photographers, designers, architects, artists, and stores are using Pixpa to make connections.
WordPress for Endless Customization
Name: WordPress
Why WordPress is an ideal Squarespace alternative: WordPress offers endless customization
Introduction to WordPress
WordPress is best known for its blogging capabilities. Countless bloggers have started their blogs on WordPress, and it is one of the internet's biggest website builders.
Whether it's your neighbour creating a beautiful blog, or your CEO friend managing a massive storefront, we guarantee you know someone who uses WordPress.
WordPress offers endless themes and plug-ins. This means you can start a simple website for free, and add on different capabilities as your business grows.
Pricing Plans
You can start a blog or simple website on WordPress for free. The Personal plan is $4 a month and includes hosting and a domain. The Premium plan is $8 a month includes Premium themes. The Business plan is $25 a month and offers access to Wordpress's 50,000 plug-ins. Finally, the E-commerce plan is $45 a month.
Pros of WordPress over Squarespace
WordPress has endless customization opportunities and over 55,000 plug-ins. Because WordPress powers over 39% of the world's websites, whatever plug-in you dream of, you can get.
If you want to sell courses, you can buy a theme or plug-in for that. You can add discussion forums, build a membership site, or sell anything with countless e-commerce integrations.
If you need to change your site's code, you can change it yourself or hire a developer to customize your site. With WordPress, you can start a basic website for free and grow it however you desire.
Cons of using WordPress as an Alternative
Because WordPress offers so many customization options, it can be harder for new website builders to use. With WordPress, you'll have to choose your theme and plug-in options. It can be overwhelming for new website builders who want to get started without hassle.
Squarespace offers a simple drag-and-drop building tool and offers easy integrations. However, with WordPress, website users will have to pick and choose each theme and plug-in.
WordPress Website Examples
WordPress is used by neighbourly bloggers as well as worldwide corporations. Check out BBC America, which brings British shows to American audiences. The Walt Disney Company and singer Katy Perry use Wordpress.
Wix for Flexibility
Name: Wix
Why Wix is an ideal Squarespace alternative: Wix offers flexibility
Introduction to Wix
Wix is a popular website builder and one of Squarespace's main competitors. Wix has features that make it attractive to those who want the flexibility of WordPress and the ease of Squarespace. Wix offers about 2500 app integrations for users to choose from. It's not Wordpress's 50,000, but it's more than Squarespace offers.
Pricing Plans
You can build a website on Wix for free. However, free websites use a Wix subdomain, and users will have to display Wix ads on their site's front-end.
Paid Wix plans run between $14 and $49 a month. Their e-commerce plans start at $23 a month.
Pros of Wix over Squarespace
Beginners can use Wix for free forever. The free plan offers hosting, over 500 templates, and a drag-and-drop editor. Squarespace doesn't offer a free plan, so if you are looking for a no-cost website, Wix might be a good choice for you.
Wix's drag and drop editor lets users place elements anywhere on their website, whereas users must drop elements into columns and rows on Squarespace. If you are comfortable working with code or hiring a designer, you can edit the code on Wix for more customization options.
In addition, Wix offers more app integrations than Squarespace.
Cons of using Wix as an Alternative
Wix's templates can seem limited and bland. In addition, some users find Wix's editor harder to use than Squarespace's.
Wix Website Examples
Wix has a host of examples to check out. Evolve Clothing is a great example of an online clothing storefront. Wendy Ju uses Wix to share her design portfolio.
Weebly for the Easiest Web Builder
Name: Weebly
Why Weebly is an ideal Squarespace alternative: Weebly offers the easiest web builder
Introduction to Weebly
Weebly is another website builder that offers free plans. The free plan is ad-supported, and users are given a Weebly subdomain.
Weebly offers e-commerce features such as a shopping cart, coupons, inventory management, and a tax calculator.
Weebly offers a simple builder and is an excellent option for those who shy away from overly-technical interfaces. One of Weebly's biggest selling points is its straightforward usability.
If you are a beginner and looking to build a quick website on a budget, Weebly is a great alternative to Squarespace.
Pricing Plans
Weebly offers a free plan. Users on the free plan will have a Weebly sub-domain and will have to show ads on their website.
For $6 a month, users can upgrade to a Personal plan and connect to their domain.
Ads are removed with the $12 a month Professional Plan. The Professional Plan also includes a free domain and more options. The Performance Plan is $26 a month.
Pros of Weebly over Squarespace
Weebly is very easy to use. It's known as one of the easiest web builders available. Users can also choose from over 360 app integrations to customize their site. In addition, Weebly has a free plan so you can get started with a website on a limited budget.
Cons of using Weebly as an Alternative
Weebly doesn't have the variety of templates that Squarespace has. Squarespace also offers a mobile editor so that users can ensure their websites look great on mobile devices. In contrast, Weebly doesn't offer options for editing the look of your mobile site.
Weebly Website Examples
Flaming Pear Software uses Weebly and offers Photoshop plug-ins. Kerlin BBQ is a BBQ restaurant that uses Weebly to build their website.
Webflow for Advanced Users
Name: Webflow
Why Webflow is an ideal Squarespace alternative: Advanced users can build custom websites
Introduction to Webflow
Webflow offers a flexible drag-and-drop tool that allows users to build custom websites.
You can add custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the back end if you have coding skills. Webflow is preferred by web designers who have coding skills and want control over how their website looks.
Webflow offers around 40 free templates. However, if you're looking for a high-end template, expect to pay between $19 and $149.
Webflow offers SEO marketing, a solid blogging platform, and e-commerce options.
Pricing Plans
Webflow offers a Basic plan at $12 a month. The Basic plan includes a custom domain and 25,000 monthly visits.
The CMS plan is $16 a month, and the Business plan is $36 a month. The $29 a month Standard Ecommerce plan charges a 2% transaction fee, whereas the $75 a month Plus plan features no transaction fees.
Pros of Webflow over Squarespace
Webflow gives you complete control over your website's appearance. You can build your site from scratch using code, choose from a preset layout, or use a template. In addition, you can edit the web design and code to optimize the user's mobile experience.
Webflow is a good choice if you want to design your website from scratch and maintain complete control over it.
Cons of using Webflow as an Alternative
Webflow isn't as easy to use as Squarespace. While it offers templates and a drag-and-drop editor, it's geared towards web developers who have design experience.
Webflow Website Examples
EMdash creates email campaigns and designed their webiste using Webflow. Eskimi used Webflow to build their AdTech marketing website. Belt Creative, a Webflow agency uses Webflow for their own business website.
Shopify for eCommerce Focus
Name: Shopify
Why Shopify is an ideal Squarespace alternative: Shopify is an e-commerce powerhouse
Introduction to Shopify
Shopify is known as one of the web's most popular e-commerce platforms. If you want to make your website a storefront, Shopify is an excellent Squarespace alternate.
Users can build their storefront and launch their website right away. Their website builder offers a drag-and-drop interface.
Shopify is focused solely on e-commerce and offers excellent e-commerce options and apps. Users can integrate their shipping tools accounting tools and quickly add an abandoned cart recovery option.
In addition, Shopify offers email list management and social media integration.
Pricing Plans
All Shopify plans charge transaction fees on top of their monthly prices. The Basic plan is $29 a month. The "Shopify" plan is $79 a month and includes reports.
The advanced plan is $299 a month. The more expensive plans offer lower transaction fees.
Pros of Shopify over Squarespace
If you are building an e-commerce site, Shopify offers a robust and respected storefront. Shopify has built-in tools to help you showcase, market, and sell your products.
Cons of using Shopify as an Alternative
If you aren't looking to build an e-commerce website, you might want to look at other alternates. For example, Shopify offers blogging options, but it is focused on selling products.
If you are setting up a portfolio and just want an e-commerce plug-in, Shopify might be overkill.
Shopify is also relatively expensive, as their basic plans start at $29 a month and charges transaction fees.
Shopify Website Examples
Huit Denim is a U.K. store focused on selling jeans. The Package Free Shop focuses on selling and delivering zero-waste products.
BigCommerce for Agile, International E-commerce
Name: BigCommerce
Why BigCommerce is an ideal Squarespace alternative: BigCommers offers agile, international e-commerce
Introduction to BigCommerce
BigCommerce is built on an open platform and allows CMS customization. You can edit all the back-end code in BigCommerce and deliver your content across hundreds of channels like Facebook, TikTok, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Target.
BigCommerce will also customize the currency, content, and checkout for international customers.
Pricing Plans
BigCommerce offers a Standard plan at $29.95. The Plus plan is $79.95 and includes an abandoned cart recovery option. The Pro plan is $299.95.
Pros of BigCommerce over Squarespace
BigCommerce offers users the ability to sell their products over hundreds of different platforms. So if you want to sell on social media and other platforms, BigCommerce is a great choice.
Like Shopify, BigCommerce is focused on e-commerce, so if you focus on selling, you should opt for a website builder with the same focus.
BigCommerce offers users the ability to change the site's HTML and CSS coding for complete customization.
Cons of using BigCommerce as an Alternative
BigCommerce doesn't have as many templates as Squarespace, and their website builder isn't as easy to use as Squarespace's.
BigCommerce Website Examples
American Leather sells furniture and uses BigCommerce to run its website. Annesley Surfboards also uses BigCommerce for their website.
Conclusion
If you're looking for an alternate to Squarespace, you have many options. Think of your website's primary purpose, your budget, and your technical skills, and choose the web builder that best meets your needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is There any Platform Better than Squarespace?
Squarespace is good at everything, but it's not excellent at everything. If you are focused on a specific goal, such as e-commerce or portfolio sharing, you might be able to find a website builder that shares your focus.
Why Shouldn't You Use Squarespace?
If you are on a budget, you can find free or less expensive options to start building your online presence. If you are focused on e-commerce, try a platform that's also focused on e-commerce.
While Squarespace is relatively easy to use, there are Squarespace alternatives that are even easier to use. If you want complete control over your site, you might try a builder that allows you to edit your site's code. Finally, if you want more integrations, try a website builder that offers thousands of them.