Squarespace vs WordPress: Which Platform Offers Better Creative Control for Designers?

Designers often find themselves in a dilemma when choosing the right platform for building websites. Two of the most popular options, Squarespace and WordPress, are frequently compared for their ease of use, flexibility, and creative control. While both platforms have their merits, they differ significantly when it comes to creative freedom and the ability to build highly customized websites.
In this article, we’ll explore Squarespace and WordPress through the lens of a designer, focusing on key factors like creative control, customization options, theme flexibility, and the overall design workflow. By the end, you’ll have a clearer understanding of why WordPress is often the preferred choice for designers seeking true creative control.
1. The Basics of Squarespace vs WordPress: An Overview
Before we dive into the finer details of creative control, let’s briefly review what each platform offers:
Squarespace
Squarespace is known for its sleek, drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy for users with little to no coding experience to build websites. It offers a range of professionally designed templates that users can modify with ease. Squarespace provides an all-in-one solution, where hosting, security, and design tools are bundled into one package. This makes it particularly appealing to users who want a simple, streamlined process.
However, the simplicity of Squarespace comes at a cost. While it offers a polished user experience, the platform has limitations in terms of customization and advanced design features. Designers may find themselves constrained by the available tools and templates.
WordPress
WordPress, on the other hand, is an open-source platform that powers over 40% of websites globally. With WordPress, designers have near-unlimited control over every aspect of their site. Whether it’s through custom themes, plugins, or even custom coding, WordPress is designed to give you total creative freedom. However, this flexibility comes with a learning curve, and managing hosting, security, and updates requires more effort compared to Squarespace.
For those looking for help, our Squarespace to WordPress migration services ensure a smooth transition without losing any creative elements of your design.
2. Template Design: Squarespace’s Elegance vs WordPress’s Flexibility
When comparing Squarespace and WordPress in terms of template design, both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, but they cater to different types of designers.
Squarespace Templates: Elegance with Limits
Squarespace is widely recognized for its beautifully crafted templates that are perfect for portfolios, photography, and creative websites. These templates come with built-in features like mobile responsiveness and are optimized for visual content, making them ideal for creatives who want to showcase their work in a visually appealing manner.
However, the downside is that Squarespace limits the degree to which you can modify templates. While you can adjust certain elements such as colors, fonts, and images, you’re ultimately constrained by the preset layouts. For designers who want complete control over their design’s structure, this can be a frustrating experience. You can inject custom CSS, but even then, customization is limited.
WordPress Themes: Endless Possibilities
With WordPress, the sky’s the limit when it comes to themes and customization. Designers can choose from thousands of free and premium themes available from marketplaces like ThemeForest or directly from the WordPress repository. More importantly, WordPress allows for complete customization of these themes. Whether through a theme editor, custom CSS, or even modifying the underlying code, designers can change everything from the layout to the smallest design details.
For designers who want to start from scratch, WordPress supports the use of child themes, where you can build a new design without altering the parent theme’s code. This flexibility is unmatched in Squarespace, making WordPress the ideal platform for designers who want to go beyond templates and create truly unique websites.
Considering a switch? Our Squarespace to WordPress migration service can help you achieve this effortlessly.
3. Customization: WordPress Wins the Flexibility Battle
Squarespace: Simple Yet Limited Customization
One of Squarespace’s selling points is its ease of use, and part of this ease comes from its limited customization options. The platform offers users a set of customizable blocks, but these blocks come with strict limitations. For example, rearranging block elements or adding features like custom pop-ups or dynamic elements can be difficult without hiring a developer or moving to a more flexible platform.
Squarespace does allow you to add basic custom CSS to change the look and feel of your site, but the level of customization is still confined to the templates and structure that Squarespace provides. This limited flexibility can be frustrating for designers who want full control over their design projects.
WordPress: Full Customization Freedom
WordPress, in contrast, provides full customization capabilities. Designers can access the codebase and modify every aspect of the site, from headers and footers to individual page layouts. Whether you want to create custom post types, unique templates for specific pages, or custom animations and transitions, WordPress has the tools and freedom to allow it.
With WordPress, designers can leverage powerful customization plugins like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), which allow them to create custom fields for any type of content. This opens up endless possibilities for designers who need to build complex websites that go beyond static content.
To move your design vision to WordPress, check out our CMS migration services.
4. Creative Control Over Functionality: Plugins vs Built-in Tools
Functionality is just as important as design when it comes to website building, and both Squarespace and WordPress offer different approaches to adding extra features to your site.
Squarespace: Built-in Tools but Limited Add-ons
Squarespace comes with a range of built-in tools that cover basic needs like SEO, analytics, and e-commerce. These features are convenient, especially for users who want everything packaged into one platform. However, Squarespace falls short when it comes to expanding functionality. The platform does not have an extensive third-party marketplace, and its limited integrations mean that if the built-in tools don’t meet your needs, you have to rely on external services, which might not always integrate smoothly.
Designers who want to incorporate unique features—such as custom galleries, complex forms, or specific user experiences—may find Squarespace lacking.
WordPress: Plugins Galore
WordPress blows Squarespace out of the water when it comes to extending functionality. The platform boasts over 58,000 free plugins that can add virtually any feature imaginable. From SEO and security to e-commerce and social media integrations, WordPress gives you the ability to install and customize plugins to suit your specific needs.
For designers, this means you can easily add custom sliders, interactive elements, animation, advanced galleries, and much more without any coding knowledge. If you do know how to code, the flexibility is even greater—you can build custom plugins that integrate directly into your website.
Want to leverage the power of WordPress plugins? Consider migrating from Squarespace to WordPress.
5. Third-Party Integration and Flexibility
Another area where WordPress shines over Squarespace is third-party integration.
Squarespace: A Limited Ecosystem
Squarespace offers some integrations, such as payment gateways and social media platforms, but it’s far more limited than WordPress. The platform doesn’t support deep integration with advanced marketing tools, CRMs, or automation services without expensive third-party workarounds.
WordPress: Open to Endless Possibilities
WordPress’s open-source nature allows it to integrate with virtually any service or tool available. Whether it’s email marketing tools like Mailchimp, CRM systems like HubSpot, or advanced analytics platforms, WordPress can seamlessly integrate with these tools. This level of flexibility is crucial for designers working on projects that require specific functionality, which is why many choose WordPress over Squarespace.
Planning a migration? Learn about our CMS migration services.
6. Ownership and Portability: WordPress Keeps You in Control
One of the most critical aspects of creative control is ownership—and here, WordPress clearly has the advantage.
Squarespace: Locked into a Proprietary System
Squarespace operates as a closed, proprietary system. While you can export some content (like blog posts), moving your site to another platform can be challenging. If you ever decide to migrate your website, you’ll likely face limitations on what you can export and how easily you can import it into another platform.
WordPress: Full Ownership and Portability
WordPress, on the other hand, offers complete ownership of your website. Since it’s an open-source platform, you’re not locked into any single hosting provider or service. You can move your site to any server, export your content and database, and even retain all your SEO rankings during migration. This level of portability is invaluable for designers who want to ensure their work can live beyond a single platform.
For example, if a client initially builds their website on Squarespace but later needs more flexibility, migrating to WordPress is often the best option. This allows you to maintain creative control over future iterations of the design.
7. Webflow vs WordPress: The Alternative for Designers
Designers who are familiar with Webflow often compare it to WordPress as well. Like Squarespace, Webflow offers a drag-and-drop editor but with far more design flexibility. However, it lacks the robust ecosystem of WordPress when it comes to plugins, integrations, and complete creative control over functionality.
Migrating from Webflow to WordPress gives designers the best of both worlds—the visual design flexibility of Webflow, combined with the scalability and customization that only WordPress can offer.
8. Conclusion: Why WordPress is the Better Choice for Designers
Ultimately, if you’re a designer seeking true creative control over your websites, WordPress is the superior platform compared to Squarespace. While Squarespace offers ease of use and a polished user experience, its limitations in customization, third-party integration, and functionality make it less suited for designers who need full control.
By migrating from Squarespace to WordPress, designers can unlock the platform’s full potential, taking advantage of its extensive plugin library, theme flexibility, and complete ownership of their websites. WordPress allows for greater creative freedom, more robust customization options, and the ability to design truly unique websites that stand out from the crowd.
If you’re ready to make the switch, our CMS migration services can help ensure a smooth transition to WordPress, so you can start enjoying all the benefits of creative control and customization.