Which Content Management System to Choose for Your Website?

Your choice of Content Management System (CMS) is important. You need to know all the options available to you, and then select the one that best suits your business and budget. Let’s check out what’s available.

As each CMS has pros and cons, we discuss them alphabetically. We can’t select the correct one for you; you will know what suits your needs best. But we will try to be as unbiased as possible.

In this guide, we discuss three popular choices available to set up a website – Squarespace, Wix and WordPress. All these CMSs are ideal for a website that includes blogs and an online store. Each offers different features and works slightly differently. Consider each one carefully, then decide which suits your knowledge and business best. 

What Squarespace is All About

This CMS is popular with creatives who focus on visuals. It is also a more expensive option than the others.

Pros of Squarespace

• Provides a variety of great-looking templates for online shops, blogs and marketing tools.

• User-friendly and easy to drag and drop items to create a stunning website for devices of various sizes.
• There is no free Squarespace plan; you must sign up and pay a monthly fee.

Squarespace Cons

Like all CMSs, this one has some constraints. These include the following:

• Because it focuses on templates, Squarespace is more restricted and doesn’t allow users to be as creative as WordPress.
• Squarespace isn’t a cheap site-builder, especially if you’re building an e-commerce site.
• Although this platform is user-friendly, beginners can find it difficult to use.
• It offers fewer apps than the other platforms.

Wix

This cloud-based site builder is popular because it’s user-friendly. It includes many templates to suit various styles and is well-liked by small businesses that focus on content.

Pros of Wix

• This user-friendly site builder features a drag-and-drop facility that simplifies website creation on different-sized devices.
• The variety of customisable templates makes it easier for site builders to create professional-looking websites even with little coding knowledge.
• It boasts a great selection of apps that increase site functionality. This makes it a good choice for analytics, commerce and marketing.
• There’s a free plan for users to discover how to build a basic website. After that, they need to upgrade and pay for a subscription.

Wix Cons

Limitations include the following:

• Although ideal for beginners, more advanced users can find that Wix has constraints and is not as simple to customise as WordPress. If you use Wix to build your site, switching to another site builder isn’t viable, unless you’re happy to restart from the beginning.
• Like Squarespace, a free basic plan lets you explore the platform. However, this is full of Wix branding and ads. To enjoy premium advantages, you need to subscribe and pay.
• This site builder is not as easy to optimise for SEO as the others.

WordPress

Known for its versatility and ease of use, WordPress is a popular choice, as it’s good for various website types.

WordPress Pros

• This site builder is extremely flexible and easy to customise for users, enabling them to create a site that suits their requirements. It’s also suitable for devices of various sizes.
• Sites can be large or small, depending on your requirements. The vast WordPress community provides support, knowledge and resources.
• This platform is optimised for SEO.
• WordPress is open source, which means you only pay for domain registration and hosting – nothing else.

WordPress Cons

• This site builder is not as simple as the others, and does require some tech savvy.
• Because it’s so popular, hackers love WordPress, so you must regularly back up and update your site.
• Choose a website host with plans that include features to prevent cyber threats, such as automatic updates, security and anti-malware software.

Which CMS is the Easiest to Use?

1. Because of its simple drag-and-drop process, Wix is the easiest content management system for all users, including beginners.
2. Squarespace is also easy to use and has a similar drag-and-drop system, so it’s easy to customise your site. But with Squarespace, remember: this system focuses on creativity and design. If this is not your strong point, it’s better to go with Wix.
3. WordPress may be more difficult to use, but it’s certainly the most versatile of the three systems. Although one must be tech-savvy to use it, this system offers greater opportunities to customise your site. Using WordPress’s helpful tutorials, plugins, and themes makes it easier to master.

Which System is the Simplest to Learn?

1. Wix is the easiest system to learn and is the go-to system for beginners. It guides users through setting up a website and includes Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). It’s easy to learn the basics quickly and build your website without having technical know-how.
2. The next easiest system is Squarespace, which is simple to use and customise. However, it does take longer to learn how to use this system than Wix.
3. Most people find WordPress the most difficult system to use, as one needs some technical knowledge. Since WordPress included the Gutenburg Block Editor, which enables users to create a website using blocks of content, this CMS has become a more popular choice.

Which CMS Offers the Best Tools for Design & Customisation?

1. The Wix system gives users numerous professional templates to customise their websites. One can easily drag and drop content and images, and change colours and fonts to personalise a site.
2. Using Squarespace templates, you can create a great-looking, professional website. Various tools allow you to customise the design to suit your brand.
3. Of the three CMS systems, WordPress is the most sophisticated and flexible for website design. It offers a vast selection of free professional-looking themes and various customisation tools to make your website stand out. However, you must be quite tech-savvy to use its numerous offerings.

Let’s Talk Features & Functionality

You will see that there is a huge difference between each system, so this may be the deciding factor for many of you.

1. If you have a small- to medium-sized business and a website with online shopping facilities, Wix may be the right system for you. You can select different apps to make payment easy for customers, provide them with various shipping options and manage your stock effortlessly. Your site will have basic SEO tools, but SEO optimisation isn’t as strong as the other two systems.
2. If you have a creative business where an eye-catching website is important, choose Squarespace. Your online shopping site will be beautiful, you can track product inventory and make payments simple for your customers. SEO optimisation is better than on Wix, unless your website needs more sophisticated SEO tools.
3. With WordPress, you will need specialised e-commerce plugins to build an online shop. To do this, you will need to be relatively tech-savvy. WordPress is ideal for businesses with small websites and larger, more sophisticated online stores. Regarding SEO: there are numerous options and plugins, so you can prioritise optimising SEO with WordPress.

Which System Will Best Suit Your Business?

Choose the best CMS for your company based on your budget, the size of your business and whether you plan to grow or stay the same size. Consider your technical knowledge and what you want your website to look like.

1. Squarespace

If yours is a specialised creative fashion or design website, Squarespace may work well for blogs, portfolios and e-commerce stores, as it’s visually focused. It’s simple to use, though you need technical know-how to customise the site.

2. Wix

This is excellent for beginners and small businesses as you need little tech knowledge and can use various templates to design your site. It has become popular with many businesses, but there are restrictions if you plan to grow your company and website.

3. WordPress

This system offers the most flexibility and control and is the CMS for many business sites, e-commerce stores and bloggers. However, you must be reasonably tech-savvy to set up your site. If you are, it’s ideal for designing and customising a personalised website. Of the three CMSs, WordPress offers the most tools and can grow with your business as it expands.