Whether building your website from scratch, or looking to hire a professional website designer, settling on the right website platform for your small business is key.

There are tons of website building options out there, but this post will cover three of the most popular: WordPress, Squarespace, and Showit. I will break down some pros and cons of each platform, and give you my final opinion as a professional website designer. So stay tuned, or skip ahead for my final words.

Let’s start with a long-time front-runner in the game, WordPress.

WordPress is the most popular website building platform on the Internet today. According to their website, 43% of the web is built on WordPress. That’s pretty impressive.

It has become such a popular platform because of a few reasons: built-in tools, hundreds of themes, and cost. 

WordPress does have a ton of plug-ins and integrations to personalize your site exactly as you want it. Whether you are selling products, scheduling calls, or looking for SEO support, WordPress has a plug-in for you. The downside is that most of these plug-ins are an additional cost, so keep that in mind when totaling your spending money.

Next, let’s talk about themes. Theme is the term WordPress uses to name their templates. WordPress has hundreds of free themes to choose from, and you can also find paid options sold from professional website designers like Mackenzie Mader or Bailey, at Honeywave Creative. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, so expect to get more of the features you would need out of a paid option. 

Finally, the total cost of WordPress can range from free to $45/month depending on your needs. Free is a pretty good starting number if you’re a brand new small business!

With so many pros to WordPress, there is one reason it is NOT my preferred website platform.

To me, It feels clunky and hard to manage especially without some background knowledge of coding. I prefer the simplicity of being able to change my mind on a design choice and quickly make that change. In my humble opinion, WordPress doesn’t offer that ease of use.

Now, let’s talk about another big name: Squarespace

Squarespace offers a lot in the way of creating a professional-looking website with tons of built-in support and easy-to-use analytics tools.

Much like WordPress, Squarespace has hundreds of free templates to start your website. Their website building platform is also easy to use with pre-built features like buttons and dropdown menus, so you can easily make changes to any template you start with.

I also love their analytics tool. One built-in dashboard provides you with key information like number of monthly visitors, page views by page, and product revenue if you are an e-commerce business. It does still lack important SEO information, though, and I would still recommend using Google Analytics to capture the full picture of your website.

If “easy” is what you are going for, Squarespace is definitely worth looking into. 

However, I ended up leaving Squarespace behind last year because it does lack customizable features. I felt limited to the number of custom fonts I could add, and although they have added a drag and drop feature, it doesn’t really compare to that of Showit. As a website designer for creatives, I left Squarespace feeling restricted and like I didn’t have the room to craft a website specific to each of my client’s needs.

Finally, let’s talk about Showit.

Showit is definitely newer to the website building business, and was originally created as a space for professional photographers to design portfolios that really showcased their work.

Now, Showit has developed tons of integrations and features that make it an amazing tool for small businesses of all kinds.

Showit is best known for its drag and drop design feature, stunning templates, and outstanding customer support. Can you tell I’m a fan?

Let’s start with their design features. Although you can start with a free Showit template (again, they have a ton to choose from), you can also start with a totally blank slate. This may be overwhelming to the DIYer, but if you are hiring a Showit Website Designer, then this is the way to go. You can get a look that is totally customized and fully in line with the website you have pictured in your head. Just take a look at some sites built in Showit here and here. Showit’s no-coding approach, also makes it easy for a small business owner to take over after a professional website designer has set it up. This is huge because, let’s be honest, change happens.

Like our other platforms, Showit has a number of free templates to choose from, along with paid options from high-end designers that you can access right from Showit. You can also find templates from other Showit designers (like us!) around the web, often for a wider price range.

Finally, their customer support truly cannot be beat. They are quick to respond, helpful, and REAL PEOPLE. When you are losing your mind because you can’t figure out why that one button isn’t working, it’s nice to get a funny GIF attached to your helpful response. 

At this point, it is probably pretty clear that Showit is my website design platform of choice. As a designated Showit website designer, I know and love the ins and outs of this platform and absolutely love creating totally unique and creative websites time and time again.

I believe that choosing a website platform is like choosing your morning coffee stop: you’ve gotta try a few to find the right one. So if you need more intel before making your final decision, reach out to us here! We love talking websites.