Finding your ideal web platform
Intro
Initial meetings with the majority of my clients highlight the following needs:
1) A professional looking, aesthetically pleasing website that reflects their brand.
2) A site that is easy for them to maintain & keep looking refined & professional once they take over.
If these sound like your priorities then this post may help to reduce overwhelm when choosing a web-building platform.
Good to know
The majority of sites I design are ‘informational’ as opposed to ‘e-commerce’. My typical client is a small-business owner who recognises the importance of an online presence. This is a person who understands the role of visual design & may have a keen eye for design but doesn’t necessarily have the design & page-layout skills to create something themselves. This is someone who, once the design & structure is set up, wants to take-over the management of the site in order to be in control of their own content & also, where possible, save money.
Before we get stuck in, it’s worth mentioning that I am not an expert on web-builder platform comparison so I’ve included a link in the further reading section for those of you who want to do some more research. What I can share with you is my own experience and the experience of my clients.
Things I’ve learnt that may help you make a decision
I use both Squarespace & WIX. I started using Squarespace about 7 years ago. Before that, I worked solely in print. I knew I wanted a smooth transition from designing for print to online, & was recommended Squarespace by a work colleague. (I find this amusing because at the time I was working part-time for a web-builder start-up. I wanted to use their platform but it didn’t have the features I needed.)
Squarespace: Anyway… I tried Squarespace and fell in love - pretty instantly. I was relieved that I could set up a site quickly, without much stress & with a very small learning curve. I also appreciated being able to put my own stamp on a template produced by a platform that many others were using. (Although Squarespace templates are stunning - even if you choose not to edit the design - it’s great to be able to make something feel unique. As a graphic designer this is, of course, important to me and my clients.
Years later & Squarespace - more or less - still does what I need it to. There are some styling compromises I need to make but it doesn’t put me off using the platform. I still enjoy using it and my clients find it easy to use. (By the way, Squarespace is rolling out a new version: 7.1. The previous version, 7.0, remains available & I’m still using it. I’m sure that version 7.1 will achieve greatness but it’s in its early stages &, for me, it doesn’t yet feel like it has enough styling flexibility. I’ll keep checking back but for now, I’ll continue to use version 7.0.)
WIX: I was recently asked by a client to refresh her current WIX site. As with anything new, I found the first day frustrating. BUT THEN I realised it’s full potential. It is so versatile!!! There seemed to be a way to design everything I wanted to. I was bowled over by what I could achieve! My background is in page-layout design. I loved working in a platform in which I had so much control over the page layout. HOWEVER, with greater control & flexibility comes greater room for error. If you’re not a designer, it’s really easy to make something look a bit of a mess in WIX. It’s easy to shift something by mistake & misalign a few paragraphs of text. This may not sound like a big deal but getting these styling details right is important for ensuring a polished look.
So, even though I have fun using both, for those of you who don’t require features that are out of the ordinary and are happy to compromise (only slightly) on styling details, I would still recommend using Squarespace as it’s easier to maintain a refined & professional finish when editing content. Styling-wise, it’s harder to go wrong in Squarespace - simply because there are less options.
Notes
I’ve never used Wordpress. The feedback from my clients who have used it previously is that they want to move to a platform that has a smaller learning curve & is simpler to use so that they can focus their energy on other areas of their business.
Further reading
web builder comparison chart