The quality of a website can largely depend on the platform on which you choose to develop it. With at least 100 website creation software on the market (Superbwebsitebuilders), that choice alone can be difficult. However, you certainly don't want to invest all the time and costs needed to start and learn a new CMS, only to end up having to start over on a new platform. In this Webflow vs Squarespace article, we'll break down the key characteristics of two of the top website builders to help you clarify the best home for your online project.
All the features you need to promote your business
Let's start by saying that Webflow and Squarespace are both good quality programs for creating your own websites. You really can't go wrong with either of these website developers. That makes it even more difficult to compare. Both platforms claim to offer superb templates, user-friendly interfaces, and advanced options. It is therefore essential to understand their complex differences in order to find the one that best meets your specific needs. So, we're going to compare the main features, customization options, cost, and overall performance of the two platforms to help you make an informed choice of the best website builder.
Design editor
Designing a quality website attracts customers, builds trust, and ultimately makes your business money. To do this, you need the right tools for creating websites. But which offers the better toolbox, Webflow or Squarespace?
Comparison
From the start, the Webflow editor will be much more intimidating for beginners. Webflow is more aimed at independent web design professionals or agencies who can design professional sites using custom code. Webflow is particularly known for its ability to create custom animations directly on the platform. While coding knowledge is not required, custom code can be added with incredible flexibility. In contrast, Squarespace offers the possibility for almost anyone to get started with a low learning curve and bring a business plan to life with a more basic website. The Squarespace editor is fairly easy to learn and they also offer a few custom html options with the most expensive plan.
Both platforms are fully responsive and automatically adjust websites to be displayed correctly on any device size. The Webflow editor offers the unique option of seeing how your website will look on some smartphones.
Webflow models vs. Squarespace models
With either website builder, you can find beautifully designed templates that require less work up front. However, there are a few things to note when comparing models.
Squarespace's templates are phenomenally designed and can be customized to make them more unique to your brand. In fact, they offer greater design flexibility than other website builders such as Shopify or WooCommerce. The best part is that most of these templates are free.
Squarespace's templates are arguably better than Webflow's. However, Webflow models tend to be more unique and innovative, with an emphasis on their specialty: animations. The downside is that there are very few free templates available on Webflow.
The final verdict
Professional web designers who want extensive design control and the ability to work with code will find Webflow's advanced features more suited to their needs. For this Webflow vs Squarespace debate, Squarespace is the winner. It's an easier website builder to set up and use with a lot more pre-made design options with great Squarespace template collections.
Search engine optimization
While the visual elements of your website are important for user engagement, there are other technical details to consider if you want to rank well in search engines. It is these crucial and complex details that make it possible to communicate well with search engines. When you win their favor, it allows you to move up the rankings and help your audience find you online. It is imperative to take the time to perform adequate search engine optimization in order to obtain significant organic traffic. However, these efforts cannot go further than what your website creation platform allows.
Comparison
In the webflow vs squarespace debate, both tools offer strong SEO features with customizable metadata, clean URLs, XML site generation, mobile optimization, and easy-to-use tools that manage page titles, descriptions, and tags. Both tools also score well in the Google SEO test. However, Webflow offers a bit more advanced control. This higher level of control is beneficial for implementing advanced SEO techniques and strategies that can work harder to get you to the top of the search results. Users can directly access and edit the underlying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, allowing for more accurate optimization. The resulting benefit of accessing custom code is the ability to implement schema markup and structured data more effectively and access to the robot.txt file. In addition, Webflow gives users more options for managing redirects and canonical tags, which helps avoid duplicate content. They also allow the integration of third-party SEO tools that may offer more advanced features than the tools offered internally for a Squarespace site.
The final verdict
With these advanced tools in mind, Webflow is definitely the preferred choice for fully customized websites built by users with expert SEO knowledge and skill capabilities. But for the business owner in general, the SEO tools offered by Squarespace remain a solid toolkit that will help them get the attention of search engines without being overwhelmed by the details.
Content Management
Content is an important part of SEO strategy. That's why it's important that your website builder allows for easy and clear management of content entry and updating.
Comparison
Both Squarespace and Webflow offer a solid content management system. They include blogging tools and the ability to add categories and tags. Apart from these characteristics, there are a few distinct differences worth noting. As with their design tools, Squarespace offers an easy to use drag-and-drop content management system. They also offer the advantage of adding multiple contributors as well as unlimited publishing. Additionally, they allow users to add comment options for their readers. On the contrary, Webflow's CMS limits a user to a maximum of ten writers, which depends on the level of the plan. It also does not offer a comment function and limits the number of articles between 2,000 and 10,000 (again, depending on the level of the offer). However, it is important to note that Webflow is more efficient when it comes to SEO optimization. Generally, the ultimate goal of blogging is to help the site rank and attract more organic traffic from search engines. In this respect, blogs can only be effective to the extent that their optimization allows it.
The final verdict
Squarespace is clearly the simplest and least limited CMS platform. However, our vote in this arena of the webflow vs squarespace debate is Webflow. With a stronger backbone of SEO capabilities, the Webflow CMS system offers more opportunities for real content creation results.
Marketing features
You are probably aware that creating a quality website is only one piece of the digital marketing puzzle. That's why Webflow and Squarespace both offer advanced marketing capabilities, but in very different ways.
Comparison
Squarespace offers a range of built-in features to help you promote your business. They keep things in one place by offering email marketing on the platform for an additional fee. Email options include editable templates and basic functions. However, these features can be quite limited compared to third party email marketing platforms. In any case, they are enough to start a new business. Squarespace also offers analytics tools that let you know who visits your website, where they came from, and how they interacted with your pages. The tool also shows the specific search keywords that are most effective for your site.
On the other hand, Webflow focuses its platform on design elements and advanced development capabilities. In this respect, they offer more integration options with external platforms such as Mailchimp or Google analytics for additional functionality. You get more flexibility, but at the cost of some time and skill for manual configurations to set up these connections.
The final verdict
The big winner in this debate between webflow and Squarespace for the best marketing features is Squarespace. Webflow offers advanced customization through integrations. However, unless you're an expert web builder, Squarespace is the best option with all the marketing tools you need at a much lower learning curve. You also get the convenience of having everything in one place.
E-commerce functionality
Setting up a simple website and making it work is fairly easy. However, when you add an online store, the process becomes a lot more complicated. Choosing the right platform can be an important step in making this process easier to set up and manage.
Comparison
Both Squarespace and Webflow allow you to sell all types of products: physical, digital, services, and even subscriptions. They both offer payment tools, customer accounts, connections with Stripe or PayPal, connections with Stripe or PayPal, inventory management, product variants, sales tax tools, shipping options, and membership areas.
If you value simplicity, Squarespace is a great all-in-one package for e-commerce features. It allows for an unlimited number of products, built-in tracking of abandoned carts, and gift card functions. For some businesses, point of sale tools are an asset for customers who shop in person. In addition, digital products can be hosted directly on their platform rather than from an on-premise source.
On the other hand, Webflow is devoid of these valuable features. In fact, they limit the windows to 500 - 15,000 products depending on the plan level. However, they offer the possibility of integrating third-party tools and services, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, in order to improve customer relationships and overall e-commerce operations. Businesses looking for a more specific design will appreciate Webflow's advanced coding capabilities. With custom code, users have total control over the layout of their digital storefront, allowing them to stand out visually in the market.
Payment processing
With an online store, transaction fees per sale can quickly add up. It is possible to avoid these additional costs thanks to the platform of your site. However, it is important to understand that these platform fees are in addition to those of any connected payment provider (Stripe, Paypal, etc.).
Squarespace offers an entry-level e-commerce plan (currently starting at $23 per month) with 3% transaction fees or advanced e-commerce plans (currently starting at $27 per month) with the benefit of eliminating these transaction fees. Webflow, on the other hand, offers a 2% transaction fee on its low-cost e-commerce plan (currently starting at $29 per month) and the option to eliminate these fees with higher-priced plans (currently starting at $74 per month).
The final verdict
In the Squarespace Webflow debate, Squarespace is a clear winner for e-commerce features. Squarespace offers virtually unlimited sales potential. They don't impose product limits, allow for easy drop shipping, have built-in email options, and an easier design interface. Plus, Squarespace offers e-commerce plans at a lower cost.
Cost comparison
The Webflow vs Squarespace debate continues by talking about money. So how much will it cost you to get started with one of these website builders? How do they compare?
Both platforms offer discounts for annual subscriptions rather than monthly ones. Squarespace's discount is between 24 and 30%, while Webflow's is 22% for regular plans and 30% for e-commerce plans. Squarespace welcomes new users with a 14-day trial period regardless of the plan they choose. Yearly plans start at $16 per month and all include a domain name personalized free for the first year. Annual e-commerce plans range from $23 to $49 per month. Higher tier plans offer more advanced e-commerce features like merchandising, discounts, and subscription options.
Webflow offers a free startup option that never expires. However, to get a site online, users need to upgrade to a paid plan starting at $14 per month. They offer custom subdomains with all paid plans, but no free custom domain names. Higher-level options offer more monthly form submissions, bandwidth, CMS elements, and additional accounts for publishers. Annual e-commerce plans range from $29 to $212 per month.
The final verdict
Overall, Squarespace pricing offers lower monthly costs in proportion to the greater amount of features and fewer limitations.
Training and support
Starting out on a new platform involves a certain learning curve, even if you're an expert designer. It always takes time to get familiar with a new system. Luckily, both Squarespace and Webflow offer resources to get you started and to guide you if you run into problems.
Comparison
Webflow and Squarespace users can find a comprehensive database of articles, guides, and videos that cover a wide range of topics. Additionally, both solutions have a community forum where you can chat with other users. These comprehensive solutions are more than likely to provide you with all the answers you need. When it comes to customer support options, both platforms have help available. However, users should expect limited support hours for some options and even additional cost for others.
Squarespace offers business hours live chat support, and 24/7 chat support via Facebook Messenger or Twitter. Email support is also available at any time. All Squarespace support options are included at no additional cost. They don't offer phone support. Webflow offers email support for the majority of its users. They are only available during certain business hours. However, the more expensive Enterprise plan offers a built-in option for scheduled phone support.
The final verdict
In this debate between webflow and Squarespace, Webflow clearly comes out on top. Webflow University, their free training space, offers more in-depth courses on web design general, development, as well as the use of the Webflow platform.
Additional features
Both platforms come with all the necessary basics: hosting, SSL, editable templates, a code-free design platform, a CMS system, and e-commerce functions. However, there are a few things to note about other features that haven't been covered yet.
Bandwidth
While not as important for a brand-new business, bandwidth is an important consideration for busy sites or when traffic increases. Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth regardless of the plan you choose. Webflow sites, on the other hand, are limited to a monthly bandwidth of 50GB to 400GB depending on the level of the offer.
Form options
Forms allow visitors to get in touch with your business. While Squarespace offers basic forms, Webflow excels in the customization category with more options. These include both the information fields and the design of the form. However, Webflow limits monthly form submissions from 50 to 2500 (depending on the plan), while Squarespace has no limits. Squarespace also offers the option to send form responses to places other than just an email address.
Backup and transfer options
A valuable feature that advanced users appreciate is the ability to export the entire design of a site through code. However, only selected items from Squarespace can be easily imported or exported. Webflow sites also have an automatic backup function that allows you to go back to previous versions, which helps to avoid the loss of content. Squarespace sites don't have this feature.
The final verdict
This question really depends on the specific needs of your business website. However, with these additional features in mind, we're voting for Squarespace. While some of these additional features may be appreciated, Squarespace sites have access to a solid platform that has everything most small businesses need to get started, without too many limitations.
Squarespace Site Builder - General Pros and Cons
With Squarespace, it's easy enough that almost anyone can create their own website. Those who are new to the subject benefit from Squarespace's user-friendly interface that is relatively easy to learn. There are lots of options for beautiful, pre-made design templates that come at no extra cost. Additionally, Squarespace offers a comprehensive, integrated toolkit for blogging, email marketing, and basic SEO optimization. For those starting an online store, Squarespace excels in e-commerce features. They offer low transaction fees, lower monthly costs, and more built-in features than Webflow. However, all of these benefits come with limitations when it comes to design customization and advanced SEO optimization. This detail alone makes it less ideal for users who specifically want complete design control and the option of more advanced integrations.
Webflow Site Builder - General Advantages and Disadvantages
With Webflow, those with professional web design experience can find several advantages over the Squarespace platform. The ability to work directly with code makes this platform the preferred choice for expert developers who need more customization options. Webflow users benefit from greater flexibility with detailed control over styles, layouts, and graphics. They also offer more unique prefabricated models. However, these benefits come with a much steeper learning curve. The ability to change the code also provides more direct control over the complex details of SEO optimization. This makes it possible to obtain a better ranking in search engines and to increase organic traffic. However, Webflow comes with higher prices, more restrictions on the number of e-commerce products and blog posts, as well as bandwidth limitations and the potential need to set up multiple advanced integrations.
Which is better Squarespace or Webflow?
Taking into account that most B2B business owners are not advanced web designers, Squarespace is our option for the best website builder. Squarespace is a relatively easy way for a new business to get started quickly, at a lower price, with an all-in-one tool. However, at the end of the day, your choice will depend heavily on your individual needs and skills.
Webflow vs Squarespace: Eliminating the Debate
Are you looking for the advanced results of Webflow without having to face the challenges of the platform? Our team of professional web designers is here to help you create a professional and compelling online presence that specifically meets your B2B needs. Stop worrying about the Webflow vs Squarespace debate and contact us today for a custom website solution that delivers real results.
