The marketplace has so many website platforms aka website builders and it can be overwhelming deciding which is the “best” one to choose.  If you are looking to build a new website, Squarespace and Showit are two popular options. If you ask me which is my favorite – Showit of course!  In this post, I want to help you pick out your favorite- Showit vs Squarespace – the best website platform for your business. Let’s dive into their features.

Squarespace vs Showit

Squarespace is celebrated for its remarkably intuitive website builder and a diverse range of free, customizable templates. While Squarespace may offer fewer design customization options compared to some competitors, it compensates with a streamlined experience that prioritizes design coherence and user-friendliness. On the other hand, Showit is known for its highly customizable design capabilities. Its powerful drag-and-drop interface allows users to create unique, visually stunning websites. The only downside may be the steeper learning curve.

Now, let’s compare the two platforms more in depth.

Features Comparison

1. Customization & Ease of Use

Squarespace is renowned for its straightforward and user-friendly editor, which makes it an excellent choice for users of all skill levels. The platform’s drag-and-drop interface allows you to easily add content like text and images, modify pages, and adjust designs. It also comes with a clean and organized dashboard that facilitates effortless navigation through various settings and design options. While Squarespace provides a high level of design coherence, it does have some customization limitations. For example, you cannot completely change the layout or structure of a template without using custom CSS.

However, for most users, the available customization options are more than sufficient. Also, the most recent version of Squarespace, 7.1, introduced several powerful new features and added flexibility. Notable additions include site-wide animations that can bring your content to life and the Fluid Engine, which offers a more advanced and flexible layout system. 

Showit provides an unparalleled level of design freedom. The platform uses a true drag-and-drop editor, allowing you to place elements anywhere on the page, independent of any grid system like the one in Squarespace. You can modify every detail of your website, from buttons and fonts to spacing and layout. The platform also supports custom CSS and JavaScript, allowing advanced users to push the boundaries of what’s possible with their designs. This level of flexibility is ideal for users who have a specific vision for their website and want to bring it to life without restrictions.

Due to its extensive customization capabilities, Showit may have a steeper learning curve compared to more straightforward website builders like Squarespace. However, for users who invest the time to learn the platform, the payoff is a website that is truly unique and tailored to their specific needs. 

2. Templates  

Template are a good option for someone looking to DIY their website. Let’s see how this feature compares across Squarespace and Showit.

Squarespace offers a good number of free templates for users to choose from. These templates are prebuilt into the platform and cover a wide range of categories, including blogs, portfolios, eCommerce, personal sites, and more. One major downside is that many free templates can look fairly generic. Since many users might choose the same templates, your site may end up looking similar to other Squarespace websites.  The good news is with the Fluid Engine content editor, you can change almost everything within a template or even start from a blank slate, similar to Showit.

Alternatively, you can opt for a paid Squarespace template. These premium templates offer several advantages over free ones. For one, they are often created by professional designers and offer a higher level of visual appeal. Also most come with a more extensive array of pre-built pages and content sections. This saves you time and effort in creating and organizing your website’s content, as you won’t need to start from scratch or spend as much time customizing each page. 

Showit’s template library provides access to a wide array of designs for photographers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and more. Each template comes with a unique layout and design elements. Even with free templates, you still get high-quality designs. Many users find that these templates meet their basic needs effectively. Free templates are easily customizable, letting you adjust colors, fonts, and more. Moreover, they are great for experimenting. You can play around with different looks before deciding if you need a more advanced option. It’s a risk-free way to get to know the Showit platform. 

If you are looking for something unique and multifaceted, paid templates are a great choice. These are created by certified Showit designers who provide high-quality designs. You’ll get unique layouts, superior design elements, and sometimes even additional support from the designer. Paid templates also save you time as they are designed to be more polished and refined, which means less tweaking on your end. One important point to note is that on average, Showit premium templates cost more than those found on Squarespace. 

3. Mobile Experience

Squarespace desktop customizations automatically adapt for mobile device.This mobile optimization is built-in, meaning that as you design your desktop site, a corresponding mobile version is automatically generated. This process simplifies the setup, allowing you to launch a mobile-friendly site quickly without needing to make separate adjustments. The downside of this approach is that it offers less customization for the mobile version. You have limited control over the mobile-specific design elements and layout. While you can make some adjustments, such as hiding certain elements on mobile or tweaking font sizes, the overall layout is largely dictated by the desktop design. 

Showit enables you to edit the mobile version of your site separately from the desktop version. This means you can create a mobile-specific design that is optimized for smaller screens, ensuring a better user experience for mobile visitors. You can adjust layouts, resize elements, and change content specifically for mobile users. You can also prioritize mobile-specific features, such as touch-friendly buttons and streamlined navigation. While this level of control is superior, it also requires more effort and time to set up.  You need to manually adjust and optimize the mobile design, which can be more complex and time-consuming compared to the automatic optimization provided by Squarespace.

4. Blogging

Squarespace comes with a built-in blogging platform. That means you can create, edit, and publish blog posts directly through Squarespace. It offers features like scheduling posts, adding tags, and categorizing content. You can also choose a blog layout and customize its design to suit your needs. Regardless of which subscription plan you choose, adding a blog is always an option, even on the most budget-friendly plans. There’s also no limit on traffic, allowing you to scale your blog without any restrictions. That said, with Squarespace, integration options are limited compared to Showit. However, you can still connect your Squarespace site with several third-party services through the available plugins and extensions. Although the options might be fewer, they are designed to work seamlessly within the Squarespace environment, ensuring smooth functionality. 

Showit doesn’t have its own blogging platform but integrates with WordPress. By linking your Showit site with WordPress, you access robust tools for content creation, such as the block editor; Gutenberg, custom permalinks and tag management. This combo is ideal if you need powerful blogging capabilities with a custom web design. However, this integration is not straightforward. Depending on the Showit subscription you choose, you may or may not have access to the blog feature. 

• Basic Starter Blog: This plan is perfect for new bloggers. It includes Showit’s design capabilities and basic blog features. You’ll manage your blog content in WordPress, making it ideal if you’re just starting out.
• Advanced Blog: If you’re migrating from another platform or need additional features, the Advanced Blog plan is a great choice. It offers more flexibility and customization while still integrating seamlessly with WordPress. This plan is perfect if you want more control over your blog’s design and functionality.
• Showit Basic: If blogging isn’t your priority and you simply want to focus on website design, the Showit Basic plan is for you. It doesn’t include WordPress integration, so it’s ideal if you don’t need a blog component.

5. SEO

Squarespace includes built-in SEO tools that allow you to set page titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags more easily than Showit, especially for the non-Blog pages. The platform is designed to be simple for users who may not have much technical knowledge. Squarespace also offers automatic sitemaps and clean URLs, which help search engines understand and index your site better. Squarespace also offers robust support articles and guides that cover all aspects of SEO and content management. The platform’s help center includes step-by-step instructions, video tutorials, and best practice recommendations.

If you are looking for a checklist feature like Yoast SEO but for Squarespace, then you can add SEOspace. When it comes to tracking your website’s performance, Squarespace offers comprehensive built-in analytics. You can monitor website sales, traffic sources, geographical data, activity logs, and button clicks, among other data points. You can still connect Google Analytics to Squarespace for even more advanced tracking features, but the built-in tools will likely cover everything you need.

Showit, integrated with WordPress, offers more flexibility in SEO settings and gives you more granular control and advanced features. You can use the Yoast SEO plugin, which provides detailed recommendations for optimizing your content. It also allows customized meta descriptions, image alt text, and HTML headers. This makes Showit a stronger choice for users who need deep SEO customization. Showit, through its WordPress integration, also gives you access to a plethora of online resources. These include extensive documentation, community forums, and tutorials for SEO plugins. The platform lacks built-in analytics, meaning you’ll need to set up and manage Google Analytics separately to understand your visitors and their behavior.

6. e-Commerce

Squarespace offers an integrated e-commerce solution that makes managing your online store straightforward. You can add, edit, and manage products directly from your site’s dashboard. This includes managing inventory, setting product variants, and categorizing items. With Squarespace, adding a store is seamless and requires no third-party services. You can integrate your store with Square for in-person sales or use ShipStation for shipping logistics. The platform also supports automatic tax calculation and abandons cart recovery options. You can also use built-in features for secure payment processing like Stripe and PayPal. 

Showit, on the other hand, does not have built-in e-commerce capabilities. To create an online store, you need to integrate with third-party platforms like Shopify Lite for a small number of items or WooCommerce and the full Shopify system for larger inventories. This extra effort can be worthwhile if customization is your priority, but it’s more complex than Squarespace. Showit’s reliance on third-party e-commerce solutions means transaction fees depend on the integrated platform. If you use Shopify, for example, you would pay Shopify’s transaction fees and any fees associated with your payment processor.

7. Customer Support

Squarespace offers support through email, live chat, X, and Facebook Messenger. Their support team aims to reply within 24 hours. They also provide 24/7 support across all plans, making it easy to get help at any time . Squarespace features a comprehensive help center with guides and articles on various topics. These resources cover everything from basic setup to advanced customization.

Showit provides customer support via email and live chat.  Their response times are faster, often within 1-2 hours during normal business hours. This means you can expect quicker resolutions to your issues. Showit also provides detailed video tutorials that guide you through building and designing your site. These tutorials are highly valuable for visual learners who prefer step-by-step instructions. Additionally, Showit’s user community offers forums where you can ask questions and share tips with other users.

8. Cost

Squarespace has four main pricing plans: 

• Personal Plan which offers basic website features including a free domain.
• Business Plan which includes more features like basic code customization and e-commerce options, but note a 3% transaction fee on sales.
• Basic Commerce Plan which offers advanced e-commerce features with no transaction fees.
• Advanced Commerce Plan is the top-tier option which includes the most advanced e-commerce tools available on Squarespace.

Squarespace provides hosting with all their website plans, including unlimited bandwidth and storage. This means you don’t have to worry about how many visitors your site gets or how much data you use.

Showit offers three main pricing plans:

• Showit Plan focuses on website design and hosting but has limited e-commerce features.
• Showit + Basic Blog Plan includes simple blogging capabilities along with all basic features.
• Advanced Blog Plan offers advanced blogging and SEO features.

Showit also includes hosting, but it has limitations depending on your plan. If your traffic grows, you may need to upgrade to a more expensive plan to get additional storage and bandwidth.

9. Other Integrations 

Squarespace offers a variety of built-in integrations that enhance its functionality and make it a versatile platform for different types of websites.  A popular one is the email marketing tools which allow you to design and send email campaigns without leaving the platform. Squarespace also provides social media integration with platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and X, allowing you to display social feeds directly on your site and share content easily. Squarespace also provides robust integration to business tools like Google Workspace.  

Showit excels in design flexibility by integrating effortlessly with WordPress. This allows you to access thousands of WordPress plugins, expanding your site’s capabilities.  For example, you will have access to popular email marketing integrations including Flodesk and Mailchimp, and an array of social sharing plugins to enhance your site’s connectivity. 

Which One Should You Pick? Squarespace or Showit?

Choosing between Squarespace and Showit depends on your needs and the type of website you want to create. Both platforms cater to different requirements and offer unique features.

Squarespace is perfect if:

• You prefer a simple, easy-to-use website builder.
• You need an all-in-one platform that includes website building, email marketing, memberships, analytics, and an online store.
• You want a builder with many built-in features.
• You’re looking for an affordable solution that offers value for money.
• You don’t want a complicated website to maintain.

Showit might be the better choice if:

• You require more freedom and control over customizations.
• You want to use WordPress for blogging.
• You are a creative professional.
• You don’t need built-in e-commerce features.

Next Steps

In my opinion, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to a website builder/ platform. You have to choose the option that is right for you and your business. As a web designer, I have extensive experience with both platforms and I would be able to recommend the perfect fit for you.