If you believe WordPress is more difficult to use than Squarespace, or Squarespace is the only way to build a DIY website you’ll be proud to show off, then keep reading. Because everything you’ve heard about WordPress vs. Squarespace is DEAD WRONG.

Want the full (and true) scoop?

Here goes:

Even though working with WordPress has never been easier, (more on that in a bit) you ARE going to have to put in some time and effort before you know enough to put an entire website together.

But guess what? That’s the case with ANY site management system, including Squarespace.

And I know this from experience.

I was recently asked to make some customizations to a Squarespace site, and even my expert-level tech skills couldn’t prevent me from eventually getting to the point where I wanted to smash my head against a wall out of frustration.

Yeah, I build custom WordPress websites for a living. But without taking some time to learn the Squarespace system, something I’ve never really dealt with before, I was lost. Fortunately, I can hand-code CSS and the CSS editor is hard to miss. Otherwise, I might have been SOL.

Now, with that being said, I will admit that for a long time, working with WordPress could be painful if you weren’t already an expert. Everything was done in the backend. And if you didn’t know where to change a certain area of your site, good luck finding a straight answer on Google since the answer may (or may not) depend on what theme or plugins you were using. And when you did make a change, there was no way to tell what effect it would have on the front-end without publishing it first. So you were pretty much working blind.

Since then, WordPress has released several improvements that have made the editing process a lot more visual and intuitive. Many parts of your website can be accessed via point and click from the front-end (similar to Squarespace) and you can see your site updating in real-time while you make changes. There’s also the recently released Gutenberg editor that finally lets you build complex layouts without having to hire someone like to me to build you a custom template first.

In addition, you can extend WordPress with plugins and themes like Elementor and Astra that let you build entire websites practically from scratch without touching a single line of code. With tools like these, even a WordPress newbie could build an entire site in a weekend.

So here’s the bottom line. WordPress ISN’T harder to use than Squarespace (or vice versa). So don’t believe the hype and let outdated or inaccurate info stop you from using WordPress if that’s where you really want your online home to be.

Regardless of which you choose, you’ll have to spend some time learning your way around the system. But the good news is, it’s totally doable. And with all of the recent improvements, picking up WordPress and building the website of your dreams has never been easier.