Website Building Platforms: Review and Comparison

Squarespace vs WordPress vs Showit vs Shopify vs Kajabi vs …?

Finding the right website building platform for your small business or brand can be a challenge. There are so many out there, and each is best suited for a different type of situation or user.

Join me as I scratch the surface and compare some of the most commonly used platforms I recommend for my clients.

There are a lot of website building platforms out there.

If you’re looking to start a website, you’re going to need to pick one of these, but with the countless options that are out there, it can get really, really overwhelming, really really fast.

It’s easy to get to that point of “analysis paralysis” where you feel like you just aren’t able to make a decision.

Let’s get you on the right track to picking a platform with confidence.

Open Source vs Closed Source

Before we actually start discussing individual platforms, I want to give you a little bit of an understanding of what open source and closed source mean, because it’s an important distinction.

What is Open Source?

Open source means the source code is readily available, usually for free, on the internet for anyone and everyone to access.

Because the code is open to the public, this usually means a lot of people are working on its improvement at any given time. So, a POPULAR open source software that has lots of support is constantly being updated and any vulnerabilities that could lead to security issues are generally noticed and resolved right away.

(On the flip side, because it’s public, hackers and bad guys are also able to access the code and find vulnerabilities to exploit more easily.)

In general, I think it’s safe to say open source software improves itself at a rapid mores pace than closed source.

What is Closed Source?

With closed source software, the only people that have access to the source code are the team of developers employed by the closed source software company.

They also are the only ones that can update and modify the code.

Although the actual number, of course, depends on the company, the number of people working on the code are finite, so generally speaking, closed source software doesn’t get updated as much as open source software does.

Which one is better?

That’s up for debate!

Flexibility & Scalability:

Open source is really great for flexibility as well as scalability.

The sky is the limit with open source, and you have full control over every aspect of it.

With closed source solutions, you are more limited, and everything has to fit within the parameters that have been set for you.

Support:

Closed source options are nice because they have a dedicated support team available that can help you if you have an issue.

With open source, you are more responsible for finding answers to your own questions, whether that’s via a forum, online tutorials, or through hiring a professional who specifically works with the open source software.

That’s a pretty brief overview of the differences, so do feel free to research the issue further if it interests you. But here, we’ll be moving on to talking about some specific platforms.

Squarespace Overview

Squarespace seems like it’s everywhere these days, and I absolutely get the appeal.

It’s a closed source website building platform, and you pay a monthly or annual fee to have your website with them. The cost starts at $12 per month for the most basic plan.

Squarespace is aimed at those who are less comfortable with tech. It’s very much a walled garden where your options are limited and everything is pretty tightly locked down. This is nice because it’s pretty near impossible for you to “break” your website.

Because of this, though, your customization options are somewhat limited: you are essentially bounded within the templates that Squarespace offers. You can add your own branding, like fonts, colors, and other styles to make the website look your own — but I think there is the tendency for all Squarespace websites to look somewhat similar to one another. This isn’t true in all cases, and of course you can hire a developer/designer like moi to make it look even more unique to you — but even still, we can’t go outside the parameters that Squarespace has set for us.

Squarespace does have some functionality and integrations that work really slick. Although most of these require upgraded, more costly Squarespace plans, you can sell products through your Squarespace site, do subscriptions, and if you’re a restaurant, you can set up an advanced integration to take reservations or orders online. These usually work pretty seamless because they’re all in the controlled environment that Squarespace offers.

On the downside, it can be hard to move your site away from Squarespace if you ever decide you don’t like it. That’s one of the issues with all closed source solutions, really. And if you want to redesign your existing Squarespace website, there really is no easy process for doing this. You generally will have to put up a “coming soon/down for maintenance” page which isn’t always ideal.

Overall though, as a web person, I like Squarespace well enough. I usually recommend it to clients who are not tech savvy, don’t want to deal with any maintenance, and don’t need to do anything too far out with their website.

WordPress Overview

Before we dive into the details, let me just preface that there are two “versions” of WordPress available: there’s websites hosted at wordpress.com, and then there is what we call “self-hosted” WordPress. Self-hosted WordPress is what I recommend, and it’s a true open source website building platform.

Even though the actual WordPress software is free, you still need to have some place to put it. We call this web hosting, and you can purchase this from a variety of companies for a variety of prices. For starter plans, this usually costs somewhere around $5-10 per month.

In addition to having the WordPress software running and installed, you also will build your site with themes, or templates, and plugins to add on additional functionality and features. There are plugins for anything and everything you can imagine — things like slideshows, galleries, recipe cards, and so on. You can also install an ecommerce plugin and sell products through your WordPress website, or install a membership plugin and set up digital courses. WordPress is truly an extremely versatile and scalable option. 

A lot of these plugins are free, and although it’s absolutely possible to build a WordPress website using only free ones, there are times when you may need to purchase a premium plugin to get the specific feature you want. 

Although I’m trying to make this entire episode as unbiased as possible – I will be upfront and tell you that I certainly favor WordPress. I’ve actually used WordPress since it was first released in 2003, and the open source environment ensures that it is constantly being improved and updated. WordPress allows me, as a developer, to build really, really cool, unique things — and that means, in turn, that my clients get beautiful and memorable websites, or as I like to call them….digital homes. (Is that cheesy? Yeah, I think that’s cheesy. Maybe I’ll edit that out.)

Because it is open source, WordPress is getting better and better — and it’s doing so very rapidly. A few years ago, a new editing experience was introduced via the Gutenberg editor. This editor is built into the WordPress core now, meaning it is standard on all WordPress installs. Although it is somewhat different, it makes building pages more on par with the way Squarespace does it…in layman’s terms, it makes building pages easier than ever before, especially for people who aren’t quite so tech friendly. 

One thing to be aware of with WordPress is because it is open source, you are responsible for making sure the WordPress core software, as well as any themes and plugins you’re using, are up-to-date with the latest version. WordPress makes this super easy — you can turn on auto-updates, or manually update your stuff in a couple of clicks — but there is always the possibility that an updated version of something could conflict and cause a problem with the way your website functions or displays. This doesn’t happen too often and honestly, as the technology improves, we see this happen a lot less, but it is something to be aware of.

To wrap up my WordPress summary, this website building platform is great for you if you’re a little more hands-on and don’t mind doing updates, and really want a unique website that can grow.

Showit Overview

And then we also have Showit. This is a closed-source, drag-and-drop website builder that can integrate with WordPress if you want to have a blog.

Confusing, right?

If you have a Showit site, it functions like this: you pick your plan (starting at $19 per month) and your entire website is built and hosted with Showit. If you want to have a blog added to your website, you need a plan that costs more, and Showit will set up the blog and hosting for that part of your website for you using WordPress.

So, in practice, if you want to update something on your about page or your contact page, or whatever, you would do it through Showit’s page builder.

But if you want to add a new blog post, you use WordPress.

The set-up for all of it, though, is handled by Showit. It’s all under one roof.

Showit makes building “pretty” sites a breeze, so if you are more design-inclined and really like to tinker with things, Showit may just be for you! I’ve used all of these platforms, and Showit is the best platform for building a really unique, fully branded website. Designing for this platform is really fun…at least for me, a web designer. Others may find it tedious.

And then we also have Showit. This is a closed-source, drag-and-drop website builder that can integrate with WordPress if you want to have a blog.

I also like Showit a lot because you have two versions of your site: mobile and desktop, and it’s a breeze to hide or show content for either version in just a couple of clicks. The downside of this is that because you are essentially building two separate versions of your website, you have to do the work twice. This can make the overall design process longer than using a different builder, but shouldn’t really turn you off of the platform altogether because the design benefits outweigh this, in my opinion.

The platform does have a couple of quirks: it’s nearly impossible to add in hover rollover effects to buttons, which is one thing that drives me crazy because this is important to show people that the button does something! 

Also, keep in mind that the price is a little higher than going the Squarespace or WordPress route, and that anything like ecommerce capabilities, membership content, etc. will have to be added via a third-party. Showit is limited in what it can and can’t do – but what it CAN do, it does well!

Shopify Overview

Shopify is another closed source website building platform, and it’s used for ecommerce websites. If your main source of income is selling products, and you do high volume sales, you would want to look at Shopify. If you don’t sell products online, don’t look at Shopify.

If you remember – you can sell products on Squarespace if you have the right plan. However, Shopify’s set of ecommerce features is far more robust…more third party integrations that may be required for ecommerce shops, more payment gateway options, way more plugins, that sort of thing.

You also may have heard me mention that you can sell products through a WordPress site, by installing one of its ecommerce plugins. You can, and I have clients who have ecommerce sites that use WordPress, no problem. These can oftentimes require a healthy amount of maintenance though, so I think Shopify is the better option if you have limited tech knowledge and don’t have a WordPress developer or website person in your back pocket.

Shopify is a little more expensive than the other options we’ve talked about thus far. The starter plan starts at $29 per month, and like WordPress, you’ll oftentimes find yourself needing plugins, or apps, to extend the basic functionality of your online store. Some of these are free, but most of the useful ones require a monthly subscription, and these can really add up over a while.

Although Shopify makes adding products and pages that display those products in different collections easy, it’s not really great if you want to build other types of pages, like a complex about page or visual-heavy blog posts. You can install apps to make the regular page building experience better, but these are usually paid and can get costly. 

As far as looks go, there are a variety of Shopify templates out there — some free, some premium. You can also hire a developer like me to build a custom look for you by editing the HTML, CSS, and other nerdy code stuff – although it’s closed source and we have to stick within the parameters Shopify has set, Shopify does permit more editing in this regard than Squarespace does, so it’s very possible to get a very unique-to-you looking Shopify website.

So in conclusion here, Shopify is recommended if you are primarily needing a place to sell products online. That’s pretty much the bottom line here!

Kajabi Overview (and other digital learning options)

Kajabi is an all-in-one website solution and it’s a great option for website owners who are all about membership-based content. This platform is closed source and makes building courses of all kinds easy peasy, so if digital learning is your main income stream, look into Kajabi for sure.

With Kajabi, you can create a traditional course or drip course (a drip course means you can release content to your students a little at a time, over a certain period of days, weeks, or even months). You can also have subscription-based content, meaning the content is only available to users if they pay for a recurring subscription. An example of this, even though they aren’t using Kajabi: Netflix. If you don’t pay the $9.99 or whatever it is per month for that Netflix subscription, you don’t have access to its library.

Now, if you’re looking to do digital courses like these, there are several other options out there: there’s Teachable, there’s Podia, there’s Thinkific, and probably a handful of others. Of those, Kajabi is the most expensive option, and in my opinion, it feels a little more luxurious and professional than the others. Everything is built in, including email marketing and a new podcasting tool, and they do a great job presenting it in a nice interface. 

Although I see a lot of individuals and brands maintaining two sites — a “main” site usually hosted with WordPress, Squarespace, or even Shopify, and then the Kajabi site for the digital course content portion — depending on your needs, it is possible to use just Kajabi for everything. Although you can easily add your logo and brand colors to your Kajabi site, other customization options are rather limited, which could be a dealbreaker for some.

Also – the cost of Kajabi can be a tough pill to swallow, especially if you’re just starting out. There is a free, 14 day trial which is nice, but full price, Kajabi starts at $119 per month, and that’s only if you commit to an annual plan. A lot of us, especially if we’re just starting out, aren’t really in the position to drop a cool grand and a half on a website platform. The pro plan is over $300 a month, which is A LOT. So unless you have that luxurious budget, Kajabi may be a little out of reach. And that’s ok! A couple of my big money clients have even snubbed their nose at Kajabi based on the cost.

If you do want to offer digital learning content on your website but can’t justify the cost of Kajabi, don’t worry! There are other options out there. I would recommend building a site with one of the other platforms mentioned here, and then pairing it with a more affordable course based software, like Teachable. 

If you AREN’T interested in having membership based content or courses on your website, then I’d probably skip this platform all together. 

So there we have it folks! These aren’t all of the website building platforms that are out there, but these are the ones that I most commonly suggest and use for individuals and small business owners.