Having a website these days is like having a business card. People use websites to find out about your company, the products, and they also use it to find or contact you. Developing a website used to be a costly affair, but with services like Squarespace and Weebly it is not only inexpensive, but it is also easy enough for anyone to pick up the basics and start developing their own websites quickly.
Who Is Squarespace and Weebly For and Which One Is Better?
Multinationals usually outsource the web development process to a specialized agency. Small businesses, however, don't need too many high-end capabilities, and that's where Squarespace and Weebly come in. These two companies allow small business owners and freelance professionals to quickly develop a website to highlight their products or experience to get more customers.
As to the question of which one of these platforms is better, each one comes with some advantages and disadvantages, and it will depend on your requirements while choosing the best option. They are both capable websites that should be able to cater to the needs of your small business, but the features are a little different, which will make entrepreneurs be attracted to one platform over the other.
Which Is The Best Website Builder For Beginners?
If you are an absolute beginner, then Weebly is a good starting point. Both Weebly and Squarespace are designed with the intention to help business owners who don’t know coding, but Weebly has a more intuitive layout with click and drop options that should make the whole process a little easier.
Squarespace feels just a little more complicated at first, but once you get the hang of all the features, you will feel like a professional website designer. If you are familiar with WordPress and Drag ‘n Drop, the learning curve will not be too steep, and you should be able to get things done quickly.
For both Squarespace and Weebly, you have to pick up some jargons and technical aspects of website design. Both platforms have released a lot of training and explainer material, and they both have an open forum online that is full of supportive members who will help you in your journey.
Best Options to Build A Beautiful Website:
One of the reasons why website design has become so easy is because of plug and play option with readymade templates. You explore the various designs that are available and pick the one that you like.
Squarespace has more templates, and they are impressive. The platform offers 90 templates compared to Weebly’s 40. Another advantage Squarespace offers is the massive customization.
Weebly gets the job done with some good-quality templates that are relatively static. But, if you are in the creative field like a wedding photographer or musician, Squarespace is the place to be.
Augmenting Your Company's Marketing Efforts:
Designing a website is only the first step in building your business. You should be able to use it as a tool to get more customers. Both Squarespace and Weebly understand this critical need of small businesses. They both offer services to augment your marketing with social media integration and e-commerce plug-ins that allow you to sell your products and services online.
Both the platforms offer custom email accounts in partnership with G Suite and help you with your email marketing campaigns for a small fee. You also get social media integration and analytics to connect with your audience and understand their needs.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO helps you get your website ranked on search engines like Google to get organic traffic. Squarespace and Weebly allow you to make the required edits to continuously improve your content strategy and get more business.
Will This Be Expensive?
Using Squarespace or Weebly should be substantially cheaper than hiring a company to design your website. Both these platforms offer free trials to help you get familiar with a process, but the way they do it is slightly different.
Squarespace has a 14-day free trial period, after which you have to choose one of their paid plans. The best thing about this platform is that it is ad-free. The starting package is $12 per month when paid annually.
On the other hand, Weebly has a free plan that allows you access to its features indefinitely, but it comes with advertisements while using their product, and there will be Weebly branding on your website. The basic paid plan comes up to $5 per month when paid annually.
What Kind of Support You Can Expect?
Weebly has email, live chat, and phone support on all days of the week. Squarespace on the other hand offers 24/7 email support, and its live chat support is restricted to weekdays between 4 am to 8 pm EST. There is no phone support on Squarespace yet.
