Squarespace vs Drupal (2024) : Which Site Builder Is Best?
In today’s article, let us compare Squarespace vs Drupal to find out which Site Builder is best.
Despite what others say, it is undeniable that Squarespace’s homepage is nice to look at.
Among all of the website builders, there is hardly any other company that understands how to stage its product with such perfection. Meaning that everything looks fresh, impeccable and cool.
So, let’s find out if the website builder follows this suit.
Squarespace vs Drupal Comparison
In this Squarespace vs Drupal comparison article, first let us see details about Squarespace and then about Drupal.
Squarespace
With the Squarespace latest version 7, it introduces some new features like
- Cover Page Builder
- G Suite and
- Getty Images
However, what’s more, important is the editor’s usability.
Now it’s is very much possible to edit the content live, without the need for switching back and forth between the site manager and preview mode.
It is saving a lot of time and We’re big fans of inline editing as it makes things much less abstract but also it is much faster.
Squarespace Summary
They have an offer of around 100+ flexible templates in their disposal that are fully adaptable to mobile devices (i.e they are responsive design). Squarespace also has a much better blogging tool and better support than most of its competitors.
Although, Getting to grips fully with the platform may take some time due to a few usability issues.
Squarespace also positions themselves as THE ultimate choice for not only website builder for blogs but also for portfolio sites, and other online stores, etc
In this review, will are gonna discuss an overview of the main aspects of the revised version.
Squarespace Pricing
- $12 – Personal
It is a good solution if you want to just run a simple site and don’t need an online store.
- $18 – Business
It Includes an online store with a transaction fee of around 3%
- $26 – Online Store (Basic)
With this plan, you can sell online without any transaction fees whatsoever.
- $40 – Online Store (Advanced)
This plan can develop your site into a full-fledged online store with advanced e-commerce features.
Pros & Cons of Squarespace
Pros
- Squarespace is a pretty sophisticated product that offers great-looking templates that are optimized for mobile devices (responsive web design). But do keep in mind that the template quality can vary, as it relies heavily on the images used. If you replace the ones they provide, your website’s look will be completely different
- If you have a website with loyal followers, you can also add an online store with a login function
- Thanks to live chat, you can have an answer almost instantly. Our experiences with their support team were very positive
Cons
- Although they’ve improved the editor’s usability, working with it is still a rather dull experience. For one thing, it’s not quite as easy to use as Weebly and Jimbo but that’s due, in part, to a wider feature range; the other drawback is the convoluted interface, which looks gray and drab
- Their e-commerce plans seem too expensive: at $26 and $40, it’s hard to find a reason not to use a dedicated online store solution such as Shopify.
- Squarespace is not suitable for larger websites that require a deep menu hierarchy
- All site edits you make are visible to the public immediately. This can be a bit inconvenient when doing larger updates
- You can’t edit your page title in blog posts, which is quite a disadvantage. Also, their templates score low ratings by Google’s Page Speed Tool, which could lead to poor user experience on smartphones and possibly harm your search engine rankings.
Other Features
Free Domain
With the yearly and bi-yearly subscription, it will include a free domain name for a year, after that the prices will start at $20 annually (which will be depending on the ending). However, Domain registrars like Namecheap offer much better deals. If you have an existing domain you would like to use, it can be also pointed to Squarespace websites.
Widgets
They have a nice selection of add-on features. Some of them include such as social media widgets (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), gallery widgets, tools for restaurants and much more. However, it doesn’t feature an app store for 3rd party widgets.
Monetization
Through Adsense, Media.net, Affiliate Marketing, etc
E-Commerce
E-commerce is Included in every plan (however with limitations). That way if you wanna sell something, you can easily integrate a shopping cart into your blog.
Free SSL
They also provide you with a free SSL certificate and this features is part of every plan (also the non-e-commerce packages).
Blog
It pretty much has all the usual blogging features such as commenting, trackbacks and more (geolocation tags, reblogging). Also, for example, if you already have a blog you already have a blog on Tumblr, WordPress Posterous or Blogger, they even have an option to import it. If you wanna start a Podcast, You can also host your own podcast on Squarespace, complete with RSS feed and iTunes tagging too.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This may be the biggest downside of Squarespace as there are serious SEO limitations for blog posts and product pages.
They will always use the blog headline or the product name, respectively, for the SEO title. Even the general SEO site title that will be displayed on all of the pages, which isn’t the most SEO-friendly.
And there are also certain templates and designs that combine the page’s banner section with your page title and meta description which, I would say frankly, is a very poor design. This may be the biggest drawback and Squarespace needs to do serious development in this regard,
Visitor statistics
They have an inbuilt visitor analytics tool which does show you some of the key statistics with the “Squarespace Metrics App.” If you want more insights and details, you can set up Google Analytics.
Contact form
They have a Fully customizable contact form builder with lots of field options so you can edit it to your choice.
Newsletter tool
They does allow you only to connect to an already existing MailChimp account. This is a great way to import data and also you can collect your customer’s email addresses on the checkout page.
Storage space
This is the best part as they have no bandwidth and storage limit for usage.
Backups & Restore
Sadly, Squarespace does not provide any sort of backup and restore feature. If once lost, restoring content isn’t possible.
One of the funniest parts is that they recommend (and we are not making this up) copying and pasting your content into a Google Doc.
Support
They have a 24/7 ticket system with live chat – They also have a knowledge base which is quite comprehensive. Personal support is also great. However, the live chat wasn’t always available all the time.
FAQ
Is Squarespace secure? How much traffic does it support?
Squarespace uses an SSL encryption in the editing mode – a feature that will set it apart from most of the other tools. Both their Unlimited and Business plans does support unlimited traffic and can handle even a tremendous amount of concurrent website visitors.
Will my Squarespace site work on an iPad or iPhone?
Yes, their layouts are very responsive and are designed to adapt to any screen size of your visitor’s device. They also offer mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android that will allow you to edit your site or blog on the go anywhere anytime without your laptop or desktop.
Does Squarespace include email accounts?
Sadly No, as you will have to set it up elsewhere. Although they recommend G Suite. Alternatively, you can also purchase your domain name through a registrar like NameCheap or Go Daddy and let email run through them.
Is Squarespace the right website builder for me?
Recommended:
- You’re a looking for something easier than WordPress
- You are a podcaster and need a platform for easy publishing
- You want to create a stylish website
- You need customer support 24/7 and don’t mind paying a premium
Not Recommended:
- If You are looking for a great cost-/performance ratio
- You need a really easy website editor
- Page speed is very important for you
Hope you would have got some idea about Squarespace by this time.
As this is Squarespace vs Drupal comparison article so let us see details about Drupal in the below section.
Drupal
Drupal is also one of the most comprehensive CMS systems available in the market right now. The Drupal script has a very specific programming environment, that could be way better described as a programmer’s platform rather than just a simple CMS script.
Since the is an Open Source, it is chosen by many programmers who outgrew simpler scripts like Quick, CMS or WordPress.
The Drupal CMS can be downloaded and viewed at its an official website, www.drupal.org
Among Squarespace vs Drupal, so far we have learned that Drupal is on CMS platform so it seems Drupal has an edge over the other.
Advantages
Includes a lot of functionality
Drupal does include a lot of functionalities like the graphics modification tool, advanced menu management, polls management, users management and much more.
These functions make it possible to create not only a simple website but advanced blogs, websites, social networking pages, discussion boards, etc.
Variety of content types
Drupal is also famous for allowing to create and manage not only words content but many other content types such as- Podcast, videos, polls, user management, text, blogs, statistics, and much more.
Advanced users management
An administrator has the ability to create new user accounts and also establish their permission rights too. Users can be further divided into groups and can be given specific assignments. They can also be given the permissions to manage not fully but parts of the website.
Graphics management
The script includes the capabilities of designing elements editing. Available themes and templates make for a good start. Predefined page functions configurations also make it way easy to create both a simple as well as much more complicated page configurations.
Page content management
Drupal also allows you to categorize your content through URL path, addresses and making your own lists. This structure will be very helpful for easy management, search and reuse of the content.
Plugins
The script has hundreds to several thousands of plugins available on its official website. As we have mentioned above that Drupal is an Open Source, So, you can use as well as create your own plugins.
Support
They have a lot of FAQ and documentation, well-developed discussion board, chat, mailing list, etc On the Drupal homepage. You can find plenty of information and help concerning the management and modification of the script.
Disadvantages
Installation and modification
The script is not the very most user-friendly and does requires some advanced knowledge to install and modify the script. I would say, Quick Cms, WordPress and even Joomla will be much simpler to use, even though they do not offer the functionalities as rich as Drupal does.
Compatibility
Drupal has plenty of new solutions. So, If you’re used to the older systems, getting used to this script will take a while.
Efficiency
When considering the scalability and efficiency, Drupal is far behind compared to other scripts like Quick. Cms or WordPress.
So, If your website is very large, the script will also generate a big server load because it is caused by the big range of possibilities provided by Drupal.
There are however plugins in Drupal that load a website to the server’s cache, which will decrease the server load.
Drupal Features
- Advanced User Management
- Graphics Management
- Page Content Management
- Plugins
- Support
- OpenSource
- Collaboration
- Many Modules, design and Displays
List of third-party Drupal Integrates with:
- Bitium
- Zendesk
- Zapbook
- Zapier
- MailChimp
- HubSpot
- Google Analytics, etc
There is no doubt Drupal is an advanced CMS system that is offering plenty of features and functions, that in other scripts require installing many plugins (if they are at all available).
Unfortunately, to use it, it does require some advanced knowledge of PHP and HTML languages as well as CSS.
Luckily if you already have at least a basic knowledge of these languages, there’s a very good technical support.used to it very much faster you might imagine.
Squarespace vs Drupal – Conclusion
Hope you have enjoyed reading about this Squarespace vs Drupal comparison article.
if you have the technical knowledge, Drupal does offer much more options and features. It will make much more sense if you go for Drupal but if you are a Starter with no knowledge of it.
Squarespace will do justice for you as they offer amazing support and is more compatible for beginners such as ready-made templates, Integrations and much more.
So in this Squarespace vs Drupal article the final verdict we can say that eventhough Drupal is free but still Sqaurespace due to its multiple features is better option than Drupal.