Comparison

Squarespace vs WordPress, which to pick and when to pick neither

Squarespace and WordPress don't play in the same category, and that's what makes the comparison tricky. Squarespace is an all in one service, an online editor where the tool, the templates, the hosting and the support come together against a monthly subscription. WordPress is a piece of software, free to download from wordpress.org, that you install with a host and assemble yourself with a theme and plugins, or that you hand to a provider for a quote that's often high. There's also a version hosted by the company Automattic, wordpress.com, with its own plans. Neither route fits if you want a site that looks like your business, that's truly yours, and that someone else maintains. That third option is a site designed and coded for your activity for €1 at the order then €39 a month with Essential, or €1 then €79 a month with Visibility and its monthly content. The Squarespace prices quoted here were read on fr.squarespace.com on 27 August 2026, and the WordPress prices on wordpress.com and hostinger.com on 10 September 2026.

Squarespace vs WordPress, what's the short answer for your profile?

Squarespace fits if you want a clean result without touching the technical side, with templates Squarespace describes as designed by professionals and that you adapt to your visual identity. There's no free version, only a fourteen day trial, and its French pricing page showed Basic at 14 € a month on monthly billing or 108 € a year, Core at 20 € or 168 € a year, and Advanced at 30 € or 252 € a year on 27 August 2026, with a domain name included the first year on annual billing. In exchange for that simplicity, on version 7.1 sites Squarespace says in its help center that you don't switch templates once the site is launched, and that the export leaves out store pages, style settings and custom CSS.

WordPress fits if you want power and freedom, and if you accept assembling the tool and maintaining it, or paying someone to do it. The wordpress.org software is free, but you have to rent hosting, from around 3 € a month with a host like Hostinger according to its prices read on 10 September 2026, buy a domain name at roughly 10 to 15 € a year, then choose a theme and plugins, some of them paid. The hosted version wordpress.com offers a free plan with a subdomain and ads, then plans at 9 € for Personal, 18 € for Premium, 40 € for Business, the first that allows installing plugins, and 70 € a month for Commerce, on annual billing read the same day. WordPress is the most used website software in the world, which earns it the largest community and also the largest number of automated attacks to watch for.

Neither fits if your site has to look like your business rather than a template, and if you want neither to build it nor to maintain it while keeping ownership of the code. The monthly plan I offer answers exactly that case. I design and code the site for your activity, I host it, back it up every day, monitor it and deliver your changes within 48 working hours, for €1 then €39 a month. The domain is registered in your name and the code is yours from the order. Both plans are detailed on the pricing page, and the way monthly payment works on the pay monthly website page.

How do Squarespace and WordPress compare on each criterion?

On price, a direct comparison makes no sense until you line up things that are equivalent. Squarespace bundles the tool, the hosting and the support in a single subscription, while WordPress splits the free software, the hosting, the domain and the plugins, whose total varies a lot with your choices. The table below repeats each amount as it was displayed on its reading date, with its currency and billing period. What matters more than a few euros of difference is what the entry plan actually includes. At WordPress.com, the free plan forces a subdomain and ads, and you have to reach the Business plan at 40 € a month to install the plugins that make WordPress worth using.

On ownership, both hosted platforms keep your site with them, but they don't hand back the same thing the day you leave. Squarespace offers an XML export that covers layout pages, one blog, text and image blocks, but not store pages, style settings, custom CSS or drafts, and the design doesn't follow. WordPress installed with your own host is the most open of the three, since you hold the database and the files, and everything backs up and moves from one host to another. With the plan I offer, the domain is in your name, the code is yours from the order, and a full export arrives within fifteen days on request.

On design, Squarespace sells guided templates that stop you from breaking the layout but resemble each other from one site to the next, while WordPress opens the field to tens of thousands of themes, from free to premium, with a freedom that takes time and sometimes a developer to hold up. In both cases you start from a model other businesses already use. A site coded for you has no template, every page is drawn for what you sell, and two clients never get the same site. If your hesitation is between WordPress and a newer visual tool instead, I wrote the Webflow alternative comparison, and for a move away from WordPress the WordPress alternative page details what I recover.

On speed, search and maintenance, each platform holds a light brochure site and slows down as soon as you stack plugins, fonts and videos. The real difference is who keeps the site in shape. WordPress installed with your own host means updating the core, the theme and every plugin, or risking security holes and broken pages, and it's the site software most targeted by automated attacks, a direct result of its popularity. Squarespace applies those updates for you, but it doesn't proofread your pages and doesn't write your content. Before every launch I run the site through a check on speed, accessibility and technical SEO, then Essential covers fixes, updates and a monthly report, and Visibility adds four pages and four articles a month on verified keywords. The website maintenance page explains what that follow up includes.

Criterion	Squarespace	WordPress	Coded site on a monthly plan
Price read	Basic 14 € a month or 108 € a year, Core 20 € or 168 € a year, Advanced 30 € or 252 € a year (fr.squarespace.com, 27 August 2026)	Free software on wordpress.org, hosting from 3 € a month and domain 10 to 15 € a year; or wordpress.com free then 9 €, 18 €, 40 €, 70 € a month (10 September 2026)	€1 at the order then €39 a month, or €1 then €79 a month with the monthly content
Free version	No, a 14 day trial	wordpress.org free to install; wordpress.com has a free plan with a subdomain and ads	No, but a complete first version is delivered to review before launch
Who does the work	You, in a guided editor	You, or a developer you pay, for the install, the theme and the plugins	Me, for design, code, hosting and maintenance
Ownership and export	XML export of pages and one blog, without store pages, styles or CSS (Squarespace help center)	You hold the database and the files, everything backs up and moves (wordpress.org)	Domain in your name, code yours from day one, full export within fifteen days
Template or unique design	Guided template, described as designed by professionals	Tens of thousands of themes, free or paid, to assemble	Unique design drawn for your business, never the same twice
Maintenance and security	Updates applied by Squarespace	Core, theme and plugins to update yourself, the software most targeted by attacks	Fixes, updates and daily backups included, changes within 48 working hours
Monthly content	No, you write your pages and articles	No, you write your pages and articles	With Visibility, four pages and four articles a month on verified keywords

05 The plans

How much does a coded site on a monthly plan cost next to Squarespace or WordPress?

01 Essential

Essential

The website, the hosting and the updates, with nothing else to manage on your side.

€1

at the order

then €39 a month

Your site online in less than 48 hours after the order
A unique website, designed and coded for your business
Hosting, daily backups and security monitoring
Technical fixes and updates included in the plan
Text and image changes delivered within 48 working hours
Monthly report on traffic and uptime

That is €469 excluding tax for the first year, then €39 a month, cancellable any month with one month's notice.

Choose Essential

02 Visibility Most complete

Visibility

Everything in Essential, plus the content that puts your site on your trade's keywords and brings you customers.

€1

at the order

then €79 a month

Everything in the Essential plan
4 pages and 4 articles a month, written on verified keywords for Google and AI search engines
Each page targets one more keyword, so after a year your site answers close to a hundred searches in your trade
Monthly report on your positions for local searches

That is €949 excluding tax for the first year, then €79 a month, cancellable any month with one month's notice.

Choose Visibility

Monthly plan excluding tax, 12 months minimum, then cancellable with one month's notice. The domain name and the source code belong to you from day one, with a full export of the site within 15 days on request, free of charge, even during the commitment.

Card payment, secured by Stripe. You pay the order and the first monthly payment, then each monthly payment is charged on the same date. Would you rather get a quote and talk first? Write to me.

What do Squarespace and WordPress cost over three years?

Over three years, a Squarespace Core plan at 20 € a month on monthly billing adds up to 720 €, or 504 € on yearly billing at 168 € a year, and the Basic plan at 14 € adds up to 504 € monthly or 324 € yearly. On the WordPress side, installed with a host, count the hosting, from around 3 € a month or close to 110 € over three years at the entry level, plus the domain, about thirty euros over the period, to which a premium theme and a few paid plugins are quickly added. Those amounts cover only the tool. They leave out the template to fill, the texts to write, the updates to follow and the hours lost when a plugin breaks a page, and that invisible column often weighs the most in the real cost of a site you build yourself.

Over the same period, Essential costs €1,405 excluding tax all included, which means €1 at the order then €39 a month for thirty six months, with the design, the code, hosting, backups, monitoring and fixes. The gap with a Squarespace subscription or a WordPress host is real, and it pays a developer who builds the site and keeps it running, instead of your evenings or an agency billed in one lump. I've laid out the full calculation, agencies included, in the article on how much a website costs.

When to pick Squarespace, when WordPress, and when neither?

Pick Squarespace if you care about a clean result without layout effort, if your site fits in a few pages and if you accept writing your own content. A photographer, a practice, a guesthouse or a restaurant that mostly wants to present its offer and a map do fine with its templates. Keep in mind what the export leaves behind and the fact that a version 7.1 site keeps its starting template. If you decide to leave, the Squarespace alternative page details what I recover and what I rebuild.

Pick WordPress if you have a specific need a plugin covers, if you plan a site that will grow a lot, and if you have either the technical skills or the budget for a provider to install it and maintain it over time. For an ambitious shop, the free plugin WooCommerce is still a reference. Just know that the power of WordPress has a flip side, updates and security become your responsibility, or one more line on the invoice. If you're starting from a WordPress site to redo, the WordPress alternative page explains how I take over your content.

Pick neither if the site has to bring you clients and you don't want to build it or watch it age inside a template other businesses use. For €1 then €39 a month, you receive a complete first version to review, usually less than 48 hours after the order depending on how fast you review, then the adjustments and the launch after your approval. The plan runs twelve months minimum, then cancels any month with one month's notice, with no financing company and no lease. A shop, a booking system or a client area get a separate quote, announced before the order.

06 The price

Why this price does not lower the quality

The price comes from how the site is built and maintained, not from a sacrifice on the design or the code.

A site designed and coded, not a template

No purchased theme, no page builder. The layout, the copy and the code are written for your business, after research on what your competitors do and on what your customers type into Google. Two clients never receive the same site.

Performance and security are measured

Before going live, every site passes a check on speed, accessibility and technical SEO, and it does not ship until the score is where it should be. A fast, clean site costs less to host and maintain, and that saving is in the price.

Automation pays the difference

Hosting, backups, monitoring and the monthly report are automated, and I have spent sixteen years building this kind of tooling. Human time goes to the design, the copy and your change requests, not to the repetitive tasks others bill you for every month.

No financing, no hidden clause

You pay €1 or €1 at the order, then a monthly plan for twelve months, with no credit company and no lease contract. The first year total sits at the top of the quote, and the domain and the code stay yours, with an export of the site within 15 days on request.

Which questions come up about Squarespace vs WordPress?

Squarespace or WordPress, which one is simpler?

Squarespace is simpler to get started with, because it brings the editor, the hosting and the updates together in one place and stops you from breaking the layout. WordPress, in its version installed with a host, means setting up the software, choosing a host, a theme and plugins, then keeping it all up to date. The wordpress.com version reduces that complexity, but you have to climb to the Business plan at 40 € a month to get back the freedom to install plugins.

Squarespace or WordPress for search rankings?

Both allow good rankings on a well built site, with clear titles, clean addresses and pages that answer real searches. WordPress goes further thanks to plugins dedicated to SEO, provided you know how to set them, while Squarespace covers the essentials without any setup. Neither one writes your content or builds your internal links, and it's that editorial work that makes the difference on Google, not the platform.

Squarespace or WordPress for an online shop?

WordPress with the free plugin WooCommerce offers the most flexibility for a shop that will grow, at the cost of a heavier install and upkeep. Squarespace builds online selling into its plans, with a faster start but fewer options, and an export that doesn't recover the store pages the day you leave. Look first at the number of products, the payment methods and what will leave the platform before you choose.

What's the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

WordPress.org is the free software you install with the host of your choice, with full control and full responsibility for maintenance. WordPress.com is a service hosted by the company Automattic, with a limited free plan and paid plans, where some of the technical work is handled for you in exchange for less freedom on the entry plans. When an article talks about WordPress being free and powerful, it almost always means WordPress.org.

Who owns a Squarespace or WordPress site when you leave?

On Squarespace, you keep your texts and images through the XML export, but not the design or the store pages, and the site still has to be rebuilt elsewhere. On a WordPress installed with your own host, you hold the database and the files, so the site moves from one host to another. With the plan I offer, the domain name is in your name and the source code is yours from the order, with a full export delivered within fifteen days on request.

Squarespace, WordPress or a coded site, how do you decide?

Ask yourself a single question, do you want to build the site yourself or do you want it built and maintained for you. If you want to build it yourself and stay simple, Squarespace is enough; if you want to build it yourself with maximum freedom and the technical side doesn't scare you, WordPress is made for that. If you want a unique, up to date site that's yours without spending your time on it, the monthly plan covers it for €1 then €39 a month. Both plans are on the pricing page.

08 Compare before you sign

A site coded for you, at the price of a kit site

01 The code and the domain name are yours from day one, with an export of the site within 15 days
02 No WordPress and no page builder, every page is designed and written for your business
03 Speed, accessibility and technical SEO are measured before the site goes live

Among the French offers under 100 € a month we reviewed in August 2026, none displayed these three commitments together.

See both plans Start my website