Shopify, Squarespace and WordPress each have their strengths, but the right choice depends on your business, your customers and what your website needs to do. This guide gives you a simple overview of the platforms I work with and the types of projects they’re best suited to.
If you’re not sure which platform is right for you, that’s completely fine. Platform recommendations are part of my discovery process, so you don’t need to make the decision before getting in touch.
As a starting point, Shopify is often best suited to eCommerce-first businesses, Squarespace works particularly well for streamlined service and content-led websites, while WordPress offers greater flexibility for more complex requirements and integrations.
Choosing the Right Website Platform
PLATFORM GUIDE
Shopify Core Features
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Shopify is a dedicated commerce platform designed for businesses selling online, in person or across multiple channels. It brings your storefront, products, orders, customers and inventory together in one system, making it a strong choice for brands that want room to grow. Shopify plans include hosting, SSL and unlimited products, although features vary by plan.
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Shopify brings the day-to-day management of your online store into one place. Products, orders, inventory, customers, discounts and fulfilment can all be managed through your Shopify dashboard, making it easier to run and grow your store without juggling multiple systems.
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Shopify offers flexible payment options to make checkout simple and convenient for your customers. Shopify Payments supports major payment methods, while additional payment providers can also be integrated depending on your business and where you sell.
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Shopify lets you sell beyond your website by connecting your store with supported social platforms, marketplaces and other sales channels. Products, orders and inventory can be managed more centrally, making it easier to create a consistent shopping experience across the places your customers choose to buy.
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For businesses that sell both online and in person, Shopify POS connects your digital and physical retail experience. Products, inventory, orders and customer information can be managed across both channels, helping you keep your business organised whether customers shop online, in-store or both.
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For businesses selling internationally, Shopify offers tools to tailor the shopping experience for different markets. You can manage local currencies, languages, pricing and product availability across different regions, helping your store grow into new markets from one central platform.
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Shopify’s built-in analytics and reporting tools give you insight into your store’s sales, customers and performance, helping you understand what’s working and where there may be opportunities to improve. You can also connect additional analytics and tracking tools where more detailed reporting is required.
Squarespace Core Features
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Squarespace offers a flexible design system that makes it possible to create polished, highly customised websites without the complexity of a fully bespoke development platform. Layouts, typography, colours and content can be tailored around your brand, with additional styling and custom CSS used where needed to create a more distinctive result.
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Squarespace is designed to make day-to-day website management straightforward. Its visual editor makes it easy to update text, images and page content without needing technical knowledge, giving you more control over your website after launch.
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Squarespace websites are designed to adapt across desktop, tablet and mobile devices, helping your content remain clear, accessible and easy to navigate across different screen sizes.
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Squarespace includes built-in SEO tools and technical foundations to help search engines understand and index your website. Automatic sitemaps, clean URLs and structured data work behind the scenes, while page titles, descriptions and other settings can be customised to support your website’s visibility in search results.
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Squarespace works particularly well for service-based businesses, with tools for enquiries, invoicing and client management alongside integrated appointment scheduling through Acuity. Depending on your requirements, clients can book appointments, complete intake forms, receive reminders and make payments online.
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Built-in analytics give you insight into how people find and interact with your website. You can track traffic, popular content, referral sources and engagement, with additional commerce reporting available for businesses selling through Squarespace.
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Squarespace brings many of the tools needed to manage your online presence together in one platform. Website content, blogging, email marketing, scheduling and eCommerce tools can all work within the Squarespace ecosystem, depending on the features and plan your business needs.
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Squarespace takes care of much of the technical maintenance behind your website, including hosting, security and platform updates. This means you can focus on managing your content and your business without having to maintain the underlying website software yourself.
WordPress Core Features
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WordPress is a highly flexible content management system that can be tailored around the needs of your business. From straightforward business websites to more complex platforms, its themes, plugins and development options make it possible to create a website with significantly more custom functionality as your requirements grow.
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WordPress can support websites with more complex structures, content and functionality, making it a strong choice for organisations whose digital requirements may develop over time. New sections, features and integrations can be introduced as the website grows without necessarily needing to rebuild the entire platform.
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WordPress makes it easy to organise and manage larger amounts of website content. Pages, blog posts, media and other content can be managed from one central dashboard, making it particularly useful for websites that need to grow and evolve over time.
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WordPress can be extended with plugins and custom development to add functionality around the needs of your business. From booking and payment systems to memberships, eCommerce, CRM integrations and more complex workflows, your website can evolve as your requirements grow.
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WordPress can connect with a wide range of CRM, marketing and business systems, making it particularly useful when your website needs to work as part of a wider digital setup. Integrations can support everything from lead management and email marketing to bookings, payments and more complex customer journeys.
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WordPress can be extended into a powerful eCommerce platform with WooCommerce, giving businesses greater control over products, payments, shipping and the overall shopping experience. Its flexibility makes it particularly useful for stores with more specialised requirements or businesses that need eCommerce to work alongside a larger content-driven website.
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WordPress allows you to create different user roles with varying levels of access to your website. This is useful for businesses and organisations where multiple people need to manage content, bookings, orders or other areas of the site without giving everyone full administrative access.
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WordPress gives you a high level of control over how your website content is structured and optimised for search. Page URLs, headings, metadata, internal linking and other SEO elements can be managed and extended with specialist SEO tools, giving you flexibility as your search strategy develops.
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Unlike fully managed platforms, WordPress gives you more choice over where your website is hosted and how it is maintained. This provides greater flexibility and control, but updates, security, backups and ongoing maintenance need to be properly managed to keep your website running reliably.
NOT SURE WHICH PLATFORM IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
You don’t need to have it all figured out before getting in touch. I’ll help you choose the right platform and approach based on your business, your customers and what your website actually needs to do.