Squarespace vs Elementor Website Builder Comparison

Written by

Our content is reader-supported. If you click on our links, we may earn a commission. How we review.

Exploring the best website builder for your needs? Sit tight as we dive into a comprehensive comparison of Squarespace vs Elementor, two leading platforms in the field. We’ll dissect their features, pricing, and usability to help you make an informed decision. No jargon, just simple, straight facts.

Overview

Squarespace and Elementor are two popular website builders, each with their own unique features. Squarespace offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of templates and designs, making it perfect for individuals and small businesses. Elementor, on the other hand, is a powerful WordPress plugin that provides advanced customization options and flexibility. It is ideal for those looking for complete control over their website’s design. Both platforms offer excellent customer support and competitive pricing plans. Ultimately, the choice between Squarespace and Elementor depends on your specific needs and preferences.

Squarespace

Squarespace

Free Plan: No

Free Trial: Yes

Price: From $16 per month

Official website: www.squarespace.com

Squarespace is best suited for small businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers, photographers, bloggers, and artists who need a visually appealing, easy-to-use platform to create and manage a professional website.

Learn more about Squarespace

Elementor

Elementor

Free Plan: Yes

Free Trial: No (but has refund policy)

Price: From $59 per year

Official website: www.elementor.com

Elementor is best suited for website designers, small business owners, and bloggers who want to build and customize their own WordPress websites without needing advanced coding skills.

Learn more about Elementor

Squarespace is an exceptional tool for website creation. Its intuitive design, modern templates, and robust features make building a professional site seamless. Great customer service too. Highly recommended for both beginners and seasoned web designers. – Mia Z

starstarstarstarstar

Elementor has revolutionized my web design process. Its intuitive, drag-and-drop interface simplifies complex tasks, making website creation effortless. Its vast array of features and top-notch support ensure a seamless, creative experience. Highly recommended for anyone in web development! – Amy T

starstarstarstarstar

Squarespace delivers sleek, user-friendly website designs. Minor issues with customer service, but overall, a reliable and efficient platform. – Yara

starstarstarstar

Elementor is user-friendly, offering innovative design tools. Minor glitches, but excellent customer support. Highly efficient for building professional websites. – Raj

starstarstarstar

Squarespace is outstanding! User-friendly interface, superb design templates, and excellent customer service. Ideal for creating professional, sleek websites. Highly recommend for beginners and experts alike. – Gabriela

starstarstarstarstar

Elementor is a game-changer! Its intuitive, user-friendly interface makes web design a breeze. Excellent features and outstanding support. Highly recommended for all website building needs. – Anika

starstarstarstarstar

Pros & Cons

This section explores the strengths and weaknesses of these two website builders.

Winner is:

Squarespace is a user-friendly website builder with beautifully designed templates, strong e-commerce features, and reliable customer support. However, it lacks advanced customization options and can be a bit pricey. On the other hand, Elementor is a powerful WordPress plugin that offers extensive design flexibility and a wide range of features. It requires some technical knowledge and may not be as beginner-friendly as Squarespace. Overall, Squarespace is the winner for individuals and small businesses seeking a simple and elegant website, while Elementor is better suited for those with more design expertise and specific customization needs.

Squarespace

Squarespace

Pros:
  • Professional Design Templates: Squarespace offers a wide range of beautifully designed templates, making it easy to create a visually appealing website.
  • User-Friendly Interface: The platform’s drag-and-drop interface is intuitive and user-friendly, allowing users with little to no coding experience to build and manage their websites.
  • Mobile Responsiveness: All Squarespace templates are mobile-responsive, ensuring your website looks and functions well on various devices.
  • Integrated Features: Squarespace provides built-in tools for e-commerce, blogging, analytics, and SEO, reducing the need for third-party integrations.
  • Customer Support: The platform offers multiple support options, including 24/7 customer support, live chat, and a helpful knowledge base.
  • Security and Maintenance: Squarespace handles hosting, security, and software updates, freeing you from technical maintenance tasks.
  • Scalability: Squarespace can accommodate both small personal websites and larger, more complex projects as your needs grow.
Cons:
  • Limited Customization: While the design templates are great, customization options might be limited for advanced users who want more control over the layout and functionality.
  • Cost: Squarespace’s pricing can be relatively higher compared to some competitors, especially for businesses requiring advanced features.
  • E-commerce Complexity: While Squarespace offers e-commerce functionality, it may not be as robust as dedicated e-commerce platforms for larger online stores.
  • Data Export Limitations: Migrating content away from Squarespace can sometimes be challenging due to export limitations.
  • Learning Curve: While the interface is user-friendly, there might still be a learning curve, especially for those new to website building.
  • Limited App Store: Squarespace’s app store is smaller compared to some other platforms, potentially limiting the range of third-party integrations.
Elementor

Elementor

Pros:
  • Easy to use: Elementor is a very easy-to-use website builder, even for beginners. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create and customize your website without any coding knowledge.
  • Powerful: Elementor is a very powerful website builder that offers a wide range of features and functionality. You can create almost any type of website with Elementor, from simple landing pages to complex eCommerce stores.
  • Flexible: Elementor is very flexible and can be customized to meet the needs of any business or website owner. You can change the look and feel of your website with Elementor, and you can also add custom code to your website if you need to.
  • Cost-effective: Elementor is very cost-effective, especially when compared to other website builders. The free version of Elementor is very powerful, and the paid version is very affordable.
  • Popular: Elementor is very popular, with over 5 million active users. This means that there is a large community of Elementor users who can help you if you need help with anything.
Cons:
  • Can be slow: Elementor can be slow on slower websites or websites with a lot of content. This is because Elementor uses a lot of JavaScript and CSS.
  • Not as SEO friendly as some other website builders: Elementor is not as SEO friendly as some other website builders. This is because Elementor uses a lot of dynamic content, which can be difficult for search engines to index.
  • Can be difficult to learn: Elementor can be difficult to learn if you are not familiar with WordPress or website building. However, there are many resources available to help you learn Elementor, such as tutorials, documentation, and the Elementor community.
  • Can be expensive: The paid version of Elementor is more expensive than some other website builders. However, the paid version of Elementor offers more features and functionality.

Website Building Features

This section compares the overall features of Squarespace vs Elementor.

Winner is:

Squarespace and Elementor are both popular website builders, but they have some key differences. Squarespace offers a user-friendly drag and drop interface, along with sleek templates and designs that are perfect for creative professionals. However, Elementor takes customization to the next level with its advanced drag and drop editor and vast library of templates. In terms of value for money, Elementor offers more flexibility and affordability with its free and premium plans. Both platforms have solid SEO capabilities, but Squarespace has better built-in email marketing tools. When it comes to security and support, Squarespace takes the lead with its robust infrastructure and excellent customer service. While both platforms offer various apps and integrations, Elementor‘s extensive plugin library gives it an edge. Overall, Elementor is the winner for its powerful customization options, value for money, and extensive plugin support.

Squarespace

Squarespace

  • Stunning templates: Squarespace offers a wide variety of beautiful and responsive templates to choose from, so you can create a website that looks professional and polished without any coding knowledge.
  • Easy to use: Squarespace’s website builder is incredibly easy to use, even for beginners. You can drag and drop elements to create your pages, and there’s no need to worry about learning any complicated code.
  • Flexible design: Squarespace gives you a lot of control over the design of your website. You can change the colors, fonts, and layout of your pages to match your brand.
  • Ecommerce: Squarespace makes it easy to sell products online with its built-in ecommerce features. You can create a professional online store with just a few clicks.
  • SEO: Squarespace’s websites are built with SEO in mind, so you can be sure that your website will be found by people searching for your products or services.
  • Analytics: Squarespace’s analytics tools give you insights into how people are using your website, so you can make improvements to improve your traffic and conversions.
  • 24/7 customer support: Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support, so you can always get help if you need it.
Elementor

Elementor

  • Drag-and-drop editor: Elementor uses a drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to create and customize your website without any coding knowledge.
    • Wide range of widgets: Elementor comes with a wide range of widgets that you can use to add different elements to your website, such as images, text, buttons, sliders, and more.
    • Form builder: Elementor Pro comes with a built-in form builder that makes it easy to create contact forms, subscription forms, and other types of forms.
    • Popup builder: Elementor Pro’s popup builder allows you to create eye-catching pop ups that can be used to capture leads, promote products, or announce new content.
    • Dynamic content: Elementor Pro supports dynamic content, which allows you to display different content to different visitors based on their location, device, or other criteria.
    • Motion effects: Elementor Pro’s motion effects allow you to add animated elements to your website, such as sliding text, rotating images, and more.
    • Theme builder: Elementor’s theme builder allows you to customize the look and feel of your entire website, including the header, footer, and individual pages.
  • WooCommerce integration: Elementor integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, making it easy to create an online store.
  • Free and paid plans: Elementor offers both a free and paid plan. The free plan is a great option for basic websites, while the paid plan gives you access to more features and functionality.
  • Collaboration tools: Elementor Pro’s collaboration tools allow you to work with other people on your website design, even if they don’t have Elementor Pro.

Ease of Use

This section focuses on ease of use and how beginner-friendly Squarespace and Elementor are.

Winner is:

Squarespace and Elementor are both popular website builders with drag-and-drop interfaces, but when it comes to ease of use, Elementor takes the lead. Its intuitive interface and seamless integration with WordPress make it a breeze to create and customize websites. Squarespace, while user-friendly, can be slightly more complex for beginners. Overall, Elementor‘s flexibility, extensive design options, and user-friendly interface make it the winner in terms of ease of use, especially for those familiar with WordPress.

Squarespace

Squarespace

  • Intuitive interface: Squarespace’s dashboard is user-friendly, easy to navigate, even for beginners.
  • Drag-and-drop functionality: No coding skills needed, just select, drag, and place elements.
  • Customization freedom: Offers a variety of robust design options, tweak templates or start from scratch.
  • Template diversity: Wide range of stylish, professional templates for different business types.
  • Ease of adding content: Simple to upload images, text, and videos.
  • Mobile optimization: Website designs are automatically responsive.
  • Built-in SEO tools: Improve visibility without needing expertise.
  • 24/7 support: Quick, helpful customer service anytime you need.
  • E-commerce capabilities: Effortlessly launch and manage online stores.
  • Regular updates: Squarespace consistently enhances features for user satisfaction.
Elementor

Elementor

  • Elementor’s interface is intuitive, designed with user-friendliness in mind.
  • The dashboard layout is clean, uncluttered, making navigation seamless.
  • Drag-and-drop feature simplifies building pages; no coding necessary.
  • Customization is a breeze with over 300 designer-made templates.
  • Creating unique layouts is uncomplicated with a wide array of widgets.
  • Real-time editing allows immediate viewing of design changes.
  • Mobile editing feature ensures your design looks great on all devices.
  • Right-click menu provides quick access to functions, enhancing efficiency.
  • Inline text editing fosters an easy content creation process.
  • Elementor’s responsive editing tools ensure your site is mobile-friendly.

Templates & Designs

This section looks at the themes of Elementor and Squarespace in terms of in terms of customization, the number of templates, and templates for websites, and e-commerce sites.

Winner is:

When it comes to templates and designs, Squarespace and Elementor both offer a wide range of options for customization. Squarespace provides beautifully designed templates for both websites and e-commerce sites, with a focus on clean and modern aesthetics. On the other hand, Elementor offers a huge library of templates that can be easily customized to fit any style or brand. While both platforms excel in this area, Elementor takes the lead with its vast selection of templates and the ability to personalize them to a greater extent. Overall, Elementor emerges as the winner in terms of template variety and customization options.

Squarespace

Squarespace

  • Squarespace offers sleek, professional templates.
  • Designs are highly customizable for unique appearances.
  • Provides templates for every business type.
  • E-commerce friendly designs available.
  • Mobile-optimized templates included.
  • Designs integrate seamlessly with social media.
  • All templates are visually impressive and user-friendly.
  • Tailored templates for blogs, portfolios, and events.
  • Offers the ability to switch templates anytime.
  • Templates support rich multimedia content.
Types of Templates:
  • Fashion: This template is perfect for fashion brands and retailers. It has a clean and modern design with a focus on imagery.
  • Photographer: This template is ideal for photographers who want to showcase their work online. It has a gallery-style layout that makes it easy to browse through photos.
  • Food: This template is perfect for food bloggers, chefs, and restaurants. It has a visually appealing design that will make your food look delicious.
  • Artist: This template is a great choice for artists who want to share their work with the world. It has a spacious layout that allows you to show off your art in all its glory.
  • Wedding: This template is perfect for couples who are planning their wedding. It has a romantic and elegant design that will help you capture the excitement of your big day.
  • Business: This template is a good option for businesses of all sizes. It has a professional and polished design that will make a great impression on your customers.
  • Blog: This template is perfect for bloggers who want to create a beautiful and easy-to-use website for their blog. It has a simple design that focuses on your content.
  • Ecommerce: Squarespace also offers a number of ecommerce templates that are perfect for selling products online. These templates have all the features you need to create a successful online store, such as product pages, shopping carts, and checkout systems.
Elementor

Elementor

  • Elementor offers pre-designed templates for websites.
  • Provides unique designs for pages, sections, or single posts.
  • Hundreds of customizable, mobile-responsive templates available.
  • Design options for every niche: blogs, businesses, e-commerce.
  • Drag-and-drop feature for easy design customization.
  • Templates include designs for headers, footers, and pop-ups.
  • Freedom to create your own design from scratch.
Types of Templates:
  • Business & Services: These templates are perfect for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large corporations. They include templates for a variety of industries, such as law firms, restaurants, dentists, and more.
  • Creative: These templates are perfect for creative professionals, such as photographers, designers, and artists. They include templates for portfolios, blogs, and landing pages.
  • Ecommerce: These templates are perfect for online stores. They include templates for a variety of products, such as clothing, electronics, and home goods.
  • Events & Entertainment: These templates are perfect for businesses in the events and entertainment industry, such as concert promoters, wedding planners, and theater companies.
  • Landing Pages: These templates are perfect for creating landing pages for marketing campaigns. They include templates for a variety of purposes, such as lead generation, product launches, and webinars.
  • Media & Blogs: These templates are perfect for media outlets and blogs. They include templates for news websites, magazine websites, and personal blogs.
  • Health & Wellness: These templates are perfect for businesses in the health and wellness industry, such as hospitals, clinics, and fitness centers.
  • Portfolio & CV: These templates are perfect for individuals who want to showcase their work or create a CV. They include templates for a variety of professions, such as graphic designers, photographers, and writers.
  • Retail Stores: These templates are perfect for brick-and-mortar stores that want to create an online presence. They include templates for a variety of products, such as clothing, electronics, and home goods.
  • Seasonal: These templates are perfect for businesses that want to create seasonal websites or landing pages. They include templates for holidays, such as Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day.
  • Sports & Fitness: These templates are perfect for businesses in the sports and fitness industry, such as gyms, sports leagues, and sports equipment retailers.
  • Technology: These templates are perfect for businesses in the technology industry, such as software companies, hardware manufacturers, and IT consultants.
  • Travel & Tourism: These templates are perfect for businesses in the travel and tourism industry, such as travel agencies, hotels, and airlines.
  • Wireframes: These templates are perfect for web designers who want to create wireframes for their websites. They include templates for a variety of website layouts, such as one-page websites, multi-page websites, and landing pages.

Apps & Integrations

This section explores what apps, plugins, and integrations Squarespace and Elementor come with.

Winner is:

Squarespace and Elementor both offer a range of apps, plugins, and integrations to enhance website functionality. Squarespace provides a selection of built-in features and integrations, including e-commerce tools and SEO options. Elementor, on the other hand, is a WordPress plugin that offers a vast library of widgets and add-ons for advanced customization. While Squarespace has a more streamlined approach, Elementor provides greater flexibility and control over design elements. Overall, Elementor emerges as the winner for its extensive range of options and the ability to create highly customized websites.

Squarespace

Squarespace

  • Acuity Scheduling: This app allows you to create and manage online booking calendars for your business.
  • Bookly: This app is another great option for creating online booking calendars. It offers a wider range of features than Acuity Scheduling, but it is also more expensive.
  • Calendly: This app is a simple and easy-to-use online scheduling tool. It is a good option for businesses that don’t need a lot of features.
  • Mailchimp: This email marketing platform allows you to create and send email newsletters to your subscribers.
  • Constant Contact: This is another popular email marketing platform that offers a wide range of features.
  • Shopify: This ecommerce platform allows you to sell products online. It is a good option for businesses that need a more robust ecommerce solution than Squarespace’s built-in ecommerce features.
  • WooCommerce: This is another popular ecommerce platform that is open source and free to use. It is a good option for businesses that want more control over their ecommerce store.
  • Yoast SEO: This SEO plugin helps you optimize your website for search engines.
  • SEMrush: This SEO tool offers a wider range of features than Yoast SEO. It is a good option for businesses that are serious about SEO.
  • Google Analytics: This analytics tool allows you to track website traffic and see how people are interacting with your website.
  • Hotjar: This heatmap and user behavior analytics tool helps you understand how people are using your website.
Elementor

Elementor

  • Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress SEO plugin that can help you improve your website’s search engine ranking. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to add SEO meta tags and other SEO settings to your pages and posts.
  • CSS Hero: CSS Hero is a powerful plugin that allows you to customize the CSS of your website without any coding knowledge. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to customize the look and feel of your Elementor-created pages and posts.
  • WooCommerce: WooCommerce is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to create an online store with Elementor.
  • WPML: WPML is a popular WordPress translation plugin. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to translate your Elementor-created pages and posts into multiple languages.
  • BuddyPress: BuddyPress is a popular WordPress social networking plugin. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to add social networking features to your Elementor-created pages and posts.
  • Polylang: Polylang is a popular WordPress multilingual plugin. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to create multilingual websites with Elementor.
  • Contact Form 7: Contact Form 7 is a popular WordPress contact form plugin. It integrates with Elementor to make it easy to add contact forms to your Elementor-created pages and posts.
  • Elementor Addons: Elementor Addons is a premium plugin that adds a variety of additional widgets and features to Elementor. It’s a great option for users who want to extend the functionality of Elementor.
  • The Pack: The Pack is another premium plugin that adds a variety of additional widgets and features to Elementor. It’s a great option for users who want to create highly customized websites with Elementor.
  • Khobish: Khobish is a premium plugin that adds a variety of widgets and features for creating magazine-style websites with Elementor.
  • Smart Slider 3: Smart Slider 3 is a premium plugin that adds a variety of sliders and carousels to Elementor. It’s a great option for users who want to create visually appealing websites with Elementor.
  • Extras for Elementor: Extras for Elementor is a free plugin that adds a variety of useful widgets and extensions to Elementor. It’s a great option for users who want to extend the functionality of Elementor without spending any money.
  • Rank Math: Rank Math is a freemium WordPress SEO plugin that integrates with Elementor to make it easy to improve your website’s search engine ranking.

Customer Support

This section explores the strengths and weaknesses of the customer support provided by Squarespace versus Elementor.

Winner is:

When it comes to customer support, Squarespace and Elementor both offer reliable assistance. Squarespace provides 24/7 email support, live chat during weekdays, and a comprehensive knowledge base. On the other hand, Elementor offers a ticket-based support system, extensive documentation, and an active community forum. While both platforms have their strengths, Squarespace takes the lead with its round-the-clock live chat feature, ensuring immediate help when you need it. Overall, Squarespace wins for its robust customer support options, making it a solid choice for individuals and businesses seeking reliable assistance.

Squarespace

Squarespace

  • 24/7 Support: Round-the-clock assistance for immediate help with your website queries and issues.
    • Live Chat: Real-time communication with support agents for quick problem-solving.
  • Help Center: Access a comprehensive knowledge base of articles and guides for self-help and troubleshooting.
  • E-commerce Guidance: Specialized assistance for managing online stores, from products to payments.
  • Design Customization: Expert help in designing and customizing your website to your specifications.
  • Feedback and Requests: Provide input, suggest features, and report issues for ongoing improvements.
Elementor

Elementor

  • Live chat: Elementor offers 24/7 live chat support for all users, regardless of their plan. This is a great way to get quick help with any problems you’re having with Elementor.
  • Email support: Elementor also offers email support for all users. This is a good option for users who want to provide more details about their problem or who want to send a file or screenshot.
  • Knowledge base: Elementor has a comprehensive knowledge base that covers a wide range of topics, from getting started with Elementor to troubleshooting common problems. This is a great resource for users who want to learn more about Elementor or who want to try to solve their own problems before contacting support.
  • Forum: Elementor has a forum where users can ask questions and get help from other Elementor users. This is a great resource for users who want to get help from people who have been using Elementor for a while.
  • Premium support: Elementor offers premium support for users who have purchased the Elementor Pro plan. This includes priority email support, live chat support, and access to the Elementor support team.

Check out how Squarespace and Elementor stack up against other website builder tools on the market.