In this article, we’ll delve into a comprehensive comparison of two popular website builders: Squarespace vs Strikingly. As an expert, I’ll guide you through their features, usability, pricing, and more, to help you make an informed decision for your online project needs.
Overview
Squarespace and Strikingly are two popular website builders that offer easy-to-use tools for creating stunning websites. Squarespace is known for its sleek designs and robust features, making it a great choice for creative professionals and businesses. On the other hand, Strikingly focuses on simplicity and mobile responsiveness, making it ideal for individuals and small businesses. Both platforms offer drag-and-drop editors, responsive templates, and reliable customer support. When choosing between the two, consider your specific needs and preferences for design, functionality, and ease of use.
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.
Strikingly
Free Plan: Yes
Free Trial: Yes
Price: From $6 per month
Official website: www.strikingly.com
Strikingly is best suited for individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses looking for a user-friendly platform to create and manage simple, stylish, and mobile-optimized websites with no coding required.
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
Strikingly offers an intuitive and user-friendly platform for website creation. High-quality templates and excellent customer service make it a top choice. It’s perfect for beginners and pros alike. Highly recommend for seamless, striking website design! – George Q
Squarespace delivers sleek, user-friendly website designs. Minor issues with customer service, but overall, a reliable and efficient platform. – Yara
Strikingly offers intuitive design, rich templates, and excellent customer support. A few glitches, but overall a solid website builder. – Amelia
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
Strikingly exceeded my expectations! User-friendly interface, stunning templates, and excellent customer support. Made website creation a breeze. Highly recommended for stress-free, professional results. Great value for money. – Sophia
Pros & Cons
This section explores the strengths and weaknesses of these two website builders.
Winner is:
Squarespace and Strikingly are both popular website builders, but they have different strengths. Squarespace offers stunning designs, powerful customization options, and excellent customer support, making it ideal for professional websites or portfolios. However, it can be overwhelming for beginners and lacks some advanced e-commerce features. On the other hand, Strikingly is incredibly user-friendly, perfect for simple websites or personal blogs. It also offers great e-commerce capabilities. Overall, Squarespace wins with its superior design options and flexibility for more complex websites.
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.
Strikingly
Pros:
- Ease of Use: Strikingly offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, making it accessible for beginners with little to no coding experience.
- Mobile-Responsive Design: All Strikingly templates are designed to be responsive, ensuring your website looks good and functions well on various devices.
- Quick Setup: You can have a basic website up and running in a relatively short amount of time due to the streamlined design process.
- One-Page Websites: Strikingly is well-suited for creating simple, one-page websites or landing pages for specific purposes.
- Template Designs: The platform provides a range of professionally designed templates across different categories, allowing you to find a style that fits your needs.
- E-Commerce Integration: Strikingly offers e-commerce functionality, enabling you to set up an online store and sell products.
- Domain Registration: You can register a new domain through Strikingly or connect an existing domain to your site.
- SSL Security: Strikingly provides SSL certificates to secure data transmission between your website and visitors.
- Customer Support: Strikingly offers customer support through various channels, including live chat, email, and a help center.
- App Integrations: The platform supports integration with third-party apps and plugins to enhance your website’s functionality.
Cons:
- Limited Customization: While the drag-and-drop interface is user-friendly, it might be limiting for users who want more advanced customization options or specific design tweaks.
- Template Restrictions: The templates, while visually appealing, can sometimes impose design constraints that may not align with your exact vision.
- Scalability: Strikingly might be less suitable for larger or more complex websites with extensive content or intricate structures.
- E-Commerce Limitations: While it offers e-commerce, Strikingly’s e-commerce capabilities might be less comprehensive compared to dedicated e-commerce platforms.
- SEO Constraints: The level of SEO customization and optimization might be less robust compared to other website builders or content management systems.
- Integration Limitations: While there are third-party integrations available, the range might be more limited compared to platforms with extensive app marketplaces.
- Membership Features: While Strikingly offers membership features, these might be basic and might not fulfill advanced membership site needs.
- Platform Lock-in: Transferring your website from Strikingly to another platform could potentially be challenging due to proprietary design elements.
Website Building Features
This section compares the overall features of Squarespace vs Strikingly.
Winner is:
Squarespace and Strikingly are both website builders with user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces. Squarespace offers a wider range of beautifully designed templates and customization options, making it a better choice for visually stunning websites. In terms of value for money, Squarespace provides more features and flexibility, although it comes at a slightly higher price point. Both platforms offer basic SEO tools and email marketing integrations, but Squarespace has a slight edge with its more advanced SEO capabilities. In terms of security and support, both platforms are reliable, but Squarespace offers more robust customer support options. Overall, Squarespace is the winner for its superior design options and features.
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.
Strikingly
- Easy-to-Use Interface: Strikingly offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that makes it simple for users with little to no technical skills to build a website.
- Mobile-Responsive Design: All templates provided by Strikingly are designed to be responsive, ensuring that your website looks great and functions well on various devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Customizable Templates: Strikingly provides a range of professionally designed templates that you can customize to suit your brand or personal style.
- Domain Registration: You can register a new domain or connect an existing domain to your Strikingly website.
- E-Commerce Integration: For those looking to sell products online, Strikingly offers e-commerce functionality, allowing you to set up an online store with product listings, shopping carts, and payment gateways.
- Blogging Tools: Strikingly includes blogging capabilities, enabling you to create and manage a blog directly on your website.
- Social Media Integration: You can easily integrate your social media profiles and feeds into your Strikingly website.
- SEO Optimization: Strikingly provides tools and features to optimize your website for search engines, helping you improve your online visibility.
- Analytics and Insights: You can integrate website analytics tools to track visitor data and gain insights into your website’s performance.
- Membership and User Registration: Strikingly allows you to create membership-based websites with user registration and login features.
- App Integrations: The platform offers integrations with third-party apps and services, allowing you to add extra functionality to your website.
Ease of Use
This section focuses on ease of use and how beginner-friendly Squarespace and Strikingly are.
Winner is:
When it comes to a user-friendly website builder with a drag-and-drop interface, both Squarespace and Strikingly have their merits. Squarespace offers a more extensive range of customization options and design templates, making it ideal for businesses that require a visually stunning and professional website. On the other hand, Strikingly focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it perfect for individuals or small businesses who want a straightforward and streamlined website. Overall, while both platforms have their strengths, Squarespace takes the crown for its versatility and advanced customization features.
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.
Strikingly
- Intuitive interface: Strikingly’s clean, user-friendly design makes website building a breeze.
- No coding required: Users can easily create professional-looking sites without any technical knowledge.
- Drag-and-drop feature: This functionality simplifies the design process, enabling quick rearrangement of elements on a page.
- Customizable templates: Strikingly boasts a wide array of customizable themes to fit any brand or purpose.
- Seamless editing: Real-time editing allows users to see changes as they happen, enhancing the design experience.
- Clear instructions: The platform provides straightforward guidance, making the building process smooth.
- Flexibility: Strikingly caters to all, from personal blogs to e-commerce sites, with its diverse tool set.
Templates & Designs
This section looks at the themes of Strikingly and Squarespace in terms of in terms of customization, the number of templates, and templates for websites, and e-commerce sites.
Winner is:
Both Squarespace and Strikingly offer a good selection of templates for building websites and e-commerce stores. Squarespace has a wider range of templates and allows for more customization options, giving users more control over the design and layout. On the other hand, Strikingly has a smaller selection of templates, but they are modern and visually appealing. While both platforms have their merits, Squarespace edges out as the overall winner in terms of customization and template options.
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.
Strikingly
- Strikingly offers modern, responsive templates.
- Wide array of design options for all sectors.
- Customizable layouts for personal touch.
- Designs offer seamless navigation experience.
- E-commerce ready templates available.
- Blogging and portfolio designs offered.
- Event and product launch templates.
- Social media integration options.
- SEO-friendly designs for better visibility.
- Unique one-page website designs.
Types of Templates:
- Business and Corporate Templates: These templates are suitable for businesses, startups, and corporate websites. They often feature professional designs with sections for showcasing services, portfolios, team members, and client testimonials.
- Portfolio and Creative Templates: Designed for artists, designers, photographers, and other creatives, these templates emphasize visual appeal and provide spaces for displaying your work in an organized manner.
- Personal and Blogging Templates: Ideal for individuals, bloggers, and writers, these templates focus on content presentation and may include different post formats, featured images, and options for social sharing.
- Online Store and E-commerce Templates: Tailored for selling products online, these templates include product listings, shopping carts, checkout processes, and other e-commerce functionalities.
- Event and Wedding Templates: Suitable for creating event websites or wedding invitations, these templates often have sections for event details, RSVP forms, photo galleries, and more.
- App and Software Templates: Geared towards showcasing apps or software products, these templates may include sections for features, screenshots, testimonials, and download links.
- One-Page and Landing Page Templates: These templates are designed to create single-page websites or landing pages with focused content and clear call-to-actions.
- Nonprofit and Charity Templates: Ideal for nonprofit organizations, these templates often highlight causes, donation options, volunteer information, and impact stories.
- Restaurant and Food Templates: Tailored for restaurants, cafes, or food-related businesses, these templates might feature menus, reservation forms, and high-quality images of dishes.
- Travel and Tourism Templates: Suitable for travel agencies, tour operators, or personal travel blogs, these templates often showcase destinations, itineraries, and travel tips.
- Education and Course Templates: Designed for educators, schools, or online course creators, these templates may include sections for course descriptions, enrollment forms, and lesson materials.
- Health and Wellness Templates: Geared towards health practitioners, wellness coaches, or fitness centers, these templates might highlight services, schedules, and client testimonials.
- Real Estate Templates: Tailored for real estate agents or agencies, these templates often include property listings, contact forms, and interactive maps.
Apps & Integrations
This section explores what apps, plugins, and integrations Squarespace and Strikingly come with.
Winner is:
When it comes to apps, plugins, and integrations, both Squarespace and Strikingly offer a good range of options. Squarespace provides a wide variety of integrations with popular tools like Mailchimp, PayPal, and Google Analytics. Strikingly, on the other hand, offers seamless integration with third-party apps like Shopify, Ecwid, and Stripe. While both platforms offer great options, Squarespace takes the lead with its extensive list of integrations, making it the overall winner in this category. With Squarespace, you can easily connect your website with the tools you already use, enhancing your website’s functionality and user experience.
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.
Strikingly
- Ecwid: An e-commerce platform that enables you to easily add an online store to your Strikingly website, manage products, inventory, and process payments.
- Eventbrite: Integrate Eventbrite to promote and manage events directly from your Strikingly site, allowing visitors to purchase tickets or register for events.
- SoundCloud: Embed SoundCloud audio tracks or playlists on your website to showcase music, podcasts, or other audio content.
- Google Maps: Integrate Google Maps to display your business location, event venues, or other points of interest with interactive maps.
- OpenTable: Allow visitors to make restaurant reservations directly through your Strikingly website using the OpenTable integration.
- Mailchimp: Integrate Mailchimp to collect email subscribers, send newsletters, and manage your email marketing campaigns.
- LiveChat: Add live chat functionality to your website, enabling real-time communication with visitors and potential customers.
- YouTube and Vimeo: Embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo to showcase video content directly on your site.
- Facebook Pixel: Integrate Facebook Pixel for tracking website visitor behavior and running targeted advertising campaigns on Facebook.
- Google Analytics: Integrate Google Analytics to track and analyze website traffic, user behavior, and other valuable insights.
- Stripe: Enable online payments and transactions through credit cards with the Stripe integration.
- Zapier: Connect Strikingly with other apps and automate workflows using Zapier’s integration capabilities.
- Chatra: Add a live chat widget to your website for instant customer support and interaction.
- Tawk.to: Incorporate another live chat solution to engage with website visitors in real time.
- Disqus: Enable commenting and discussion on your blog posts or content using the Disqus commenting system.
- HubSpot: Integrate HubSpot’s marketing and sales tools to manage leads, customer interactions, and inbound marketing efforts.
Customer Support
This section explores the strengths and weaknesses of the customer support provided by Squarespace versus Strikingly.
Winner is:
When it comes to customer support, both Squarespace and Strikingly offer reliable assistance. Squarespace provides 24/7 email support and live chat during business hours. Their Help Center is comprehensive, with articles, videos, and community forums. On the other hand, Strikingly offers 24/7 live chat and email support. They also have a resourceful Help Center with guides and tutorials. Overall, Squarespace takes the lead with its extensive help resources and round-the-clock support options, making it the winner for customer support.
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.
Strikingly
- 24/7 Support: Strikingly provides around-the-clock customer support to address any issues or questions you may have, ensuring that help is available whenever you need it.
- Live Chat: The live chat feature allows you to connect with a support representative in real-time for immediate assistance and guidance.
- Email Support: You can contact Strikingly’s support team via email to receive personalized help and answers to your inquiries.
- Responsive Support: Strikingly’s support team should be responsive to inquiries, ensuring timely assistance for any issues you encounter.
- Ticket System: You might have the option to submit support tickets for specific issues, which allows you to track the progress of your request.
- Social Media: Strikingly may provide support and updates through their official social media channels, offering another way to stay informed and connected.
- Help Center: Strikingly’s help center includes a comprehensive knowledge base with articles, tutorials, and step-by-step guides to assist users in using the website builder effectively.
- Community Forum: Strikingly may offer a community forum where users can interact, ask questions, share tips, and learn from each other’s experiences.
- Video Tutorials: Video tutorials and guides may be available to visually walk you through various tasks and features within the website builder.
- Webinars and Workshops: Strikingly might organize webinars or workshops to provide in-depth training and insights on using their platform effectively.
- In-App Help: The website builder interface may include tooltips, pop-ups, or contextual help to guide you through different features while building your site.
- Feedback and Suggestions: Strikingly may encourage users to provide feedback and suggestions, helping them improve their platform based on user needs.
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