The Easiest Website Builders to Use for Beginners (and Why I Choose Squarespace)
This is a sponsored post in partnership with Squarespace. However, everything I share in this article is based on my own experiences and opinions. I first started using Squarespace back in 2013 for a personal website and ever since 2018 when I started my website design business and it’s the only web builder I use for my clients websites.
I’m a big believer that you should choose a website platform based on what actually works for you and your business, which is why I’ve shared my honest thoughts and past experiences with WordPress, Shopify, Wix and Squarespace throughout this article.
I’ve been designing websites now for over 15 years and honestly, I wouldn’t call myself techy, even now. And that, for me, has been the beauty of designing websites in Squarespace – you don’t have to be a tech genius in anyway whatsoever to build a beautiful, client-converting professional website.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the choices out there on which simple website builder to use, I’m going to share some personal stories from my own journey and what I think of each platform I’ve used from – Wordpress, Shopify, Wix to Squarespace.
Before we go into my personal platform experiences, I wanted to quickly go into…
What does “easy” actually mean?
Before we get into my personal experiences with each website builder, I think it’s worth explaining what I actually mean when I say a website platform is easy to use.
For me, easy doesn’t mean it has the least amount of features or that it can only do basic things. In fact, I think all of these platforms can do a lot.
What I mean by easy is that I can get into the website, see what I’m doing, make the changes I want to make and actually see how it’s going to look on the live website without needing to understand loads of technical stuff.
I want to be able to move things around, change my images, edit my words, add a form or a video and make my website look professional without feeling like my heads going to explode.
And perhaps most importantly, I think easy means being able to manage your website yourself once it’s built (for my clients especially and you). You shouldn’t have to pay a designer every single time you want to change a word, swap an image or add something new.
And a Quick Note on Dispelling SEO Myths
You may or may not know about SEO/GEO at this stage of your journey if you’re at the beginning. But if you don’t know, it is a way of how people can find your business online by searching for it.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization (Google, Yahoo etc)
GEO – Generative Engine Optimization (AI search)
I want to dispel the myth around people saying one platform is better than another.
I believe that as long as you write great copy (the words on your website) that speak to your clients problems with solutions and features words/phrases they may be searching for online - then you’re good. Also writing lots of blogs helps with this.
Don’t let people tell you that Wordpress is the only way for great SEO/GEO. I have a friend with a 7-figure business where all her clients came from organic SEO done on her Squarespace website.
Right, myth busted, let’s do this!
Wordpress Woes: why I don't recommend WordPress for beginners
A little background on how I started in web design, how it became my business and why Wordpress could have actually been the determining factor in why it almost didn’t become my career.
I studied fashion design at university and went on to become a fashion designer for ten years in London. When I first started in 2008, online shopping was only just beginning and within a couple of years it was becoming a huge part of our business model.
Then all of a sudden our company CEO was asked onto a national TV show and overnight our website crashed from inbound traffic and I found myself becoming a website designer overnight!
Literally no idea what I was doing, I started designing things in Photoshop and would send my designs to the IT company we hired, hoping they could make it into a website using Wordpress.
You see, if you're going to use Wordpress it is absolutely something you’d want a specialist IT person to do for you because it is so hard for a beginner to understand, in my opinion.
It felt like my head was going to explode when I would be in the backend* of Wordpress. There’s no way for you to see if what you’re editing in the backend is looking how you want it to look on the frontend*.
*If you don’t know what backend/frontend means (website lingo)…
Backend means the ‘back office’ of your website where you do all of the editing of your website, where you’ll find your website analytics, settings etc.
Front means everything that your customer will see on the live website.
So yeah, if you’re a beginner and you want an easy website builder, Squarespace is the one! But I’ll get to why after I take you on my website builder journey of Shopify and Wix.
Also I don’t like how with Wordpress you have to pay for lots of different things separately from hosting to security to plugins to templates and you also have to stay on top of updating them. It all feels very very complicated and convoluted. With Squarespace they do it all for you and it automatically updates everything. Perfect!
Pros and Cons of Wordpress
Pros: Has a lot of capabilities, can probably do absolutely anything you want (but do you need it to?)
Cons: You’ll likely need an IT specialist to unlock those capabilities and making edits yourself can feel like one wrong click might fry your brain or your website!
Things break easily if you don’t stay on top of updates.
Shopify is for Selling: great for products, not so great for building a brand
Back in 2016, I was feeling a pull that there was more to life than where I was currently at in my career, I didn’t know what that looked like but I felt it.
I was really into inspirational quotes at the time and I wanted a cool quote phone case. Everything was super cheesy so I decided to create my own and sell them.
And it was (ahem…not to toot-toot of my own horn) rather successful! Within months my business was appearing in national magazines, with a full page feature in Cosmopolitan.
I sold my phone cases on Shopify. I’d never really built an in depth website on my own before. Previously I’d always designed it in Photoshop and let the IT people build it in Wordpress – again newbies do not use Wordpress IMO.
I found Shopify to be fairly easy to figure out and I designed my new site. It’s very comprehensive as a platform and a great one if you want to be selling products only. You can really grow and scale with Shopify. It also feels a reasonable price point for using their website builder platform.
My only caveat for you with Shopify is this…
I personally don’t think it’s a great platform to build a brand especially if you are a service based business, like a coach or consultant.
I believe building a brand is incredibly important and powerful in this very dominated world of AI right now. People want to buy from people and if you’re a new business owner or newly creating your first website - you have to make sure you stand out - that’s where your story comes into play.
I didn’t find the platform very intuitive in brand building as it was more about how best to promote a physical product and I wanted to tell more of a story and that wasn’t easy to do.
That’s why I think Squarespace is the best website builder for a small business – because you can build a brand and tell a story so easily in Squarespace.
After a couple of years with my product based business, I realised my heart wasn’t in it but what I did discover was that I loved building the brand and doing what I could on the website, even if it felt limited for what I wanted to do.
That’s when I thought about how I could create a business around my branding and website skills, but it wouldn’t be done on Shopify.
Pros and Cons of Shopify
Pros: Great platform for selling products, huge capabilities. Competitive on pricing for transaction fees.
Cons: Not so great at brand storytelling which can be a huge disadvantage for small businesses with not lots of products but a great story
Ecommerce Quick Check-in
Most people get quite excited at the start of their businesses, thinking, I want to be selling thousands of products in the future. That’s great. I believe we should all have high expectations and goals. But at the beginning of your journey, it may not quite look like that.
I believe having a website that tells your story better with a strong brand (Squarespace) and showcases the few products you have right now is much better than using Shopify when you know for the next 5+ years you won’t have lots of products and SKU’s.
My jewellery designer friend has used Wix for 10+ years, it took her a few years to get to 6-figures in her business and I know she wishes she’d started on an easier website like Squarespace to make her brand really elevated. More so than joining Shopify.
Wix Wobbles: why I found it harder to use than Squarespace
When I left London after 13 years for the Cotswolds (beautiful English countryside), I made lots of friends with local businesswomen. One of my now very good friends hosts her website on Wix. She was asking me for some help on tweaking a few things on her site, so I said sure, let me see what I can do.
And let me tell you, I did not find it easy. Perhaps I’m so used to Squarespace's easy website builder, but I didn’t find it very intuitive for the simple finer details where you can really make a website feel exceptional.
The way the site looked on mobile wasn’t great and the editing features trying to make it look better were very complex, in my opinion. I was so wanting to help my friend but I just couldn’t figure out how to do the very simple things I wanted to do.
My friend’s actually thinking of updating her website after she had some professional branding done for her jewellery business. She’s going to leave the platform for either Shopify or Squarespace. She can’t decide if she wants the more comprehensive shopping capabilities that Shopify offers or the beautiful brand storytelling capabilities of Squarespace.
I’m voting Squarespace obviously as it’s such a simple website builder that she’ll be able to update herself very easily. She’s very talented and creative and I know she’d be able to learn how to use the platform within an hour or so, just because it’s so intuitive. It’s as easy to use I think as Canva, which if you know Canva, you know what a joy it is to use.
Oh and finally about Wix, I don’t think that Wix is any better at ecommerce than Squarespace. So why would you use Wix when Squarespace is way better at creating a more visually appealing professional website?
I think Wix and Squarespace are probably the most similar of platforms when pitted against one another. Some people may say that Wix has better SEO and granted my jewellery business friend’s SEO is incredible on Wix but I have friends with multiple 6-figure businesses and 7-figure businesses and their whole marketing strategy is SEO and blogging who have done that on their Squarespace sites. Plus both are of a similar price point yet Squarespace is way easier to use.
Pros and Cons of Wix
Pros: They’re one of the biggest website builders on the market so they must be doing something right, I just never clicked with it. Don’t have many pro’s from my side - sorry Wix
Cons: I didn’t enjoy the backend editing capabilities of this website builder for ease of use especially when it came to how it translated on mobile
Simple, Stylish & Easy-to-Use Squarespace: the beginner-friendly platform I fell in love with
How and why I chose Squarespace to start building websites on
I first used Squarespace back in 2013 to build a portfolio to showcase my designs for new job role opportunities, I’d heard it was an easy website builder and it was.
Remember I’d never actually built a website at this point, just designed them in Photoshop for our IT team to build in Wordpress.
And boy oh boy was Squarespace easy to use, I picked it up instantly, having never done anything like this before.
I was able to make my designs look super beautiful and presented in such a professional manner within just a few clicks.
Fast forward to 4 years later, I’d created my phone case business on Shopify and knew I didn’t want to sell products anymore but rather my branding and website design services. I knew I’d be able to design great websites if only I could find an easy website builder…
That’s when I remembered Squarespace from when I created a Portfolio site.
Right there and then I went on the platform to try it out and it was just the best feeling in the world when I was able to make a mock website that looked incredible within a couple of hours.
Within two months of rediscovering the genius of this platform, I quit my job of 10 years and set up my business as a branding and website designer.
9+ years later, multiple 6-figures in revenue and I still love Squarespace and think it’s the best website builder for small businesses.
What ultimately made Squarespace feel different?
For me Squarespace feels different because it’s such a simple website builder and incredibly effective.
I know many other platforms may say that but honestly I’ve looked at the others and none of them can touch Squarespace on just the pure intuitive way you’re able to build a website page.
As a designer at heart, I love creating pages on a website from a blank page where I get to add the text or an image where I want it, add a contact form, a video - everything as and where I want it to go. I just love how easy it is to do.
What’s great for people who perhaps don’t see themselves as super creative but want an easy, client attracting website - there are pre-made templates.
Squarespace has created a wide variety of website templates, pre-made for you to edit. You can pick them based on design or colour style OR by industry.
All of the templates you can simply change the images or colours, edit the text and whatever else you want to change.
Each website page is broken up into sections that you can edit individually. If you like a certain section on a page, you can simply favourite that section and add it straight into another page. This new feature is something that is a gamechanger in making designing/building your website so much easier and quicker.
Why being able to manage a site without deep technical knowledge matters
What I love about what I do as a designer is that I’m really not very technical at all, almost embarrassingly so. I have so many web designer friends who talk about coding and other technical stuff that goes over my head but I don’t care because I don’t need to know that stuff to be able to create awesome websites using Squarespace.
My clients absolutely love the platform because it’s such a simple website builder. They’re able to make changes themselves without having to have any technical knowledge.
I have a library of resource videos just like Squarespace does, and they’ll look at them or to be honest, more often than not, they’ve told me they just go straight into the site and do it without watching a video because it’s just so intuitive to edit and change what they want. This would be the same for you if you chose one of Squarespace's pre-made templates.
You should be able to manage your website on your own without having to pay someone each and every time you need to make a change.
Whether you’re deciding to do it yourself (DIY) or hire someone to do it for you but want to choose your designer based on the platform they use, you should always feel like you can manage it yourself without having deep technical knowledge.
You also don’t need to worry about updating security or plugins, the idea of that sort of technical sounding stuff would scare my clients to bits and me too. With Squarespace it’s all done for you within their system automatically. You just need to pay for one monthly recurring or annual payment plan - no extras!
Basic Bits you can do in Squarespace
You can add…
Videos
Scheduling
Calendar
Audio
Moving words
Animated images
Social Links
Instagram Integration
Open Table
Menus
Maps
Forms
And it does so much more…
It’s more than an easy website builder. You might not need all those other tools you’ve maybe been thinking about…
All your business tools in one place, less to pay for.
If all my waxing lyrical hasn’t persuaded you that I think Squarespace is the way to go if you’re a complete beginner or early-stage entrepreneur (freelancers, coaches, consultants, creatives, local businesses, side-hustlers) then this just might…
Squarespace has built an incredible eco-system of tools they believe any small business owner may need as they start, scale and grow their businesses.
All your business tools in one place (less subscription fees)
Invoicing & Pay Links
Courses (Content)
Memberships
Blogging
Donation capabilities
Email Marketing
E-commerce
Pros and Cons of Squarespace
Pros: I mean where do I begin? Squarespace is the simplest and most easy to use website builder I think there is out there. The platform also has incredible features like invoicing, email marketing and courses & membership capabilities that you can use from the start or as your business grows.
Cons: For what I need, I legitimately don't have any cons aside from wishing that the mobile layout flowed better without my having to double check it. But I’ve researched it and every platform out there is the same, so not just a Squarespace thang – plus it’s always good to check how things perform on mobile.
Final Verdict…
Pricing in General Across all Platforms
Personally I think when you’re looking at any easy website builder all the prices are fairly competitive with one another. I wouldn't be going off the price point as I think it would only be a few dollars, pounds, euros etc than another one. I believe you should be more focused on the platform that you like the sound of the most.
Are you going to have hundreds of products to sell? Go Shopify.
Have you got the most complex capability business that needs an IT team to handle the in-depth structure you need for your site to deliver what it needs to deliver? Go Wordpress
Do you want to attract your dream clients by showcasing what you do in the best possible professional way by telling a brand story on an easy website builder? Go Squarespace.
Don’t choose off pricing, as like I said, there’s not much in it and if you go for the cheaper one even though your gut was saying, I’ve watched the videos on YouTube showing how to use this platform and I didn’t really like it but it was cheaper – you won’t be happy in the long run.
Advice I’d give a beginner choosing their first website platform
If you don’t know how to build your own website, you want it to be as easy as possible to use without feeling like you need a computer science degree and that’s why I recommend Squarespace.
All the platform builders will be good for SEO/GEO, so don’t let that sway you to one or another.
Don’t get stressed and overwhelmed thinking because you want to make multiple 6-figures or 7-figures, that you should start on the platform you want to grow into. The platform that costs $150 a month with a super duper all in one system or something bespoke that someone can build you for $$$ - No, don’t do it!!!
All of the platforms I’ve mentioned will be absolutely big enough and capable enough for you to grow into, just because you’re a beginner doesn’t mean the platforms featured don’t cater for huge businesses.
Finally, I would go on YouTube and search for “a quick tutorial on how to use [insert platform name]” and see which one from the platforms you’ve been thinking about, looks the easiest for you to use.
I really wasn’t bothered personally about the capabilities of what each platform can do as it’s all a bit of a muchness – in that they’re all great website builders in their own right.
I just wanted one that was easy to use, it was as simple as that. I found that in Squarespace.
It’s a bloody great website builder and it’s helped me to build some pretty incredible websites. You can view my portfolio here to see a selection of the types of site I was able to create VERY easily on Squarespace.
I hope this was helpful and please do leave a comment below if you have any questions that I can help you with.
Good luck on your journey,
Liz xx
Frequently Asked Questions
for some fire round questions / answers you may have…
What is the easiest website builder for beginners?
If you’re a beginner and want an easy website builder, Squarespace is my top recommendation. It’s intuitive, visually simple to edit and you don’t need deep technical knowledge or coding experience to create a professional website.
Is Squarespace good for beginners?
Yes. Squarespace is particularly good for beginners because you can choose a pre-made template, edit the text, images and colours, and build your website section by section without needing to understand complicated website technology.
Is Squarespace good for small businesses?
Yes. I recommend Squarespace for small businesses because it makes it easy to build a professional website that showcases what you do while telling your brand story. It also has business tools including blogging, email marketing, invoicing, courses, memberships and ecommerce as your business grows.
Do I need coding experience to use Squarespace?
No. You don’t need coding experience or deep technical knowledge to build and manage a Squarespace website. One of the reasons I recommend it is that you can make changes yourself without needing to understand coding, plugins or website security.
Should I choose a website platform based on price?
I wouldn’t. Website builder prices are generally fairly competitive, so I recommend choosing the platform that feels easiest and most intuitive for you rather than simply choosing the cheapest option. The right platform is one you’ll actually enjoy using and can manage confidently.
Is Squarespace good for SEO and GEO?
Yes. I don’t believe you need to choose WordPress over Squarespace purely for SEO or GEO. Good website copy that addresses your ideal clients’ problems, uses relevant search phrases and answers the questions people are searching for, alongside regular blogging, can help your website be found online.
Is Squarespace good for a service-based business?
Yes. Squarespace is particularly suited to service-based businesses such as coaches, consultants, creatives, freelancers and other small businesses that need to showcase their expertise and build a strong brand. Its visual approach makes it easy to tell your story and create a professional website.
Is Shopify or Squarespace better for a small business?
It depends on what you’re selling. Shopify is a strong choice if your business is primarily focused on selling lots of physical products and needs extensive ecommerce capabilities. If you’re a small or service-based business where your brand, story and professional presentation are important, I prefer Squarespace.
Is WordPress easy to use for beginners?
In my experience, no. I found WordPress much harder for a beginner to understand because of its backend editing system, updates, plugins, security and separate costs. I believe WordPress is better suited to businesses with more complex requirements and access to an IT specialist.
Is Wix easy to use for beginners?
Wix is one of the biggest website builders and can be a good option for some businesses, but I personally didn’t find it as intuitive as Squarespace, particularly when making detailed edits and checking how the website translated onto mobile.
Can I manage a Squarespace website myself?
Yes. One of the biggest advantages of Squarespace is that you can make changes yourself without needing deep technical knowledge. You can edit your website directly and don’t need to pay a designer every time you want to make a small change.
What should I look for when choosing my first website platform?
For a first website, I’d prioritise ease of use, how intuitive the platform feels and whether you can manage it yourself. Don’t feel you need to choose the most advanced or expensive platform just because you want your business to grow. The platforms in this article are all capable of supporting growing businesses.
Do I need an expensive website platform if I want to grow my business?
No. You don’t need to start with an expensive or highly complex website platform just because you have ambitions to build a six- or seven-figure business. A beginner-friendly platform can still give you plenty of room to grow as your business develops.
How do I know which website builder is right for me?
Try before you decide. My recommendation is to search YouTube for a quick tutorial on each website platform you’re considering and see which one looks easiest for you to use. I personally chose Squarespace because ease of use was my priority.