Squarespace, Wix or WordPress: What's the best website builder for your wellness website?
The one question I get asked the most is what’s the best website builder to choose for my wellness or yoga website?
There is SO much (conflicting) information out there on this topic, which is why many yoga teachers and wellness entrepreneurs feel too overwhelmed to make a decision, which makes them procrastinate the launch of their website for months or even years! That’s why I decided to put together a blog post about the nitty-gritty of website builders so that you can make an informed decision and feel in charge of your website project. After all, education is confidence! And confidence is joy and ease (and we all could use a bit more of that in business :)).
First things first: what is a website builder?
A website builder is a program or a tool that helps you build your website. It’s the so-called “backend” of your website, the behind-the-scenes where you can build your website, add content and edit it. Thanks to all the amazing website builders out there, you can now DIY websites without any coding skills. Some website builders can be a bit more complex than others, requiring more advanced tech skills. The most popular website builders for yoga teachers and service-based wellness entrepreneurs are Squarespace, Wix and WordPress.
I wish I could give you a super simple one-sentence-answer to the question of which website builder to choose. Decision-fatigue is a real thing as a business owner (with 178298392 decisions that need to be made by us every. single. day). Yet, like with most things in life and business, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. I’ve seen web designers trying to convince people to use their preferred website builder, when it really wasn’t the best fit for the unique situation of the client. That’s why I want to empower you with the knowledge to feel clear and educated to make your own informed decision, to get the project DONE and end website overwhelm once and for all - huzzah!
The short answer: The choice of your website builder really depends on what you’re trying to achieve, what your website goals are as well as your overall tech skills. Finally, the time and budget you can invest will also be decisive factors on which builder you choose.
For the longer (and more helpful) answer, read on :).
The most important deciding factor that nobody talks about
Before we dive into the different builders, there’s one very important aspect that is often overlooked in this discussion: website maintenance and confidence.
Website success does not just come from building a website. That’s just one side of the coin. Once the website is online, you have to be able to confidently maintain it. Sure, it’s easy enough to hire a web developer to create you a beautiful website, but if you need to outsource development every time you want to make a simple change, you’re probably going to struggle. Websites are organic and ever-evolving, just like your brand, business and personality.
A good website grows with you, it reflects all elements of your brand and is regularly updated with new content or offers.
A good website supports you in your creativity, instead of limiting it.
Let’s say you have an amazing idea for a new offer or event, but putting it all up on your website feels like a massive hurdle. Also, you never really figured out how to grow your email list with your website, so you don’t have an email community that might be interested in buying your new offer.
That’s just one little example, but it shows one thing: you have to feel confident using the website builder you choose so that you can keep nurturing your website, actively using it as a tool for your business. You have to feel in charge of your website.
This is the MOST important deciding factor for choosing a website builder! If people keep telling you to use WordPress, because they think it’s the best, but you don’t have the tech skills to feel confident working with WordPress and to make quick changes to your website by yourself, then maybe it’s not the best choice for you. If people keep telling you to use Squarespace, but you are tech-savvy and want to have a super customised and scalable website with tons of advanced features, then maybe WordPress could be a better fit.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s compare three of the most popular website builders to help you choose the best one for your wellness business or yoga website.
WordPress
WordPress is a great website builder and definitely one of the most common ones used in business today. It's more versatile than Squarespace and Wix. It has so many diverse features, with an active community developing more and more useful features for it on a daily basis.
WordPress is the middle ground between the traditional way of developing websites (which requires a high level of technical understanding) and the many modern, more accessible website builders. Therefore, you do need a good technical understanding to build and maintain a WordPress website that runs smoothly. And you will probably need to hire a developer to support you with it.
With WordPress, it can also be way harder to achieve a good responsive design if you aren't super techy and experienced (responsive web design means that a website adapts to any different screen size and is great and easy to use on desktop AND mobile, which is super important for your SEO and to rank high in Google searches).
On a positive note, using WordPress gives you the most flexibility and allows you to really create anything you can imagine on your website. There are very few limits with WordPress. If you can dream it (and you know someone who can build it) then you can do it. However, the flip side to this is your time and effort. As a business owner, you already have a notoriously long to-do list, so you want to make sure your website work can be done as easily and efficiently as possible. Are you willing to dedicate the energy and time to learn how to use WordPress to its full potential? Because if not, you will find yourself with a tool that is not only challenging, but one that you’re not using to achieve anything more than you could with a simpler website builder like Squarespace or Wix.
This is why I usually recommend using Squarespace or Wix for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. This way you can spend less time being a web designer and more time doing the things you actually love and have trained for. Both Squarespace and Wix are great website builders, have a similar level of complexity, and come with their own pros and cons.
Squarespace & Wix
Personally, my favourite website builder is Squarespace. I use it for my own website and usually also for my client work (if it fits the needs and requirements of my clients). The main reason why I love Squarespace is that I’m a design geek. I LOVE good design. In my opinion, Squarespace has the most beautiful, professional and sleek design templates out there. So even if you don't have any prior knowledge in web design, it's actually pretty easy to achieve an amazingly sleek and professional design for your DIY website.
Wix also has some great features and positive aspects. For example, it has a great drag and drop website builder, which is really flexible and customisable. Squarespace also has a simple drag and drop website builder, yet it is a bit more limited. On the one hand, this means you are a tiny bit more restricted with Squarespace. On the other hand, it can also help you to keep your design clean and organised (as you cannot just place any element anywhere you like).
Remember, with your website you do not need to reinvent the wheel, most websites end up looking similar in terms of their structures because these layouts have been tried, tested and proven to be the most successful. Instead, it’s far more important that you distinguish yourself by letting your brand shine through with amazing design, a clear and powerful message, a clear call to action that enables website visitors to take the next step, and a consistent tone-of-voice in all your content that reflects you and your personality.
My recommendation: trial it!
Squarespace is my website builder of choice, but I also think that Wix can be a great choice for yoga and wellness professionals/entrepreneurs. In the end, it comes down to which website builder you feel most comfortable working with.
That’s why I recommend to trial both Squarespace and Wix and see which one you find more intuitive (both have free trials, and you can literally sign up in a few clicks). On Wix the trial version is free forever, but with the free trial version your domain name will always feature Wix (for example www.domainname.wix.com). In order to appear professional and trustworthy, it’s important to have your own custom domain, without any other company name in there.
You can then choose the website builder you feel most comfortable and confident using, in order to build your website and to efficiently maintain and nurture it in the future as well
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO KEEP IT SIMPLE
Keep. it. simple. Seriously, we can get so caught up in detail, being so scared to make a wrong decision that sometimes we just avoid making a decision all along. It’s mostly perfectionism that lies underneath the surface of this fear, which makes us procrastinate our work, projects and dreams: if I don’t try, I also can’t be judged and I cannot fail, right? Well, if you never take action and try, you also can’t really succeed and grow and develop.
Being stuck in perfectionism and fear like that can paralyse small business owners. And it holds you back from making the positive impact you could be making with your work! The world needs your work, offers and services, more than ever, all you have to do is take that one first tiny step :).