Why I Left WordPress for Squarespace
If you’re a creative entrepreneur using WordPress to host your content and you’re considering switching to a different platform, let this blog post be your permission slip. Years ago, when I was contemplating leaving WordPress, I stumbled across a blog post by a woman who had just made the leap from WordPress to Squarespace. She shared her reasons and rationale, but what stuck with me most was how her post gave me permission to let go of my hang-ups and take the leap myself.
I wish I could share that post with you, but I can’t—it’s been years, and I don’t remember where I found it. What I do remember is how it made me feel: relieved.
Let’s rewind a bit. I’ve always enjoyed having a personal presence on the internet. I’m going to date myself here, but does anyone remember Yahoo’s GeoCities? Yes, I had one of those. Shortly after, I tried teaching myself HTML, and let’s just say it didn’t go well. Then came Dreamweaver, marketed as an “easy” and “user-friendly” web design tool. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. My hopes for creating a website that matched my ambitions were dashed again.
Back in the early 2000s, personal blogging and websites weren’t the norm. If you wanted a professional-looking site, you were probably a business that could afford to hire a developer to design it from the ground up.
Then I discovered WordPress. It felt like angels were singing from the heavens—this would be my path to web nirvana! And for a while, it was. Compared to what I had tried before, WordPress was the easiest platform to use. You could find (or purchase) affordable templates and, if needed, hire a developer to tweak the design to your liking.
But here’s where WordPress fell short for me. While seasoned web developers view WordPress as amateur-friendly, for someone like me—who neither knows nor wants to learn CSS or HTML—it was as intimidating as Euclidian geometry. Don’t even get me started on the plug-ins. A whole cottage industry has sprung up around third-party extensions, apps, and plug-ins for WordPress. If you followed every “expert” recommendation for must-have tools, the costs added up quickly. Combined with hosting fees, you could easily be paying several hundred dollars a year.
The frustration with editing and maintaining my site became overwhelming. Instead of enjoying the creative process, I found myself bogged down by the technical side. Content creation became an afterthought—and that’s never how it should be.
Over the years, I experimented with other web design tools. Adobe MUSE came and went. A nonprofit I volunteer for started using WIX. And then, I came across that blog post about Squarespace.
I won’t lie—Squarespace’s price point gave me pause. I use my websites as creative outlets, not revenue-generating platforms. While I do promote things like my Etsy shop, I’ve intentionally chosen not to host ads. Paying nearly $200 a year felt like a splurge. On top of that, I felt guilty about “taking the easy road.” Was I cutting corners by leaving WordPress?
That blog post, however, gave me the nudge I needed to let go of the guilt. Whether the author intended it or not, her words gave me permission to lean into what I love—creating content—and leave behind the headaches, frustrations, and expenses of WordPress.
So, I made the switch. I manually transferred all my content to Squarespace, canceled my plug-in subscriptions, moved my domain, and closed my old hosting account. My goal was simplicity: one provider, one bill. Period.
While I won’t do a hard sell for Squarespace, I will say this: their templates and customer service are excellent. Do your research before settling on a template, as they vary in features. Personally, I found their legacy 7.0 platform better suited to my blogging needs.
If you ever run into trouble, Squarespace’s customer service is incredibly responsive. If I can’t find an answer in their FAQs or forums, I go straight to their live chat. And I don’t feel guilty about it—that’s part of what I’m paying for. It’s the kind of support I always wished for on WordPress but never had.
So, if you’re stuck on a platform that’s draining you creatively, consider making a change. It doesn’t have to be Squarespace—there are plenty of options. The important thing is not to stay with something just because you feel you have to. Find a solution that meets your needs so you can focus on what you love.
