Leaving WordPress for Squarespace to Host My Creative Content

If you are a creative entrepreneur who is currently using WordPress to host your content, and you are thinking of switching to a different platform, let this blog post serve as a kind of permission slip. Because years ago, when I was thinking of leaving WordPress , I came upon a blog post written by a woman who had just made the leap from WordPress to Squarespace. She explained her reasons and rationale, but all in all what the post did was permit me to let go of all my hang-ups about sticking it out on WordPress and make the leap myself.

I wish I could give a link back to that post that inspired me to leave WordPress, but I can’t. I read it years ago, and I just don’t remember. What I do remember, however, is how it made me feel: relieved.

Let me back up a little bit. I have always enjoyed having a personal presence on the internet. I’m going to date myself a little here, but does anyone remember Yahoo’s GeoCities? Yes, I had one of those. Soon after that, I tried to teach myself HTML, and it didn’t go well. Then, when Dreamweaver hit the market, it was supposed to be so easy and user-friendly. But it was not easy for me. Once again, my hopes were dashed of finding a solution that matched my website ambitions. In the early 2000s, personal blogging and websites weren’t really a thing yet. If you wanted a serious website, you were most likely a business and, therefore, could afford to pay someone to design a site from the ground up.

Then came my introduction to WordPress. Like angels singing from the heavens, THIS would be my path to web nirvana. And it was, for a little while. Up to that point, WordPress was the easiest for me to use. You could get, or buy for really cheap, pretty extensive templates and if needed, hire a developer who could tweak things on the back end that I wanted just a certain way.

There is, however, where the rubber meets the road with WordPress. While serious web developers and designers think that WordPress is for amateurs, for people like me who don’t know (and don’t care to learn) even the basics of CSS or HTML, WordPress is as easy as euclidian geometry. And don’t even get me going on all the plug-ins. A small cottage industry grew out of WordPress third-party extensions, apps, and plug-ins. If you believed every “expert” who listed out the “must-have” add ons for a “successful” WordPress website, by the time you added it all up along with basic hosting fees, you would be paying several hundred dollars a year.

My continued lack of frustration over my ability to edit and maintain my website in a way that was (dare I say) fun and efficient meant that I wasn’t using it as much as I wanted to. The actual content became the afterthought, which is never how it should be.

Fast forward a few more years, during which time I experimented with WYSIWYG web design applications. Adobe came out with MUSE, a non-profit that I volunteer for started using WIX, and then I read the post I mentioned above referencing Squarespace.

I won’t lie. The initial price point for a web subscription on Squarespace made me pause. I mostly use my websites as creative, non-revenue generating platforms. While I promote things like my Etsy shop, etc., I have intentionally chosen not to host advertising on my websites. So paying almost $200 a year seemed a little extravagant. There was also the “taking the easy road” guilt. Part of me felt like I was somehow cutting a corner or taking the easy road by leaving WordPress.

But then I read that post that gave me the nudge I needed to make the switch from WordPress to Squarespace and not look back. Whether she intended to or not, the author of that blog post permitted me to lean into what I love doing: creating content and the confidence to leave all the rest of it behind. By “it,” I mean the headaches, frustration, annoyances, unpredictability, and expense of building and maintaining a WordPress website.

So I made the switch. I manually transferred all my content from my WordPress site to my new Squarespace site. I canceled the subscriptions to various plug-ins, moved my domain to Squarespace, and closed my account with my old hosting provider. A big part of my goal with this transition was to achieve mainstream simplicity. I want just one billing coming from one provider. Period.

While I will not do a hard sell about Squarespace, I want to mention their extensive catalog of templates and customer service. Do your research before settling on a specific template because some offer different features than others. I found their legacy 7.0 platform a better fit for my blogging needs, and not all of their templates can be hosted on that platform.

But should you find yourself confused or something not working, never fear; their customer service is very responsive. If I can’t find the answer to a particular question or issue I might be having after one search on their FAQs or help forums, I immediately go to their chat customer service. I don’t feel one bit guilty about it either because that is, in part, what I am paying for in the subscription fee. I can get the help I always wished I could have when I used the WordPress platform with just a simple click.

So if you are like I was, toiling on WordPress to the point that it is draining you creatively, think about making a switch. It doesn’t have to be to Squarespace. There are other options out there. Just don’t stay with something that isn’t working for you “just because” you feel like you have to. Go to a solution that will really meet your needs so you can be free to put your energy into what you really love.