This is an in-depth post. If you need to, jump to a section by hitting one of the links below.
Right now there are over 600 million blogs online. That’s a lot of content. To stand out in that sea of words, you need to make sure you are on a blogging platform that gives you what you need. With that in mind, I’ve put together an in-depth comparison: Showit vs Squarespace.
By the end of the post, you’ll know which of these two will best suit the needs of your business, and be able to choose the right platform going forward.
What is Showit?
The Showit platform is an online Drag-and-Drop website builder that doesn’t require you to understand an ounce of code. If you can dream it, you can build it on Showit. It is great for Designers, Creatives, Photographers, Stylists, Bakers, Bloggers, Stationers, Realtors, Etc.
This tool allows you to create the look of your website or blog by dragging shapes, images, and text around without touching any code. This means you can create your own website using a simple drag and drop builder process.
This removes the steep learning curve that is found on so many different platforms. In fact, those who choose Showit see this versatility as one of the main reasons for using it.
It’s just for photographers, right?
In its early days, Showit was mainly focused on catering to the photography industry, but now it’s applicable to any business. It made sense right at the very start of it’s development that photographers might use it because it offered full creative control and design freedom. Freelance photographers, for example, could see it as a blank canvas. For this reason, creative entrepreneurs saw it as a ‘best fit’ solution’.
Showit vs Squarespace: Showit features
| Showit | Showit and Basic Blog | Showit Advanced Blog |
| $19 per month | $24 per month | $34 per month |
| Showit website builder | Showit website builder | Showit website builder |
| Secure certificate (HTTPS) | Secure certificate (HTTPS) | Secure certificate (HTTPS) |
| Web hosting with 20 GB of storage | Web hosting with 20 GB of storage | Web hosting with 20 GB of storage |
| Regular design backups every 10 minutes, kept for 7 days | Regular design backups every 10 minutes, kept for 7 days | Regular design backups every 10 minutes, kept for 7 days |
| Ideal for light or beginning blogging and/or you have fewer than 50 posts to migrate | Ideal for frequent blogging and/or you have more than 50 posts to migrate | |
| Up to 10K blog visits per month | Up to 25K blog visits per month | |
| Design your WordPress theme in Showit | Design your WordPress theme in Showit | |
| WP hosting by WP Engine | WP hosting by WP Engine | |
| Daily blog backups, stored for 30 days | Daily blog backups, stored for 30 days | |
| Support for Showit blog design and preinstalled plugins. (Additional plugins are not permitted) | Support for Showit blog design and custom WordPress plugins (including e-commerce plugins) | |
| One WordPress user | Unlimited WordPress users | |
| Simple Blog Migration* (4-day turnaround, includes 50 posts, images, and comments from select platforms) | Free advanced blog migration* (4-day turnaround, includes posts, images, comments, and WordPress plugins) | |
| FTP & database access (Available upon request. Recommended only for advanced users with prior knowledge) |
Showit also runs ‘high traffic’ options for those Showit users with blogs that have 50k plus visitors a month.
One very attractive feature of the Showit platform is it’s WordPress integration. It allows you to achieve the perfect synergy between the beauty of Showit and the high level of blog functionality that WordPress offers. Showit says:
Even though Showit users blog on the WordPress platform, the blog is designed using Showit’s website builder and the blog will still live at the same domain as the Showit website for a seamless end-user experience.
This integration also allows for Showit users to use SEO plugins like Yoast for extra help optimizing their website for search engines.
Showit users will use the WordPress platform for blogging. WordPress is widely considered the best platform for blogging, and this integration allows Showit users to take advantage of the tools available in the WordPress eco-system.
Showit vs Squarespace: Showit website templates
There are 7 website template categories in the drop down menu on Showit. The categories are:
- Blog
- Coaching and Consulting
- Free
- Podcasts
- Portrait photography
- Wedding photography
Showit says that the categories are designed for ‘photographers and creatives’.
Most of you reading this post will be bloggers, so I’ve linked to the ‘blogger’ Showit template section here so you can see what is on offer. All the templates are high quality and highly visual. There is plenty here to help you make a beautiful site. In fact, you can check out Jenna Kutcher and her beautiful website made on Showit for an understanding of just how sleek and professional the results can be.
Showit vs Squarespace: Showit Website designer
The Showit website offers you the chance to get in touch with expert designers on the platform. The designers offer:
- Custom website design
- Template customization
- Branding services
- Hourly design services
Looking at the list of web designers, some of them have 13 years of Showit experience, so if you are truly stuck with your blog design, these guys can help out. They are also able to design landing pages and web pages individually. The Showit site outlines prices for these services too.
Showit vs Squarespace: Is Showit mobile friendly?
The above video walks you through how to make sure your canvas elements show up on mobile devices as well as desktop views. You may not want certain elements to show on mobile, for example, and as you can see from the video, you have complete control of this.
You can design a completely custom mobile site with a unique mobile experience alongside the desktop view. This is where you can make a responsive design that has a simpler feel. Bearing in mind that mobile users are much happier with less to scroll through, this is a great feature.
Showit vs Squarespace: Showit Customer support
While website and blog design can involve a steep learning curve, Showit seems to have taken care of it.
First up on the Showit platform is this video:
It’s pretty helpful and if you’re diving into Showit anytime soon, I suggest you sit through this first.
As if that wasn’t enough, you also have the option of completing a free online course inside the Showit website. There are 9 chapters/videos covering everything from canvases to contact forms, which is good news for bloggers who are dying to get their first blog post live quickly.
The whole thing is also offered in a more traditional ‘course’ format.
Showit vs Squarespace: Squarespace features
| Personal | Business | Basic Commerce | Advanced Commerce | |
| Core | $16 | $26 | $35 | $54 |
| Free custom domain | ||||
| SSL Security | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited bandwith and storage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SEO features for site visibility | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Templates | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contributors | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Mobile-optimzed websites | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7 customer support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Basic website metrics | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Squarespace extensions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google email | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Premium integrations and blocks | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Complete customisation with CSS and JavaScript | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Marketing | ||||
| Advanced website analytics | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Up to $100 Google ad credit | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Promotional pop-ups and banners | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Squarespace Video Studio app | Limited access | Full access | Full access | Full access |
| Commerce | ||||
| Fully-integrated E-Commerce | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Transaction fees | 3% | 0% | 0% | |
| Sell unlimited products | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Accept donations | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Gift cards | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Point of sale | Yes | Yes | ||
| Customer accounts | Yes | Yes | ||
| Checkout on your domain | Yes | Yes | ||
| E-Commerce analytics | Yes | Yes | ||
| Merchandising tools | Yes | Yes | ||
| Products on Instagram | Yes | Yes | ||
| Abandoned cart recovery | Yes | |||
| Sell subscriptions | Yes | |||
| Advanced shipping | Yes | |||
| Advanced discounts | Yes | |||
| Commerce APIs | Yes | |||
| Limited availability labels | Yes | Yes |
Showit vs Squarespace: Squarespace website templates
There are 21 categories of website template on the Squarespace website. They are:
- Marketing
- Magazine
- Design
- Health and Beauty
- Fashion
- Restaurants
- Personal and CV
- Art
- Interior Design
- Music
- Food
- Education
- Fitness
- Travel
- Photography
- Jewelry
- Gaming
- Non-Profit
- Politics
- Technology
- Consulting
They also ask you to submit a template type if you don’t see what you want in that list. So I did.
I typed in ‘Parenting’ and then I saw a number of questions about business goals and my position on my business journey. This part was quite reassuring. It made me think I was being offered some sort of bespoke service.
Then a number of templates were shown to me. All of them were attractive and sleek. To be clear here, I was very impressed with the sheer number of initial template options. In the end, you’re sure to find something that fits your business.
You can also drill down into blog templates, as well as commerce pages and one-page sites. Essentially, the Squarespace website is stacked with templates.
Note: I could not find any ‘Premium templates’ on the Squarespace website. I cannot guarantee there are none though.
Showit vs Squarespace: Squarespace Customer support
This is where Squarespace really shines. If you head to the Squarespace Help Center part of the Squarespace website you will find 22 topics containing guides written by the Squarespace team.
It’s impressive stuff. I dug into the guides a little and I can tell you that it is essentially a complete instruction manual. There is stuff not just on Squarespace, but also setting up a site/blog and growing it. The whole thing is a great option if you like sitting down and getting stuck into detailed written guides.
Then we get into the videos.
There are videos on using analytics too.
And plenty on marketing your site.
I gave up counting when I got to 130 videos. It’s a great effort by Squarespace to ensure that new users don’t feel overwhelmed. The videos are short, simple and easy to understand. There is even content on Google Analytics, which I was quite pleased to see.
Squarespace also offers webinars. These are live and allow you to speak to the Squarespace team. Again, these are pitched at everyone, so even if you have never created your own blog before the webinars are perfect for you.
Finally there are forums on the Squarespace website. These have literally thousands of entries. They cover many topics that would serve small business owners, such as SEO (making sure your site gets found on search engines), selling your services and editing images and videos.
Is Squarespace mobile friendly?
Squarespace says that it’s sites are mobile-responsive. On top of that, many of the templates have ‘mobile specific tweaks’ that allow for more creative freedom and an even better experience for small businesses. This aspect of mobile design is actually quite challenging for most people, but I’m happy to say that Squarespace make it fairly painless to differentiate between mobile and desktop version experiences.
I had a quick look at tweaking my own test website on Squarespace and it was very easy. I have next to zero technical skills and I could quite easily get around the issues.
The verdict
Let’s start by saying that both of these are two very different platforms, but they also both allow you to make a beautiful website.
The Showit designer offers much flexibility along with a solid amount of customer support so that you don’t feel like you’re drowning in tech.
However, even though Squarespace offers a little less flexibility in design choices, I cannot fault the volume of content it has on there to help users. If you put all of those modules, webinars and videos into a course you could charge thousands for it. It is truly comprehensive. And for a small business owner who is short on time, having everything (and more) they need in one place makes a big difference.
Showit make a big thing about their website designers. I respect that, because some of them are incredibly experienced and can easily create a bespoke site that suits your business perfectly. But it’s hard not to feel that Squarespace offers so much help that you can cut out the need for an expensive designer and pretty much get it done by yourself.
Both platforms offer drop down website builder operation, but I prefer Squarespace in this area. Maybe it is a little less intimidating. And I’m looking for ease of use and great customer support when I’m paying a subscription, not having to pay hundreds of dollars extra if I want a Premium look. You can get a great look for your site with the help on Squarespace, for the price of a subscription alone.
Both sites offer great mobile optimization, with Squarespace just edging out in front with the choices available when ‘tweaking’ the mobile version of your site.
To sum up…
I like Squarespace. Like I said, both services offer a lot, but Squarespace seems to be the best for a business owner. Also, and this is a weird little niggle, Showit seems to have plenty of beautiful templates and designer websites that kind of look the same.
In the end, Squarespace is quicker to use, simpler and has a ton of help. Also, the business plan on Squarespace offers a lot of features, for a relatively cost-effective outlay.
If you want complete freedom in design (and that isn’t painful for you) go for Showit. But for the busy business owner who just wants the site launched like, yesterday, Squarespace is the best option.
