Squarespace vs. Showit: An Honest Comparison
I've built websites on both Squarespace and Showit. I've loved both platforms. I've also been frustrated by both platforms.
And here's the truth: neither one is "better." They're just different, and the right choice depends entirely on what you need, how you work, and what stage of business you're in.
If you're trying to decide between the two (or you're curious why I'm migrating my own site from Showit to Squarespace), this is the post for you.
This isn't a sales pitch for either platform. It's an honest assessment based on years of experience building client sites and managing my own online presence on both. I'm going to share the real strengths and real challenges of each so you can make an informed decision for your business.
Why this comparison matters
Choosing your website platform is one of the most important decisions you'll make for your online business. It affects everything from how much time you spend on maintenance to what features you can offer to how easily you can update your site.
Switch platforms later? It's possible, but it's not fun. I'm doing it right now, and while I'm confident it's the right move for my business, the migration process is significant. You're essentially rebuilding your entire site.
So it's worth taking the time to understand your options before you commit.
The two platforms I'm comparing today, Squarespace and Showit, are both popular in the creative and service-based business world. You'll find passionate advocates for each. And both can create beautiful, functional websites in the right hands.
But they're designed with different philosophies and serve different needs.
Understanding the fundamental difference
Before we get into the details, let's talk about the core difference between these platforms. Understanding this will help everything else make sense.
Showit is a design-first platform. It was built for designers who want complete creative control. Think of it like Photoshop or Canva for websites. You can place elements anywhere on the page, pixel by pixel. There's no grid system constraining you. If you can imagine it, you can build it.
This makes Showit incredibly powerful for creating unique, custom layouts. But it also means you're responsible for making all those design decisions. The platform doesn't guide you or constrain you. That freedom is both its greatest strength and, for some people, its biggest challenge.
Squarespace is a template-first platform. It was built for people who want beautiful, professional websites without needing to be designers. You start with a template (which you can customize extensively), and you work within a structured system.
This structure makes Squarespace faster to learn and easier to maintain. But it also means you have less design flexibility. You're working within the platform's framework rather than having total creative freedom.
Neither approach is inherently better. They're just different philosophies serving different needs.
What Showit does well
Let's start with Showit's strengths, because there are many. This platform has earned its passionate following for good reasons.
Complete design flexibility
This is Showit's signature feature. You have pixel-perfect control over every element on your page. Want that headline exactly 247 pixels from the top? You can do that. Want an image to overlap text in a specific way? No problem. Want a completely custom layout that doesn't follow any conventional grid? Go for it.
This level of control allows you to create truly unique websites. No two Showit sites have to look alike (though many do, because people often copy popular designers' layouts, but that's a different issue).
For photographers, artists, and other visual creatives who want their website to be as much a piece of art as a functional tool, this flexibility is invaluable.
Beautiful drag-and-drop interface
Showit's builder is genuinely intuitive once you understand how it works. Everything is visual. You see what you're building in real time. There's no code. No confusing backend settings. Just drag elements where you want them, style them how you like, and publish.
This visual approach feels more accessible than working in a traditional website builder where you're navigating through menus and settings.
WordPress blog integration
Showit integrates with WordPress for blogging, which means you get access to WordPress's robust blogging features. Categories, tags, RSS feeds, powerful SEO plugins like Yoast, custom post types if you need them.
For businesses where blogging is a primary content strategy and SEO matters a lot, this WordPress integration is a significant advantage.
Great for highly visual portfolios
If your work needs to be the star of your website, Showit lets you showcase it beautifully. You can create custom portfolio layouts, interactive galleries, full-screen images, unique hover effects, anything you can design.
Photographers, in particular, tend to love Showit because they can create portfolio presentations that match their artistic vision without compromise.
Strong template marketplace
There's a thriving marketplace of Showit templates if you want a starting point but still want that custom feel. Many are designed by well-known brand and web designers in the creative space, so the quality is generally high.
Templates give you a professional foundation while still allowing for extensive customization.
Responsive design control
Showit gives you separate canvases for desktop and mobile views. This means you can design your mobile site independently from your desktop site, which allows for optimization that's not possible on platforms where mobile is automatically generated from desktop.
You can make different layout choices for mobile that make sense for how people actually use phones.
Where Showit gets challenging
Now let's talk about the real challenges. These aren't dealbreakers for everyone, but they're important to know about before you commit.
Steeper learning curve
That complete design freedom comes with a cost: you need to know what you're doing. Showit doesn't constrain you, which means it also doesn't guide you.
If you don't have design sensibility or experience, you can easily create a site that looks unprofessional. Spacing might be inconsistent. Elements might not align properly. The mobile version might not translate well from your desktop design.
Most people need to invest significant time learning the platform or hire a designer who already knows it.
Separate mobile design required
Remember that responsive design control I mentioned as a strength? It's also a challenge. You have to design your mobile site separately. What looks great on desktop won't automatically translate to mobile in a functional way.
This essentially means you're designing two complete websites: one for desktop and one for mobile. That's double the work.
For some people, this control is worth it. For others, it's a frustrating extra step.
WordPress integration can be clunky
While the WordPress blog integration gives you powerful blogging features, it also means you're managing two systems. Showit for your pages, WordPress for your blog.
The design of your blog posts happens in WordPress, not in Showit's visual builder. This means there's often a disconnect in how your main site looks versus how your blog looks. You need to spend time styling your WordPress blog to match your Showit pages.
Also, if you're not familiar with WordPress, there's another platform to learn.
More time-intensive to build and maintain
Because you have so much control, building a Showit site takes longer. Every element needs to be placed intentionally. Every page needs to be designed for both desktop and mobile.
And maintenance is ongoing. Want to update your navigation? You might need to update it on multiple pages. Want to change a font? You need to manually update it in multiple places (unless you've been very strategic about using global elements).
There are ways to work efficiently in Showit, but it requires more active management than more automated platforms.
Higher cost
Showit is more expensive than Squarespace. Plans start at $19/month for basic sites and go up to $39/month for advanced features, compared to Squarespace's $16-$49/month range.
The difference isn't huge, but it's worth considering, especially for new businesses watching every expense.
Best for: Photographers, visual creatives, and designers
Showit makes the most sense if you're someone who:
Wants complete creative control over your design
Has design skills or budget to hire a designer
Has time to invest in building and maintaining a more complex site
Is primarily showcasing visual work (photography, art, design)
Values uniqueness over convenience
What Squarespace does well
Now let's look at Squarespace's strengths. This platform has become incredibly popular for good reason.
Beautiful, professional templates
Squarespace templates are genuinely gorgeous. They're designed by professional designers with modern aesthetics, clean layouts, and thoughtful user experience built in.
You can customize these templates extensively (colors, fonts, layouts, images), but you're starting from a strong foundation. You don't need to make every design decision from scratch.
This means even people without design backgrounds can create professional-looking websites.
Intuitive, streamlined builder
Squarespace's editor is straightforward. Add a section, choose a layout, add your content. The interface guides you through the process without being restrictive.
Most people can figure out the basics in an afternoon. Building a complete site might take a few days to a week, compared to weeks or months with Showit if you're learning as you go.
Automatic mobile responsiveness
This is huge. Design your desktop site, and Squarespace automatically generates a mobile version that works. You can make adjustments to the mobile view, but you don't have to design it from scratch.
This cuts your design time in half and ensures your mobile site actually functions well.
All-in-one platform
Everything you need is built into Squarespace. Blogging, scheduling, email campaigns, analytics, ecommerce, member areas, forms, galleries. You're not integrating multiple third-party tools or managing separate systems.
This integration makes everything simpler. One login, one dashboard, one consistent interface.
Built-in blogging with good SEO
Squarespace's native blogging is solid. It's not as powerful as WordPress, but for most businesses, it's more than enough. Categories, tags, author profiles, related posts, scheduling, SEO settings.
And because it's all in the same system as your main site, your blog automatically matches your site's design. No separate styling needed.
Strong SEO foundations
Squarespace handles a lot of technical SEO automatically. Clean URLs, automatic sitemaps, mobile optimization, fast loading times, SSL certificates, structured data for certain content types.
You still need to do the content SEO work (good titles, descriptions, alt text), but the technical foundation is solid out of the box.
Built-in scheduling and email marketing
Squarespace includes Acuity Scheduling (for booking appointments) and email campaign tools. These aren't just tacked on, they're well-integrated into the platform.
This means you can run much of your business through one system rather than managing multiple subscriptions and integrations.
More affordable pricing
Squarespace plans range from $16/month to $49/month depending on features. For most service-based businesses and small creative businesses, the $23/month or $33/month plans are sufficient.
This is comparable to or less than Showit, especially when you factor in that you're getting scheduling, email marketing, and ecommerce included.
Excellent customer support and resources
Squarespace has extensive documentation, video tutorials, webinars, email support, and chat support. If you get stuck, there are resources to help you figure it out.
The platform also has a large user community, so you can find answers to most questions with a quick search.
Where Squarespace has limitations
No platform is perfect. Here are Squarespace's real limitations.
Less design flexibility
You're working within the platform's structure. While you can customize a lot, you can't place elements anywhere you want. You're choosing from preset layouts and working within a grid system.
For most businesses, this structure is helpful rather than limiting. But if you have a very specific design vision that doesn't fit within Squarespace's framework, you might feel constrained.
Custom code required for advanced customization
If you want to do something beyond the platform's built-in capabilities, you need to use custom CSS or JavaScript. This means either learning to code or hiring someone who can.
Showit, by contrast, lets you achieve a lot through its visual builder without touching code.
Templates can start to look similar
Because everyone is working from the same template set, Squarespace sites can start to look similar if you don't customize thoughtfully. You'll see certain layouts and design patterns repeated across different businesses.
This doesn't mean your site has to look generic, but it does mean you need to put thought into customization to make it feel uniquely yours.
Less control over blog design
While Squarespace's blogging is good, you have less control over blog post layouts compared to WordPress. You're working within the templates the platform provides.
For most bloggers, this is fine. But if you want highly custom blog post designs with unique layouts for different post types, you'll feel limited.
Best for: Service-based businesses, coaches, consultants
Squarespace makes the most sense if you're someone who:
Wants a professional site without a steep learning curve
Values efficiency and ease of maintenance over complete design control
Runs a service-based business (coaching, consulting, therapy, etc.)
Wants everything (website, blog, scheduling, email) in one place
Prefers working within a structure rather than starting from a blank canvas
Doesn't have extensive design experience or budget for a designer
Side-by-side comparison of key features
Let me break down some specific features so you can compare directly.
Design flexibility:
Showit: Complete freedom, pixel-perfect control
Squarespace: Structured templates with customization options
Learning curve:
Showit: Steeper, requires design sensibility
Squarespace: Gentler, guided by templates
Time to build:
Showit: Longer (weeks to months for a full custom site)
Squarespace: Faster (days to a couple weeks)
Mobile responsiveness:
Showit: Manual (you design mobile separately)
Squarespace: Automatic (with ability to make adjustments)
Blogging:
Showit: WordPress integration (powerful but separate system)
Squarespace: Native blogging (less powerful but integrated)
SEO:
Showit: Good with WordPress plugins
Squarespace: Good built-in technical SEO
Ecommerce:
Showit: Limited (requires third-party integration)
Squarespace: Robust built-in ecommerce
Scheduling/booking:
Showit: Requires third-party integration (like Acuity or Calendly)
Squarespace: Built-in Acuity Scheduling
Email marketing:
Showit: Requires third-party platform (like Flodesk or ConvertKit)
Squarespace: Built-in email campaigns
Pricing:
Showit: $19-$39/month
Squarespace: $16-$49/month (more features included)
Support:
Showit: Email support, community forum, tutorials
Squarespace: Email and chat support, extensive documentation, webinars
Why I'm making the switch from Showit to Squarespace
I built my original Sage Blossom Creative website on Showit because I loved the creative freedom. I'm a designer, I have the skills to use the platform well, and I wanted a site that felt completely unique.
And it was beautiful. Custom layouts, unique interactions, exactly the aesthetic I envisioned.
But as my business has evolved over the past year, I've realized that what I need from my website has changed.
Here's what's driving my decision to migrate to Squarespace:
I want simplicity over customization
I used to love spending time fine-tuning my website design. Now I see that time as something I could be spending on client work or creating content.
I don't need pixel-perfect control anymore. I need a site that works well and that I can update quickly without thinking about design decisions every time.
I want everything in one place
Managing Showit and WordPress separately was fine when I had more time. Now I want a streamlined system where everything lives in one place. Website, blog, scheduling, email, analytics, all in one dashboard with one login.
The all-in-one nature of Squarespace means less mental overhead and fewer systems to maintain.
I'm prioritizing content and SEO over design uniqueness
As I move away from social media and focus on building through content and search, having a robust, integrated blogging and SEO system matters more to me than having a completely custom design.
Squarespace's native blogging is easier to maintain, and the platform handles technical SEO well. I can focus on creating valuable content instead of managing WordPress plugins and updates.
I want to spend less time on website maintenance
With Showit, every update requires thought. Changing navigation means updating multiple pages. Adding new content means designing layouts. Keeping the mobile version updated means duplicating work.
With Squarespace, updates are faster. Change your navigation once, it updates everywhere. Add a blog post, it automatically matches your design. Adjust something on desktop, mobile updates automatically.
My needs have shifted from custom to streamlined
When I was building Sage Blossom Creative, I was in a phase where I wanted everything to be perfectly designed. Now I'm in a phase where I want everything to be efficiently functional.
This isn't about one platform being better. It's about my needs changing as my business matures.
How to decide which platform is right for you
Here are the questions I'd ask yourself when making this decision:
Do you need total creative control, or do you want something that just works?
If you have a very specific design vision and the skills (or budget) to execute it, Showit gives you the freedom to create exactly what you imagine.
If you want a professional site without needing to make every design decision, Squarespace's template structure is helpful rather than limiting.
Are you building a visual portfolio or a service-based site?
If your work is highly visual and your website is essentially a showcase for your portfolio (photography, art, design), Showit's flexibility helps you present your work uniquely.
If you're offering services (coaching, consulting, therapy, strategy) and your website is primarily informational and conversion-focused, Squarespace's structure works perfectly.
Do you have time to maintain a more complex platform?
Building and maintaining a Showit site requires ongoing time investment. If you love that process or have team support, great.
If you want to spend minimal time on website maintenance and more time on your actual business, Squarespace's simpler maintenance model will serve you better.
What's your budget, not just for the platform but for design support?
Showit's power really shines when you know what you're doing or you hire a designer who does. Factor in potential design costs beyond the platform subscription.
Squarespace is more DIY-friendly. Most people can build a professional site themselves with the templates and tools provided.
How important is having everything integrated?
If you like using best-of-breed tools and don't mind managing multiple platforms (Showit for your site, WordPress for blogging, Acuity or Calendly for scheduling, Flodesk for email), that approach gives you flexibility.
If you want everything in one place with less management overhead, Squarespace's all-in-one approach is valuable.
What's your design experience level?
If you have design skills or strong design sensibility, Showit gives you room to use those skills.
If you're not a designer and don't want to become one, Squarespace's templates give you a professional starting point.
The honest truth: Most people should probably start with Squarespace
After years of building sites on both platforms, here's my honest take:
Most service-based businesses are better served by Squarespace, especially when they're starting out.
Showit is an incredible platform, but its strengths are most valuable to a specific type of business: visual creatives who have design skills and want complete control, or businesses with budget to invest in professional Showit design and ongoing maintenance.
For coaches, consultants, therapists, service providers, course creators, and most creative entrepreneurs who aren't primarily showcasing visual work, Squarespace offers a better balance of professional design, functionality, ease of use, and value.
You can create a beautiful, functional website on Squarespace in a fraction of the time it takes to build something comparable on Showit. And you can maintain it more easily over time.
This doesn't mean Showit isn't great. It means Squarespace is the more practical choice for more businesses.
Can you switch platforms later?
Yes, but it's not fun. I'm doing it right now, so I can tell you exactly what it involves.
Switching platforms means essentially rebuilding your website. You'll need to:
Export your content (or manually transfer it)
Rebuild your page layouts in the new platform
Recreate any custom features or integrations
Set up proper 301 redirects so you don't lose SEO value
Update any external links pointing to your old URLs
Test everything thoroughly before launching
It's doable, and if you're moving to a better-fit platform, it's worth it. But it's a significant project that will take time and attention.
This is why choosing thoughtfully the first time matters.
My migration process (in case you're considering the same move)
Since I'm actively going through this migration, I'll share what the process looks like:
Phase 1: Planning and content audit I'm starting by auditing all my current content. What pages do I actually need? What can be archived or consolidated? This is a good opportunity to simplify.
Phase 2: Choosing a Squarespace template I'm selecting a template that gets me close to the functionality and feel I want, knowing I'll customize it significantly.
Phase 3: Building the new site in parallel I'm building the entire Squarespace site while my Showit site is still live. This way I can take my time and launch when everything is ready.
Phase 4: Content migration Transferring all my content, rewriting where needed, optimizing for the new platform's structure.
Phase 5: SEO preservation Setting up 301 redirects for every URL that's changing, making sure my blog RSS feed continues working, updating my sitemap.
Phase 6: Testing and launch Testing everything thoroughly (forms, links, mobile views, page speed) before switching my domain over.
Phase 7: Post-launch monitoring Watching analytics, checking for broken links, making sure nothing was missed in the migration.
It's a process, but I'm confident it's the right move for where my business is heading.
Final thoughts: Choose based on your actual needs
The best website platform is the one that serves your actual needs, not the one that's most popular or most powerful in the abstract.
Showit is an incredible tool for visual creatives who want complete design control and have the skills or budget to use that control well.
Squarespace is an excellent platform for service-based businesses who want professional design, integrated functionality, and ease of maintenance without sacrificing quality.
Neither is better. They're different tools for different needs.
Before you choose, get clear on:
What you actually need your website to do
How much time you want to spend on design and maintenance
Whether you have design skills or budget for professional design
What other tools you need integrated (blogging, scheduling, email, ecommerce)
What you're optimizing for (uniqueness or efficiency)
When you're honest about your needs and choose accordingly, you'll end up with a platform that serves your business well for years to come.
And if you're still not sure? Reach out. I'm happy to talk through your specific situation and help you figure out which direction makes sense for you.