breaking down the different website platforms for your small business
Let me set the scene: a dingy classroom that reeked of B.O, learning about firewalls and computer security. That was my first day of post secondary.
Long before I knew anything about branding, my dream was to work at a ~trendy~ tech startup. I enrolled into a web development program at my local post secondary and showed up on the first day, bright eyed and bushy tailed.
As you can imagine, it didn’t take long to realize that learning Javascript and pinging networks wasn’t really for me. However, I do feel a bit more technologically savvy than most. Putting in hours of blood, sweat and quite literally tears coding websites by hand, I can tell you that there is no point in investing in a custom-coded website for your small business. There's so many affordable web platforms with amazing flexibility but which one do you choose? Well let’s break down some of the most popular platforms and their pros and cons.
wordpress
Loved by many, feared by some. Wordpress is the pioneer of builders and their plugin system makes it easy to create scalable websites with any feature you could imagine. However, their editor has quite a learning curve and isn’t the most intuitive for those who aren’t tech savvy.
Wordpress websites require significantly more backups and maintenance due to security and plug in updates. Many e-commerce businesses love Wordpress and the Woocommerce plugin but I wouldn’t recommend it for solopreneurs or small businesses that don’t have the budget for monthly maintenance or IT.
wix
Wix is a drag and drop builder that’s loved by small business owners. They offer templates as a starting point however they tend to be quite boring so they require tzusing up…which can quickly go off the rails if you’re not a professional. Their website editor is a bit clunky and their blogging platform leaves a lot to be desired. It isn’t my first or second choice but Wix could be a good option for service based businesses who are just starting out, don’t plan to scale or require any bells and whistles.
squarespace
Ask me how pissed I was when I tried Squarespace for the first time, after coding all those websites from scratch.
Out of the box, their templates are beautiful and modern. I love how Squarespace has ‘training wheels’ on their editor so anyone with no design experience can just plug in their brand colours and fonts and have a great looking site without much effort. Their layouts are automatically responsive meaning they’ll look good on a computer or phone without a bunch of extra work. They offer built in blogging, SEO, newsletters, scheduling, and e-commerce with no extra plugins.
Now, as much as I love Squarespace it does have its flaws. It’s challenging to customize a Squarespace site beyond their templates, but working with a web designer the possibilities are endless with custom coding.
Squarespace makes it so easy for clients to make small website changes without needing a computer science degree, it’ll always be my go-to recommendation for service based business and solopreneurs who plan on growing and scaling their business. If you have an e-commerce business, keep scrolling.
shopify
I love Shopify, I’d go far enough to say it might be my favorite platform. Shopify is the largest (and Canadian) e-commerce platform and offers just about everything you could imagine.
Dreaming of a feature that it doesn’t have? Guarantee there’s a plugin for it. Created with entrepreneurs in mind, their powerful product management system is easy to use with only a minor learning curve. Their default templates aren’t bad, but working with a designer will take your online store from “good enough” to “I can’t believe this is my business”. They have an impressive amount of free resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs (seriously, they have guides for everything).
If you are a small business that sells any product or merchandise, Shopify is always going to be my enthusiastic recommendation!
Creating an online presence can be overwhelming so I hope this post helped you understand the different web platforms available to small businesses. Working with a web designer not only reduces your workload but gives you a website you’ll actually want to show off. If you’re interested in more details on our web design services, click here. If you’re ready to elevate your website to one that’s not only beautiful but high converting, let’s chat!
