We build websites on Squarespace, WordPress and Shopify, and we custom code them when none of the three fits. That means we have no platform to sell you. The only thing we're trying to get right is the match between your business and the tool it runs on.
Get that match wrong and you either pay for power you'll never use, or you hit a ceiling eighteen months in and pay for a rebuild. Both are avoidable when the decision starts with what your website needs to do, not with which platform someone told you was best.
This is how we talk it through with clients, including the questions we ask before recommending anything.
Why we don't start with the platform
Before Ninety8 Media, Phoebe spent years agency-side on global finance and tech accounts, working on websites built across WordPress and Drupal. The lesson that stuck: the platform rarely decides whether a website works. The brief does.
So before we recommend anything, we ask:
What does the website need to do: win enquiries, take bookings, sell products or publish content?
Who will update it after launch, and how comfortable are they with the tech?
What does it need to connect to: a booking system, a CRM, a till, stock management?
What will the business look like in three years?
What's the realistic budget to build it, and to run it every month afterwards?
The last question is the one that gets skipped. A platform isn't a one-off cost. It decides what you pay every month, how quickly you can make changes, and whether you need a developer every time something changes. A website your team can't confidently edit goes out of date, and for a small team that matters more than any feature on a spec sheet.
What each platform was built to do
Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder. Design, hosting, content editing, a blog, simple ecommerce, email campaigns and appointment scheduling sit inside one subscription. You work within its system, which is what keeps it stable and easy to manage. The trade-off is less freedom to build functionality the platform doesn't already offer.
WordPress is open-source software that can be shaped into almost anything with enough development. W3Techs puts it at around 40% of all websites as of October 2026. That flexibility comes from plugins and themes, and that is also where the responsibility sits. Patchstack's State of WordPress Security in 2026 report logged 11,334 new vulnerabilities across the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, with 91% of them in plugins. WordPress core itself is well maintained. The risk comes from what gets added to it, and someone has to keep all of that updated.
Shopify is a commerce platform first. Product catalogues, stock management, checkout, payments, shipping, discounts and multi-channel selling are the core of the product, not add-ons. If selling online is the business, Shopify was built for you.
Custom-coded websites are built from scratch for one business. There's no platform deciding what's possible, no plugins to maintain and no builder subscription. The trade-off is that changes usually need a developer, unless the build includes a content management system for the parts your team edits.
When Squarespace is the right call
It's the platform we recommend most often for founder-led businesses, usually for one of these reasons:
Enquiries are the goal. Consultancies, surveyors, solicitors, trades and agencies need clear service pages, proof and a contact route that works. They don't need a plugin library.
You run a venue, restaurant or events business. Menus, galleries, opening hours, events and booking links all sit comfortably on Squarespace, and restaurant booking tools embed cleanly. We worked in hospitality venues before building Ninety8 Media, so we build these sites around how guests actually decide: on their phone, often on the day.
You sell a small range alongside your main business. Gift vouchers, a handful of products, workshops or digital downloads don't need a dedicated ecommerce platform.
You want to update it yourself. If your team will be editing pages, adding news or swapping images, Squarespace's editor is the easiest of the three to hand over.
You want predictable costs. One subscription covers the platform, hosting and security.
Aybel Spaces, an Oxfordshire garden rooms company, came to us with a dated WordPress site they'd inherited. We rebuilt it on Squarespace, reworking the site structure, the user experience and the journey from first visit to enquiry. Read the full Aybel Spaces case study.
Some gaps that used to push businesses towards WordPress don't need a platform switch any more. Through our Digital Tools & Automation [ADD LINK] service, we build or integrate booking systems, payment flows and marketing automation that work alongside a Squarespace site and connect to the CRM you already use.
When we'd tell you to choose WordPress
WordPress earns its extra complexity when the website is doing work Squarespace wasn't designed for:
Publishing at scale. Hundreds or thousands of articles, custom content types, complex category structures and multiple authors with editorial workflows.
Bespoke functionality at the core of the business. Member portals with complex logic, searchable directories, calculators connected to your own data, or deep integration with an ERP or industry system.
Multiple languages or regional sites managed from one install.
An ongoing budget for development. WordPress is cheap to start, but a serious WordPress site needs someone keeping plugins, themes and hosting updated and secure.
When we build on WordPress, we're upfront about what it takes to keep it secure and running: good hosting, regular updates and someone checking plugins. That's part of the real cost, and it belongs in the conversation before the build starts.
When we'd tell you to choose Shopify
There's a difference between selling some products and being a retailer. A deli that sells Christmas hampers is selling products. An online brand shipping orders every day is a retailer, and its website is the shop, the till and the stockroom.
Shopify is the stronger choice when:
Online sales are your main source of revenue.
You manage a large catalogue with variants, or stock across several locations.
You need subscriptions, wholesale pricing or international selling.
You run a physical shop and need stock to sync between the till and the website, with click-and-collect.
For a bricks-and-mortar business selling a few things online, Squarespace's commerce tools are usually enough. Once stock control becomes a daily job, Shopify is worth the higher running cost.
When a custom-coded website makes sense
Custom code is the right answer less often than people assume. When it is right, it solves problems no platform can.
We'd recommend it when:
The website is part of the product. A quoting tool, a customer portal, a complex booking flow or an interactive experience that no template or plugin can deliver properly.
You've outgrown a platform. You're paying for workarounds, apps and plugins to make it do something it was never built for.
Performance matters commercially. You want nothing on the page you don't need, and full control over how it loads.
You want full ownership. The code is yours, with no platform subscription and no terms that can change underneath you.
It's the wrong choice for a brochure site your team needs to update every week. You'd pay more to build something that's harder to edit.
Does WordPress rank better on Google?
WordPress is better for SEO. It's one of the most repeated lines in web design, and it isn't true.
The belief persists for understandable reasons. WordPress SEO plugins put titles, meta descriptions and readability scores in front of you on every page, which makes SEO feel built in. A lot of the SEO advice online is also written by agencies that build on WordPress.
Google has been clear about this for years. Asked whether the choice of CMS makes a difference, Google's John Mueller said its search systems "don't look for any particular content management system" and focus on the final page instead. In October 2025 he repeated the point, saying there are no big SEO differences between modern CMS platforms.
What moves rankings for a service business is the same on every platform:
Content that answers the questions your customers actually ask
A clear site structure with sensible internal linking
Fast, mobile-friendly pages
Clean URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, alt text and an XML sitemap
Local signals: a properly managed Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent citations
Squarespace handles the technical basics. You can set custom URLs, titles and descriptions, add alt text and manage 301 redirects, and the sitemap and SSL are automatic. Additional structured data can be added through code injection. We ran our own full SEO audit and implementation on ninety8media.co.uk, including schema markup, redirects and a sitemap resubmission, all on Squarespace.
WordPress has a genuine edge in granular technical control on large, content-heavy sites. For a 15 to 30 page service website, that extra control rarely changes the outcome. The content and the strategy do.
What it actually costs to run
| Platform | Starts from | What's included | What usually gets added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | £12 a month (Basic), up to £79 (Advanced) | Hosting, SSL, security, platform updates, templates | Domain after the first year, Google Workspace email, booking or third-party tools |
| Shopify | £19 a month (Basic), £49 (Grow), £259 (Advanced) | Hosting, checkout, payments, inventory and shipping tools | Card processing (2% + 25p per online transaction on Basic with Shopify Payments), paid apps, premium theme |
| WordPress | The software is free | The software only | Hosting, premium theme or page builder, plugins, security monitoring, backups, developer time for updates |
| Custom-coded | Quoted per project | Exactly what's built, nothing more | Hosting, developer time for changes and new features, a content management system if your team edits content |
Switching platforms later
Moving a website to a new platform is closer to a rebuild than a transfer. Written content, images, product data and customer lists can usually come with you. Page layouts, forms, integrations and your SEO structure generally need rebuilding.
The SEO part is where migrations go wrong. Every URL that changes needs a 301 redirect to its new address, or the ranking value it has built up is lost. We handled this when moving Aybel Spaces off WordPress, and it's the step we'd never let a client skip.
A quick guide
| If your website mainly needs to... | Start with |
|---|---|
| Win enquiries for a service business | Squarespace |
| Take bookings for a venue, restaurant or event | Squarespacewith your booking tool embedded |
| Sell vouchers or a small range alongside a service | Squarespace |
| Run an online shop as the core business | Shopify |
| Sync stock between a physical shop and online sales | Shopify |
| Publish at scale or connect deeply to other systems | WordPress |
| Deliver functionality no platform handles well | Custom-coded |
FAQs
Is Squarespace better than WordPress?
For most service businesses, hospitality venues and independent brands, Squarespace is the more practical choice because it's easier to manage and cheaper to maintain. WordPress is better when a site needs large-scale publishing, bespoke functionality or deep integrations, and there's budget for ongoing development.
Is Squarespace good enough for a professional business website?
Yes. Its reputation as a DIY tool comes from sites thrown together on a template. A Squarespace site built around a clear strategy, strong copy and a considered structure is a professional website. The platform doesn't decide that. The work does.
Is WordPress better for SEO than Squarespace?
No. Google has said repeatedly that it doesn't favour any content management system. WordPress offers more technical control, which matters on large content-heavy sites, but content, structure and local signals do far more for a typical business website.
Should a shop with a physical store use Shopify?
It depends how much of the business is online. A few products or gift vouchers can run happily on Squarespace. If you need stock to sync with your till, click-and-collect or a growing online catalogue, Shopify is the better fit.
Which platform is cheapest?
WordPress software is free, but hosting, plugins, security and developer time add up. Squarespace usually has the most predictable total cost for a small business. Shopify costs more each month but includes the ecommerce infrastructure a serious online shop needs.
Can Squarespace handle bookings?
Yes. Squarespace has its own scheduling tool, and most restaurant and venue booking systems embed into a Squarespace site. For anything more involved, our Digital Tools & Automation service can build or integrate a booking system around your site.
Is a custom-coded website better than using a platform?
Only when you need something a platform can't do well. Custom code gives you full control and no platform fees, but it costs more to build and usually needs a developer for changes. For most small business websites, a well-built Squarespace, WordPress or Shopify site is the better investment.
Which platforms do you build on?
Squarespace, WordPress and Shopify, plus custom-coded websites. Because we build on all four, we recommend the one that suits your business, not the one we happen to prefer.
Planning a new website?
If you're planning a new site, or you've inherited one nobody can edit, book a call with us. We'll look at what your website needs to do, recommend the platform that fits, and explain exactly why. Book a call.
