Squarespace vs iPage: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Squarespace and iPage both offer valuable website building and hosting services, but they cater to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  Squarespace (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  is a powerful website builder known for its user-friendly interface, extensive design functionalities, and robust ecommerce features. It excels in providing a seamless website creation experience with a wide variety of templates, comprehensive learning resources, and strong customer support. Squarespace is ideal for users seeking a hassle-free, professional website with advanced customization options and reliable hosting.
• 
  iPage (Overall Grade: 6.1/10)
  
  offers a user-friendly platform with a focus on affordability and simplicity. It provides essential website building tools, hosting services, and basic ecommerce functionalities, making it suitable for small businesses and personal projects. While iPage may not match Squarespace in terms of design flexibility and advanced features, it remains a solid choice for users looking for a budget-friendly, straightforward website builder.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Squarespace is the superior choice for ecommerce, offering a more comprehensive and user-friendly solution compared to iPage.

• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace excels in ecommerce with its intuitive interface, secure payment processing, built-in marketing tools, and SEO optimization. It provides a range of ecommerce templates and detailed analytics, making it a powerful option for businesses looking to set up an online store. With a score of 8.2, Squarespace is well-suited for those seeking a hassle-free and professional ecommerce experience.
• 
  iPage
  
  : iPage offers a range of ecommerce features suitable for small to medium-sized businesses, including inventory management, coupon codes, and PayPal integration. However, it falls short in scalability and advanced ecommerce functionalities compared to Squarespace. With a score of 5.7, iPage is more appropriate for smaller projects or personal use.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Squarespace is the superior choice for creating professional and visually appealing informational websites, while iPage, though capable, is more suited for simpler projects and small businesses.

• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace excels in providing a user-friendly interface, a wide variety of templates, and comprehensive design functionalities. It is ideal for users seeking a hassle-free website creation experience with professional results. With a score of 8.4, Squarespace stands out for its customization flexibility and mobile-responsive designs, making it a top choice for informational and business websites.
• 
  iPage
  
  : iPage offers a user-friendly platform with a range of templates and a drag-and-drop builder, making it suitable for small businesses and personal projects. However, with a score of 7.2, it falls short in comparison to Squarespace in terms of design flexibility and advanced features. iPage is a good option for those looking for affordable hosting and basic website creation tools.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Squarespace.

Squarespace offers a wider variety of templates and design, more customization flexibility, and better mobile responsive design.

Squarespace boasts an impressive variety of website templates, offering over 120 pre-designed options to choose from. These templates cater to a wide range of needs and industries, from creative portfolios and sleek online stores to professional business websites and personal blogs.

Squarespace Themes

On the other hand, iPage offers a wide variety of templates and designs, catering to users with diverse needs and preferences. With hundreds of options available, ranging from simple and elegant to complex and dynamic, users can easily find a template that suits their specific project or business requirements.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. With a score of 8.3, Squarespace is known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward navigation, making it a top choice for those seeking a hassle-free website creation experience. iPage, scoring 7.6, also offers a user-friendly experience but with somewhat limited design options compared to more advanced website builders.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Squarespace goes a step further with its comprehensive Help Center, clear video tutorials, live webinars, an informative blog, and an active community forum. iPage also provides a variety of learning resources, but the availability of direct, personalized support might vary, depending on the plan a user subscribes to.

When it comes to ecommerce, Squarespace offers a more comprehensive and user-friendly solution. It provides an intuitive interface, secure payment processing, built-in marketing tools, SEO optimization, and detailed analytics. This makes it a powerful option for businesses looking to set up an online store.

Squarespace ecommerce features:

• Intuitive interface
• Secure payment processing
• Built-in marketing tools
• SEO optimization
• Website analytics

iPage ecommerce features:

• Inventory Management and Tracking
• Coupon Codes and Promotions
• SEO Tools
• PayPal Integration

Ecommerce themes & templates

Squarespace provides a diverse selection of around 50 ecommerce templates, catering to various industries like fashion, beauty, home goods, and technology. These templates range from clean and minimalist to bold and colorful, accommodating different brand aesthetics and product types. Offering unique layout elements such as product sliders and featured collections, these templates enhance visual interest and engagement.

In contrast, iPage offers a variety of ecommerce-specific templates designed to cater to online stores and businesses. These templates are integrated with features such as shopping carts, product catalogs, and payment processing options to facilitate online transactions. However, users might find some limitations in terms of customization and advanced ecommerce functionalities compared to Squarespace.

Product page customization

When it comes to product page customization, Squarespace offers options for layout, design, and interactive elements. Choose templates, customize colors, fonts, and content. Enhance engagement with features like customizable buttons, wishlists, comparisons, reviews, and related products. Advanced options include custom code injection and third-party app integrations. Limitations include fixed core page structure and the need for technical expertise. Free templates have fewer customization options than premium ones.

iPage’s website builder offers a range of ecommerce product page customization options, allowing users to design their storefronts with various templates, adjust layouts, and incorporate multimedia elements like images and videos to showcase products. Users can also edit product descriptions, manage inventory, and set up different payment options. However, limitations may include less flexibility in advanced customization or coding for those who require unique, highly tailored functionalities beyond the provided templates and settings.

Payment processing

Squarespace provides flexible payment processing for online stores with integrated gateways like Stripe and PayPal. External gateways can be set up for specific needs. Transaction fees may apply depending on the plan and payment method. Security measures include PCI compliance and fraud prevention. Additional features include payment links, support for subscriptions, and the ability to accept international payments in various currencies.

iPage supports several payment options for eCommerce, including major gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and others, catering to a wide range of currencies and countries. iPage does not charge commissions for transactions, commissions are charged by the gateways themselves. While iPage offers flexibility in online payment processing, it does not explicitly mention integrated POS capabilities for in-person transactions. For billing and subscription payments, iPage accepts credit cards, PayPal, and check or money order, offering diverse payment methods for its users.

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Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace, with a score of 8.3, offers a user-friendly editor that allows easy drag-and-drop website creation without coding. With visually appealing templates and customization options, it caters to beginners and pros alike. The real-time editing experience ensures instant previews. Prioritizing content, it’s mobile-responsive and offers functional features like forms, social media integration, and online stores. Squarespace seamlessly integrates with tools for extended capabilities.

iPage’s editor, scoring 6.8, is designed for ease of use, catering to both beginners and those with some web design experience. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily add, remove, and customize elements on their web pages without needing to code. Users can choose from a variety of templates that are responsive and customizable to fit their brand or personal style. Additionally, the editor includes features for adding social media links, integrating e-commerce functionalities, and optimizing for search engines, making it a versatile tool for creating a wide range of websites.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Squarespace

. Both Squarespace and iPage offer mobile editing capabilities, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Squarespace has a dedicated mobile app that allows users to manage their website, edit content, view analytics, manage their online store, and schedule social media posts. However, it does not offer the full range of functionalities available on the desktop version.

On the other hand, iPage does not have a dedicated mobile app, but users can edit their website on a mobile browser, albeit with some limitations. Given these factors, Squarespace has a higher mobile editor score than iPage, making it the winner in this category.

Overall Result

:

Squarespace Wins

. Squarespace scores 7.4, offering a 14-day free trial and the possibility to test most premium features. iPage, scoring 2.5, does not offer a free trial but allows testing of all features during the 30-day refundable period.

Squarespace and iPage offer a range of pricing plans suitable for different needs, from personal use to high-volume stores.

While iPage offers a significant discount for annual subscriptions, Squarespace provides a more consistent discount across all plans. Squarespace also offers an enterprise plan with variable pricing, while iPage does not offer an enterprise plan.

Winner: Squarespace

. Both Squarespace and iPage offer reliable hosting services with a 99.9% uptime. However, Squarespace edges out iPage with its uptime guarantee and strategically scattered data centers across North America, Europe, and Asia. iPage, on the other hand, offers a range of affordable hosting services but lacks an uptime guarantee and has fewer data centers.

🏆 Winner: iPage

Both Squarespace and iPage prioritize website performance and page speed, but iPage has a slight edge in terms of website speed optimization.

Squarespace focuses on responsive design, image optimization, CDN, code minification, and lazy loading of images to optimize website speed. The load times for Squarespace range from 0.7s to 9.1s, with an average of 2.9s. The PageSpeed scores range from 20/100 to 93/100, with an average of 62.7/100. Squarespace also emphasizes improvements in Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to enhance user experience.

On the other hand, iPage uses web server optimizations, caching, CDN, database optimization, and SEO optimization as strategies for speed optimization. The average load time for iPage is 2.6s, and the average PageSpeed score is 72/100. iPage also focuses on improving LCP, FID, and CLS, similar to Squarespace. However, iPage’s slightly better average load time and PageSpeed score give it the edge over Squarespace in terms of website speed optimization.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace.

With a score of 6.8, Squarespace edges out iPage, which scores 6.3. Squarespace’s strength lies in its seamless functionality and diverse range of third-party plugins catering to various needs, from SEO to booking systems. iPage, on the other hand, offers a variety of plugins and extensions, with options ranging from SEO tools to security enhancements. However, Squarespace’s broader range of integrations and extensions gives it the upper hand.

Squarespace Applications

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Overall Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace stands out for its comprehensive marketing tools, especially in SEO optimization, email marketing, and detailed analytics. iPage, while offering a solid range of features, falls slightly behind in comparison.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Comparing Squarespace vs iPage, Squarespace takes the lead with its diverse support options and comprehensive help resources. Squarespace offers live chat, email, and phone support, with email support available 24/7. Additionally, the community forum and help center provide round-the-clock access to valuable information. Squarespace’s enterprise support includes a personal account manager and priority support, making it a robust choice for larger businesses.

iPage, on the other hand, provides 24/7 customer support through phone, email, and live chat, ensuring users can get help at any time. While iPage’s support is reliable and accessible, it lacks the specialized enterprise support that Squarespace offers. This makes Squarespace a more versatile option for users seeking extensive support and resources.

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Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace’s security measures are comprehensive, including secure server storage, encryption, strict access controls, compliance with regulations, transparent privacy policies, and additional security measures like vulnerability scanning and malware detection. For website security, Squarespace offers secure hosting, SSL certificates, vulnerability scanning, malware and spam filters, two-factor authentication, data encryption, and compliance with security regulations.

iPage also prioritizes security, offering Domain Privacy Protection to shield personal information from being publicly accessible in the WHOIS directory. For website security, iPage implements several security measures including SiteLock, a comprehensive security suite designed to protect websites from malware, spam, and hackers, and SSL certificates. However, Squarespace’s comprehensive approach to security gives it the edge in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace, with a score of 7.5, offers a range of AI capabilities that enhance the website building and ecommerce experience. Although it doesn’t have a fully automated AI website builder, its AI-powered features like copywriting, SEO optimization, and email marketing provide valuable assistance to users.

iPage, scoring 3.0, offers an AI-powered website builder, but lacks in advanced AI features. Its AI capabilities are more focused on assisting users in setting up their websites efficiently rather than offering advanced AI content generation or sophisticated AI-driven design tools.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace offers a more robust user management system compared to iPage.

• Squarespace allows varying numbers of users with editing access depending on the plan. The Personal Plan allows one owner, Business and Commerce Plans permit 2 collaborators with different access levels, and the Enterprise Plan offers unlimited users, each with customizable access privileges, from full administrators to restricted contributors.
• iPage’s website builder offers very limited multi-user functionality and access levels compared to more sophisticated website builder platforms.

Squarespace User Roles and Access Levels:

iPage does not provide specific user roles and access levels.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Squarespace is well-liked for its easy-to-use interface and versatile tools, making it ideal for those who aren’t tech-savvy. It offers various features like website creation, SEO, online selling, and more, catering to different users. Customers appreciate its good customer support and visually appealing templates, creating a professional online presence. However, some users find issues with domain transfer/setup, limited customization options, and consider the pricing slightly higher. There are also occasional concerns about customer service and technical limitations like template rigidity and missing features.

On the other hand, iPage does not have detailed user feedback available on platforms like G2. This makes it challenging to directly compare user satisfaction between Squarespace vs iPage. However, iPage’s focus on providing a user-friendly web hosting and site builder platform, along with its recent partnership with Bluehost, suggests it aims to offer comprehensive services for small businesses and personal projects.

FAQ