Our team has built literally hundreds of websites – and more often than not, when we first meet to discuss a new website, the question comes up: Should we use WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or something else entirely?
With all the marketing hype out there, every platform can sound like the perfect choice. But the truth is, the right platform depends on your goals, team, and future plans.
We’ve pulled together the key questions we walk through with clients, plus a few lessons from decades of experience building on all these platforms. Hopefully, it helps you feel a little more confident about choosing the right tool for your next website.
Customization: How Much Control Do You Need?
With website builders, you’re often making a trade: convenience for control. That might be totally fine for your current needs — or it might paint you into a corner that’s costly to get out of later.
Website Builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly are great for quick setups. You can drag, drop, and publish a polished-looking site in hours using pre-built templates. But once you move beyond the basics, you’ll start running into walls — and not just on the design side.
The real limits often show up when your organization starts to grow.
Need to connect your donation platform to a specific CRM? Want to sync events with an external calendar system? Hoping to build a custom registration workflow or embed a third-party sermon archive? These are the types of things builders either can’t do or require expensive workarounds.
WordPress, on the other hand, gives you the keys to the whole thing. From custom themes and plugins to full code access, it’s built for flexibility. Whether you’re building a content library, launching a product catalog, or integrating with tools like Salesforce, MinistryPlatform, Stripe, or Mailchimp — WordPress can handle it.
Some of the largest, most complex sites on the web run on WordPress for a reason: it scales with you.
Flexibility & Scalability: Will Your Website Grow With You?
Website Builders really shine when you need to get something live quickly — whether it’s a landing page, a basic site for a new venture, or a clean digital presence for a personal brand. The designs are often clean, attractive, and they offer just enough flexibility to get started without being overwhelming, and for many organizations, that’s exactly what’s needed – especially if it’s at the beginning of your journey or you’re building a landing page for a special project.
That said, it’s helpful to think about the future and determine if you think those needs might grow. You might want to integrate a more powerful email platform, expand your online store, build member-only content, or connect to tools like a donor database or event management system. That’s where website builders can start to feel limited — not because they’re bad, but because they’re intentionally built for simplicity.
WordPress, on the other hand, is built for growth. It’s open-ended by design, giving you room to adapt as your goals and tools change over time. Whether you’re running a nonprofit, growing a church, managing multiple campuses, or launching a subscription product — WordPress has the infrastructure to grow with you.
If you know your website will need to evolve, scale, and flex around your organization’s future, WordPress is worth serious consideration.
Cost & Ownership: Who Controls Your Website?
Website Builders operate on a subscription model – you’re essentially renting your website. That includes hosting, design, and features all bundled into one recurring fee. This has some bonuses and some drawbacks. On the plus side, the cost to set up is often reduced as you’ll get immediate access to template designs and can be set up quickly. The downside: if you cancel, your site disappears.
With WordPress, you own your site. You choose where to host it, how to design it, and which tools to use. There’s typically more upfront cost and development time, but it’s yours for the low cost of a domain and hosting.
Who is Each Platform Ideal For?
Website Builders (like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly) are a great fit for:
- Solo entrepreneurs launching a service or brand
- Small businesses that need a quick, professional-looking site
- Personal blogs, portfolios, and simple landing pages
- Teams with limited time or technical expertise
These platforms shine when you want to get online quickly with minimal fuss — and don’t need a lot of complex functionality.
WordPress is a better fit for:
- Churches, nonprofits, and ministries that need long-term flexibility
- Businesses and online stores of virtually any size (especially with custom workflows)
- Organizations planning to scale, integrate with tools, or manage lots of content
- Teams that want more ownership, custom design, or ongoing evolution
WordPress thrives when you need a site that can adapt with you — whether that means adding new functionality, integrating third-party systems, or scaling to serve more people.
Pro tip: At Juxt, we’ve seen WordPress deliver especially well in ministry and mission-driven environments — particularly when paired with tools like our MinistryPlatform-integrated widgets.
Our Recommendation
People often ask us, “If this were your company, what would you do?” That one’s easy — it is our company, and our site runs on WordPress.
That doesn’t mean WordPress is the right choice for everyone, every time.
Sometimes we recommend a website builder — especially when the budget is tight or a client needs to build the site entirely on their own with little technical know-how. Tools like Squarespace or Wix can be great for getting something live quickly, affordably, and without much help.
That said, when you have the resources and a long-term vision, WordPress is usually the better platform. It scales more easily, limits you less, and gives you the freedom to adapt as your needs grow. With the right team behind you, it doesn’t have to be slow or expensive to launch.
We also tend to recommend WordPress because we hate saying “no.” A builder might work fine for now — but two years down the road, your organization is thriving, and suddenly you want to connect your CRM, build a custom registration flow, or launch gated content. If your platform can’t handle it, that’s a frustrating conversation we’d rather help you avoid.
A Word About Webflow and Shopify
There are two other platforms we get asked about often: Webflow and Shopify. Both are powerful, but they come with their own quirks and considerations.
Webflow presents like a website builder, but under the hood, it offers some serious design flexibility and clean front-end output. We actually like it a lot, especially for sites that need a sleek, modern feel without diving into code.
That said, we’ve seen clients get in over their heads with Webflow. It’s not quite as “plug and play” as Squarespace or Wix, and if you don’t have a good handle on how classes, layout, or responsiveness work, it’s easy to get stuck — or accidentally break something.
Shopify, on the other hand, is arguably the best platform out there for e-commerce. Some of the biggest and most successful online stores run on it, and for good reason — it’s stable, fast, and incredibly well-supported.
The catch? It can get expensive. Shopify itself isn’t too pricey, but most of the features businesses really want come from third-party apps — and those monthly fees add up fast. If you’re not careful, you can end up with a lot of overhead tied to your storefront.
Comparison at a glance
Need Help Choosing the Right Platform?
At Juxt Marketing, we specialize in WordPress website development, offering full support from design to launch (and beyond). With over 100 WordPress sites launched (and still supported), we know how to build sites that grow with your brand, mission, or church.
We’re here to help. Whether you’re still deciding or ready to build your WordPress site, we’d love to walk with you. Let’s start the conversation!