Don’t needlessly complicate things.

When I started my website I was using Squarespace for hosting and design.  I really liked how my Squarespace site looked – they sold me on their design features and I recommend you check them out.

What I quickly learned though was that I didn’t have the knowledge or time to fiddle around to make it exactly how I wanted, including all of the neat features I see on the blogs I hope to one day emulate.  Which is why, over the weekend, I closed my Squarespace account and switched to a WordPress site.

I’ve been somewhat disappointed to find that it’s not as easy to change colours and fonts as it was on Squarespace but, as mentioned, it is easier to add all the nifty plug-ins and whatnot that you might want.  And given enough time I’ll probably find a template that will allow me to customise my site a lot more than I currently have.  (As an aside, I know a lot of bloggers would not recommend changing your site too often as the discontinuity can be disorienting to readers but I don’t have a great deal of readers at the minute so I’m happy to change and play online.  Better than putting off publishing because it’s just not quite where I want things to be.  But I digress).

I definitely think that Squarespace is worth a look.  Particularly if you have the know-how already or the time to figure out how to make it do what you want to.  The design elements and flexibility sold me right away.  Plus they can do hosting and site building, so you have a one stop shop solution.

If, however, you’re like me and don’t know what you’re doing or you want the quickest/easiest way to add features etc I’d probably stick with WordPress.

Have you tried different providers? Share your experience below!