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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Website Builder
  5. GitHub Pages vs Squarespace

GitHub Pages vs Squarespace

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Squarespace
Squarespace
Stacks2.1K
Followers386
Votes84
GitHub Pages
GitHub Pages
Stacks17.7K
Followers13.0K
Votes1.1K

GitHub Pages vs Squarespace: What are the differences?

Introduction

GitHub Pages and Squarespace are two popular platforms for creating and hosting websites. While they both offer website building capabilities, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Ease of Use: GitHub Pages primarily caters to developers and requires knowledge of using Git and Markdown for content creation and deployment. Squarespace, on the other hand, is designed for users with little or no coding experience and provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for building websites.

  2. Customization Options: Squarespace offers a wide range of templates and a visual editor that allows users to easily customize the design and layout of their websites. GitHub Pages, being more developer-centric, allows for greater flexibility in terms of customization, as users can directly edit the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.

  3. Cost: GitHub Pages is free to use and includes hosting for static websites. Squarespace, on the other hand, offers different pricing plans depending on the features and functionality required, ranging from basic to advanced options.

  4. E-commerce Functionality: Squarespace has built-in e-commerce capabilities, allowing users to set up online stores and sell products directly from their websites. GitHub Pages does not provide e-commerce functionality natively and would require additional integrations or third-party tools.

  5. Version Control: GitHub Pages is closely integrated with Git, which allows for version control and collaboration among developers. Squarespace does not offer version control functionality, making it less suitable for team-based web development projects.

  6. Domain and SSL Support: Squarespace provides users with the option to purchase and connect custom domain names to their websites. It also offers built-in SSL certificates for secure connections. GitHub Pages allows users to connect custom domains, but SSL support requires additional setup using third-party services.

In Summary, GitHub Pages is more suitable for developers who prioritize flexibility, version control, and Git integration, while Squarespace is a user-friendly platform that offers a range of templates, built-in e-commerce functionality, and easier customization options.

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Advice on Squarespace, GitHub Pages

Kamaldeep
Kamaldeep

CEO at Zhoustify Agency

Nov 13, 2020

Decided

I usually take a slightly different tack because the technical level of people I usually am dealing with is lower. I tend to be pitching to decision makers and not tech people. A bit of my standard answer is below.

Wix and Squarespace are proprietary systems meant for unsophisticated users who want to build their own websites quickly and easily. While they are good for that specific use case, they do not offer any way to move beyond that if your needs arise. Since they are proprietary closed systems if you need something more advanced at some point your only option is to start over.

WordPress is an Open Source CMS that allows much more freedom. It is not quite as simple to setup and create a new site but if you are talking to me then you are not looking to build it yourself so that is really a non-issue. The main benefit of WordPress is freedom. You can host it on virtually any decent web hosting service and since it uses PHP and MySQL you can have virtually any developer take over a project without problem.

I believe in open source because of that freedom. It is good for me as a developer and it is good for my clients. If something were to happen to me or my company you would have no problem finding another qualified WordPress developer to take over the site in a totally seamless fashion. There would be no need to start from scratch.

Additionally the extensible nature of WordPress means that no matter what your future needs, WordPress can handle it. Adding things like e-commerce and custom quoting systems are just two examples of advanced solution's that I have added to WordPress sites years after they were first built.

WordPress is used by tiny one person businesses all the way up to major websites like the NY Times and I think it is right for this project as well.

69.2k views69.2k
Comments
Howie
Howie

Full Stack Engineer at Yintrust

Aug 13, 2020

DecidedonNetlifyNetlify

We use Netlify to host static websites.

The reasons for choosing Netlify over GitHub Pages are as follows:

  • Netfily can bind multiple domain names, while GitHub Pages can only bind one domain name
  • With Netfily, the original repository can be private, while GitHub Pages free tier requires the original repository to be public

In addition, in order to use CDN, we use Netlify DNS.

238k views238k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Squarespace
Squarespace
GitHub Pages
GitHub Pages

Whether you need simple pages, sophisticated galleries, a professional blog, or want to sell online, it all comes standard with your Squarespace website. Squarespace starts you with beautiful designs right out of the box — each handcrafted by our award-winning design team to make your content stand out.

Public webpages hosted directly from your GitHub repository. Just edit, push, and your changes are live.

SELL ANYTHING- Easily add a store to any Squarespace website and start selling physical and digital goods immediately.; PAINLESS STORE MANAGEMENT- Manage your inventory, process customer orders, print packing slips, and customize emails all in one intuitive interface.;BUILD BETTER PAGES WITH LAYOUTENGINE- LayoutEngine technology gives you the freedom to create visually rich pages with any configuration of text, images, products, and content blocks. Simply drag and drop your content exactly where you want and we'll automatically align them in a perfect grid.;GALLERIES WITH CUTTING-EDGE CREATIVE TOOLS;STATE-OF-THE-ART BLOGGING- Effortlessly create content with LayoutEngine and gallery system. Share easily, map posts with native geolocation, and use our bookmarklet to reblog content from the web;THE CUSTOM LOOK YOU WANT- Make any design your own with a few clicks in the Style Editor. Choose a preset color palette or select your own fonts, colors, and layouts to create the custom look you want.;MOBILE SITES BUILT RIGHT IN- Each Squarespace design includes a unique mobile site, so anyone can see the beauty of your work anytime, anyplace, on any device.; CONNECT WITH THE SERVICES YOU LOVE- Make your website the center of your online identity and social life on the web with an array of powerful tools.;SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZED;CHOOSE YOUR CONTRIBUTORS- Invite contributors to help you manage your website. Set individual permissions, from full admin to a trusted commenter, so you are always in control.;REAL-TIME STATISTICS FOR AUDIENCE INSIGHT- Access your built-in analytics to view the traffic and behavior of visitors in real-time. Learn where they're coming from, and what keywords they're using to find you.;MANAGE YOUR SITE ON THE GO;AWARD-WINNING 24/7 CUSTOMER CARE
Blogging with Jekyll; Custom URLs; Automatic Page Generator
Statistics
Stacks
2.1K
Stacks
17.7K
Followers
386
Followers
13.0K
Votes
84
Votes
1.1K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 35
    Easy setup
  • 31
    Clean designs
  • 8
    Beautiful responsive themes
  • 6
    Easy ongoing maintenance
  • 3
    Live chat & 24/7 support team
Cons
  • 1
    Hard to use custom code
Pros
  • 290
    Free
  • 217
    Right out of github
  • 185
    Quick to set up
  • 108
    Instant
  • 107
    Easy to learn
Cons
  • 4
    Not possible to perform HTTP redirects
  • 3
    Supports only Jekyll
  • 3
    Limited Jekyll plugins
  • 1
    Jekyll is bloated
Integrations
Shopify
Shopify
Dropbox
Dropbox
Google Analytics
Google Analytics
Disqus
Disqus
Stripe
Stripe
Mailchimp
Mailchimp
Hipmob
Hipmob
GitHub
GitHub

What are some alternatives to Squarespace, GitHub Pages?

DomainRacer

DomainRacer

It is a blazing fast hosting solution that provides Customer Satisfaction driven Web Hosting services since 2016.

Netlify

Netlify

Netlify is smart enough to process your site and make sure all assets gets optimized and served with perfect caching-headers from a cookie-less domain. We make sure your HTML is served straight from our CDN edge nodes without any round-trip to our backend servers and are the only ones to give you instant cache invalidation when you push a new deploy. Netlify is also the only static hosting service with integrated continuous deployment.

Vercel

Vercel

A cloud platform for serverless deployment. It enables developers to host websites and web services that deploy instantly, scale automatically, and require no supervision, all with minimal configuration.

Surge

Surge

Surge makes it easy for developers to deploy projects to a production-quality CDN through Grunt, Gulp, npm.

Webflow

Webflow

Webflow is a responsive design tool that lets you design, build, and publish websites in an intuitive interface. Clean code included!

Divshot

Divshot

Divshot makes building and hosting front-end web applications simple. Build locally and deploy using a simple command-line interface. Divshot supports multiple environments, pushState routing, atomic deploys, and more.

Readymag

Readymag

Readymag—an online platform for website creation focused on design & creativity. Advanced typography. Powerful animations. Code injection & third-party tool integrations.

Wix

Wix

Creating your stunning website for free is easier than ever. No tech skills needed. Just pick a template, change anything you want, add your images, videos, text and more to get online instantly.

GitLab Pages

GitLab Pages

Host your static websites on GitLab.com for free, or on your own GitLab Enterprise Edition instance. Use any static website generator: Jekyll, Middleman, Hexo, Hugo, Pelican, and more

Firebase Hosting

Firebase Hosting

It is production-grade web content hosting for developers. With a single command, you can quickly deploy web apps and serve both static and dynamic content to a global CDN (content delivery network). You can also pair it with Cloud Functions or Cloud Run to build and host microservices.

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