I’m in many facebook groups centered around female creative entrepreneurs, as I am sure you may be too and possibly that’s how you discovered me! You are also probably aware of how often the question comes up, “what website platform should I use for my business?” Without fail the 2 that are always most recommended are Squarespace and WordPress. Which is totally understandable! WordPress is a megahouse when it comes to providing websites for people like us and has been for YEARS. Squarespace has marketed themselves as the easy to use, drag and drop website builder with cool ads and famous people recommending them. But I’m here to chat about the underdog. The one that people are just not as familiar with. The new kid on the block in terms of the bigger entrepreneur market. Showit as an alternative to Squarespace in particular with this post.
Showit has been around for a while but it is almost solely marketed to photographers. Showit itself is a small business too and the platform is gaining in popularity at lighting speed, much in thanks to a few popular influencers promoting it to their audiences such as Jenna Kutcher and Jasmine Star. People are learning that Showit has a dog in the fight and a super badass one at that.
So let’s talk about why Showit is an awesome Squarespace alternative web builder for creative female entrepreneurs and why you should consider moving to it!
1. Showit is truly a drag and drop web builder to the full definition of the term.
Showit uses a similar design as the adobe creative suite in terms of layers and elements. You can add text, shapes, hidden layers, hovering effects, pretty much anything you can think of, without having to code it in. If you can imagine a layout, you can create it. Add elements, drag them around, resize them, link them all using commands and settings that are available for anyone to learn by watching a few simple tutorials. There truly is nothing as user friendly when it comes to website design than Showit.
2. Showit is comparable in pricing to Squarespace
A Squarespace business website costs $18 a month (billed annually) or $26 a month (billed month to month). And ecommerce showit website will run you from $26-$40 a month (billed annually) depending on your needs.
Showit has 3 tiers depending on your needs:
- $19 a month (billed annually) or $24 a month (billed month to month) for no blog – since not everyone needs one.
- $24 a month (billed annually) or $29 a month (billed month to month) for an accompanying wordpress blog with standard plugins (which wordpress is the boss when it comes to blogging platforms so this is totally worth the jump up a bit in pricing!)
- $34 a month (billed annually) or $39 a month (billed month to month) for an advanced wordpress blog that you can add any plugins to.*
*Learn more about the tiers and what they include here
3. Ecommerce Functionality
So while Squarespace has options for e-commerce that’s integrated into their platform, Showit does have a few options for e-commerce as well. Particularly, you can use “buy buttons” and embedded collections with Shopify Lite or Basic. Shopify lite runs $9 a month and is a great option for businesses with minimal products or services. Shopify basic ($29 a month) is an option is you have more products and want some more advanced e-commerce tracking. Shopify is a powerhouse when it comes to e-commerce so you can’t go wrong either way here. There are other apps that integrate with Showit as well including Thrivecart, Paypal and Woocommerce (WordPress plugin) is in beta testing as well right now! So don’t be deterred thinking you can’t accept payment or sell products on a Showit website. You definitely can!
4. Showit requires very little to no coding.
Showit is a drag and drop platform that requires no coding. The only coding you may get into is when inputting widgets or your newsletter sign up, which are actually pretty simple and there are lots of tutorials and help to guide you through those processes! In terms of your website design though, it’s completely code free and amazing. Squarespace is also a drag and drop platform but everything you do is following a very strict framework that is provided to you – you do not have the capability to customize the template without having coding knowledge or paying someone to do it for you.
5. Showit offers truly custom design capabilities even if starting from a template.
When you purchase a squarespace template – what you see if definitely what you get, and it’s all you are going to get without hiring someone to do some coding on the backend for you to make it have different functions that you need, like a mentioned in the previous point. With Showit, you can purchase a template and customize it to your little heart’s content WITHOUT any coding. Yes, there is a learning curve to figure out how to navigate and do certain things, but I guarantee you can find a tutorial or a message board post in the Showit facebook group of how to do exactly what you want. I even have a free video tutorial to get you started here. You can start from a free or paid template and completely change that bad boy to fit you and your personality, no more being tied to a framework that looks like everyone else’s website. You have so much freedom to design with Showit, which is why it’s a great squarespace alternative.
6. Showit allows your to design the “mobile view” independently of the “desktop view”.
This is huge my friend. Unlike other web builder platforms, you have complete control over the design of how your website looks on mobile independently of how it looks on desktop. Why is the important? Because the majority of people these days are looking at your website on their phone, yet with builders like Squarespace, you have little to no control of how it looks – all the information is directly tied to your desktop design. With Showit, you can optimize the mobile view to be designed in a way that coordinates with your site but has it’s own character and is designed specifically for people viewing on their device. It’s a big deal when you come across a beautiful website on mobile. And it’s a big deal when your potential clients do too, and wouldn’t it be awesome to impress them?
Alrighty, that’s my rundown of why I think Showit a great Squarespace alternative for creative entrepreneurs! Hopefully you found it helpful and maybe I’ve done my job of getting you much more interested in Showit as a viable option to host your business website. Have more concerns or want to chat about how to make the switch? Feel free to drop a comment below or shoot me an email at jg@jessicagingrich.com I’d love to chat more. I’m all about making people’s lives easier and truly believe Showit is amazing platform that will do just that!
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