Weighing up the cost of your website platform
weighing up the cost of your website platform
We love website builders like Squarespace.
Why? Because our clients love them.
We’re not going to tell you Squarespace (or any other website builder for that matter) is the best solution for every website, because frankly, that’s not true. However, in our experience there’s little that can’t be done in Squarespace, and the benefits for most businesses can significantly outweigh any short comings.
Being experts in Squarespace means we know how to get the most out of the platform so our clients get websites that not only look on brand but are also visually beautiful and highly functional. We do this through a range of techniques, a bunch of custom code, and knowing how far we can push until we reach its limits.
So why does Squarespace work out so much cheaper and quicker to build in than other platforms?
A great example is the website we delivered for Transit Systems
Typically, the budget for a website is reflective of how each of the following production elements add up:
Site Map
The number of pages will have a compounding effect on all subsequent costings.
CMS Platform
Time it takes to setup, platform buy-in costs, technical needs, external plugins.
Hosting
And of course, every website needs some hosting.
Interface Design
Time it takes to design the fundamental user interface (ie. how it looks, feels and acts).
Content Population
Again, the amount of pages and the amount of storytelling required in words, images, video, diagrams, etc.
Testing/SEO/etc
No responsive website is bulletproof and refinements need to be made for cross-device and cross-browser performance.
Maintenance
It’s not a brochure you publish once and forget about for 3 years (although many organisations still don’t have their heads around this). For your site to work for you it needs to give you the ability to make changes, campaigns, landing pages, etc on the fly without becoming cost prohibitive. Aside from content, there’s the updates relating to security and general maintenance of CMS and plugins too.
Etc
Remember, we’re generalising here… There are a myriad of other costs that can come into this equation.
Simply put, Squarespace reduces the time involved in setting up a bunch of the above factors… that allows us to concentrate on what’s important… telling your story!
As a quick example, Squarespace is centrally hosted so you don’t have to worry about monthly hosting costs. Another of its benefits is it gives us a strong structure to begin with. This includes a range of elements we (and you) can simply drag and drop rather than having to code everything from the ground up. With that base, we’re able to prototype on the fly.
One of the key benefits for our clients is the technical maintenance is relatively non-existent. Wordpress is notoriously time and budget consuming when it comes to maintenance – there’s a constant worry about pushing CMS updates, plugin updates, security updates… On Squarespace, everything is in a neat bundled platform that’s centrally maintained. That means you can spend the savings on what’s actually important… content. Plus, most clients can make simple image changes or text updates yourself without feeling like you’ve entered a never-ending game of Tron.
So what can’t Squarespace do?
If you’re after something with some next-level functionality (like a site with more that 2 tiers of navigation, or a site with hundreds of products that could really do with a more robust database) then Squarespace is probably going to fall short. That’s where our knowledge of other platforms comes into play… other platforms like Webflow and Shopify have specialised functionality that may suit your needs better.
But if, like 99% of our clients, you’re just after a website that tells your brand story (image, words, video, blog, portfolio, gallery, forms, timeline, etc) then Squarespace might just save you a pile of money.
Check out the digital Mill Tour we made for Hyne to see how Squarespace can be utilised.
If you have a website project coming up, get in touch. We’re more that happy to talk you through your options.
