I’m handing the blog over to my friend Bekah Read today. She’s my go-to recommendation for anyone who needs a Showit or Squarespace website, and she’s here to help you figure out which platform is actually right for your brand,
Enjoy!
April xx
Hi, I’m Bekah! I’m a Showit Design Partner and Squarespace Circle Gold web designer, and I’ve built 100+ websites since 2018. April invited me to share my honest take on one of the most common questions I hear: which website platform is actually right for your business?
If you’ve ever gone down a rabbit hole trying to figure out whether you need Shopify, Squarespace, or Showit, you’re not alone. These platforms get compared constantly, and the answer is genuinely different depending on what your business actually does. Let’s break it down.
Why Your Website Platform Matters More Than You Think
Your platform isn’t just a technical decision. It shapes how fast you can launch, how easy it is to update, what you pay every month, and how the whole thing feels to manage long-term.
Getting this wrong doesn’t just mean a frustrating website build. It can mean paying for tools you don’t need, rebuilding from scratch in a year, or launching something that works against your goals instead of for them.
The good news: once you know what each platform is actually built for, the decision gets a lot clearer.
What Is Showit Built For?
Showit is a drag-and-drop design platform built for creatives and service-based businesses who want full visual freedom without touching code. It’s paired with WordPress for blogging, which means your site can rank really well on Google (although I would argue your platform doesn’t matter when it comes to SEO, but I digress) while still looking completely custom.
Showit is a great fit if you:
- Run a service-based business (photography, coaching, consulting, design, etc.)
- Want a site that looks completely unique and on-brand
- Care about SEO and want your blog to do real work for you
- Sell a VERY small number of digital products or services, not a large physical catalogue
It’s not the right pick if you need serious ecommerce functionality. It integrates with a few tools, but it’s not built for running a shop.
What Is Squarespace Built For?
Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform with beautiful templates, built-in blogging, and some basic ecommerce functionality. It’s a little less design-flexible than Showit but often faster to launch (and learn), and the built-in tools (scheduling, email marketing, basic shop) make it a solid one-stop option for a lot of small businesses.
Squarespace is a great fit if you:
- Want a polished, professional site without a ton of customization complexity
- Are a newer business looking to establish your brand quickly
- Need basic online booking or a small shop (under 30 items) alongside your services
- Want everything in one place and don’t need heavy ecommerce
What Is Shopify Built For?
Shopify is purpose-built for ecommerce. It’s exceptional at selling products, managing inventory, handling variants and collections, and scaling an online store. April lives in this world and does it incredibly well.
Shopify makes sense if you:
- Sell physical products and need real inventory management
- Have a product catalogue with multiple variants, collections, or categories
- Are scaling a shop and need robust ecommerce tools and integrations
- Need fulfilment, wholesale, or complex shipping functionality
If this is you, April is your person. Seriously, go book a call with her!!
The Honest Summary
Here’s the short version:
- Showit or Squarespace if you’re a service provider, creative, or newer brand who needs a beautiful, strategic site that gets found on Google
- Shopify if you’re running or scaling a real product-based shop
Neither is better than the other. They’re just built for different things. The mistake most people make is choosing based on what looks impressive, has the best ads, or what they’ve seen other people use, instead of what actually fits the business they’re running right now.
A Note on SEO (Because I Can’t Help Myself)
Whichever platform you choose, your site needs to be findable. I get about 80-85% of my own clients through Google, which is why SEO is baked into everything I build. If you’re curious how that works, I put together a free SEO masterclass that walks you through the basics without the jargon. You can grab it at rebekahreadcreative.com/seo.
And if you’re looking for a Showit or Squarespace designer, I’d love to connect. You can see my work at rebekahreadcreative.com.
