Book a call

Squiz vs WordPress: Which is better for your website?

Squiz outperforms WordPress for complex websites, offering more features, less developer dependence, easier scaling, and better security.

Mei Koon 08 Oct 2024

Pop quiz: what’s something that should have become easier and better for marketers over the years?

Answer: explaining what we do to elderly relatives? Well yes, that too.

But what about just building and managing websites?

If you’re using WordPress, you’ll know that hasn’t happened. What started as an easy, no-code content management system (CMS) 20 years ago just hasn’t kept up.

Want personalized, multichannel, AI-powered digital experiences? Good luck!

Why is WordPress popular? 

WordPress is built for simple, small business websites.

WordPress is an open-source platform, meaning its source code is available for anyone to access, modify, and share. While it’s not completely free, the open-source nature helps reduce initial costs. But, once you extend your site with more functionality and subsites, more expenses hit from the add-ons required.

You can expand the functionality of your WordPress-based website with plug-ins. But no one tells you how hard they are to manage, keep secure, and prevent from slowing down your load times.

The tool is commonly used by solopreneurs, small and medium sized organizations from bloggers to ecommerce.

It’s not designed to handle complex customer experiences across multiple sites, over multiple channels.

The good news is that Squiz is designed for marketers who manage more than just a brochureware site.

What does Squiz do?

Squiz is built for complex, enterprise-scale websites.

While Squiz started out as a CMS too – since 1998, it has grown to become the full digital experience platform (DXP) it is today.

What does that mean? In a nutshell, Squiz offers so much more than a CMS. It offers a full suite of capabilities, with low-code tools (no devs required!) and it’s SaaS-based, so it’s designed with the flexibility to integrate tools from any vendor, and the governance that makes them all work together like one solution.

As we say, “Come as you are” with the tech that works for you and have the freedom to swap those tools in and out as needed, without breaking your experiences.

No need to manage individual integrations, no need for dev or agency support, no need to worry about security. It’s all taken care of. And…breathe.

Squiz is the platform of choice for mid-to-large organizations in enterprise, government, and higher education sectors globally. Lean teams use it to easily create high-performing web experiences that they can scale and adapt, without rebuilding or replatforming at every turn.

Let’s compare: Squiz vs WordPress

Full transparency, I’m the CMO of Squiz. But, I write this with first-hand experience building and managing websites for over two decades, from 2000 to date.

This comparison comes with a lens of a Marketing and Digital front-line user who has used CMS and DXP platforms from many vendors. So I get the pain points every Marketer and Digital user feels.

Here are the five biggest reasons I’ve seen as to how Squiz solves for key WordPress frustrations.

You’ll get A LOT more than just a CMS

1. You’ll get A LOT more than just a CMS

TLDR: For complex website experiences that serve multiple audiences, integrate with many different data systems and channels, and are delivered across multiple sites, WordPress falls short. You need much more than a CMS. Squiz is a digital experience platform with all the capabilities needed to deliver personalized and optimized experiences customers love.

With WordPress

Life is good until you need something more than content management.

You’re stuck with just a CMS, which means constantly adding plugins to keep doing more – think personalization.

You have to maintain, test, and update all those plug-ins, which means relying heavily on developers (or trying to become one yourself - which just isn’t pretty!)

What you’re left with is a tangled mess of fragile integrations, where even small updates need dev or agency support. And scaling this chaos? Basically a full-time job. WordPress struggles with very large sites or high traffic volumes.

Plus, most extra functionality comes from community add-ons that can introduce serious security risks. Outdated WordPress versions, or poorly coded plugins and themes, add unacceptable layers of vulnerability to your organization.

With Squiz

Our full Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is yours, letting you manage everything from a single hub. The Squiz DXP has it all – an AI-powered CMS, GenAI content editing, optimization, personalization, a form builder, AI search…the list goes on.

And because it’s SaaS, everything is automatically updated. No manual updates or plugin maintenance. Hurrah!

Whether you use Squiz capabilities or integrate tools from another vendor, you can swap them in and out with the DXP as your core platform - no lock-in, no tangled mess, and only no-and-low code connectors.

So those third-party integrations are easy and secure.

Your data stays unified, with personalization baked right into the platform, so you can deliver seamless, tailored experiences across multiple channels. And with the ability to capture and unify detailed user data across systems, channels, and devices, you’ll always have visibility over your users and their journey.

You'll rely on developers way less

2. You’ll rely on developers way less

TLDR: Squiz eliminates developer bottlenecks with no-code visual editor experiences and pre-built templates. Non-technical editors and marketers can work fast, going from idea to life, independently. Finally, get back in control of your every day. 

With WordPress

Every task requires a developer – building, integrating, updating, you name it, there’s a ticket for it. This leads to bottlenecks that slow down your marketing and content teams.

And, let’s be honest, developers don’t want to be bogged down with site maintenance, updates, and managing integrations instead of working on value-add projects that actually move the business forward.

With marketing and operations budgets tightening everywhere, being reliant on devs for everything is not an efficient strategy.

With Squiz

Marketing and content teams can take full control with low-code and no-code tools. Starting with custom or pre-built components (i.e. headers, footers, carousels, events or social feeds) create a design system that can be used by every team member to create, AB test and personalize pages and content across all websites.

This means faster campaigns, fewer delays, and developers free to focus on high-impact work.

Plus, Squiz uses industry-standard developer frameworks. So if you do need customization done, your existing dev team can step in without needing any platform-specific knowledge.

Scale without breaking a sweat

3. Scale without breaking a sweat

TLDR: WordPress isn’t built for large or complex sites with high traffic volumes. Squiz makes scaling seamless, giving your team the tools to grow without the headaches.

With WordPress

Scaling with WordPress is tough. As your business grows, those point-to-point integrations you’ve cobbled together start to break down.

Managing multiple WordPress sites across departments or locations? Hello duplicated content, brand inconsistencies, and a messy content hierarchy that utterly confuses users.

The more you try to personalize, reuse content, or run thorough tests, the more WordPress’s limits get in your way. Data silos slow down your workflows and make managing information across teams difficult. Performance issues start to show. Load times drop. Higher traffic becomes a problem. Defining user roles and permission across sites and platforms is hard, making it difficult to manage your content and stay on brand.

Phew…I’m tired just listing it all.

The upshot is that as your needs evolve, you’ll likely face major platform overhauls just to keep up.

With Squiz

Scaling is effortless.

Our composable architecture handles traffic growth with ease, and you can swap tools in and out as your needs change without ever disrupting your experiences.

Whether you’re using Squiz tools or integrating third-party services, everything is managed in one place. You can manage all your digital assets, streamline content distribution, and personalize across multiple sites – all without re-platforming.

Your teams will move faster, with fewer errors, and your content will stay consistent no matter how much you grow.

Avoid budget blowouts with transparent predictable costs

4. Avoid budget blowouts with transparent, predictable costs

TLDR: WordPress might look cheap on the surface, but it usually isn’t. Squiz simplifies your costs, giving you full transparency and faster ROI.

With WordPress

The more plug-ins you add, the higher your costs (and you will need more plugins).

Those third-party tools might seem cheap at first, but soon you’ll be paying for licenses, maintenance, and dealing with security issues.

You’ll need regular updates to core versions, and someone technical is going to need to manage all those themes and plugins.

Say it with me: cheap doesn’t usually mean better. While WordPress might feel inexpensive at the start, it quickly becomes costly to maintain.

With Squiz

No hidden costs here.

You get everything you need with one transparent, predictable price, as well as the flexibility to bring in the tech that works for you.

It’s what we call our “come as you are” approach – bring your existing tech stack, integrate it with Squiz capabilities, and have everything work together seamlessly. No added costs for plugins, no expensive developer bills, and no strain on your internal resources.

You can cross that ‘upgrade costs’ line off your budget. Boom!

Pricing is based on what you actually use, so it’s easy to see the value of your investment. And with shorter implementation cycles, you’ll see results – and real ROI – faster.

You'll stay secure without lifting a finger

5. You’ll stay secure without lifting a finger

TLDR: Squiz has been architected with security as the first priority, leaving your team to focus on growing the business.

With WordPress

Relying on third-party plug-ins creates serious security risks.

It’s one of the reasons why WordPress sites are so frequently targeted by hackers. They know that poorly coded plugins and themes are like open doors, and they regularly exploit them.

To stay secure, your developers will be stuck managing messy point-to-point integrations that need manual updates to keep them safe. And where you find ‘manual’, you’ll find ‘human error’.

Missed updates will leave you exposed to security breaches and risk breaking your entire digital experience.

Managing security in-house is a massive task. It requires constant monitoring, frequent updates, and specialized expertise. It’s labor-intensive, prone to mistakes, and can leave your system vulnerable to attacks.

With Squiz

Security comes baked in.

We don’t rely on risky point-to-point integrations. Instead, we use IPaaS (Integration-Platform-as-a-Service) to centralize and automate your integration management, keeping everything secure. No manual updates anywhere to be seen.

And with DDoS mitigation, ISO certification, and a Web Application Firewall (WAF) (basically lots of internationally recognized security accreditations, for the uninitiated), all incoming traffic is inspected with any risks proactively handled.

As a SaaS solution, Squiz covers every aspect of your security. With automated updates, continuous monitoring, and advanced security measures managed by a team of experts with over 25 years of experience, your entire digital ecosystem is always protected against the latest threats.

This frees up your team – both in time and a less-stressed headspace – to focus on what really matters.

Conclusion

WordPress is the go-to provider for basic, simple websites, but as soon as you want to do more than publish a simple, no-frills site the trouble starts. Its reliance on developers, hidden costs, and complex integrations can quickly slow your progress and drain your budget.

Squiz has completely changed the game for marketers. With all the capabilities you need to deliver personalized experiences in one platform, non-technical teams move faster, content is re-used at scale, timely processes are automated, and all your content editors remain on brand. All this means you’ll be getting maximum value from your tech investment.

So, don’t let developer bottlenecks and tangled systems hold you back. Choose a platform built for simplicity, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, and start delivering the exceptional digital experiences that marketing mind of yours has been dreaming up.

Ready to make the switch?