Choose the platform by deciding who will change the site after launch and how often, then pick the tool that matches that answer. A hand-coded static site on Netlify fits a business that wants speed, security and low upkeep and is happy to have its builder make edits. WordPress fits a team that wants to log in, edit pages, post blogs and use plugins, and Squarespace fits an owner who wants a simple editor to manage alone.
Most platform debates start with features: which one has better templates, which one is cheaper this year, which one a friend recommended. Those questions matter less than they seem, because all three can publish a fast, readable page. What separates them is the work that arrives after launch, such as updates, edits and logins, and who carries each one.
This page is planning guidance for owners and marketing leads choosing a platform for a new or rebuilt site, based on the three platforms Hudson South builds on. It is not a review of every website tool on the market. For how the build itself runs, see how Hudson South plans and builds business websites.
Start with who edits the site
Every site has an owner of record and an editor in practice, and they are often different people. The owner signs the invoice, while the editor is whoever fixes the holiday hours, adds the new hire, or swaps a photo on a Tuesday afternoon. A platform is not a website. Choosing one before you know who that editor is tends to produce a site that is technically fine and awkward to keep current.
Look back before you look forward. Pull up the last year of changes to your current site and sort them into copy edits, new pages, blog posts, staff changes, new forms, and new tools added along the way. A business that changed six sentences all year has a different need from a marketing lead who publishes every week, and both situations are common.
What each platform is, in plain terms
The three options are built differently, and the differences show up in who can touch what. The summary below draws on each platform's own documentation and on Hudson South's guidance about fit.
| Question | Netlify (hand-coded static site) | WordPress | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|
| How pages are made | Coded as files and published to Netlify's hosting | Built in the WordPress editor on a theme (a custom theme in a Hudson South build) | Designed inside Squarespace's own editor |
| Who edits day to day | Usually the builder, on request | Your team, through logins with assigned roles | The owner or invited contributors |
| Adding features | Coded in by the builder | Plugins, each with its own updates | Squarespace's built-in features |
| Upkeep to plan for | Low; each change goes live as a complete new version | Regular updates to core, theme and plugins, plus saved revisions to fall back on | Content upkeep in the editor; custom code sits outside Squarespace support |
| Fit, per Hudson South's guidance | Speed, security and low upkeep, with edits handled by the builder | Teams that want to edit pages, post blogs and use plugins | Owners who want a simple editor they manage themselves |
A few documented details sit behind that table. Netlify describes its publishing as atomic: "No changes go live on your site's public URL before all changes have been uploaded." It also offers free HTTPS on all sites, with certificates created and renewed automatically when Netlify manages them. WordPress describes itself as open source software licensed under the GPLv2, its revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update, and its hardening guide tells owners to keep plugins updated and delete any plugin they are not using. Squarespace's help center says a website editor "can add products, blocks, and other content to existing pages," and that code-based customizations fall outside the scope of its support.
Each platform has its own page with more detail: hand-coded static sites on Netlify, custom-theme WordPress builds, and Squarespace sites designed for the business.
Questions that settle the choice
Most businesses can reach a decision with a handful of questions. Answer them for the next two years, not for the week after launch, when everyone is enthusiastic about editing.
| If this is true | Lean toward | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You plan to publish articles yourself every week or two | WordPress | The editor, user roles and revisions are built for regular publishing |
| You change the site a few times a year and would rather send the changes to someone | Netlify | Fewer moving parts to keep updated between edits |
| You want to manage a small site alone, without a developer | Squarespace | One editor, with contributors invited at the permission level you choose |
| You need a feature an existing plugin already provides | WordPress | Plugins add features without custom code, in exchange for more upkeep |
| Speed and a small attack surface matter more than self-editing | Netlify | Prebuilt files, with no admin login on the public site |
Then take the results to the people who will live with them. One question tends to settle disagreements: "If the person who edits our site leaves next year, who picks it up, and on which platform would that be easiest?" A marketing lead might answer WordPress because the next hire will likely know it. An owner who handles everything personally might answer Squarespace, and a business with no internal editor at all might find a builder-managed Netlify site the least fragile choice.
A fictional example: three businesses, three answers
Here is a fictional example. Three businesses in the same Ohio town are planning new sites. A two-person bookkeeping office updates its site twice a year, when fees or deadlines change, and the owner has no interest in logging in. A regional lawn care company has a marketing coordinator who wants to publish seasonal project write-ups and add an estimate request tool. A solo portrait photographer wants to swap gallery images every month without calling anyone.
The bookkeeping office is a good candidate for a hand-coded Netlify site: its pages change rarely, speed matters on a phone, and two edit requests a year take less attention than keeping a login and plugins current. The lawn care company fits WordPress, because its coordinator will publish often, may want a plugin for the estimate tool, and can own the updates. The photographer fits Squarespace, because a simple editor she controls matches how she works. None of the three made the wrong choice, and none would be well served by another's answer.
What stays the same on every platform
The platform decides how a site is maintained. It does not decide what the site says, and that part carries most of the weight with buyers and with search systems. Hudson South runs every build in the same order. Authority Asset gathers approved business knowledge and evidence. Hudson Twenty-One records how the business communicates across 21 dimensions, so the pages sound like the people who answer the phone. Market Intelligence researches the questions buyers ask and how the market answers them. AEO Creation turns those inputs into answer-first pages. Whether the result lands in a code file, a WordPress page or a Squarespace block, the writer should not have to invent what the business knows.
Some practices travel with every build as well: answer-first page structure, structured data in JSON-LD, an XML sitemap, redirects from old URLs when a site moves, form submissions emailed to the business, mobile layout checks, automated accessibility checks, and a quality gate on copy before launch. If editing is the deciding factor, what editing after launch looks like on each platform goes further, and how static sites and WordPress compare on security covers the upkeep side.
Settle the platform after you see what the site must say
On a free 30-minute call, we look at how your site and your competitors' sites answer the questions your buyers ask, which often makes the platform choice clearer.
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- Deploy overview. Netlify Docs. Read 2026-10-17.
- HTTPS (SSL). Netlify Docs. Read 2026-10-17.
- About. WordPress.org. Read 2026-10-17.
- Revisions. WordPress.org Documentation. Read 2026-10-17.
- Hardening WordPress. WordPress Advanced Administration Handbook. Read 2026-10-17.
- Squarespace permissions explained. Squarespace Help Center. Read 2026-10-17.
- Code-based customizations. Squarespace Help Center. Read 2026-10-17.