UPDATED 2023 COMING SOON

So let’s just say you decided it’s time to start selling your bracelets and jewelry online. Everyone says you should so you decide its time to do some research. You are on a tight budget of $ 25-50 a month and have a few options…..

You can ( pay say $3-11 a month for your domain and pay a $35 set up fee with say a company like Dreamhost.com  I pay $11 each month that’s about $133 a year, I don’t recommend it to non-designers). Most hosting companies have one-click installs and WordPress is one of them. ( So no need to hire someone ). Depending on who the host is your plan might have an unlimited email. That can come in handy later when you start making your email accounts. You could end up with a CS@ yourdomain.com and if you ended up hiring people to help you out they could have their own email too. The ideas are endless I tell ya! Once you get WordPress installed onto your domain you can make unlimited pages and posts 🙂  And start uploading your photos and install woocommerce ( which is free ) you can get the ball rolling.  So this should take no more than say one to two hours if that. You will have more control of your site.

Extras – WordPress theme $15-75 a decent one!

Paypal business account or Striped account

You’re just renting a spot and for $26 a month, you get a bunch of fancy things like  $100 Google AdWords Credit(I used these before but didn’t get anything from it) and Mobile Website and Store ( depending on the theme for say WP you already get that :D). You are looking at a grand total for a year at $26 a month drum roll please $312 and maybe spending say an hour setting all this up. Setting up shop wouldn’t take long you could upload everything and be done in about an hour. But that depends on  HOW “fast” you want to get online.

Extras

Paypal business account or Striped account

In conclusion,n time if, I could go back in time and compare the two: self-hosted domain with WP $133 a year or $312 for a year for a template without any actual work on Squarespace. It goes with the $133 year. Because later on I could hire a website designer and have them design my branding and etc for my shop  BUT you can do that for Squarespace also.

It comes down to how much you realistically can afford and if you’re willing to put in the time and the effect to get a good-looking site. So realistically the $312 a year wouldn’t be worth your money if you aren’t making more than $300+ profit per month or year. You would be losing money. After costs and shipping costs and packing you wouldn’t be making enough to pay yourself and reinvest in your business.

Go the WordPress route if you outgrow this combo you can always go to Shopify BUT make sure you’re making enough money a month to justify the price.