As a design & marketing agency working exclusively with therapists, counseling centers, and treatment practices, we’ve seen a wide variety of website platforms in use. Over years of experience, one clear trend has emerged: for the majority of our clients, Squarespace offers the smarter, more reliable choice—especially compared to WordPress. Here’s why.
Every time I hop on a discovery call with a therapist who’s looking to build or revamp their website, one of the first things we discuss is the platform they want to build on. Sometimes they have a strong preference already; other times they’re open to my perspective. And nearly every time, I find myself explaining why I choose Squarespace over WordPress for therapy and small counseling practice websites.
Occasionally, I take it a step further and share that while I may assist with minor edits on a WordPress site if absolutely necessary, I really don’t hold the platform in high regard. It’s not the giant it used to be, and for the kind of work we do—helping therapists and counseling centers shine online—there are simply better alternatives. Squarespace, in particular, just fits our clients’ needs so much better.
WordPress is incredibly flexible—but that flexibility comes with a cost: it often relies on a lot of third‑party plugins. Each plugin introduces a potential failure point (compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities, maintenance hassle).
In a therapy practice, your website is often the first impression clients have of you. You want it stable, reliable, and easy to update—not a tech headache.
With Squarespace, the core functionality is built in and vetted by the platform itself. Fewer moving parts = fewer things that can go wrong.
When you build or migrate a site on WordPress, you often need:
For many small‑to‑mid‑sized practices, that means unexpected costs. OR you end up stuck doing the tech stuff instead of doing therapy. Expect to pay $100+ per hour for a good, reliable WordPress developer (if you can find one that has availability & quick turnaround times). That adds up quickly when you factor in ongoing maintenance.
Squarespace, however, handles hosting, core updates, security, and much of the infrastructure for you. Plus, you can expect more affordable edits and updates, saving you time and money.
In a counseling practice, you may wear many hats (therapist + entrepreneur + practice manager). You might not have time to train in plugin management, caching, or PHP.
Squarespace’s built‑in drag-and-drop editor (7.1, Fluid Engine), structured templates, and intuitive interface let you make updates—adding staff profiles, blog posts, testimonials—without worrying that you’ll break something.
WordPress can be performant, but only if someone keeps things updated and maintained.
SEO matters for your practice: you want to show up when prospective clients search for things like “anxiety therapist + [city]” or “couples counselor near me.”
In recent years, Squarespace has significantly improved its SEO capabilities, offering built‑in tools (clean URLs, structured data, meta‑tag controls) that rival what you’d get with a basic WordPress setup.
That means you can publish blogs, optimize location pages, and build your authority without getting bogged down in technical SEO fixes.
One of the most compelling reasons to switch to Squarespace is the long-term savings. Here’s what you stand to save on when migrating from WordPress:
With Squarespace, you’ll avoid these recurring plugin fees altogether.
We’ve seen this story play out more than once: A practice builds or migrates to WordPress, spends thousands of dollars and many hours custom‑coding, then realizes they’re stuck managing updates or dealing with plugin conflicts—and ultimately move back to Squarespace.
That time, money, and frustration could’ve been better spent serving clients and growing the business.
This isn’t to say WordPress never makes sense. If you run a large network of therapists, multiple services, custom client portals, or highly specialized integrations—then WordPress (or another CMS — ask me about Webflow) might be appropriate.
But for many private practices, group practices, treatment centers, and counseling teams, Squarespace hits the sweet spot:
At Theory About That, our goal is to help therapy professionals focus on what they do best—counseling, supporting, healing—while we support the marketing, design, and digital infrastructure behind them. Choosing a website platform isn’t just a technical decision—it’s a foundational business decision.
If your choice of platform ends up being a distraction, ongoing cost, or source of risk—you lose time you could spend building your practice or supporting clients.
With Squarespace, you get a platform that’s reliable, manageable, and aligned with a therapist’s needs. If you’re still evaluating platforms, ask:
If you’d like guidance on which platform makes sense for your practice—or how to design and market your website to attract the right clients—our team at Theory About That would love to help.
Contact us for a free consultation and we’ll help you assess your website needs and pick the right path forward.
