Amazon Lightsail vs. Squarespace

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon Lightsail
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Amazon Lightsail is a virtual private server (VPS) designed to present an easy-to-use cloud platform that offers everything needed to build an application or website, plus a cost-effective, monthly plan.
$3.50
per month
Squarespace
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.
$25
per month
Pricing
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Editions & Modules
512 MB Linux
$3.50
per month
1 GB Linux
$5.00
per month
2 GB Linux
$10.00
per month
Basic
$25
per month
Core
$36
per month
Plus
$56
per month
Advanced
$139
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details28% to 36% discount available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Features
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Lightsail
8.8
6 Ratings
7% above category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling5.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing9.34 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring tools8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images8.95 Ratings00 Ratings
Operating system support10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Security controls10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation10.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Lightsail
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.2
67 Ratings
0% below category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.267 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Lightsail
-
Ratings
Squarespace
6.5
58 Ratings
17% below category average
API00 Ratings7.151 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings5.937 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Lightsail
-
Ratings
Squarespace
7.7
99 Ratings
1% below category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings9.184 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings7.378 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings7.498 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings7.399 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.596 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings8.195 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings8.186 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings6.780 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Lightsail
-
Ratings
Squarespace
6.3
89 Ratings
17% below category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings7.376 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings6.680 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings5.951 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings5.565 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings6.067 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Small Businesses
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.4 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(6 ratings)
8.4
(100 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(14 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon LightsailSquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
We utilized Amazon Lightsail to get a web application proof of concept up and running. It's easy to set up, requires minimal configuration, and lets us to concentrate on the coding. It's designed to help you get started fast and easily, but it's not designed for corporate applications or workloads.
Read full review
Squarespace
Squarespace is one of the best solutions out there for building a website or web experience that looks good, has great functionality and is cost-effective, even for smaller businesses. Although most people in marketing will find most of the elements intuitive, if the creator is struggling with any of the functionality, there are many, many support options and other users who can offer assistance.
Read full review
Pros
Amazon AWS
  • Its provide pre configured Apps and operating system
  • Very easy to use interface and the cost is also very low
  • Integration with other AWS services like route53, S3 etc
Read full review
Squarespace
  • Stupid simple to use. I know very creative people who cannot code and this is probably the easiest ever platform for them!
  • Pretty website templates and great functionality with showing off portfolios.
  • They've already figured out what are the problems that non-coding people have when creating websites and they've figured out a simple solution for all of it.
Read full review
Cons
Amazon AWS
  • slow
  • complex integration to AWS Cloudwatch - complex setup required
  • No IPv6, a big downside
  • less value compared with Linode or Digital Ocean
Read full review
Squarespace
  • Customizing the sites can be highly UN intuitive
  • Navigation for editing the sites can be difficult and frustrating
  • Squarespace has different versions and it's hard to know which version you're on. You can't switch after you start making a site with one version.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Squarespace
Unless our website requires significantly more functionality in the future, I can't see us terminating our contract
Read full review
Usability
Amazon AWS
My overall experience with Amazon Lightsail is very good, and the online community of Lightsail users is very large and its helps to resolve any kind of issue i faced on my server. I also like the integration of other AWS services with Amazon Lightsail like we can export our Lightsail instance into ec2 server using snapshots.
Read full review
Squarespace
It's simple to use for someone who is really good with computers as well as those who are not. I've been using my personal squarespace for years and have also helped clients build a starting page which they are later able to manage theirselves.
Read full review
Support Rating
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Squarespace
Help is available directly from the back end and uses full sentence searching to find answers to questions others may have asked before. With a ton of articles and support questions documents, it is very likely that your question has been answered. If not each page has the ability to open a direct email to support. Each case has a number and can be followed. Responses are often quick and have links and directions clearly stated
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Amazon Lightsail is a great platform. Before we started using it, we were using AWS EC2 instances as our primary servers after being dissatisfied with other providers. After Amazon Lightsail's introduction, we were able to reduce our operating costs, improve our quality assurance tasks, and provide much more efficient and better apps with our microservices architecture.
Read full review
Squarespace
Squarespace was quicker to set up and more accessible to manipulate the theme, pictures, and content. The page layouts are more versatile and fluid. With WordPress, more time-consuming efforts go into making a template work the way you want it to (because of the lack of the drag-and-drop grids that Squarespace has).
Read full review
Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • Hosting a production application on Lightsail will guarantee you a loss
  • Saved lots of time for our prototyping
  • Other VPS providers are better
Read full review
Squarespace
  • The cost is reasonably decent. My client says they spent about $20 a month or $240 a year. I asked her if she could add Google AdSense to her blog one day, and they believe they can. They said a custom site would cost them $3000-10,000 depending on who does it. And I agreed, but I found the website they created was on the lower end of that range.
Read full review
ScreenShots