A Comprehensive Look at the Website Builder
An Expert’s Perspective of Pros & Cons in 2024
Squarespace is a popular website builder that continues to be a top choice for creating visually-appealing and feature-rich websites. It’s particularly well-suited for small businesses, personal portfolios, blogs, some e-commerce sites, and now they are looking to make things easier for customers with multi-site needs. But how do you know if it’s the right long-term solution for your business?
With a history of writing about Squarespace spanning over a decade, and an official Squarespace Expert designation since 2014, we offer a unique perspective that combines our technical knowledge and design experience. This Squarespace review looks at key features, offers a balanced examination of its strengths and weaknesses, and suggests alternatives for scenarios where Squarespace might not be the best fit.
TLDR: Is Squarespace right for you?
In our professional opinion and based on the wide spectrum of users we’ve worked with, Squarespace is a solid choice for many B2B and B2C organizations, as well as individuals. Even large companies, with generous budgets for custom-built websites, often choose Squarespace due to its reliability and simplicity.
The all-in-one platform removes the need for separate hosting providers or plugin maintenance, allowing you to focus more on your business or project and less on technical details. However, Squarespace is not universally perfect. It has its drawbacks and there are situations where it is not the best fit. So if your needs extend beyond a standard setup, you’ll want to keep reading for a more nuanced understanding.
A Brief History of Squarespace
Squarespace was created in 2003, when the founder wanted to build a personal website and was dissatisfied with the available options. The platform officially launched in 2004, offering a simple, all-in-one solution for anyone to build a website without coding skills.
Since then, Squarespace has experienced rapid growth, with millions of websites currently being powered by the platform. It has evolved to include features like e-commerce, email marketing, and analytics, making it a robust platform for a wide range of users. In 2021, Squarespace went public, marking a milestone in its development.
Squarespace is known for hosting notable personal brands and creative websites, but you might also be familiar with some of these companies using Squarespace:
Key Benefits of Squarespace
Squarespace’s strengths are in its ease of use, all-in-one approach, and built-in blogging and e-commerce capabilities. Advantages of the platform include:
Ease of Use: The platform provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes it fairly easy for beginners to navigate. The drag-and-drop editor simplifies the process of customizing a website. You are not dependent on a developer for updates—this alone makes it worth it for many businesses.
Comprehensive: Squarespace has grown beyond its original scope of website building. It now offers a comprehensive digital toolkit offering domain registration, email marketing, scheduling, courses, memberships, and more. This all-in-one approach is often appealing to small businesses craving simplicity and seamless integration. But keep in mind, a trade-off exists with vendor dependency in the fact that all-in-one solutions often don’t excel in every area. Many businesses will find greater success selecting best-in-class tools for specific business functions.
SEO Tools: Squarespace’s built-in SEO tools can help make your site more visible to search engines. They provide automatic built-in XML sitemaps, robots.txt generation, and SSL certificates. Learn more about SEO on Squarespace.
E-commerce: Squarespace’s e-commerce tools allow users to create online stores with relative ease. Features include inventory management, product variants, the ability to sell digital products, a secure checkout process, and more. You can accept payments from credit cards (via Stripe), PayPal, and Apple Pay. And the platform supports integration with shipping carriers like USPS, UPS, and FedEx for real-time shipping rates.
Blogging Tools: If you plan to blog, the platform supports multiple contributors, post scheduling, and a commenting system. Blog posts can be categorized and tagged for organization. There is also an option to import posts from WordPress or Blogger.
Third-Party Integrations: Squarespace has supported integrations with popular tools like Mailchimp and Google Workspace for years. And now they allow what they call Squarespace Extensions, opening up the platform to more 3rd party apps to expand website functionality for commerce sites.
Scalable Templates: Squarespace offers a range of professionally designed modern templates. Templates are customizable—you can modify the colors, fonts, layout, and other design elements to suit your brand. And you can later expand your site with additional sections and functionalities while maintaining a cohesive design.
Mobile Responsiveness: Every Squarespace template is designed to automatically scale and adjust your content to display on different devices. This means your website looks just as good on a smartphone or tablet as it does on a desktop.
Mobile Editing: Squarespace offers a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. You can make updates to a website, write blog posts, and check analytics. However, the app does not offer the complete functionality of the desktop editor—complex design tasks and certain advanced features require you to use the desktop version.
Disadvantages of Squarespace
While Squarespace has a range of features, it’s also important to consider some of its drawbacks. No platform is perfect and understanding limitations will help you make an informed decision. In our experience, the shortcomings of the platform that are most likely to impact you include:
Site search does not work: Although every Squarespace website comes with an integrated search feature, it has never worked properly for sites over a certain size. As an example, try to search our site for words like Squarespace or marketing. You may find that an initial search returns no results. In addition, when search results are returned, they erroneously include pages that have been set to “noindex.” To overcome this limitation, you can add 3rd-party search to your site if needed.
Feature neglect: Squarespace’s eagerness to evolve into an all-in-one digital toolkit has often frustrated designers. The platform tends to introduce extraneous “features,” while much-needed enhancements to its core product are overlooked. This issue is amplified by the premature release of features to the public that are still in a “beta” phase, causing unsuspecting users to act as de facto quality control testers. It is common for many pro users to hold off on adopting new features, giving time for initial bugs and issues to be resolved.
No autosave feature: Another frustration is the lack of an autosave feature. If you’re in the midst of editing when your laptop runs out of power or you lose internet connection, you might lose recent changes. We’ve lost hours of work when a browser refreshed after stepping away for a few minutes. Save your work often.
No file attachments: Occasionally, users express the need for the option to attach files to form submissions. Imagine a warranty form where customers can include photos of a problem. If needed, you can embed 3rd-party forms as a workaround.
Learning curve: Squarespace’s website editor can take a bit of getting used to for beginners. And many users find the Fluid Engine editor less intuitive compared to other website builders, but you can use the Classic Editor if you prefer.
Privacy issues: This particular issue has been resolved. But we’ve left this point here to demonstrate how slow moving the platform can be on some important matters. In 2018, the EU’s GDPR rules gave individuals the right to erasure, also known as the right to be forgotten. Squarespace email marketing launched that same year, yet it wasn’t until years later, that they implemented functionality to comply with privacy regulations, specifically the ability to delete user profiles. For years, the only available solution for data deletion was to contact the support team directly and that process took “30 days to go through all of the steps.”
Squarespace 7.0 vs 7.1 vs Fluid Engine
Squarespace has seen significant changes over the years, launching version 7.0 in 2014, followed by version 7.1 in 2020, and introducing Fluid Engine in 2022. You have the option to choose from the various 7.0 templates or to start with the single versatile 7.1 template (which can be customized to resemble 7.0 options). Fluid Engine is an option on the 7.1 platform. All Squarespace versions provide comprehensive tools for website creation.
Fluid Engine, a grid-based system, brings greater flexibility to content layouts, but it also adds a layer of complexity that overwhelms many DIY users. Notably, when using Fluid Engine, you’re required to style the desktop and mobile versions of a site separately. Many DIY users who opt for the Fluid Engine “upgrade,” later decide to return to the simpler styling process of the Classic Editor. You can opt to build pages using the less complex Classic Editor, or even turn off Fluid Engine entirely.
Pricing Structure
Squarespace plans apply to all Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1 templates and are designed to cater to different needs: Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce.
The Personal plan is the most affordable, offering a range of basic features suitable for individuals or small projects.
The Business plan provides professional features including customization with code, advanced analytics, and limited e-commerce capabilities.
The Basic Commerce plan offers more robust e-commerce features, including related products, low stock alerts, and 0% transaction fees.
The Advanced Commerce plan provides the most comprehensive set of e-commerce tools, including advanced shipping, discounts, and more.
The Squarespace Enterprise/Bulk plan offers Single Sign-On (SSO) for private pages, an improved draft page feature, and extended permission roles.
Each plan includes a free custom domain for one year if paid annually, SSL security, unlimited bandwidth, SEO features, and 24/7 customer support. For more guidance on pricing, first read our article on building a small business website which will help in planning your site. Then, see our detailed Squarespace pricing review—many small businesses find the “Personal” tier sufficient for their needs. And if you’ll sell products, read about Squarespace payment processing and transaction fees.
Note: Some Squarespace reviews, including one by Forbes, mistakenly state: “pricing doesn’t increase upon renewal.” But Squarespace’s renewal pricing is no longer locked at the rate of your original sign-up. In the past, Squarespace honored the pricing of when users originally signed up. However, following their IPO, Squarespace increased hosting prices for all accounts upon renewal—even those on legacy plans. Be prepared for price changes in the future.
Performance and Security
Performance and security are two critical aspects of any website. They directly impact the user experience and trust in your site. Squarespace has a good track record in both these areas. Simplified security is one reason many people migrate from Wordpress to Squarespace.
Performance: The Squarespace platform typically exhibits reliable performance and good uptime. They report on any major outages in the last 90 days.
Security: In terms of security, every Squarespace website comes with a free SSL certificate. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encrypts data sent between the visitor’s browser and the website, making it more difficult for hackers to intercept and misuse this data, such as when credit card details are being transmitted. Learn more about Squarespace SSL certificates and how to make your website secure.
Remember, it’s a good idea to implement additional security measures, such as regularly updating your password and limiting the number of people who have access to your website’s editing environment.
Privacy and GDPR Compliance
Squarespace demonstrates a commitment to user privacy and data protection, complying with various global privacy standards, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Data collection and usage: Squarespace’s Privacy Policy outlines in detail how they collect and use data. Squarespace does not sell user data.
Data Processing Addendum (DPA): For businesses processing EU personal data, the platform offers a Data Processing Addendum.
Cookie banner: Squarespace allows you to add a cookie banner to inform visitors about the use of cookies on the site, but it might not meet your compliance needs.
Access and control over personal data: The GDPR grants individuals the right to access their personal data, correct inaccuracies, object to or limit certain types of processing, and request deletion of their personal data. Squarespace now provides mechanisms for your users to exercise these rights.
Remember, Squarespace provides tools for privacy compliance, but it is the responsibility of the website owner to ensure full compliance with applicable laws. This might include drafting a comprehensive privacy policy, appropriately managing consent for cookies, or promptly responding to requests from individuals exercising their GDPR rights.
Customer Support
Reliable customer support is essential for any SaaS website builder. In its early days, Squarespace was known for exceptional, award-winning support. Rapid growth inevitably brought about changes, but the platform continues to offer solid support for users.
Live chat: Squarespace provides live chat support on weekdays.
Email support: For more complex questions Squarespace offers 24/7 email support.
Help center: The Squarespace Help Center contains a wide range of how-to guides, tutorials, and FAQ resources.
Video tutorials: Squarespace hosts webinars and provides video tutorials geared towards beginners.
Community forum: Squarespace hosts a community forum for users. But unlike platforms like Reddit, where posting affiliate links can swiftly get a profile banned, the Squarespace forum allows for affiliate linking and self-promotion. Many of the most prolific contributors are deeply entrenched in affiliate networks, making it challenging for beginners to differentiate between self-promotion and genuine expertise. Squarespace likely has no intention of changing this policy as the promotional links to “courses about courses” or “becoming a 6-figure designer” ultimately help boost their profit margins. That said, discerning users will find nuggets of good advice amidst the noise and fluff.
Who shouldn’t use Squarespace?
While Squarespace is an excellent choice for many types of websites, there are specific scenarios where another platform might be more suitable. If these any of these apply to you, then you’ll want to keep looking.
Large-scale e-commerce stores: Squarespace provides a good set of e-commerce features, but it is not the best choice for large-scale online stores. If your business requires highly advanced e-commerce features, such as complex shipping rules, multi-currency selling, or integration with more third-party systems, a platform like Shopify or Magento will serve you better. Note, 10k products is the site limit.
Highly customized websites: If your project requires a very high level of customization beyond what Squarespace’s templates offer, you might be better served by a platform like WordPress or Webflow, which offer more flexibility and control. Or explore Squarespace’s Developer Platform on version 7.0.
Complex sites: Squarespace is not the best fit for websites that host a massive amount of content, such as extensive news sites, complex databases, or large-scale academic sites. These types of sites usually require more specialized content management tools.
Forums or social networks: Squarespace does not have built-in functionality for creating a forum or social network. You can use third-party integrations to add these features, but if your primary focus is building a community, then another platform might be more suitable.
Advanced blogging needs: While Squarespace’s blogging tools are robust, if you require specific taxonomy structures or advanced multi-author management, you may find platforms like WordPress more tailored to your needs.
Alternatives to Squarespace
While Squarespace is an excellent tool, you’ll want to consider your specific needs and the alternatives available before making a final decision. Identify your preferences and weigh them against what Squarespace offers. Here are the best Squarespace alternatives:
Wix: Another popular choice for DIY users. Wix also offers a template library, an easy-to-use editor, and a range of pricing plans. The trade-off for users without a design background is sacrificing the cohesive design aesthetic that Squarespace provides out of the box, and not all Wix templates are responsive.
WordPress: A solid choice for tech-savvy bloggers and those who need full control over a website’s functionality. It’s much more complex than Squarespace, but it offers even greater flexibility and potential for customization.
Shopify: If you’re primarily looking to create a large e-commerce site, Shopify could be a better fit. It’s a dedicated online store builder with robust capabilities such as multi-currency selling and integration options.
Webflow: Web designers and developers seeking granular control over their design or a custom content structure and who are comfortable with a steeper learning curve and a more complex user interface might want to explore Webflow.
Note, most businesses aren’t as happy with and quickly outgrow the GoDaddy and Weebly platforms, so we don’t recommend them as viable alternatives.
Will you outgrow Squarespace?
If you are wondering about outgrowing Squarespace or its long-term suitability, this is often a matter of scale and complexity. No single platform can provide a one-size-fits-all solution meeting the needs of every audience.
As an organization grows, its needs can become more complex—usually this means more extensive integrations with other business systems or expanded functionality. And at a certain point, some organizations find that a more specialized platform better serves their needs. This shift doesn’t necessarily reflect a shortcoming of Squarespace, rather it represents the normal and evolving needs of a growing business. And by the time a business surpasses the capabilities of Squarespace, it will be equipped to manage the transition to a more advanced tech stack.
However, it’s important to note that many types of businesses will never need to transition away from a simple website builder, regardless of their success. Consultants, coaches, restaurants, engineers, accountants, local businesses or any organizations that primarily need a well-designed, engaging brochure website will find that a platform such as Squarespace or Wix can continually meet their needs. Even as these types of businesses grow and become highly successful, their website requirements typically do not expand in complexity. In these cases, Squarespace will remain a good match for your online presence, regardless of the scale of your success.
Final Thoughts
In recent years, Squarespace has been trying to cater to a wider audience, which has led it to lose focus on its core offering: website building. However, despite these growing pains and challenges, it remains one of the more robust and reliable platforms.
Squarespace is an excellent tool for creating professional websites with minimal effort. Its combination of aesthetics, functionality, and user-friendliness will appeal to a broad range of users. Whether you’re an SMB, entrepreneur, academic, artist, or blogger Squarespace offers a fairly comprehensive solution for building a polished online presence.
If you need specifics beyond this review, please reach out with any questions.
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