Squarespace Review: An Ideal All-Around Website Builder

Pros

One of Squarespace’s most noteworthy attributes is its drag-and-drop editor. It makes it easy to customize its award-winning templates with no coding skills. The platform also provides everything needed to create a complete website, including hosting, a custom domain name (if you don’t already have one) and email.

Squarespace’s e-commerce features are fully integrated into most plans, which is rare for website builders. And, if you need additional features, such as abandoned cart recovery or subscriptions, they can be easily added with its highest-tiered plan.

Cons

While there are many pros to using Squarespace, there are several downsides. Although Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support, it does not have phone support, which can be frustrating if you need immediate assistance.

Squarespace’s Personal plan doesn’t allow you to use CSS or JavaScript, which limits the extent to which you can customize your site. It doesn’t have a free plan, which is rare for website builders. However, it does offer a 14-day free trial so you can try before you buy.

All Squarespace plans have video storage limitations. If you plan on using videos on your website, you’ll need to consider an upgrade. Also, Squarespace’s Trustpilot rating is 1.5 out of 5 stars with 693 reviews, which is lower than many of its competitors.

Squarespace limits you to one sub-navigation menu. While this isn’t an issue for smaller websites, it could be problematic for large sites with deep levels of content.

Squarespace uses a drag-and-drop editor that simplifies the website build process. The editing tool is not quite as intuitive as Squarespace purports it is—especially for true beginners. The good news is that the Squarespace Help Center offers detailed instruction on using the editor, and customer support is just a quick chat or email away.

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Wix

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Drag & Drop Editor

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Website Building

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Squarespace

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$16 per month

Drag & Drop Editor

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E-commerce (low-priced plan)

Yes

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Website Builder and Templates

The Squarespace website builder is one of the main reasons people use the platform. The intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to customize Squarespace’s award-winning templates without needing to know HTML, JavaScript or CSS. There are more than 100 of these templates, with new ones added regularly. Whether you need one with a blog, a portfolio, an e-commerce site or all three, Squarespace has a template for you.

However, some users complain that it’s easy to tell when a site uses Squarespace because so many of the templates look the same. The best way around this is to ensure your site has a cohesive color palette and branding that makes it stand out.

Blogging

Before we get into Squarespace’s blogging features, it’s important to understand that if you have a blog with the intention of making money blogging, you don’t want to use Squarespace to host your site. Instead, use WordPress, which is widely accepted as the best platform for professional bloggers.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at Squarespace’s blogging capabilities. Its best use is for businesses whose primary function is commerce (whether e-commerce or brick-and-mortar), and that use a blog as a way to educate their audience.

The platform makes it easy to integrate a blog into your website. You can choose from a variety of templates, all of which are designed to showcase your content in an engaging way. Squarespace also offers several features that are designed to help you promote your content, such as social media integration and email capture forms. Plus, its search engine optimization (SEO) features are top-notch, which is important for getting your content seen by your target audience.

E-Commerce

If you plan on selling products or services online, Squarespace is a great option. Most of its plans come with e-commerce features that are fully integrated into the platform. This means you don’t need to install a separate e-commerce plugin, as you would with WordPress. It also offers a wide range of beautiful templates that are designed for online stores.

Squarespace makes it easy to add products to your website and accept payments. Plus, its built-in shipping calculator makes it easy to calculate and display shipping rates to your customers. And, if you need additional features, such as abandoned cart recovery or APIs, they can be easily added with its highest-tiered plan.

One downside of using Squarespace for e-commerce is that it charges transaction fees on all sales (unless you’re on a Commerce plan). So, if you’re selling products or services online, you’ll need to factor that into your pricing.

There are four Squarespace plans, with monthly licensing fees ranging from $16 to $72 depending on what tier of service you use and whether you want to pay monthly or annually. Squarespace does not offer a free plan, though it offers a free 14-day trial. For comparison, Wix’s paid plans range from $16 to $59 per month, and the GoDaddy Website Builder paid plans range from $9.99 to $29.99 per month.

The primary differences between the plans are the number of features offered. E-commerce functionality is available on all plans except the Personal plan.

Personal Plan

For $25 per month (or $16 when paid annually), the Squarespace Personal plan comes with unlimited bandwidth, SEO features, full access to the Squarespace template collection and 24/7 customer support via chat and email. The Personal plan also includes basic website metrics and up to two contributors.

Business Plan

For $36 per month (or $23 when paid annually), the Squarespace Business plan includes all the features of the Personal plan plus a professional email from Google, advanced website analytics, promotional pop-ups and banners and complete customization with CSS and JavaScript. The Business plan also includes fully integrated e-commerce with a 3% transaction fee.

Basic Commerce Plan

For $40 per month (or $28 when paid annually), the Squarespace Basic Commerce plan includes all Business plan features plus point-of-sale functionality, customer accounts and merchandising. The plan also lets you sync your products with Instagram so you can sell there, too. Transaction fees are eliminated on this plan.

Advanced Commerce Plan

For $72 per month (or $52 when paid annually), the Squarespace Advanced Commerce plan includes all Basic Commerce plan features plus abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping options, advanced discount and promotion features and the ability to sell subscriptions.

Squarespace is one of the easiest site builders to use. The platform is completely drag-and-drop, so you can easily add content and rearrange it on your pages without having to touch a single line of code. And, if you do want to get into the code, Squarespace makes that easy, too, provided you have a Business plan or higher.

Safeguarding your site is important, especially if you’re running an e-commerce store. Squarespace offers several safety and security features to help keep your site and your customers’ information safe.

All Squarespace sites come with SSL encryption to protect data in transit. It also hashes your passwords and uses two-factor authentication (2FA) for additional security. Should a security issue occur with Squarespace, it has a formal incident response process to remedy the problem.

Squarespace customers have access to 24/7 email and chat support, as well as the Squarespace Help Center. In this knowledge base, access tutorials, guides, videos, webinars and a community forum. Phone support is not available, which can be problematic when you need to troubleshoot a complex problem quickly.

Squarespace Domains

You’ll receive a free domain for your first year with any plan if you pay annually instead of monthly. Otherwise, Squarespace domain costs range from $12 to $70 per year. All domains include an SSL certificate and WHOIS privacy. Unlike other domain providers, Squarespace does not gouge you on domain renewals; you just renew at the same rate as the initial purchase.

You don’t have to purchase your domain through Squarespace. If you already license a domain through another service, you can easily connect it to your Squarespace site. If you have trouble doing this, you can reach out to Squarespace’s support team for help.

Email Marketing

Along with its website editor, Squarespace’s email editor is drag-and-drop, and comes with plenty of customizable templates to nurture and engage your audience via email. All emails are responsive, so they’ll look the same whether your customer views them on a desktop, iPad or cellphone. Email marketing plans start at $5 per month (paid annually) and go up to $48 per month.

As soon as you send your email, you can access analytics in real time so you know how your email campaign performs. And because it syncs with your website’s analytics, you know which traffic comes from your email efforts or which traffic is organic. You can also personalize your emails to include the customer’s name, set up sequences and segment your list.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

These tools include a best practices checklist, integration with Google Search Console, page titles, descriptions, the ability to hide a page from search engines, sitemaps, automatic markup, SSL, mobile optimization, clean URLS, translations and an SEO panel.

Analytics

Analytics is so much more than knowing where your traffic comes from, and it’s much more than page views and unique visitors. Squarespace’s analytics platform tells you everything you need to know about your website traffic and how visitors interact with your site. It gives you insights into where your traffic is coming from, what pages are most popular, how long visitors are spending on your site, what devices they’re using and so much more.

This information is valuable because it helps you understand your audience and what they’re looking for on your site. With this knowledge, you can make changes to your website to improve the user experience and increase conversions. Squarespace also integrates with Google Analytics so you can track your website’s performance on Google Search Console and other Google platforms.

Social Media Tools

Squarespace has a number of social media features and integrations that make it easy to share your content and grow your following on social media. The tool makes it simple to include social media buttons on your website so that people may share your content with their followers. You can also use Squarespace’s built-in tools to schedule and publish posts to your social media accounts. And if you want to go a step further, you can use Squarespace’s integrations and extensions with third-party social media applications to manage your social media presence from one central platform.

Squarespace also has several features that make it easy to create social media-friendly content. For example, you can use Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor to create images and videos that are optimized for social media. And if you’re looking to add a little personality to your posts, you can use Squarespace’s emoji feature to insert emojis into your content.

Squarespace Extensions

Squarespace has many extensions that add functionality and features to your Squarespace website. Extensions are available for a variety of purposes, such as social media, marketing, e-commerce and fulfillment. Some of the most popular Squarespace extensions include Shippo, Printful, QuickBooks, FreshBooks and ShipStation. These extensions allow you to add features such as social media sharing buttons, live chat, email marketing, accounting and e-commerce to your Squarespace website.

Squarespace also has a number of developer-friendly features, such as an API and code blocks. These features make it easy for developers to create custom solutions for Squarespace websites.

Professional Design Services

If you need help designing your Squarespace website, Squarespace offers professional design services. With Squarespace’s professional design services, you can work with a certified Squarespace Expert to create a custom website that meets your specific needs and goals.

Squarespace’s professional design services include everything from custom logo design to complete website development. And if you need help with your website’s SEO, Squarespace’s experts can also help you optimize your site for Google Search and other search engines. With its design services, you can get the help you need to create a beautiful and effective Squarespace website.

Members-only Content

Squarespace has numerous features that make it easy to create and manage members-only content. With Squarespace’s membership management tools, you can easily add and remove members from your site, track member activity and manage member permissions.

Create and manage pages, posts and other content that is only accessible to members. And if you need to sell access to your members-only content, Squarespace’s e-commerce features make it easy to set up a subscription-based service. Plans for hosting a membership site start at $9 per month (paid annually) and go up to $89 per month.

Scheduling and Appointments

With Squarespace’s appointment-scheduling tools, you can easily create and manage appointments, track appointment availability and send reminders to appointment participants. These are perfect for businesses that need to handle appointments, such as salons, spas, restaurants and coaches. Scheduling plans start at $16 per month (paid annually) and go up to $49 per month.

Reservations

Use the Squarespace Tock all-in-one reservation system to manage reservations and take online orders. This service is custom-priced, so you’ll need to request information on the Squarespace site to learn more about this service. Squarespace charges a 3% commission on takeout and delivery orders.

	Squarespace	Wix	GoDaddy Website Builder	WordPress	Shopify
Monthly Cost	$16 to $72	Free to $159	$9.99 to $29.99 (free plan available)	Free (just pay for hosting)	$5 to $2,000
Number of Templates	100-plus	800-plus	100-plus	Thousands	100-plus
Free Trial	14 days	14 days	30 days	Not needed	14 days
Unlimited Storage Available	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends on host	Yes
Free Version	No	Yes	Yes	Yes, through WordPress.com	No
E-Commerce	On all plans except Personal	On Business and eCommerce plans	On the Ecommerce plan	Yes	Yes
Free Domain	Included with annual plan purchase	Included on all paid plans	No	Depends on host	No

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Squarespace vs. Wix

One of the largest differences between Wix and Squarespace is that Squarespace doesn’t offer a free plan, and Wix does. So if you’re looking for a free website builder, then Wix is a better option. Wix also offers considerably more video storage than Squarespace. The least amount of storage it offers is 30 minutes for its cheapest plan, which is what Squarespace offers for each of its plans. However, Wix’s most expensive plan has unlimited storage.

What Squarespace does better is structured design. It has a far better selection of modern, clean-looking templates. What’s more, its editor is more intuitive and easier to use. So if you want an easier platform to use and better-looking templates, Squarespace is a better choice.

Squarespace vs. WordPress

If you’re looking for a simple, easy-to-use website builder, Squarespace is the platform you want to choose. However, if you want ultimate flexibility and customization, WordPress is the platform of choice. This is because it’s an open-source platform, which means that there are thousands of themes and plugins available for it.

However, this also makes WordPress more complex than Squarespace. If you’re willing to give it a go, WordPress has thousands of third-party tutorials on getting started and managing your site, so provided you have a little time, you can learn how to use it effectively.

Squarespace vs. Shopify

Shopify is built for e-commerce, making it ideal for those wanting to sell online. With it, you can sell via social media, dropship or even create an omnichannel experience for your customers. Squarespace, on the other hand, is better for those wanting to create a simple website or blog. It doesn’t have as many features as Shopify, but it is one of the simplest drag-and-drop website builders to use.

Squarespace vs. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is cheaper than Squarespace, with a free version and paid plans starting at $9.99 per month. It also offers free professional email for your first year, email marketing, list segmentation and advanced marketing analytics. Squarespace charges extra for this. You also won’t find phone support with Squarespace, but GoDaddy offers this 24/7. The biggest benefit of using Squarespace over GoDaddy, though, is its award-winning, customizable templates.

Squarespace for Personal Use

Families, couples and individuals often use Squarespace to create beautiful websites to document and share their life experiences. Scrapbookers, travelers and photographers find Squarespace’s clean templates especially well-suited for displaying large amounts of images in an elegant way.

If you need a website to share your work or event, Squarespace offers a easy way to do this thanks to its drag-and-drop editor. It has little learning curve compared to some of its competition, such as WordPress, and you can customize the branding to fit your theme or event.

Squarespace for Business Use

The Squarespace site builder is a popular choice among solopreneurs such as artists, authors, coaches, bloggers and small businesses, such as restaurants, salons, financial services and fitness centers. It’s not a great solution for large, complicated e-commerce sites or those with advanced technical website-building skills.

With Squarespace, you can build a simple, mobile-responsive website in a matter of a few hours. E-commerce functionality allows you to monetize your site while Squarespace’s add-on features, such as email, calendar management and reservations, provide robust functionality that many business owners find helpful.

While there are cheaper platforms on the market, including Wix or GoDaddy Website Builder, the value for the features and design flair Squarespace offers is worth the modest additional expense. If having an attractive, modern website design is important to you, Squarespace delivers.