Squarespace is an easy-to-use, advanced website builder which lets you create the professional sites, and make them look like you always wanted them to look.

Whether you have — or plan to launch — a business, an online store, or just wish for your personal chunk of the internet that you can organize and fill in with things you are passionate about — you need a website to make it happen.

Having a website on the internet today is a necessity for anyone who does anything. Fortunately, it has never been easier to create one on your own, even if you have zero knowledge when it comes to things like coding.

There are several great website builders on the market, and Squarespace is no-doubt one of the top choices.

What Is Squarespace

Squarespace review - Homepage screenshot

As mentioned, Squarespace is a website builder, which allows users to create their own website with ease, and give their creativity full freedom. The users’ technical ability is irrelevant, as Squarespace is simple enough to be used by professionals and total novices alike.

All that the user really needs to do is create their account, select a template, and edit the pages in order to make their website look beautiful and unique. In just a few hours you may have your professional-looking website live.

Whether you are a designer, an artist, a photographer, or you wish to become an online merchant, a blogger, or anything else — as long as you have an idea, Squarespace will help you achieve it.

Now, let’s see what Squarespace has to offer in detail.

Squarespace Editor

The ease of use at Squarespace is impressive, which is something that we cannot stress enough. The company understands that this is very important for new users, and it specializes in helping you forget that you are building a website for the first time.

Everything seems rather natural and intuitive. Meanwhile, there is an abundance of new features, various templates, and other elements.

Squarespace editor is simple to use

To create your website you simply use the Squarespace’s drag-and-drop feature to select any element and place it somewhere on the page.

It should be noted, however, that Squarespace is more section-based, which means that there are specific sections on the page where you can place elements, instead of just dropping them around anywhere.

This might take a bit of getting used to, but it will become easy enough very quickly. Other than that, Squarespace features a very modern-looking and clear interface, which is very comfortable to work with.

It is not filled with that many options that will make it confusing to use it. Therefore, the navigation within the website builder is rather easy even though experienced users would still prefer to have more options available.

How the editor works
Every single element in the page can be easily customized

It is important to remember that, with Squarespace, what you see is what you get. So, look around, and you will quickly find where all the little features and tools are located. From there on, let your imagination take over, and your website will be done in no time. You can even see how your site will look like when published — while you are making it.

In other words, you won’t have to go through making some complex designs only to learn that nothing fits properly once you decide to test its looks.

You can even edit it via the phone, provided that you have a Squarespace app installed. This is very handy for publishing quick updates while on the go, changing business hours, replying on messages, and more. However, when it comes to designing the website, working on the phone may not be the best option.

In general, Squarespace is not the most user-friendly builder out there, but it is really not that hard to get into. If you are searching for a super-e website builder, we suggest you to have a look at Site123.

Squarespace Templates

While Squarespace might not lead when it comes to the ease of use, it definitely leads when it comes to website templates. This website builders offers are some of the most beautiful you will ever find, and we can say with certainty that this is pretty much unmatched.

The Squarespace templates are modern and clean, which makes them rather recognizable. There is plenty of room to insert photos and other details, which makes this website builder very popular with people who wish to create photo-rich sites or stores.

Squarespace has a large selection of templates

It is also worth noting that after the restyling Squarespace has introduced many changes to a lot of sections. The whole system was overhauled, especially when it comes to the templates.

In the previous version, some templates had features that were not available for others. The site builder changed that, bringing the same features to all.

However, there is an relevant downside to this, which lies in the fact that users no longer have the ability to change their template after picking one.

So, what you choose is what you have to use. Therefore, think carefully about the choices you make.

Other than that, there are plenty of options that allow users to customize their templates in any way they see fit. Everything is done through the editor, which allows you to select different sections, change their colors, styles, add or remove different elements, and alike.

There are also design options on the sidebar, which allow you to change things like the font size of headings and similar details. The new version brought improvements to these details, as well. They can be used in their default form if the user likes the look, but they also allow for additional customization, should they want to change it.

What Features does Squarespace Offer?

Next up, we have features. This is yet another area where Squarespace is quite above average. As there are no half-baked tools and features lying around — everything was developed nearly to perfection.

This is what makes it so enjoyable to use, and what gives this website builder a major edge against competitors.

For example, if you wanted to make a blog, Squarespace offers some excellent options here. You will likely not find a website builder that can beat it in this regard. In fact, it is even considered to be a fair competitor to WordPress.

Features include anything from tags and categories to customizable URLs, comments, drafts, RSS, markdowns, and more. It comes with integrated Google Docs, as well as Mailchimp. Its form builder also features 19 options, a lightbox mode, and custom post-submit HTML.

One thing that lacks (for now, at least) is storing your submissions automatically.

3 Mobile Apps to Manage Squarespace

There are three mobile apps for those who prefer to manage their sites quickly over their smartphone. These include:

  1. Analytics
  2. Commerce
  3. Squarespace

Analytics is, of course, for analytics purposes. Commerce is for managing an online store without being distracted by other things of the site, while Squarespace itself allows you to manage things like images, your blog, or fix textual parts.

These three apps are pretty much all you need to manage your entire website, although you will still need your PC to actually create it. Once you do, however, you can pretty easily use it via the apps for as long as you want.

Syndicating

Squarespace also has a feature known as syndicating, which is great for podcasts. With this feature, you can submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts, or even Spotify. Many other sites claim to offer the same, although this usually is not what it sounds like, as they lack the syndicated feature, and they only let you offer your podcast via an audio player.

Donation System

Another great feature is its donation system, which is also one of the best you will ever see — far beyond its competitors. Squarespace’s system is more than just an integrated PayPal button — it is a real system that covers custom email receipts, custom checkouts, and even suggested contributions. The donation blocks on Squarespace work amazingly for fundraising and no-profit websites.

You may argue that the majority of sites won’t need features like these, but we are glad to see that Squarespace does its best even when it comes to extra features like those. That only means that the basic ones, mentioned above, will definitely serve you right, as they have received the majority of the developers’ attention.

Squarespace eCommerce

In the era of online, having good eCommerce features for your website is very important.

With that in mind, we are glad to say that Squarespace did an excellent job here, as well. Of course, its solution is not the best eCommerce solution there is — that honor belongs to Shopify. But, it is among the top-ranking options, and as such, it is worth noting.

You should still go for Shopify if you want a site that is for eCommerce and nothing else. But, if you just want to include it as a part of your website, Squarespace is more than adequate.

e-commerce templates

In fact, many would say that it is a bit easier to use, as it is simplified and well-polished. Also, just like when it comes to the rest of its features, it doesn’t require coding knowledge, which is more than can be said for Shopify.

Shopify still leads in terms of features, but Squarespace is not too bad in this regard, either. It will provide you with things like:

  • Subscriptions
  • Integration with Apple Pay
  • PoS (Point-of-Sale)
  • Various digital services and products
  • Email receipts

SEO Ready

Squarespace is pretty good when it comes to SEO, but it doesn’t really stand out when it comes to this aspect. In fact, all website builders are relatively the same in this regard.

One thing that we liked with Squarespace is that it doesn’t try to add unnecessary things. You get what you need, which is a continuation of the nice-and-simple theme.

Simply put, you get the tools and features that are necessary for SEO, such as:

  • Custom URLs
  • SSL
  • Descriptions
  • Meta Titles
  • Alt Tags
  • Support for AMP
  • and alike.

What can Squarespace Integrate With?

Integrations are an important part of your website, and Squarespace understands this. However, it also aims for quality, rather than quantity. In other words, it has a rich selection of options, but it doesn’t overdo it.

Some of the most notable integrations include:

  • Acuity Scheduling
  • Amazon
  • Apple Pay
  • Bandsintown
  • Chow Now
  • Disqus
  • Google Docs
  • Google Fonts
  • Instagram
  • OpenTable
  • Xero Accounting
  • Zola
  • and alike.

How Much Is Squarespace?

Nearing the end of our review, let’s talk about what most people are interested the most in, which is — how much does it cost?

The first thing you should know is that Squarespace has 8 plans in total — 4 if you choose to pay monthly, and 4 if you opt to pay yearly. Choosing yearly payments brings discounts on all plans, although you have to pay for all 12 months at once, of course.

How much is Squarespace?

With that in mind, the plans are as follows:

Monthly payments

  • Personal plan, for $16 per month
  • Business plan, for $26 per month
  • Basic Commerce plan for $30 per month
  • Advanced Commerce plan, for $46 per month

Annual payments

  • Personal plan, for $11 per month (save 30%)
  • Business plan, for $17 per month (save 30%)
  • Basic Commerce plan, for $24 per month (save 13%)
  • Advanced Commerce plan, for $36 per month (save 13%)

The pricing is not that bad, and it is actually in line with the industry’s standard, meaning that you will likely find the same prices at many other website builders. However, the quality of Squarespace’s service is beyond comparison, so you really get top quality for the same price as elsewhere.

It is also worth noting that Squarespace will provide you with a free custom domain name if you choose the yearly plan, and that will last for 1 year. For your second and following years, the domain name will cost you $20 per year.

This is a bit more expensive, and you can get a better deal if you choose a domain name elsewhere, such as at Namecheap or GoDaddy. After that, you could simply point it to your site on Squarespace and save up over $5.

But, if you are after simplicity and those extra $5 are not a problem, then you can simply pay for your domain name on Squarespace and be done with it.

Besides, you will already save the money thanks to the fact that Squarespace offers free Whois privacy. This is not that common in the website builder world, and most Squarespace competitors will charge you for it.

Customer Support

Lastly, let’s talk about Squarespace customer support. The service’s support team is available to you at any time of day and night if you opt for email support. Meanwhile, it also has live chat, although this option is only available during workdays, from 4 am to 8 pm, Eastern Time.

Squarespace has three locations for its support teams, which include Dublin, New York, and Portland.

Phone support is not available, however, which might be taken as a downside if you prefer to solve problems while on the phone with the operator. But, there are community support platforms, such as an extensive knowledge base and a forum, so you could post your issues or questions there, and find a solution.

Conclusion

In the end, Squarespace is one of the best website builders you will find out there, especially if you are looking to build a photo-centric website or an online store. It has plenty of options to help you customize your websites and make every detail just the way you want them to be. However, it also doesn’t overdo it, which helps maintain a careful balance.

It is user-friendly, and while there is a bit of a learning curve, it is not very steep, and anyone can figure it out pretty quickly. And, thanks to the fact that there is no coding required, it is available to anyone.

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