Squarespace Review: Does It Live Up to the Hype?

Squarespace

What We Like

• Extremely sleek template selection
• Mobile-optimized templates
• Affordable plans for business
• Free 14-day free trial (no credit card required)
• More advanced features than most site builders, like advanced SEO and coding
• Ability to switch templates after site creation

What's Missing

• No free plan (i.e., you can’t publish your website for free)
• Only 113 templates available
• Point-and-click editor provides less customizability
• Advanced ecommerce features are only available for $40 per month
• Plans aren’t all-inclusive (e.g., membership, scheduling, and email marketing plans are sold separately)
• Small third-party app selection
• No autosave, revision history, or backups

Squarespace Is Recommended For

• Sleek website design
• SEO-centered businesses
• Restaurants that need a visually enticing way to display menus
• Bloggers looking to grow their audience
• Portfolios, resumes, and other personal sites
• Small real estate agencies

Visit Squarespace

Squarespace is a leading all-in-one website builder and one of the biggest names in the market. It’s known for its extremely sleek design and an intuitive user interface. It also has a wealth of capabilities like ecommerce, marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

While you can build just about any type of site with Squarespace, that doesn’t mean it’s the best for every use case. So while it’s great for small business websites and blogging, it falls short when it comes to large ecommerce and service-based businesses, as Squarespace doesn’t price these features affordably. If this describes you, check out our guide on the best ecommerce platforms.

Who Squarespace Is Best For

Squarespace is known for sophisticated design, an easy enough interface, and a good selection of features and integrations that have advanced capabilities. Although you won’t be able to build the most customized website on it, Squarespace utilizes point-and-click instead of a true drag-and-drop editor like Wix. Squarespace has everything a small business needs to grow and scale. It even tops our list of the best site builders to use.

Squarespace is best for:

• Businesses that want a very modern site: Despite only having slightly over a hundred templates, each Squarespace template is unique and extremely sleek. It edges out Wix in terms of its modernity, despite the latter having more than 800 templates to choose from.
• Businesses that need to get found online: For an all-in-one site builder, Squarespace has great SEO capabilities. Not only does it have basic SEO built-in on all of its plans, but you can also access advanced SEO features and coding. To make use of more advanced SEO, you’ll need to have an understanding of SEO best practices, but despite this, it’s still the best SEO site builder available.
• Restaurants: Squarespace integrates with ChowNow and OpenTable, among a variety of other software. You’ll need to purchase at least the Business plan ($18 per month) to get these integrations, but it’s an affordable price to pay for Squarespace’s restaurant designs with built-in menus. For a professional-looking website, Squarespace is one of the restaurant site builders we recommend.
• Bloggers: Squarespace’s blogging feature is one of the best we’ve seen. Not only do you get tons of beautiful templates, but you also get a good amount of SEO and monetization channels like Google AdSense. The ease of which you can get a professional blog up and running makes Squarespace our top blogging platform.
• Portfolios: All of Squarespace’s plans come with unlimited storage and bandwidth so you can upload as much content as you need. While the Personal plan lacks ecommerce, it has more than enough features like SEO and basic analytics. We also love Squarespace’s design-first premise, which is especially useful for visual artists looking to build a beautiful portfolio. All these make Squarespace our first choice for a portfolio site builder.
• Real estate agencies: Squarespace allows IDX integration on all of its plans, including its two cheapest plans at $12 per month and $18 per month, respectively. Although $12 is extremely affordable, we suggest upgrading to at least the Business plan to access more advanced coding and a variety of advanced analytics. Even at $18, Squarespace’s ease of use and design make it one of the best real estate site builders around.

Who Squarespace Isn’t Best For

While Squarespace has great design, its customizability is limited due to its point-and-click editor. It also has basic ecommerce features on its cheapest ecommerce plan. It’s definitely one of the best site builders out there, but for businesses looking for a better design or better value for ecommerce, we recommend exploring other options.

Squarespace is not recommended for:

• Sites that require a great deal of design customization: Squarespace only has a little more than a hundred templates to choose from. Despite each having a great design, Squarespace’s point-and-click editor just can’t customize them the same way as a true drag-and-drop editor can. Compare Squarespace vs Wix, and the latter will overall have more design freedom with less sophisticated templates.
• Large ecommerce stores and dropshippers: Squarespace has a pretty robust ecommerce tool for a small business, but to get full capabilities, you’ll need to upgrade to its highest-tier plan at $40 per month. You also only get two dropshipping integrations with Squarespace (Printful and Spocket). Though you can connect other integrations like Oberlo, it’s not a straightforward process. For this price, we recommend going with a dedicated ecommerce builder like Shopify instead.
• Service-based businesses: Squarespace recently launched Squarespace Scheduling, a complete scheduling solution that integrates fully with your Squarespace site. It has a ton of features, like online payments, client notifications, and a multilingual feature. However, this isn’t included in any of Squarespace’s plans. To access Scheduling, you’ll need to buy a Scheduling plan starting at $14 per month. For this price, there are comparable, yet cheaper booking services out there, like those offered by GoDaddy.
• Complete website building beginners: Squarespace is touted as a great website builder for beginners, but from experience, it’s not as easy to use as other website builders like Weebly and GoDaddy. Where Squarespace shines is on its more advanced capabilities, like SEO and coding, which require some background knowledge to take advantage of. If you’re a complete beginner to building sites and still want to use Squarespace, then follow our step-by-step Squarespace guide to avoid missing anything.

Squarespace is one of the best site builders around, but there are many other options out there that provide better design, better ecommerce capabilities, and more beginner-friendly interfaces. See our list of Squarespace alternatives in case you’re still on the lookout for the perfect site builder for your business.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace’s pricing isn’t too different from its competitors, and three of its plans offer great value for the money when you factor in its design capabilities and advanced features like SEO. Each offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, which already gives it an edge over site builders like Wix. While ecommerce features are present on its Business plan, to get features like abandoned cart recovery and subscriptions, you’ll need to upgrade to the $40 per month plan, bringing down its value-for-money significantly.

*On an annual billing cycle

For more information, select a plan from the drop-down menu below:

Personal

Squarespace’s Personal plan is one of the most affordable non-business plans from any major website builder. At just $12 a month, you already get unlimited storage and bandwidth, built-in SEO, and basic coding.

Although you can’t conduct any transactions on this plan, making this completely for personal use, unlike Weebly’s plans, which have ecommerce functionalities. When you factor in access to Squarespace’s library of sleek templates, this becomes one of the best plans in the market for personal portfolios, resumes, and blogging.

Business

With $6 more a month, you get some basic ecommerce abilities—you can sell on your website and accept donations. Note that on this plan, Squarespace has a transaction fee of 3%, so if you’re planning on selling in bulk, taking multiple donations, or charging membership fees, then this may not be the plan for you.

Aside from added ecommerce abilities, Squarespace also gives you access to advanced coding so you can customize your website and add extra features like IDX integration.

This plan targets very specific industries like small real estate agencies, very small sellers (e.g., those selling handcrafted goods), and small charities with limited merchandise. If you’re selling or receiving donations in larger quantities, then Squarespace’s more expensive plans may be better options for you. In the same vein, if you’re a blogger or an artist with no need for ecommerce, then we suggest sticking to the Personal plan.

Commerce Basic

Despite the selling capabilities of the Business plan, this is really where Squarespace’s ecommerce begins. On this plan, you get no transaction fees on ecommerce analytics, point of sale, and Instagram Shopping integration—except for the ones the payment gateways charge.

To access advanced features, you’ll still need to upgrade your plan, so this basic ecommerce plan is really for small online sellers. For a larger ecommerce store, either upgrade your plan to Commerce Advanced, or go with an ecommerce alternative like Shopify.

Commerce Advanced

The most expensive Squarespace plan at $40 per month, Commerce Advanced comes with all the features from the Basic plan. It also has extras like abandoned cart recovery, subscriptions, advanced shipping, and advanced discounts. Take into account that no matter which commerce plan you’re on, Squarespace only has Spocket and Printful integrations for dropshipping.

For what you’re getting, this plan is overpriced. Wix, for example, offers subscription and abandoned cart recovery on its $27 per month commerce plan, and Shopify’s plans start at $29 a month. For a large online seller or dropshipper, we suggest going with an alternative unless you value Squarespace’s design features more than its ecommerce capabilities.

Squarespace Features & Key Insights

Squarespace has an amazing design, plus a variety of advanced features that can help a small business grow. However, it isn’t the most customizable site builder around and it doesn’t have the widest selection of integrations. If you’re looking for something with more customizability in both design and features, a builder like Wix may be better for you—but for what Squarespace does, it does well.

Select to learn moreEase of UseTemplates & DesignUnique Features & CapabilitiesEcommerceCustomer Support

Ease of Use

Squarespace’s point-and-click interface

Squarespace is an all-in-one site builder. It’s a lot easier to use than a CMS like WordPress. However, for a site builder, it’s by no means the easiest one we’ve ever used, and this is probably one of Squarespace’s biggest shortcomings. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t for beginners. Compared to Wix, the interface is a lot more intuitive and clean, but it won’t get you a professional website up as fast as a site builder like GoDaddy would.

What sets Squarespace apart is also just how advanced its features are for a website builder. For example, it doesn’t only have good basic SEO, but it also has a variety of advanced tools like keyword search, ecommerce SEO, and even local SEO.

To further customize your website, Squarespace allows custom code as well. All these features can help take your site to the next level if you know how to use them, making Squarespace not as beginner-friendly as it seems.

Templates & Design

A look at Squarespace’s sleek template selection

Squarespace has a small quantity of templates, but each one is extremely sleek and fully mobile-optimized. It even beats Wix in terms of overall template design. While it only really has a little more than a hundred templates, you get a variety to choose from per industry since each of them is so unique. Plus, you can switch your templates out just in case you find that it isn’t right for you.

Where it lacks in design is its customizability. Since Squarespace doesn’t have a true drag-and-drop editor, there’s only so much you can do with each template. Each template is also visually heavy, so if you want a less image-based website, or if you need more customization, then Squarespace might not be the right site builder for you.

Unique Features & Capabilities

Squarespace has built-in analytic tools, among other advanced features

Squarespace doesn’t claim to be the best at any one thing, unlike Shopify or Strikingly. It doesn’t have a specific role to fill. It has great design, an intuitive interface, solid built-in tools, and a decent selection of integrations. Together, these capabilities will easily help you scale your business.

While it doesn’t sound too exciting, where it really stands out is the quality of each of its offerings, like its top-notch templates. Unlike other site builders, Squarespace also offers more advanced features like advanced SEO, analytics, and custom code, although it still definitely pales in comparison to a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.

Ecommerce

Easily add a beautiful store on your Squarespace site

While Squarespace’s ecommerce feature is pretty decent, its plans are not the best for the price that you pay. For $26 per month, you get very basic features that are already present in Wix’s $23 per month ecommerce plan. At $40 per month, you get features comparable to Wix’s $27 per month plan. You also only really get two dropshipping integrations, making it a poor choice for larger sellers and dropshippers alike.

With Squarespace ecommerce, you’re paying more for its design capabilities and other advanced features than its ecommerce abilities. If you want an extremely beautiful online store that can grow online and locally, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better site builder than Squarespace.

If you’re on a tight budget, there are other options available like Weebly. And if you’re a dropshipper or large ecommerce seller, then we suggest heading straight to Shopify.

Customer Support

Squarespace has various articles online to help you with basic and advanced questions

Squarespace, like most major site builders, has excellent customer support. It has 24/7 live chat Mondays through Fridays, providing helpful answers, social media support, and email support. It doesn’t have a phone support feature, so you won’t get instantaneous answers (especially to more advanced questions), but from experience, the support it provides is more than enough.

Aside from talking to an agent, Squarespace also has an extensive library of knowledge called the Knowledge Base. Searching through it can most likely help you with any basic questions and troubleshooting, and can even help with more advanced topics with its guides. Finally, and if you’re really desperate for an answer, there’s Squarespace’s forum, where you can ask other users your questions.

What Users Think of Squarespace

We think that Squarespace is one of the best site builders around, but we scoured the web for more testimonials from users who’ve tested out Squarespace in its entirety. The general consensus is that Squarespace is a great site builder to go with. See for yourself:

• G2: 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 883 reviews
• TrustRadius: 4 out of 5 stars based on 229 reviews
• Capterra: 4.6 out of 5 stars based on 2,093 reviews

Overall, while users are happy with Squarespace and especially with its templates, many agree that it falls short when it comes to its intuitiveness and customizability. Its interface isn’t the easiest to use, and when you do figure it out, it still lacks the capacity to produce a fully customized website design.

Bottom Line

Squarespace is one of the best site building tools around. Aside from its template selection, it isn’t known for any one thing, but all of its features are great for what they do. It even adds on some advanced features so more intermediate website developers won’t find it lacking. Combining all its offerings, Squarespace makes it possible for anyone to build an extremely beautiful and professional website for almost any industry a small business is in.

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