Squarespace Isn't the Only One — Just the Only One for Me
May 13, 2021
Squarespace Isn't the Only One — Just the Only One for Me
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Squarespace
I began using Squarespace to maintain a production blog for web series Club Swim Show, which worked very well. Squarespace provides a very versatile, customizable website building platform that was easy to update with blog posts and to keep a specific look to the overall production website for the social media and promotion department. I continue to use Squarespace for my husband's and my portfolio sites, where I can showcase portfolio work and offer an easy-to-use storefront for any merchandise we have available to sell related to our graphic design and art.
Pros
- Squarespace makes it simple to set up your website, whether you know a lot or very little about web design. HTML coding can be used but is not necessary, thanks to the hub's large selection of templates for both overall website look and individual pages.
- The backend "Dashboard" for Squarespace sites is very clean and clear — navigation is simple to get started, and if you select a wrong section, you can easily go back to the main menus.
- Commerce is very nice. I've used Shopify and a few custom store backends, and Squarespace stands out as one of the best. Because I'm a longterm user, I have certain benefits that now have a different price point, but I'd recommend their store as a very good option for most groups.
- Analytics are pretty standard, which is nice for groups who want to keep track of basic traffic and sales without needing a secondary tracker, but may not satisfy someone looking for extra robust information.
Cons
- It takes practice to get used to the editing flow for setting up pages in Squarespace: you need to both use an on-page "Page Content" tab to edit most aspects but also use a gear icon on the left-hand sidebar to finish setting up the pages with SEO, social image and metadata style descriptions.
- Because so much of your website is created through drag and drop, it can be frustrating at times when items do not move as precisely as you need. I end up having to resize columns after laying out the whole page from time to time.
- I pay for a domain through Squarespace because it keeps it simple, but the pricing is not ideal, especially if you need more than one domain. If you are bringing your own domain names, there is extra work, but it does work.
- The key positive impact on my overall business objectives is how simple Squarespace sites are to implement new information. Whenever our services change, we can quickly update pages or even change how the website flows, in a very short window of time. This allows me to get back to more urgent work sooner.
- Our Squarespace site for Club Swim Show helped present our web series to potential partners; Club Swim Show went on to partner with a popular swimming magazine and reach a larger audience through that magazine's hosting thanks to the professional design of our original website.
- Squarespace does not bring in customers to my storefront, which is fine for me, since I sell things infrequently and it is not my main business, but might work against someone who is expecting a Shopify or Etsy level connection with buyer markets.
Each website or webstore backend that I've used has different purposes, so do not let me mislead you. Squarespace provides the best balance of website, blog and storefront for my purposes, and outright beats Weebly for a better appearance in your final product. Tumblr and WordPress have social connections that many bloggers can't do without — the integration into the larger platforms allow a different audience to connect than Squarespace does, but at the cost of customization options and robust marketing tools that Squarespace offers. Shopify is my preferred large store manager, but Squarespace does the job very well for smaller stores like my current setup, and includes website hosting and so many more pages than my Shopify option would. I work regularly with SIDEARM Sports on the front end and back end of their athletics websites, and they create so many excellent websites with highly customizable looks and features, but their role is for building specific types of websites and come at a much higher price than Squarespace because of their full team support. It is probably not fair to compare them because of their differences, but I will mention that Squarespace has simple, pretty backend navigation comparatively.
Do you think Squarespace delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Squarespace's feature set?
Yes
Did Squarespace live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Squarespace go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Squarespace again?
Yes
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