What Is Squarespace Used For

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Y'all can say what you want, only Squarespace's homepage is certainly prissy to await at. Among all the website builders we've tested, hardly any other company understands how to stage its product with such perfection. Everything looks cool, fresh and impeccable. And endorsements from celebrities like Zendaya, Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves certainly don't hurt this image. So let's find out if the website architect follows suit.

Although it initially gained popularity as 'a website builder for creatives', Squarespace has steadily become a solid all-rounder in the spider web platform space. With the release of its new 7.1 version, Squarespace introduced some useful additions to the editor such every bit pre-built page sections, and more versatile templates. Other features, such equally ecommerce, fellow member areas, appointment booking, restaurant reservations (thank you to its recent conquering of Tock), social media templates, and an email marketing tool, as well aid Squarespace serve an fifty-fifty wider range of users.

These are just a handful of the features on offering - and then permit's bank check out Squarespace's pros and cons in full.

Squarespace Review Summary

Squarespace'southward blogging characteristic is more powerful and versatile than most competitors', and they besides score highly in support. They offer 140+ flexible templates that fully adjust to mobile devices. While it's been massively improved in recent updates, getting used to the platform can take a while due to a few usability bug. Pricing starts at $xiv/month.

Squarespace position themselves equally THE website builder for blogs, portfolio sites, and online stores. This review volition give you an overview of the main aspects of the latest version (vii.1).

Try Squarespace fourteen days for free

Screenshots

Squarespace Pricing

$14	Personal A good solution if you don't need an online store. All plans include up to 1000 pages.
$23	Business Adds marketing features similar Pop-Ups and the Declaration Bar. Online store with a transaction fee of 3%
$27	Online Shop (Basic) Sell online without transaction fees.
$49	Online Store (Advanced) Everything included: Use advanced ecommerce features

Monthly prices based on i-year contracts; Domain name registration included for free the first year.

Only new domain names tin can be registered through Squarespace. Existing ones need to exist pointed to your Squarespace website from a different registrar.

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Try our Smart Finder to notice the most suitable plan for your project:

> Find a detailed analysis of Squarespace's pricing plans here.

Pros & Cons of Squarespace

Templates and Designs

Squarespace offers more than 140 sophisticated themes that are optimized for tablets and phones. They seem to strive for perfection of every little detail in their designs; fonts, sizes, images: everything but fits. Their templates are too highly customizable through the Design menu.

Exercise keep in mind that the templates often rely heavily on the images used. If y'all supercede the ones they provide, your website's look will be completely different.

Blogging characteristic

If a weblog is going to be one of your central website elements, Squarespace is a great pick. They have a feature-rich commenting feature, multi-author functionality, the power to schedule posts, AMP support, you lot name it. Nice touch on: You tin can even host your own podcast on Squarespace!

Support

Thanks to live conversation, you tin can go an answer almost instantly. Our experiences with their back up squad were overall very positive when we did a back up test over several weeks.

Their support team even sometimes takes the time to tape quick screencasts, showing you the exact steps to follow.

Mobile Apps

Currently in that location are four different Squarespace apps. The most useful one, just called Squarespace is available for iOS and Android. It allows you lot to edit about all aspects of your website, including pages, blog and shop.

Generous page limits

Dissimilar Wix, which has a 100-page limit, Squarespace in theory tin can support upwardly to one,000 pages. This means that information technology can back up larger sites. Withal, they recommend 400 every bit the absolute maximum in order to keep your site running smoothly (which is still a decent corporeality). More info hither.

Content Creation Tools

Squarespace is the ideal website builder for content creators, offering apps such as the Squarespace Video Studio App, which lets you create and share videos; and Unfold, which offers hundreds of editable story and mail templates for your social media accounts.

Usability of the website editor

There are a couple of usability aspects that I'd like to meet improved: Instead of asking you to salvage your piece of work after each change, it should merely autosave and offer a sitewide undo button (or a site history feature) instead.

It feels like the number of clicks needed to perform simple website editing tasks is higher than necessary. Also, keep in listen that all changes volition be published immediately upon saving. This can be a bit inconvenient when doing larger updates.

Just one sub-navigation

Squarespace is non suitable for larger websites that require a deep card hierarchy. This likewise makes it near incommunicable to create multilingual websites with Squarespace.

Folio Speed

Their templates score low ratings by Google'southward Folio Speed Tool, which could atomic number 82 to a poor user feel on smartphones and possibly harm your search engine rankings.

Rating Details

criterion	rating	comments
Ease of use		While Squarespace is fairly easy to utilize (run across our Squarespace tutorial), it's nevertheless not the about intuitive tool. The user interface is minimalistic, which is nice, simply its usability could be improved. For example, I had the feeling that the editor was slowing me downwards by prompting me to save changes all the time. Compared to other site builders like Weebly information technology will probably take you a chip longer to fully sympathize everything.
Choice and flexibility of design (templates)		Templates are their greatest strength. There are shut to 150 to choose from, and designs wait both artistic and modernistic. Unfortunately, with the seven.1 update it'due south not possible anymore to switch from one template to a completely dissimilar one, however its layouts are now more flexible, significant it's fairly easy to alter up the design if needed. All templates are fully responsive and some of them also take special features for mobile devices. Pros can control the HTML/CSS in the "Concern" Plan (via the Developer Platform).
Advertisement-free		All plans are ad-free.
Languages		The editor supports any language. There are six interface languages (EN, ES, FR, DE, It and PT). Unfortunately, it doesn't provide a good way to create multilingual websites.
Features
Your own domain proper noun (e.g. .com or .net)		Yearly and bi-yearly subscriptions include a domain name for 1 twelvemonth, after that prices start at $20 annually (depending on the ending). Domain registrars like Namecheap offer much better deals. Existing domains can exist besides pointed to Squarespace websites. They offer e-mail addresses via Google Workspace, which cost $6/month for each account. More information.
Depth of navigation		Only i level below the principal navigation. You tin set information technology upwardly using 'Folders' (as they call it), which, frankly, is more complicated than it needs to exist. Some templates feature a secondary navigation underneath the chief navigation.
Widgets (small tools to add together extra functionality)		There are a number of apps in the Squarespace Extensions marketplace. The ones currently available are more often than not ecommerce and accounting-related. For users of the Business concern plan (and above) there are also other add-ons, which can be accessed through the web editor: pop-ups and an declaration bar, photograph galleries, appointment scheduling, social media widgets, tools for restaurants and much more.
Mobile App		Squarespace offers quite a simplistic app, only you can edit all your pages directly from your smartphone or tablet. It also lets you manage your inventory and view statistics. To use it, yous'll demand Squarespace version 7.0 or higher. iOS Android
E-Commerce		Included in Concern and above. You tin hands integrate a shopping cart into your website or blog. It features customer logins and lets you sell not simply concrete products, but also digital downloads, subscriptions, services and classes. At that place are also integrations with Instagram, Amazon, Etsy and more. Read more in our detailed due east-commerce review.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)		Squarespace's SEO options are solid, you tin can customize aspects like the championship tags, meta-description and URLs (for any page). Adding alt text for images is possible merely it tin can be a flake irksome. 301 redirects are also possible. More information.
Blog		Tin can be a real alternative to a WordPress web log every bit information technology has the usual blogging features (commenting, multi-authors) as well as geolocation tags, AMP support and the selection to schedule posts. If you already have a weblog on WordPress, Blogger or even Shopify, you lot can likewise import information technology. A really special feature is podcast hosting, complete with RSS feed and iTunes syndication.
Visitor statistics		The inbuilt visitor analytics tool is comprehensive, with cardinal stats around visitors and sales. Avant-garde reports include purchase funnels, search keywords and company activity logs. You can check your stats as well with the Squarespace Mobile app. For more details, y'all can set up Google Analytics.
Contact class		Fully customizable contact form builder with lots of field options.
Countersign protection & member areas		Squarespace'due south Member Areas allows you to add premium, members-just content to your site, such as classes, workshops, podcasts and more. It as well integrates directly with Squarespace'south email marketing service. Fellow member Areas starts at $nine/month.
Newsletter tool		Squarespace has a newsletter service called Electronic mail Campaigns that can be integrated with your website and store. Y'all'll also be able to connect Mailchimp.
Add together HTML code		Enables other widgets and tools to be added. Using the Programmer Platform (Business tier and above) y'all can as well edit the source lawmaking of your template.
Storage space	Unlimited	No bandwidth and storage limit.
Backups & Restore		Squarespace does non provide a backup feature other than export of product and weblog data. Disappointing as other site builders like Wix and Webnode offer pretty advanced fill-in solutions.
Support	FAQ Chat E-mail Telephone	24/7 ticket organisation and live chat. The cognition base is comprehensive. Personal support is too bully and scored well in our all-encompassing support tests (they were a bit dull to answer emails from fourth dimension to fourth dimension).
Fun Factor		Figuring out how the system works can have a while in the offset but it'southward well worth information technology.
Overall Rating	four.3/5	Although not quite every bit piece of cake to use as other website builders, Squarespace is a adept production for smaller websites, online stores and blogs that need to look good. Support is a big plus – both the knowledge base too as personal support.

Squarespace Review: Conclusion

We'll admit it — in the by, we always thought of Squarespace as existence a little overrated. The rather complicated editing interface used to be a major sticking point Fortunately, this has been improved in more recent versions. Although notwithstanding not perfect, the site builder now allows for real point and click interaction. This speeds up your website building efforts and lets you avoid unpleasant surprises.

Adding boosted apps and features

There's besides been a shift towards providing a greater range of tools and add-ons, including the recently-introduced Members Areas, Squarespace Scheduling, Email Campaigns and Tock restaurant reservation system. These, on top of existing features such every bit ecommerce and podcast support, demonstrate Squarespace's goal to position itself beyond the realm of portfolios and personal sites, towards being a consummate, all-in-one business organisation platform.

This is a tendency that's closely reflected in the real-life websites being created with Squarespace, which span a broad range of categories and purposes, but all manage to retain Squarespace's signature bold aesthetic.

The Website Architect for Blogging

The blogging system is excellent, offer a lot more versatility than most other website builders except WordPress (which is much more than complicated to set upwards than Squarespace). We also take to give Squarespace props for their content cosmos apps, such equally the Video Studio and Unfold – these are a huge plus for anyone looking to integrate their site with social media.

Yet, sometimes it withal feels a little too minimalistic, and can require a decent amount of trial and error until you are completely familiar with the editor. Some of the page elements are limited to an icon and don't reveal their purpose immediately. Luckily, Squarespace provides many keen tutorials that explain all the tools.

Pricing

Each yearly plan contains a domain name. Although the "Personal" isn't exactly cheap at $14/month, information technology comes with upward to grand pages and unlimited bandwidth. To add premium features, such as marketing banners and ecommerce, you'll demand the "Business" plan at $23/month. While these are the prices for annual contracts, you likewise have the possibility to pay month by month.

Final thoughts

Our tests take shown that Squarespace is a reliable website builder; nonetheless, its page speed needs improvement. Squarespace is non perfect, but we agree with their slogan: "Better websites for all." You certainly can create a beautiful, SEO-optimized website and volition never feel on your own cheers to their help materials and live support.

If yous are looking for Squarespace alternatives, you may also want to cheque out Wix.com. Like Squarespace, they are very focused on design aesthetics and generally a scrap more flexible than Squarespace.

> Attempt Squarespace 14 days for free

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Is Squarespace the right website builder for me?

You're a looking for something easier than WordPress

You are a blogger or podcaster and need a platform for like shooting fish in a barrel publishing

You lot want to create a stylish website

You need customer support 24/seven and don't heed paying a premium

You need a really piece of cake website editor

Page speed is very important for yous

You want to create a multilingual website

Instance Sites

Squarespace User Reviews

4.3 / 5

9 Squarespace Reviews

Squarespace Alternatives

Wix's cadre force is its neat looking templates that offer pixel-perfect customization options. With their unique App Market y'all can easily add together tertiary party applications to your website. Read our Wix vs Squarespace comparing.

Weebly is pleasantly easy to use and features some bang-up designs. They are possibly not quite every bit stylish as Squarespace'southward but far easier to customize. A large advantage is that all of their plans characteristic unlimited pages. Read our Weebly vs Squarespace comparison.

Webflow is another website architect that's favored by designers, and is an interesting alternative if you're looking for more design control. Check out our Webflow vs Squarespace comparison to learn more.

Jimdo is a solid production aimed at total beginners. They eastward.g. don't offer a blog and take a very limited online store in dissimilarity to Squarespace, overall, we discover their website editor more intuitive, though.

And then in that location is WordPress, of class. It's more complicated to set up but provides a lot of flexibility. Find our Squarespace vs. WordPress review here.

Find more in our Squarespace alternatives article.

Withal unsure of what website builder y'all should use? Allow our smart finder determine for you in 5 easy questions.

Techie Stuff (Mainly for Geeks)

squarespace uptime response time

Hither you can see the uptime of our Squarespace demo website for a menstruation of most half a twelvemonth. The best outcome would be 100%. The uptime should ideally exist above 99.xc%. Squarespace's 99.96% are a pretty decent result.

Response fourth dimension: That's the fourth dimension it takes to receive a response from Squarespace'southward servers. A skilful value would be 700 milliseconds. 1000ms and more could feel slow to your visitors. Squarespace'south servers are located in the US.

Squarespace	Desktop	Mobile	User Feel (mobile)
Template 1	75	46	100
Template 2	71	47	97
Template three	55	37	99
Boilerplate Rating	67	43.33	99

Every bit loading time has go a ranking factor for Google, page speed is at present more important than ever earlier. Squarespace'due south templates are responsive, which is slap-up, simply the downside isvery poorloading speeds, in item on mobile devices.

FAQ

Is Squarespace secure? How much traffic does it support?

Squarespace uses SSL encryption in editing mode – a feature that sets it apart from most other tools. Both their Unlimited and Business concern plans support unlimited traffic and can handle tremendous amounts of concurrent website visitors. If you have used WordPress in the past you volition probably appreciate this.

Will my Squarespace site work on an iPad or iPhone?

Yes, their layouts are responsive and will arrange to the screen size of your company's device. They also offer mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android that allow y'all to edit your site on the go.

Does Squarespace include e-mail accounts?

No, you will accept to set it up elsewhere. They recommend Google Workspace. Alternatively you tin can purchase your domain name through a registrar like Become Daddy or Namecheap and permit email run through them.

Can I create a members-only expanse?

Yes, with Squarespace's Member Areas characteristic (an additional service starting from $9/month). This allows yous to offer premium content, such equally classes, workshops and videos, to paying members. You tin discover out more than hither.

Does Squarespace support 301 redirects?

Aye, you lot can set upwards URL mapping. If you are moving your site over from a previous system, you can redirect quondam URLs that would otherwise lead to an error folio.

Can I use Disqus for comments on my blog?

Yes, Squarespace has a straight integration with Disqus.

Is it possible to monetize my Squarespace site?

Using Google AdSense or other imprint ads. You lot can also add together affiliate links to your website.

Can I import my existing blog into Squarespace?

Yes, Squarespace supports imports from. WordPress, Tumblr, Squarespace half dozen, Blogger, Shopify, and Big Cartel. Squarespace also allows you to export your blog.

Are Squarespace websites built for accessibility?

Unfortunately, Squarespace's templates aren't built for accessibility right out of the box. You tin make manual adjustments to make some elements more accessible (colors, spacing, font sizes etc) but to make Squarespace websites fully accessible you'll need to use a tertiary-party app. Squarespace have stated that they are working to improve template accessibility, then we hope to see these features introduced before long.

About Robert Brandl, BA (Hons) Munich University MUAS

Hi, my name is Robert Brandl, and I am the founder of Tooltester. I used to work in a digital marketing agency where I managed website and electronic mail marketing projects. To optimize my customer's campaigns, I ever had to find the optimal web tools. Tooltester (founded in 2010) opens this cognition to y'all, hopefully saving you countless hours of research. If you have any questions, please get out a annotate. Y'all can also find me on LinkedIn.

Latest Review Updates

xviii Apr 2022 - Website examples added
05 Apr 2022 - Squarespace overall rating now iv.three
02 Mar 2022 - General updates
22 Feb 2022 - New Squarespace website examples added, FAQs updated
17 Dec 2021 - Mobile app rating added.
09 Sep 2021 - Squarespace in ninety seconds video added.
29 Jul 2021 - Page limit added as 'Pro'
13 Jul 2021 - Smart Finder added
22 Jan 2021 - Minor updates
26 Nov 2020 – New Member Areas feature
27 Aug 2020 – Update in templates
12 Aug 2020 – Squarespace app available for Android too.
02 Apr 2020 – Updated video review.
12 Dec 2019 – Launch of the Extensions Marketplace.
05 Sep 2019 – Improved SEO.
xi Jun 2019 – Complete update.
04 Jun 2019 – A few minor updates.
23 Oct 2018 – Added comments well-nigh our support test.
03 Sep 2018 – Further updates in SEO.
28 Feb 2018 – Updated uptime section
28 Sep 2017 – Updates in SEO.
fifteen Feb 2017 – Prices have increased.
17 January 2017 – Nosotros've added the Fill-in & Restore category in the table
04 Jan 2017 – Update in cons (preview mode)
28 October 2016 – Free SSL certificates available.
08 Sep 2016 – Squarespace new SEO rating is iv
18 Jul 2016 – Squarespace at present overall rating is four.2
19 Apr 2016 – Squarespace now likewise sells (expensive) domain names
03 Mar 2016 – Downgrade in Widget rating
03 Feb 2016 – New utilise instance department added
22 Dec 2015 – Added pros and cons, uptime and response time, page speed results and some pricing updates.
11 Sep 2015 – User reviews section added
04 May 2015 – The "Personal" programme has no bandwidth and storage limit any longer
02 Dec 2014 – New video review added
21 Nov 2014 – Overall review update (V7), New rating four.4 Stars (earlier 4.one)
28 Mai 2014 – Information on podcast hosting added.
31 Jan 2014 – Online shop is available in all 3 plans.
20 Aug 2013 – The online store is at present likewise available in the United kingdom.
30 Mar 2013 – Video review of the online store added.
13 Feb 2013 – We added data about password protection.
20 Feb 2013 – Squarespace adds a shopping cart with their Business program.
10 October 2012 – Nosotros've created a list of shopping cart options for Squarespace.
06 Aug 2012 – Initial tests of version six.