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You can say what you want, but Squarespaces homepage is certainly nice to look at. Among all the website builders weve tested, hardly any other company understands how to stage its product with such perfection. Everything looks cool, fresh and impeccable. Lets find out if the website builder follows suit.
In its latest release, Squarespace introduced some useful additions to the editor such as pre-built page sections, and more versatile templates. New features also include Members Areas, Squarespace Scheduling [to manage bookings and appointments], and Squarespaces own email marketing tool.
These are just a handful of the features on offer - so lets check out Squarespaces pros and cons in full.
Squarespace Review Summary
Squarespace has a better blogging tool and better support than most competitors. They offer 100+ flexible templates that fully adapt to mobile devices. While its been massively improved in recent updates, getting used to the platform can take a while due to a few usability issues. Pricing starts at $12/month.
Squarespace position themselves as THE website builder for blogs, portfolio sites, and online stores. This review will give you an overview of the main aspects of the latest version [7.1].
Try Squarespace 14 days for free
Screenshots
Squarespace Pricing
| $12 | Personal A good solution if you don't need an online store. |
| $18 | Business Adds marketing features like Pop-Ups and the Announcement Bar. Online store with a transaction fee of 3% |
| $26 | Online Store [Basic] Sell online without transaction fees. |
| $40 | Online Store [Advanced] Everything included: Use advanced ecommerce features |
Monthly prices based on 1-year contracts; Domain name registration included for free the first year.
Only new domain names can be registered through Squarespace. Existing ones need to be pointed to your Squarespace website from a different registrar.
Save 10% using our exclusive voucher code TOOLTESTER10. Find more details on how to redeem it here.
Try our Smart Finder to discover the most suitable plan for your project:
> Find adetailed analysis of their pricing planshere.
Pros & Cons of Squarespace
Templates and Designs
Squarespace offers more than 100 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 just fits. Their templates are also highly customizable through the Design menu.
Do keep in mind that the templates often rely heavily on the images used. If you replace the ones they provide, your websites look will be completely different.
Blogging feature
If a blog is going to be one of your central website elements, Squarespace is a great choice. They have a feature-rich commenting feature, multi-author functionality, the ability to schedule posts, AMP support, you name it. Nice touch: You can even host your own podcast on Squarespace!
Support
Thanks to live chat, you can get an answer almost instantly. Our experiences with their support team were overall very positive when we did a support test over several weeks.
Their support team even sometimes takes the time to record quick screencasts, showing you the exact steps to follow.
Mobile Apps
Currently there are five different Squarespace apps. The most useful one, simply called Squarespace is available for iOS and Android. It allows you to edit almost all aspects of your website, including pages, blog and store.
Generous page limits
Unlike Wix, which has a 100-page limit, Squarespace in theory can support up to 1,000 pages. This means that it can support larger sites. However, they recommend 400 as the absolute maximum in order to keep your site running smoothly [which is still a decent amount]. More info here.
Usability of the website editor
There are a couple of usability aspects that Id like to see improved: Instead of asking you to save your work after each change, it should just 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 mind that all changes will be published immediately upon saving. This can be a bit inconvenient when doing larger updates.
Only one sub-navigation
Squarespace is not suitable for larger websites that require a deep menu hierarchy. This also makes it almost impossible to create multilingual websites with Squarespace.
Page Speed
Their templates score low ratingsby Googles Page Speed Tool, which could lead toa poor user experience on smartphones and possibly harm your search engine rankings.
Rating Details
Ease of use | While Squarespace is not exactly difficult to use, its still not the most intuitive tool. The user interface is minimalistic, which is nice, but its usability could be improved. I had the feeling that the editor was slowing me down by prompting me to save changes all the time. Compared to other site builders like Weebly it will probably take you a bit longer to fully understand everything. | |
Choice and flexibility of design [templates] | Templates are their greatest strength. There are over 100 to choose from, and designs look both artistic and modern. Unfortunately, with the 7.1 update its not possible anymore to switch from one template to a completely different one, however its layouts are now more flexible, meaning its fairly easy to change up the design if needed. All templates are fully responsive and some of them also have special features for mobile devices. Pros can control the HTML/CSS in the Business Plan [via the Developer Platform]. | |
Advertisement-free | All plans are ad-free. | |
Languages | The editor supports any language. There are 6 interface languages [EN, ES, FR, DE, IT and PT]. Unfortunately, it doesnt provide a good way to create multilingual websites. | |
Features | ||
Your own domain name [e.g. .com or .net] | Yearly and bi-yearly subscriptions include a domain name for 1 year, after that prices start at $20 annually [depending on the ending]. Domain registrars likeNamecheap offer much better deals. Existing domains can be also pointed to Squarespace websites. They offer email addresses via Google Workspace, which cost $6/month for each account. More information. | |
Depth of navigation | Only one level below the main navigation. You can set it up using Folders [as they call it], which, frankly, is more complicated than it needs to be. Some templates feature a secondary navigation underneath the main navigation. | |
Widgets [small tools to add extra functionality] | There are a number of apps in the Squarespace Extensions marketplace. The ones currently available are mostly ecommerce and accounting-related. For users of the Business plan [and above] there are also other add-ons, which can be accessed through the web editor: pop-ups and an announcement bar, photo galleries, appointment scheduling, social media widgets, tools for restaurants and much more. | |
Monetization | Using Google AdSense or other banner ads. | |
E-Commerce | Included in Business and above. You can easily integrate a shopping cart into your website or blog. It features customer logins and sale of digital downloads. Read more in our detailed e-commerce review. | |
Search Engine Optimization [SEO] | Squarespaces SEO options are solid, you can customize aspects like the title tags, meta-description and URLs [for any page]. Adding alt text for images is possible but it can be a bit tedious. 301 redirects are also possible. More information. | |
Blog | Can be a real alternative to a WordPress blogas it has the usual blogging features [commenting, multi-authors] as well as geolocation tags, AMP support and the option to schedule posts. If you already have a blog on WordPress, Blogger or even Shopify, you can also import it. A really special feature is podcast hosting, complete with RSS feed and iTunes syndication. | |
Visitor statistics | The inbuilt visitor analytics tool shows you some key stats. You can check your stats also with the Squarespace Analytics App. For more details, you can set up Google Analytics. | |
Contact form | Fully customizable contact form builder with lots of field options. | |
Password protection & member areas | Squarespaces Member Areas allows you to add premium, members-only content to your site, such as classes, workshops, podcasts and more. It also integrates directly with Squarespaces email marketing service. Member Areas starts at $9/month. | |
Newsletter tool | Squarespace has a newsletter service called Email Campaigns that can be integrated with your website and store. Youll also be able to connect Mailchimp. | |
Add HTML code | Enables other widgets and tools to be added. Using the Developer Platform [Business tier and above] you can also edit the source code of your template. | |
Storage space | Unlimited | No bandwidth and storage limit. |
Backups & Restore | Squarespace does not provide a backup feature other than export of product and blog data. Disappointing as other site builders like Wix and Webnode offer pretty advanced backup solutions. | |
Support |
| 24/7 ticket system and live chat. The knowledge base is comprehensive. Personal support is also great and scored well in our extensive support tests [they were a bit slow to answer emails from time to time]. |
Fun Factor | Figuring out how the system works can take a while in the beginning but its well worth it. | |
Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | Although not quite as easy to use as other website builders, Squarespace is a good product for smaller websites, online stores and blogs that need to look good. Support is a big plus both the knowledge base as well as personal support. |
Conclusion
The rather complicated editing interface used to be a major sticking point in the past. Fortunately, this has been improved in more recent versions. Although still 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.
Theres also been a shift towards providing a greater range of tools and add-ons, including the recently-introduced Members Areas, Squarespace Scheduling, and Email Campaigns. These, on top of existing features such as ecommerce and podcast support, demonstrate Squarespaces goal to position itself beyond the realm of portfolios and personal sites, towards being a complete, all-in-one business platform.
However, sometimes it still 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 dont reveal their purpose immediately. Luckily, Squarespace provides many great tutorials that explain all the tools.
Each yearly plan contains a domain name.Although the Personal isnt exactly cheap at $12/month, it comes with unlimited pages and bandwidth. To add premium features youll need the Business plan at $18/month.
Our tests have shown that Squarespace is a reliable website builder; however, its page speedneeds improvement. Squarespace is not perfect, but we agree with their slogan: Better websites for all.If you are looking for Squarespace alternatives, you may also want to check outWix.com. Like Squarespace, theyare very focused on designaestheticsand generally a bit more flexible than Squarespace.
>Try Squarespace 14 days for free
Tip: Save 10% on your first subscription term for any plan [monthly or yearly] using voucher code PARTNER10. Heres a guide on how to redeem it.
Is Squarespace the right website builder for me?
Youre a looking for something easier than WordPress
You are a podcaster and need a platform for easy publishing
You want to create a stylish website
You need customer support 24/7 and dont mind paying a premium
You need a really easy website editor
Page speed is very important for you
Example Sites
Squarespace User Reviews
4.3/5 9 Reviews |
| 5 | 4 | |
| 4 | 4 | |
| 3 | 1 | |
| 2 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 |
Squarespace Alternatives
Wixscore strength is itsgreat looking templates thatoffer pixel-perfect customization options. With their unique App Market you can easily add third party applications to your website. Read our Wix vs Squarespace comparison.
Weeblyis pleasantly easy to use and features some great designs. They are maybe not quite as stylish as Squarespaces but far easier to customize. A big advantage is that all of their plans feature unlimited pages. Read our Weebly vs Squarespace comparison.
Webflow is another website builder thats favored by designers, and is an interesting alternative if youre looking for more design control. Check out our Webflow vs Squarespace comparison to learn more.
Jimdo is a solid product aimed at total beginners. They e.g. dont offer a blog and have a very limited online store in contrast to Squarespace, overall, we find their website editor more intuitive, though.
And then there is WordPress, of course. Its 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.
Still unsure of what website builder you should use? Let our smart finder decide for you in 5 easy questions.
Techie Stuff [Mainly for Geeks]
Here you can see the uptime of our Squarespace demo website for a period of about half a year. The best result would be 100%. The uptime should ideallybe above99.90%. Squarespaces 99.96% are a pretty decent result.
Response time: Thats the time it takes to receive a response from Squarespaces servers. A good value would be 700 milliseconds. 1000ms and more could feel slow to your visitors. Squarespaces servers are located in the US.
| Template 1 | 75 | 46 | 100 |
| Template 2 | 71 | 47 | 97 |
| Template 3 | 55 | 37 | 99 |
| Average Rating | 67 | 43.33 | 99 |
As loading time has become a ranking factor for Google, page speed is now more important than ever before.Squarespaces templates are responsive, which is great, but the downside isvery poorloading speeds, in particular 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 plans support unlimited traffic and can handle tremendous amounts of concurrent website visitors. If you have used WordPress in the past you will probably appreciate this.
Will my Squarespace site work on an iPad or iPhone?
Yes, their layouts are responsive and will adapt to the screen size of your visitors device. They also offer mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android that allow you to edit your site on the go.
Does Squarespace include email accounts?
No, you will have to set it up elsewhere. They recommend Google Workspace. Alternatively you can purchase your domain name through a registrar likeGo DaddyorNamecheapand let email run through them.
Can I create a members-only area?
Yes, with Squarespaces Member Areas feature [an additional service starting from $9/month]. This allows you to offer premium content, such as classes, workshops and videos, to paying members. You can find out more here.
Does Squarespace support 301 redirects?
Yes, you can set up URL mapping. If you are moving your site over from a previous system, you can redirect old URLs that would otherwise lead to an error page.
Can I use Disqus for comments on my blog?
Yes, Squarespace has a direct integration with Disqus.
Can I import my existing blog into Squarespace?
Yes, Squarespace supports imports from. WordPress, Tumblr, Squarespace 6, Blogger, Shopify, and Big Cartel. Squarespace also allows you to export your blog.
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 email marketing projects. To optimize my client's campaigns, I always had to find the optimal web tools. Tooltester [founded in 2010] opens this knowledge to you, hopefully saving you endless hours of research. If you have any questions, please leave a comment. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
Latest Review Updates
09 Sep 2021 - Squarespace in 90 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.
11 Jun 2019 Complete update.
04 Jun 2019 A few minor updates.
23 Oct 2018 Added comments about our support test.
03 Sep 2018 Further updates in SEO.
28 Feb 2018 Updated uptime section
28 Sep 2017 Updates in SEO.
15 Feb 2017 Prices have increased.
17 Jan 2017 Weve added the Backup & Restore category in the table
04 Jan 2017 Update in cons [preview mode]
28 Oct 2016 Free SSL certificates available.
08 Sep 2016 Squarespace new SEO rating is 4
18 Jul 2016 Squarespace now overall rating is 4.2
19 Apr 2016 Squarespace now also sells [expensive] domain names
03 Mar 2016 Downgrade in Widget rating
03 Feb 2016 New use case section 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 plan has no bandwidth and storage limit any longer
02 Dec 2014 New video review added
21 Nov 2014 Overall review update [V7], New rating 4.4 Stars [before 4.1]
28 Mai 2014 Information on podcast hosting added.
31 Jan 2014 Online store is available in all three plans.
20 Aug 2013 The online store is now also available in the UK.
30 Mar 2013 Video review of the online store added.
13 Feb 2013 We added information about password protection.
20 Feb 2013 Squarespace adds a shopping cart with their Business plan.
10 Oct 2012 Weve created a list of shopping cart options for Squarespace.
06 Aug 2012 Initial tests of version 6.