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Squarespace Review

Site Builders

Squarespace Founding and Leadership

Squarespace, Inc. is a New York-based private firm that offers SaaS (software as a service) for building and hosting websites. The company provides its users with pre-built site templates and a drag-and-drop editor to build website pages.

Initially, Squarespace was founded for personal use by Anthony Casalena as a blog hosting service during his time in the University of Maryland. Since its founding in 2004, Casalena leads as the company’s CEO. Squarespace has its headquarters in West Village, Manhattan at 8 Clarkson St.

Squarespace Server Locations and Users

Squarespace has its servers located in the U.S. and hosts over one million websites. The web builder offers advanced blogging tools and customer support compared to its competitors. As such, there are more than 1,700 companies, including HBO, Avocode, and Accenture, that allegedly use Squarespace for their tech. Websites using Squarespace include Knapsack Creative, EST Creative, Devon Stack, and Fighting Eel, among others.

Who Hosts Squarespace Websites?

Squarespace’s registrar, Tucows, is responsible for legitimately hosting all their domains and is managed via the user’s Squarespace website. The web builder offers one free domain to clients who purchase their annual subscription plan. If you have a premium Squarespace website, domain registration starts at $20/year to $70/year.

When Will Squarespace Go Public?

Squarespace raised its last funding round in December 2017 amounting $200 million (at a $1.7bn valuation). With a current optimistic cash flow, the company is supposedly expected to go public either in 2021 or much later.

Squarespace offers a 14-day trial that allows you to try out their web builder services and see the features and offerings before you purchase a subscription plan. The company does not ask for your credit card details for a free trial sign-up.

When the free trial ends, the site stops being public and all the content in it is highlighted for permanent removal. If you do not take long before upgrading to a premium service, you can continue editing your content before it is deleted permanently.

Why is Squarespace Bad?

Squarespace is an excellent web builder choice with a lot of recommendations and striking features. But even so, it still has its downsides that would make it unfit for your needs depending on your requirements.

  1. Limited Customization – while the platform adds new functionality and styling via JavaScript and CSS, you will not receive support until the customizations are deleted. If Squarespace Style Editor’s customizations are not enough for you, you might need to hire a developer to create your desired template style.
  1. You require extra features – web builder templates need a back-to-top button for ease of use which is not offered in Squarespace’s popular Brine template. To add this functionality, you will need a developer which is costly.
  1. Regular unexpected changes – Squarespace conducts a regular user interface and code changes which is awesome. However, users might face a confusing learning curve trying to familiarize with the updates.
  1. Limited hosting – Squarespace offers hosting, domain, striking templates, email, and newsletter campaigns. Yet, you will need extra hosting options, especially for high-traffic sites.
  1. Inadequate Membership Site options – Squarespace gives you several integrations and plugins useful in adding membership functionality to your site. Yet, keeping your files secure means outsourcing storage services.
  1. Lacks multilingual eCommerce capability – multiple languages are essential for online stores as you deal with a range of customers. Unfortunately, Squarespace offers a payment page with a single (default) language.
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Why is Squarespace So Slow/Down?

If your Squarespace website pages are loading slowly, it could be resulting from multiple issues such as:

  1. Unsupported browser – Squarespace provides a list of the browser versions that their website supports for both viewing and editing your website. As such, ensure that your browser is up-to-date and if not download the latest version.
  2. System–wide issue – go to status.squarespace.com and check the platform’s Status Page to see if the slow loading pages is caused by a system-wide issue.
  3. Page content size – a page’s first load downloads its entire content which can greatly affect loading times depending on the content it has.
  4. Local network connection – slow Squarespace website pages can occur even on pages with little content depending on the local connections. As such, try switching the network providers or troubleshoot the issue with a speed test.
  5. Custom code – code injections, CSS, and third-party embed code may cause slow page loads on your site. To solve this issue, get rid of all custom code from your website and save it elsewhere and refresh your site page.
  6. URL redirects – an excess number of URL redirects can result in slowed page speeds and streamlining the list is the only solution to your problem. You can view your URL redirects in the URL Mappings panel.
  7. Mobile compatibility – a site page loading slowly on your mobile device means that that your device is not mobile-friendly. Ensure your site is mobile-compatible using Google’s Mobile-Friendly test.

Other factors affecting the loading times of your site page include anti-virus software, browser add-ons, computer capacity or memory, external scripts, third-party domain provider issues, and local network firewalls.

Why Use Squarespace?

Squarespace offerings make an attempt to impress both the tech-savvy and the developer community clients. This places the platform in a competitive edge with another famous all-inclusive web builder such as WordPress.com.

Here are five reasons why you should use Squarespace:

  1. Striking template designs – Squarespace offers a huge list of striking template designs based on photography when you start setting up your Squarespace account. Alternatively, there is an option to upload your preferred design.
  2. In-built features – Squarespace offers an all-in-one platform with compatible apps and extensions, web analytics, which they own and develop. As such, you spend ample time on crucial stuff such as design, promotion, and site content.
  3. Back-end design – the platform’s impressive designs extend to the back-end clients or user experience. All this is available in Squarespace’s admin section.
  4. Support – what’s good service with shoddy customer support? Nothing! Squarespace gives you a breath of fresh air with its reliable 24/7 live chat, email tickets, and a detailed Knowledge Base.
  5. Functionality – concerned about speed, security, and data export? Squarespace offers web hosting using their software with an affordable monthly price.  As such, they make sure that you enjoy ultimate site speed, protection, and reliable backup plans.

Which Squarespace Plan is Best?

Squarespace is not free but offers four pricing tiers that you can choose from, including a 14-day free trial to test before you subscribe. Choosing the best pricing plan depends on the needs you have, and ensures that the features you pay for are worth the dollar.

If you are looking to start a website, the Personal and Business packages are a fantastic choice. But if you want to start an online store, this requires additional features that work best for your shop. As such, Squarespace Commerce packages are an ideal choice. These plans are billed on either monthly or annually. All annual plans include a free custom domain for the initial year.

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As your need grows, Squarespace allows you to switch between plans or upgrade to the one that suits the needs of your website.

Squarespace: Can I Change my Domain Name?

Yes, you can. However, you must do this within the five days of registration. The process includes cancelling the already registered domain and substituting it with your preferred domain name. If it is past five days after domain registration, then it becomes permanent.

Squarespace for Blogging

Squarespace boasts its LayoutEngine tech that allows you to drag and resize images, and make preferred adjustments quick and easy. The platform only offers premium blogging capabilities, where its blogs are hosted in the cloud web. This ensures that the blogger does not face stoppages or require to perform any maintenance tasks.

You can use Squarespace Android, iOS, and iPad apps to post creation reviews and edit with comment and access to accessible active web statistics. All the platform’s templates are mobile-compatible, and you can import your content from another platform to Squarespace.

Squarespace blog created content can be auto-published to Twitter, Tumblr, Google, and Facebook. Pricing plans for Squarespace blogging include Standard, Unlimited, and Business, at $8/m, $16/m, and $24/m billed annually. You can also check out a comparison of Squarespace and Wix here.

Squarespace for Photographers

Squarespace is specially designed for graphic artists and photographers to offer a platform for showcasing their skills and help drive discussions. It is a premium service that requires creating your dream site.

The platform includes several photographer-tailored documentations with useful info about templates and more. All comes in a user-friendly interface and includes SEO tools to help you grow your site.

Squarespace for eCommerce

Squarespace offers a reliable platform for your online store with striking capabilities for all-size business, from SMBs to large businesses. The platform has everything integrated, meaning it’s compatible with all the elements.

Its features include CRM tools, commerce analytics, subscriptions, multi-currencies abilities, abandoned checkout recovery, inventory & order management, and mobile-optimized safe checkout. While the price is slightly higher, it is worth it as you get dedicated support.

Squarespace for Artists

Squarespace is also a perfect platform for artists that enables them to showcase their work cleanly and creatively, regardless of their focus. It provides a range of options that match their aesthetic to resonate with your artistry.

Squarespace for Musicians

Squarespace for musicians offers intuitive calendars, social connectivity, and a stylish audio player. With it, you can build a sleek site that sells your artistry skills using many impressive templates and features.

Notable features include Event Collection that keeps your fans updated, and a drag-and-drop interface. Warren G, Lenny Kravitz, Miguel, and more prominent names are some musicians who use Squarespace.

Squarespace for Business

While the Squarespace includes a steep learning curve, it is a great choice for building sites for small businesses. It comes with in-built tools that supports small business owners with PayPal and G Suite integrations. It also allows for improved design customizations.

Business owners also get full customer support.

Squarespace for Students

Squarespace has special concern for students where it offers them 50% discount for the initial year subscription upon sign-up. However, they must create an account using their academic email address. Before your sign-up, ensure you check that your institution is included in the list.

Squarespace for students includes features like customizable layouts, marketing tools, affordable pricing, and expert customer support.

Squarespace to WordPress Migration

While you can migrate plenty of your website to WordPress automatically, the thing is, you cannot transfer everything. With Squarespace, exporting your regular pages and blog content is straightforward. But you will not export your style changes, products & audio blocks, or your product, index, album or event pages.

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Use these simple steps to migrate from Squarespace to WordPress:

  1. Export content: Settings > Advanced > Import/Export, and click Export/

A prompt will open with WordPress > Download

  1. Use custom domain to switch Squarespace domain to point to WP
  2. Import content to WP using .xml file downloaded above. Click WP dashboard Tools > Import, locate WP tool and click Install Now. Then the link will shift to Run Importer and click, use Choose File > .xml > Upload file and Import.
  3. Copy and paste more content to WP
  4. Import images to WP
  5. Configure WP permalinks
  6. Reconstruct Squarespace template on WP

Squarespace with Shopify

You can add the Shopify Buy Button that enables sales on your Squarespace site or blog for just $9/m. It is fully-responsive for a striking appearance on both mobile and desktop screens, and can be customized to match up your brand.

Can Squarespace Host my Domain?

Yes. All Squarespace packages embrace your site and content hosting, plus unlimited storage and bandwidth. If you have a third-party provider domain, you can switch it to Squarespace, or connect it to your Squarespace website.

Can Squarespace Host Video?

No, you cannot upload a video to Squarespace directly. The platform lets you embed videos from Wistia, YouTube, Vimeo, and more. 

Squarespace: How to Change Template

  1. Login to your Squarespace site
  2. Navigate to the Settings icon and click Templates
  3. On Another Template, click Preview This Template and view them
  4. Enable the template to change it

Squarespace: How to Duplicate a Page

The best way to use a current page, product, event, or post is by duplicating it so you can use it for fresh content. Duplicating retains the blocks, images, settings, and layouts as the original page.

To duplicate a Layout Page:

  1. Navigate to the Home Menu >Pages
  2. Go to Layout Page to duplicate and click on (settings-like icon)
  3. Page Settings > Duplicate Page
  4. Click Confirm and a copy of the page will open for editing.
  5. On the Pages panel, the duplicate page will prompt in the Not Linked section
  6. The duplicated page can be moved to your navigation for editing.

Squarespace: How to Change Font

On Squarespace, you can either change all fonts in your site or a specific tweak. Follow these steps to change all the fonts:

  1. Home Menu > Design > Fonts
  2. Click a font pack and execute it to your website. Click any font to see its effects on your site.
  3. When you set the Base Size and the entire text will scale to its size.

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Squarespace: How to Link Pages

To add a link or link pages:

  1. Go to the Home Menu > Pages
  2. Next to where you wish to add a Link, click on the + icon
  3. Go to Create New Page > Select
  4. Under Link Title, enter the link in the link editor
  5. Key in a URL under Link.

How Squarespace Works

Squarespace provides a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to build your website, whether for personal use, business or online store (eCommerce). The platform offers a perfect and up-to-date interface that enables even the tech-savvy individuals to create a site for themselves.

It offers impressive template designs that attract clients to your site and enable you to sell your skills, like artistry, music, photographers, and bloggers.