Squarespace Website Pros and Cons

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Have you been stalking Squarespace to see if it’s the right website platform for you?

We’ve all been there, in the undecided phase. You know, the one where you watch 20 videos just to see if they help you make a choice for your business?

Well, here’s another one for you.

Here are the pros and cons of a Squarespace website from a site designer.

The Learning Curve

Here’s the feedback that I’ve gotten from training people to use multiple platforms: Squarespace just seems easier to understand how to get the site to do what it needs to do. Don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of ugly Squarespace sites, but they do the job.

The typical clients that veer into Squarespace include coaches, personal trainers, bloggers, co-working spaces, etc. Did you hear any tech-focused people in there? No.

Tech isn’t their jam, and it doesn’t ever have to be. If you’re not at all tech-savvy and you’re not willing or able to pay for a tech-savvy person to check in on your site, Squarespace might be your best option. 

With WordPress, a lot of my clients get flustered with the admin panel because there's a lot of things going on, they also have to make sure that plugins/themes/PHP/WordPress Core are updated. And, that could be a lot for them. Other clients know the tech but don’t have the time to deal with it but additionally can only afford a VA. Perfect. A Squarespace website will be easier for your new assistant to manage.

Great Customer Service

I’ve never had a bad customer experience with Squarespace yet (unlike a hosting company that starts with a “G”). I LOVE being able to just have a chat window open and following instructions or emailing if it’s not something crucial.

The one thing I recently realized though: they don’t have a phone number and I ran across a client who wanted a company with a place to call. It was her website platform deal-breaker so we went with Bluehost.

Otherwise, they’re actually pretty great, polite, and help you get to your answer.

Everything Is Integrated On Their Website (Mostly)

Because Squarespace hosts and creates the bones of your website, that means that all their elements work well together. All the developers that work for Squarespace will create within their guidelines. From forms to video embeds, you won’t get an error message due to one not functioning well with the other.

With WordPress on the other hand, I’ve run across issues. I’ve wanted an email capture, then gotten more spam, requiring a plugin (aka add-on) for that, then if something breaks down I get to figure out what happened. WordPress plugins, such as email capture, sometimes don’t work well together. One could be fine with the WordPress core code update while another might break.

As a developer, I don’t mind this but if you’re not into testing new simple plugins each time, you might want to stick with Squarespace.

Leveled Up Their Website SEO

Ok, here’s something that I knew about Squarespace websites for a while: it used to suck at SEO but I guess they heard people talking.

They’ve been leveling up their SEO to a point where I don’t think it’s about the tech anymore - it’s about your content. WordPress still seems to be a bit better but if your content sucks, no CMS system is going to help you.

Squarespace Provides An E-Commerce Option

Now, I will say this is a gray area on whether it falls under pro or con. Maybe it’s an “eh.”

The nice thing is the Squarespace makes it easier to get set up to sell on their site. It’s a tad bit less complicated than the other platforms and pleasing if you’re planning on also offering services.

The negatives?

The Squarespace e-commerce option is more for those folks selling unique, luxury, or custom pieces (although Shopify can do this too). If you want a full-on e-commerce website, go with either WordPress or Shopify.

Have more than 100 products? I’d say go with another platform.

Want all the cool bells and whistles you can do with an e-commerce website? Change to another platform. 

Just selling your one-of-a-kind macrame products? Squarespace should be sufficient. Selling a downloadable product or event? Squarespace is good for you.

Page Speed On Squarespace Sometimes Lags

The Squarespace website platform seems to be a little bit behind the ball when it comes to page speed. There are a few things you can do to ensure that it’s still working smoothly - and these apply to any platform: reducing the size of images, using something like ImageOptim, and keeping an eye on how many “features” or the movement on your site. Sometimes, cool things can slow down your site.

Member Areas Were Kind Of A Let Down For Me Personally.

I tested out the Member Areas recently launched by Squarespace and didn’t love it. Although it's great for locked content, lightweight courses, and I do have my own free course on it (#shamelessplu) it’s a little bit lightweight for a true course. 

Depending on your goals, you might want to switch because you’ll need a hosting platform for your videos, don’t have a true member forum, and the content needs to be adjusted in certain ways. 

You Can’t Just Transfer Your Website To Another Hosting Company. 

This is the biggest issue. Keep in mind that no matter what platform you build your site on, such as Wordpress, it’s hard or impossible to just “switch it” to something else like Shopify. 

The nice thing about WordPress, is that you can transfer the actual site to many different hosting platforms, such as Bluehost. 

When is it really a problem though?

Let’s say you’ve built out your website on Squarespace and you now want to add a membership forum. Currently, that’s not possible and you’d need to use something like Slack. With WordPress, you’d build it out on your own site. Although it’ll require a bit more maintenance, this latter option gives you control over what everything looks like.

These changes to a website are typically fine because businesses shift and websites need a refresh at least once a year. The problem comes in when you’ve only had your site for about 3 months. Having to redo your website because we didn’t think through what the business goals were, really, really sucks. 

So is this website platform for you?

The Squarespace website platform is for you if you are a service provider, e-commerce, and blogger. Just know that the company is a generalist. So it comes down to your business and marketing goals.

Bonus Tip: Take on as many free trials so that you can see if the admin area is up to the tasks you need to give it. For example, if you pay for hosting of 3 years for a WordPress website then realize 3 months in that you hate it, that’ll be a tough financial pill to take. 

Squarespace is essentially for people who don’t want to take a look under the hood of the car or do any true custom code work while WordPress is for those grease monkeys (code monkeys?) that want to control the site and look under the hood.

Tell me in the comments: What type of website do you hope to build?