Should You Choose Squarespace for Your Website? The Pros and Cons
Picking the right platform for your website can feel pretty daunting, and if you are really new to all of this online tech, you may not even know where to start. We are here to try to make your decision a little easier!
Your choice should hinge on three crucial questions:
What do you need your website to do?
How comfortable are you with technology?
And, what future changes might your website undergo?
Understanding Your Needs and Comfort with Technology
First, what do you and customers need to be able to do on your site? This is probably your most important consideration. Think about the functionalities you require from your site. From video backgrounds to software integrations like email marketing and payment processors, your needs and the needs of your customers help dictate your platform choice.
Also, reflect on your tech-savviness. If the thought of coding makes you break into a cold sweat, you'll appreciate a user-friendly platform.
Finally, ponder potential website evolutions, such as e-commerce or membership additions, to ensure your chosen builder can scale right along with you.
Which leads us to:
What potential needs may your website have to fulfill?
Think ahead about what you may add to your website in the future. Will you offer membership plans? Will you be selling products? If you have an online store, do you anticipate rapid growth in sales and products? Answering these questions ensures your chosen website builder can grow with your business.
The Case for Squarespace
Squarespace is perfect for small businesses and solopreneurs valuing simplicity, beautiful design, and all-in-one solutions. Squarespace is more than just a website builder. It is also a design tool, a hosting provider, and a marketing provider. And for all of that, you only pay once. It covers your hosting, unlimited bandwidth for the website, unlimited page views, all the content, and marketing functionality.
Here are eight compelling reasons why Squarespace may be a great choice for your business:
All-in-One Solution: From hosting to SEO tools, Squarespace covers every base, simplifying the website setup process. Squarespace also offers additional service integration to support your business, so if you need anything from scheduling to email campaigns, they have you covered. You can have your website up and running quite quickly, with little to no headache.
Ease of Use: Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface requires no coding, offering real-time editing visibility—a stark contrast to WordPress. (But of course, custom code can be added to make your site stand out with great features!)
Easy to Edit: A website isn't set in stone; it’s dynamic and you will need to edit it on a regular basis. For example, you might need to change prices, refresh the copy, add new products and blog entries. Squarespace is easy to edit, and you will be able to do it yourself without particular knowledge of web development or design.
Low Maintenance: Unlike platforms requiring regular updates, Squarespace’s smooth operation post-launch minimizes upkeep. Platforms like Wordpress are high maintenance, and any updates and security problems have to be updated and fixed manually, and regularly. You couldn’t create a Wordpress website, not touch it for a couple of years and expect it to still be running properly.
Beautiful Templates: Squarespace's templates stand out for their sophisticated design, offering a professional look with minimal effort.
Affordable Pricing: With a 14-day free trial and various pricing tiers, Squarespace accommodates different budgets without compromising on features.
Robust Security: Its closed system architecture offers a safer environment, reducing the risk of security vulnerabilities.
Marketing tools : Squarespace has all the marketing functionality ready for you. For contrast, let’s look at another platform—WordPress. With WordPress, you will have to install multiple additional plugins. If you want to add forms to fill out, see analytics, add chat support—you need to install plugins… and some of them have a subscription model and require a recurring payment. On top of your hosting and a template, you would also have to pay for those features.
Round-the-Clock Support: Squarespace’s 24/7 customer support ensures help is always a chat away, making troubleshooting a breeze.
Solid SEO Features: Built-in SEO tools facilitate a friendly setup for search engines with no need to dive into code.
When Squarespace Might Not Be for You
Despite its advantages, Squarespace isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Consider alternatives if you’re dealing with:
Multilingual Websites: Squarespace can manage multilingual content, but it's not the most efficient platform for such needs.
Product-Heavy Online Stores: If you anticipate having a very large shop, platforms like Shopify might serve you better with their broader e-commerce functionalities and flexibility.
Large E-Commerce Operations: Squarespace’s structure becomes cumbersome for stores with extensive inventories.
Need for Complete Customization: If your vision demands incredibly unique and specific functionalities or design freedom, platforms like WordPress or Webflow offer more flexibility. (However with 7.1 Fluid engine, Squarespace has become a much more design friendly platform that gives far more freedom than its predecessor.)
Making Your Decision
Choosing Squarespace comes down to balancing simplicity and functionality with the specific needs and future aspirations of your business. It excels for those seeking a straightforward, design-centric website builder with comprehensive support and security. However, for complex e-commerce needs, multilingual sites, or complete customization, exploring alternatives may serve you better.
In essence, aligning your platform choice with your business objectives, technological comfort level, and growth plans ensures that you invest in a tool that not only meets your current needs but also supports your future goals.