Squarespace In 2021: What Do Squarespace Client Reviews Say?

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by Katie Horne

Last updated: October 2, 2019

Our Verdict: #1 For Website Builder Designs

Squarespace offers hosting plans that come with a website builder, gorgeous design templates, and great customer support. Choose from hundreds of templates, including online stores and blogs. Squarespace manages all the technical details for you behind the scenes.

Get a Squarespace hosting plan for $5 per month by clicking any of our discount links in this review.

Squarespace has earned 4.5 stars out of 5 in our user reviews, getting highest marks for customer support and quality.

Is Squarespace the Perfect Host For Your Site?

Want to know about something specific? Jump to our most popular sections:

• Expert review – Get the straight scoop from our expert, Katie Horne.
• Best reviews – Read user reviews by Squarespace customers.
• Hosting plans – See which plan is best for you.
• FAQ – Read answers to the most common questions about Squarespace.

Squarespace is well-known for its “all-in-one” website builder and impressive visual designs. But is it easy to use? And how good is their customer support?

You may be wondering, “Is WordPress better?” What about other website builders like Wix or Weebly?

I launched a small business with Squarespace. In this review, I share my experience with the platform and some important facts you need to know before signing up.

What is Squarespace?

Like most other all-in-one website solutions, Squarespace provides everything you need to create a website and get it online.

Squarespace also includes security features, 24/7 technical support, and all the training you need to use the platform successfully.

Best of all, no technical knowledge is required.

Squarespace’s platform comes with professionally-designed templates. (You can use these templates so that you’re not building your site from scratch.)

All templates are “responsive.” This means they’re designed to look good on all device types including smartphones.

Why Squarespace?

There are a lot of all-in-one website building tools. How does Squarespace stand out?

• It’s a turnkey solution that includes 24/7 technical support, security, e-commerce (depending on plan) and analytics.

• You can choose from dozens of professionally designed “templates.” These are pre-built designs that give you an impressive website out of the box.

• It’s easy to use. No technical knowledge is required.

Continued after user reviews

Squarespace Reviews by Our Community

Overall Rating from 2 Reviews by Squarespace Customers

Support
Quality
Features
Value

Filter reviews by: Most HelpfulMost RecentNegativePositive

Most Helpful Reviews

Katie Horne 23spoons.com

Jul 24, 2019

First, Squarespace is relatively expensive, especially if you’re a small Business/self-employed. The prices listed on the site aren’t bad, but when you factor in email and domain renewals, you have a solid line item in your budget. I mention this because I think this influences my opinion of Squarespace quite a bit.

I’ve been with Squarespace since 2016 when they were running those ad campaigns on pretty much every podcast (or so it seemed). Getting set up wasn’t difficult at all, but I did have a hard time getting my site to look the way I wanted it to. The themes are all great.

I thought I’d try customizing it to be unique. I was unable to do that – that might be my limited design chops, though. The editor was fairly simplistic, yet I didn’t feel it was super easy to use.

In the end, I just put up a super simple site. It’s got no-frills, but it’s a way for people to get in touch. It works for me, but if you want more, know that you’ll be putting in the work.

I’ve never contacted customer support, so I don’t know how that is. Their reference docs are pretty good, and I’ve been able to figure out everything I need from the knowledge base. I don’t monitor downtime carefully (bad, I know), but I’ve only noticed one instance of downtime.

Would I keep using Squarespace? Well, I do, because it’s just easier to keep on keeping on, but I can’t help but wonder if I would get the same thing for less money if I put in a bit of time with a free CMS and cheaper hosting. To be clear, I have a developer background, and while I have the skills to do something like this, I don’t necessarily have the time to do so. If you want easy to use, Squarespace fits.

Visit Host Now →

Paul Hill insidermedia.com.au

Oct 27, 2015

Hello,

We are a boutique web development agency Insider Media Group based in Melbourne ,Australia that builds sites and stores for Ecommerce and small business. We specialise in Shopify, WordPress and Squarespace. Up until recently we have switched alot of our small business sites to Squarespace due to the sheer speed in getting the sites developed which in turn has meant much cheaper sites for our customers.

Squarespace has some very good themes but we do some tweaking to improve some of the look and feel. They are fully responsive but without minor tweaking some font sizes can look a tad odd on mobiles. Have a look at www.insidermedia.com.au for more inspiration on what you can do with Squarespace.

Visit Host Now →

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Squarespace Web Hosting 

To get your website online, you need web hosting. All Squarespace sites come with the web hosting services needed to ensure that the site is available to the internet.

Squarespace keeps things simple and offering only a few packages.

Personal Plan

The Personal plan is a good option for a personal website or a small business services website.

The hosting is similar to a shared hosting plan.

Business

The Business plan is faster and more performant than the personal plan.

You’ll get e-commerce functionality, pop-ups, and some other useful features like an optional announcement bar that displays across the top of your site.

E-Commerce

The Business plan comes with basic e-commerce functionality. Unless you are running a very small shop you will likely want to upgrade to one of the e–commerce plans.

Know that the Advanced e-commerce plan is capable of supporting a fairly large online business.

What Doesn’t Come with Squarespace Plans?

Read the Squarespace product and plan descriptions carefully before signing up for a Squarespace account. You want to be sure you’re getting the particular features you want.

Domain Names

Squarespace plans come with a domain name free of charge for the first year. Renewal fees, as well as any additional domain names, are your responsibility.

G-Suite

If you want email accounts using the same domain as your website, you’ll need to purchase this functionality separately. During the checkout process, you have the option of paying for a G Suite package, which gets you a professional Gmail account (using your domain name, of course), as well as productivity tools like Google Calendar, Drive, and so on.

Transaction Fees

If you do sell online with the Business plan, Squarespace assesses a 3% transaction fees (note that neither of the dedicated e-commerce plans charge transaction fees on the orders you handle).

How to Use Squarespace

The following sections will give you a high-level overview of how to use Squarespace.

Logging In

Immediately after logging in to your Squarespace account, you’ll see an overview of the sites associated with your account, as well as any domain names you own.

You manage each website individually. You can access the administrative areas by clicking on the icon representing the site you want to edit.

Managing Your Website

If you click on the icon representing your website in your Account Dashboard, you will immediately be redirected to the Squarespace site builder for your website.

As you hover your cursor over the different parts of your website, you will see the individual content blocks used to create your site.

For example, you’ll have a content block for your header, a content block for your main text, a content block for your links, and so on. In addition to being able to add or delete as many blocks as you like, you can drag and drop to rearrange your site.

Intuitive Website Builder

Squarespace’s intuitive, WYSIWG website builder makes it easy to create new content types for your website, including pages.

Adding content blocks means that you can quickly and easily integrate new features like, such as photo galleries, videos or pull-quotes.

Bonus: as a WYSIWG editor, you can see the changes you have made immediately.

More specifically, there are six links on the sidebar of the website builder, each of which is designed to handle a different aspect of your website:

• Pages: The pages area is where you create new pages for your website. Squarespace has several templates that you can use to get started with designing new pages. Having pre-built designs to choose from makes everything easier.

• Design: The area where you can change the way your website looks. Here you can change fonts, colors, and even (on some templates) blog layout.

• Commerce: If you have purchased and have access to e-commerce related functionality, this is where you would go to manage your website. You can view inventory, set prices, and configure checkouts.

• Analytics: Data that Squarespace has gathered about the visitors to your website, including where they are from, what devices they are using to view your website, the pages they are seeing, and more.

• Settings: The Settings page is where you handle all of the back-end and administrative tasks related to your website, including payments and billing, search engine optimization (SEO) settings, your personal information (such as address and email), and so on. These features are easy to use.

• Help: A link to the Squarespace documentation site.

Pages

The Pages area is where you go to create the individual pages that, together, make up your website.

Rather than forcing you to come up with something from scratch, Squarespace comes with built-in templates so that you can build the following items with ease:

• Page

• Products (for e-commerce)

• Cover Page

• Folder

• Album

• Index

• Blog

• Gallery

• Events

• Link.

The pages area is also where you control your site’s navigation, as well as hide/show things that you don’t want deleted (yet shouldn’t be public-facing).

Design

The Design tab allows you to change your theme and customize the theme template you’ve chosen. Rather than throwing all of your options together into one big design panel, the Design tab allows you to work on individual parts of your site, including:

• Logo and Title

• Lock Screen

• Announcement Bar

• Mobile Information Bar.

There is also the option to use custom CSS if you would like.

Commerce

If you are using Squarespace for e-commerce, you’ll get the following built-in features:

• Order Management

• Inventory Management

• Customer Management

• Discount Management.

Analytics

Though you can always integrate a more robust analytics tool, Squarespace does include some basic data and analytics tools. You’ll get information about:

• Traffic sources

• Content that is popular

• Geographic information about your users

• What people are searching for on your site

• RSS subscribers

• Search engine queries leading to your website.

Settings

The Settings area contains everything you would expect to see in your web hosting control panel, including:

• Your personal information

• Billing and payment options

• Domain name management

• Email account management

• Marketing and SEO tools

• Security and SSL settings

• Commerce-related functionality, such as shipping and tax calculators.

My Experience with Squarespace

Exactly one year ago, I launched my own small business. Since my area of expertise was in technology, I felt that having my own website was a non-negotiable part of getting up and running.

However, given the sheer number of things that needed to be done before I could truly launch, I knew that I would need more than a little bit of help with my website — despite the fact that I am a perfectly competent software developer.

There just wasn’t enough time for me to craft a website from scratch given everything else on my to-do list.

Enter Squarespace.

Signing up for a Squarespace account was a breeze, and just a short while later, I had a beautiful business website with little hassle.

My website was reachable via the custom domain that came free of charge with my one-year Squarespace subscription.

I opted to add the G Suite of tools to my plan so I could receive e-mail at my domain as well.

One Year Later

I just received notifications that the following items were renewing:

• My Squarespace subscription

• My custom domain name (Squarespace only covers your domain registration fees for the first year)

• My G Suite plan.

My Verdict . . .

Was it expensive, especially compared to the dirt-cheap shared hosting plans that could be purchased elsewhere? Yes.

Would I do it again and choose Squarespace, despite the hit to my wallet (remember, I am a small business owner)? Absolutely.

This, despite the fact that I am a software engineer by trade and am perfectly capable of building my own website from scratch.

Ready to impress?
Use our special discount link and get a Squarespace site today. Everything you need to manage and grow your website is included, plus great 24/7 support.

24/7 Customer Support: It’s Excellent

Customer Support is one of the areas where Squarespace shines.

A Managed Platform: Technical Details Are Handled For You

In addition to the personalized support available to you 24/7 via live chat or email, you get managed system administration.

This means that you are not responsible for the work required to ensure the infrastructure supporting your site stays online.

Do note, however, that Squarespace does not offer phone support.

Though these features do have a cost (as you can see from the higher fees Squarespace charges compared to other web hosts), they may be well-worth it if you can get customer service without jumping through needless hoops.

Get a Free Trial

Squarespace offers all new customers a free trial lasting 14 days. Other than the free trial, Squarespace does not offer any type of free services or a money-back guarantee on monthly plans or renewal payments.

You can handle everything related to payments and billing in the Settings portion of your Squarespace Account Dashboard.

Personal websites cost $16 per month, but you can pay annually and receive a discount that lowers your monthly cost to $12.

Backup Policies

Squarespace automatically backs up everything that exists on their servers to ensure that you will never lose all of your work in the event of a catastrophic server failure.

In addition, this allows Squarespace to switch servers in the event that the primary ones are, for whatever reason, unavailable.

You are welcome to make backups of some of your site at any time. Squarespace does not provide a backup process, to backup your site, you will need to:

• Export your Squarespace site (remember, not everything can be exported — only certain content can be exported) in an XML file

• Save anything that isn’t included in the export manually and then upload these files to a secure location of your choosing.

Convenient Help Link

If you ever find yourself needing help as you build your website, you can click on the Help link located in your Account Dashboard. This will take you directly to Squarespace’s documentation pages.

Quality Support Material

Squarespace is known for its excellent customer service, and its support material (knowledgebase) is no exception.

Comprehensive How-Tos

In addition to the usual help articles that show you (in detail) how to accomplish a task, there are:

• Easy-to-follow tutorials for beginners
• Guides on how to execute a multi-step process
• Videos that show you how to do something quickly and easily
• And webinars designed to help you build your brand.

All aspects of Squarespace’s knowledgebase are in-depth and well-done.

It is unlikely you will find yourself unable to do something and unable to find the appropriate documentation (or one-on-one assistance) that you would find helpful.

Other Squarespace Features

There is a lot more to know about Squarespace. Here are some other issues that you should know about.

Migration Policy

When it comes to migrating existing websites to the Squarespace platform or exporting your Squarespace content, you are on your own (though the technical support team is available to help if you have any questions or run into any issues).

Integrations

Squarespace supports third-party integrations.

The list of supported integrations is lengthy, but they include options like Dropbox for file storage and login and MailChimp for email marketing.

Squarespace currently supports content imports from Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace 5, and WordPress, and the support pages have detailed guides you can follow to complete the process.

If your Squarespace site is on an e-commerce plan, you can import your product information from Big Cartel, Etsy, Shopify, or a .csv file.

You can export some of the content from your Squarespace site into an XML file, which is useful if you will be importing that data into a platform like WordPress at a later date.

However, not everything will be exportable, since many of Squarespace’s features rely on the JavaScript and CSS functionality running on its platform. Squarespace maintains a full list of content that will export, as well as content that won’t.

Control Panel

Squarespace isn’t like a traditional web host with a control panel. You get use of a proprietary UI (user interface) that includes functionality other web hosts have on a control panel, as well as all the website building features.

Servers and Datacenters

Squarespace manages its own private cloud, where it hosts all Squarespace sites.

Squarespace does not provide any specific information about where its datacenters are located, and you do not get to choose where your site is hosted.

Squarespace Alternatives

There are a number of Squarespace alternatives. I’ll discuss and compare the primary ones below.

Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform. Like Squarespace, you get a website builder and the web hosting you need to get online.

Where Shopify really shines, however, is in its e-commerce functionality. If Squarespace’s commerce functionality doesn’t quite meet your needs, take a look at Shopify.

Wix

Wix is an all-in-one website builder that is very similar to Squarespace, but it is simpler and easier to use. Wix is also free (unless you choose to upgrade to a premium option that offers extended features).

WordPress

WordPress is used by a sizable portion of the internet’s sites, and there’s a good reason for that. WordPress itself as an open-source content management system (CMS) that is easy to use and infinitely customizable.

You can easily serve up a WordPress site on your own, but you can also sign up for an account with WordPress.com for a cloud-based, all-in-one website/blogging product.

Weebly

Weebly is an alternative to Wix. The two products offer very similar feature sets – if Wix isn’t to your liking (e.g., the UI isn’t as intuitive for you to use), you might consider Weebly.

Squarespace Quick Overview

This reference will help you when you are comparing Squarespace website builder plans with other providers.

Specializations

• All-in-one platform

• Impressive visual designs

IT Assistance and Round-the-Clock Technical Support

The platform comes with everything you could possibly need to launch a website. You get IT assistance and around-the-clock (personalized!) technical support via email or live chat.

Unlimited Hosting

In addition, you get unlimited hosting on enterprise-grade infrastructure, top-of-the-line security, and robust analytic tools, as well as the option to add e-commerce features and functionality to your site.

Professionally Designed Templates

Templates make it easy for you to design the most beautiful website you can without necessitating a designer and knowledge of web development — many web hosts offer well-designed templates, but few match the aesthetic appeal of Squarespace’s templates.

Plans starting at…

$16 per month ($12 if you sign up for a year).

Customer Service

Excellent.

Sitebuilder included?

Yes – all Squarespace plans include the use of a sitebuilder featuring some of the most well-designed templates in the web hosting business. Squarespace builds their own sitebuilder and aims to make it as easy to use as possible.

Is Squarespace PCI Compliant?

Yes, all of Squarespace’s built-in Commerce tools (the e-commerce add-on you can opt for) are PCI compliant.

Well-Known Brands Using Squarespace

Tony Hawk, Rodarte, Lyft, V Magazine, Airwalk, and many others.

Pros and Cons

All hosts have their good and bad points. These are the main ones for Squarespace.

Pros

• One-stop shop for everything you need to get up and running with a well-designed website.

• Managed hosting included, so if you’re not interested in system administration or you want to minimize the amount of time you spend on managing your website, Squarespace is for you.

• No technical knowledge required.

• 24/7 customer support and all training materials included.

Cons

• Fairly expensive for what is essentially a shared hosting plan.

• Does not offer any service level agreements, so don’t expect compensation for service outages.

Ready to impress?
Use our special discount link and get a Squarespace site today. Everything you need to manage and grow your website is included.

Summary

Squarespace is a solid provider of all-in-one hosting packages for those looking to get up and running with a website with as little hassle as possible. You get everything you need (sans email), and in no time, you’ll have a beautiful website created.

In addition to its excellent customer service, Squarespace is known for the aesthetic appeal of its templates. They provide solid web hosting and the ability to build a beautiful site without the assistance of a designer.

Sound good? Visit Squarespace.com now.

Contributing writers and editors: Brenda Barron, Frank Moraes, and Natalie Mootz.

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About Katie Horne

Katie is a C# developer who became a technical writer. She is a lifelong bookworm and all-around nerd with a soft spot for gimmicks and packaging. She judges books by the cover, and she’s not sorry about it. In her spare time, she likes to swim, knit, and do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

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