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PROS:
CONS:
Squarespace is one of the slickest, best designed and most attractive website builders on the market. The attention to details and the impressive number of powerful tools clearly indicate a high level of professionalism. While it may not be as user-friendly as Wix or Weebly for example, the interface is nevertheless logically designed and intuitive. There is no free version available, just a free trial, but even the cheapest plan includes a generous number of features that you normally find only in expensive packages with some competitors.
Squarespace is more than a simple website builder. It is a web-based CMS (content management system) that also includes hosting services, domain name registrar, a blogging and e-commerce platform.
It was founded in 2003 and launched in 2004 from its founder (Anthony Casalena)’s dorm room, at the University of Maryland.
Today, the company has offices in New York, Portland and in Ireland (Dublin) and the Squarespace platform has been used to create millions of websites so far.
Squarespace ranks high among the best website builders on the market, competing with names such as Wix, Weebly, WordPress and GoDaddy.
Squarespace comes with 2 options: websites and online stores. Each of them has 2 plans to choose from (see the pricing below, in the Pricing section).
Websites: Personal and Business
Online stores: Basic and Advanced
The Personal package includes the following features: unlimited pages with galleries and blogs, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage, two contributors, mobile-optimized site, 24/7 customer support, SSL security and free custom domain, if you choose annual billing.
The Business plan includes the benefits from the Personal plan plus: $100 Google AdWords credit, promotional pop-ops, professional email from Google, premium integrations, fully integrated e-commerce, complete customization through CSS and JavaScript and more.
The Basic plan for online stores includes all the features from the Business plan and: the ability to sell unlimited items, no transaction fees, mobile-optimized website and checkout, inventory, orders, tax and discounts, integrated accounting via Xero and more.
The Advanced plan adds even more: label printing via Shipstation, abandoned cart autorecovery, real time carrier shipping and automatic discounts.
Moving on to Squarespace’s interface, you can notice from the start the attention to design and the stylish look, just like the one of their official page. Squarespace is well polished, simply beautifully and artistically designed.
You will be guided right from the start. All you need to do is choose a template and then answer some questions about your intentions: what kind of website you want, what is its purpose and so on. Based on your answers, Squarespace will help you model and edit your template, to make sure it puts you on the right track. There are also a lot of helpful videos in case you get stuck.
This drag-and-drop builder works like a charm, letting you add blocks easily in order to create your content. There are myriad of blocks you can choose from and all of them look very professional and well designed.
The beautiful thing about this last version of Squarespace is that you don’t have to switch back and forth between the edit and preview windows anymore. With this new version they are both on the same page, which makes everything faster and easier.
Overall, while Squarespace may still not be as user-friendly as other builders out there, such as Weebly or Wix, it is nevertheless logically enough designed and it compensates through its beautiful design and attention to details.
There are dozens of themes you can choose from and some of them are free. The themes have a responsive design, they look very modern and artistic at the same time. They are actually some of the most visually attractive ones in the industry. You can select the themes based on your industry: entertainment and media, music, photography, professional services, health and fitness, home and living and more.
Although you are most likely be pleased with the templates and customization options they offer (through the Style Editor), because why ruin something that works just fine, you can still get developer access for further tweaking, but only with their Business plan and the plans under “online stores”.
Some other cool features included by Squarespace are:
Squarespace has 4 available plans, two for websites and two for online stores.
Websites: Personal ($10/month, billed annually, or $14, billed month to month) and Business ($18/month billed annually or $26, billed month to month)
Online stores: Basic ($26/month, billed annually or $30, billed month to month) and Advanced ($40/month, billed annually or $46, billed month to month).
Knowledge base: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/categories/200352188-Knowledge-Base
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/squarespace
Squarespace includes 24/7 customer support with all their plans. You can contact them either via e-mail or live chat.
There is also an extensive knowledge base on their website which covers a large number of topics: how to get started, pages and content, SEO, social media, images and videos, domains, commerce, analytics and more. There are a lot of guiding articles, workshops and videos you can browse through and a search bar where you can easily type in a keyword or a question.
Our editorial staff evaluates products and services independently, but Best Review Guide may earn money when you click on links. Read our advertising disclosure.
By: Matt | Last updated September 6, 2017 
