Squarespace review: website builder remains among the best (even with high ecom fees)

Squarespace is, hands down, one of the best website builders I’ve ever used, and trust me, I’ve used a lot. It is especially effective for creatives who don’t want to spend all their time designing a complicated website at the expense of running their creative business.

Squarespace is arguably one of the best website builders for artists, with various features specifically targeted towards creatives. One of those is the gallery block, which lets you display images of your work using a range of different layouts. Quickly and easily getting your work out to the public is so important and this website builder does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

In terms of layouts, Squarespace is one of the best, providing a wide range of templates to get you up and running in no time at all. One of the downsides to all of the best website builders for small businesses, including Squarespace, is that it can be difficult to make your website look sufficiently different from the next person. Squarespace is no different and unfortunately, if you want the ease of the ready-to-go tools, then you’ll have to be okay with a certain level of similarity to others.

With dynamic blocks and the ability to place blocks wherever you want them, Squarespace is as flexible as these website builders come. You’ll find the features a little limiting after a while but if you’re a creative wanting to showcase your work, then Squarespace is a great shout.

As flexible as they come

One of the best things about website builders, including Squarespace, is the drag-and-drop functionality. You don’t have to worry about any code or complex interfaces to get your head around. If you can position blocks onto a page, then you’ve got all the skills you need to get your website up and running.

The drag-and-drop nature of the workflow means you can also try things out a lot more readily than you would if you were coding the whole thing. You can move blocks around, switch up font sizes and colours or even place text on top of images. I’ve found Squarespace to be one of the most intuitive options out there and it’s clear that it was built with inexperienced users in mind.

The flexibility and versatility continue beyond creating basic pages. It is also easy to create pages containing collections of images and videos without any fuss at all. And rather than positioning them each individually, Squarespace makes it possible to pick from six layout types.

While I would like to see more layout choices, I've generally not needed anything beyond the six provided.

Templates

Like all other website builders, including Wix and WordPress, Squarespace provides a wide range of templates to get you up and running right away. These are all nicely categorised into sections, including photography, design, and art, to name only a few. Don’t feel like you have to be pigeonholed into what Squarespace says your website should look like based on your specific industry, though. If you see a template that you like, use it.

There are over 200 templates to choose from, with many of them included in the monthly package. It is possible to purchase templates from outside agencies and these often offer more layout types that would be difficult to achieve without the help of expert template builders.

Templates can be styled by adjusting a range of parameters, including font size, font colour, and site colours. The great thing about this type of styling is that it applies right across every page of your website so you’re not having to go into each individual page when you want to make a site-wide font change.

As well as pre-made templates, Squarespace now offers an AI-generated template feature. This helps creatives who don't find what they want when they search through the existing set of templates. It's not a perfect system but it does help to get you closer to where you want to be in a fraction of the time it would take to do it manually.

Beyond what Squarespace provides you with, it is possible to modify your site’s code using code injection, code blocks, CSS editing, or the Squarespace Developer Platform. This is only for advanced users and is in no way required to get your website to look great and perform well.

Wide range of media support

Creatives often need flexibility when it comes to the file types they use. There are lots of different file types across images, videos, and audio files, with Squarespace supporting all the major ones. In over five years of using Squarespace, I’ve never run into a format problem so I doubt you will either.

The only annoying thing I’ve found concerning images and videos is that Squarespace does inflict a maximum file size on uploads. For images, that limit is 20 MB, whereas videos have to top out at 160 MB. There will only be rare circumstances where these become a problem but it’s worth knowing.

To overcome the video limit, most people will upload to a service like YouTube and then embed their videos on their website. This is easily achieved with Squarespace and saves you from having to upload them to both YouTube and Squarespace.

E-commerce capabilities

Many creatives also want to sell their work and Squarespace makes that possible with its e-commerce tools. I know a lot of creatives who also sell their creative services, such as workshops, tutorials, online lessons, etc. Managing the sales of all this is also possible through Squarespace.

The tools are straightforward to use but you do pay for the simplicity. If you opt for the Business plan, then every online transaction will attract a 3% fee. You can also opt to upgrade to the Commerce plan, for £23 per month, and then Squarespace waives the fee.

Who's it for?

Squarespace is for creative professionals, including photographers, videographers, and graphic designers. It’s also for creatives who know very little about website design and want to let a tool do the hard work for them.

As a creative, I’ve found Squarespace to be a trusted tool that I can rely on. The platform is robust and easy to use, making it a great platform for experienced web developers and those just making a start.

Squarespace is also for people who want to make money from their work, either selling prints, merchandise, or creative services. Through the e-commerce features, Squarespace can handle everything from product information to financial payments.