7.6/ 10 SCORE Squarespace Pros
Unlimited storage on all plans
Beautiful templates
Collaborative AI website generator
Cons
Complicated buy course of
Poor customer support
If you’re a fan of podcasts, you’ve in all probability heard an advert for Squarespace, a well-liked web site builder that powers over 5 million web sites. But does it stay as much as the hype?I examined Squarespace by evaluating its ease of use, efficiency, buyer help, safety and worth. My expertise with Squarespace was mediocre, with extra technical difficulties than I anticipated and poor buyer help. There have been some upsides — good server efficiency, safety and worth — however I don’t suggest Squarespace when you anticipate to wish excessive ranges of help.Squarespace plans and pricing: Simple and streamlinedSquarespace gives its web site builder on cloud internet hosting, which shops web sites on a number of interconnected internet servers situated within the cloud. Cloud internet hosting offers a number of advantages over extra conventional internet hosting sorts like shared internet hosting, together with:Redundancy: If your principal website goes down, browsers can entry it by pulling knowledge from one of many different servers within the cloud community. This helps cloud internet hosting suppliers guarantee constant uptime.Scalability: When your website wants extra assets — like storage and bandwidth — the cloud internet hosting community can draw on extra servers to offer these assets. As a Squarespace person, this implies you received’t have to fret about storage or bandwidth limits.Faster worldwide service: International guests’ browsers can retrieve knowledge from the server closest to them reasonably than being pressured to request knowledge from a single bodily server situated on the opposite aspect of the world. This can enhance loading instances for these customers.All Squarespace plans are absolutely managed, that means that Squarespace will construct, configure and preserve server software program for you. Squarespace additionally maintains its web site builder, together with all updates and security measures.Squarespace gives 4 plans constructed on this software program. Every plan features a free area for the primary 12 months, full entry to the core web site builder, search engine optimisation — SEO — instruments and AI website modifying instruments. You’ll additionally get a full roster of security measures, together with:Secure socket layer — SSL — certificationDistributed denial of service — DDoS — safetyTwo-factor authentication24/7 server monitoringThe principal variations between plans are price and entry to e-commerce options. Here’s a fast breakdown of how these distinctions shake out: Plan E-commerce optionsOther notable featuresPrice (billed yearly)Personal Invoices, content material subscriptions and membershipsN/A$16 a monthBusiness Fully built-in e-commerce for limitless merchandiseProfessional e mail from Google, instruments for creating pop-ups and promo banners$23 a monthCommerce – Basic Advanced merchandising options, instruments for promoting on Meta platforms and restricted availability labelsSame as Business$28 a monthCommerce – Advanced Abandoned cart restoration, subscription merchandise, superior transport, superior reductions and commerce APIsSimilar as Business$52 a month Squarespace templates: Quality over amountSquarespace gives 180 designer-made website templates in classes like leisure, trend, pictures {and professional} providers. While that is lower than the 900 templates supplied by rival Wix, it’s clear that Squarespace went for high quality over amount. Most Squarespace templates emphasize steadiness, with distinguished areas for pictures, taglines, physique textual content/copy and interactive components like buttons. Screenshot/CNETOther templates for industries like trend or artwork and design emphasize pictures, with solely minimal area for textual content: Screenshot/CNETAll Squarespace templates use wonderful fonts, colour schemes and spacing to create a modern, elegant look. You can change any of those components to match your private or model model, but when your solely purpose is to create a pretty web site, you received’t want to alter a lot to attain it with a Squarespace template.Squarespace AI website era: A collaborative course of Screenshot/CNETThe Squarespace AI website era instrument is completely different from different AI web site builders I’ve tried. Instead of constructing a generic web site based mostly on one or two sentences about your web site, it asks you for a number of forms of data:Site nameBrand character (Professional, Playful, Bold, and many others.)Homepage sections (About Us, Products, Services, and many others.)Pages (About Us, Products, Services, and many others.)Color schemeFont pairing (header font and physique textual content font)You can see a tough concept of what your website will seem like with every function change, then generate the web site in a couple of minute. When I examined this, the positioning it created was modern {and professional} — matching the model character I chosen — with an ideal steadiness of pictures, textual content and interactive components like buttons. I favored it higher than most of the websites I constructed with AI when testing free web site builders, in all probability as a result of I obtained extra say over components like fonts. Screenshot/CNETThe AI-generated pictures are very top quality, particularly in comparison with content material constructed by different AI picture turbines. However, they’re not all the time related. For instance, the lamp pictured above is gorgeous, however I’m not sure how a lamp connects to advertising technique. The pictures additionally really feel generically skilled, so that you’ll in all probability need to exchange them with pictures extra straight related to your website’s distinctive model.The textual content is extra related, serving as an ideal beginning place, however it’s additionally chock-full of buzzwords and missing in substance. You can use AI instruments to generate new textual content, however I like to recommend writing content material your self — or hiring somebody to do it — if you need your web site to totally replicate your model.While I loved experimenting with this instrument, there are moral and authorized implications of utilizing generative AI. Many AI applications are skilled utilizing knowledge scraped from the net with out consent from or compensation for the unique creators. There are ongoing lawsuits towards a few of these instruments, most notably a serious lawsuit towards Stable Diffusion. You additionally can not copyright AI-generated content material within the US. You could need to keep away from utilizing AI for these causes, particularly when you’re constructing a enterprise web site the place possession of your content material is vital.Squarespace ease of use: More difficult than it must beI purchased a plan and created a web site to check Squarespace’s ease of use in three areas: the acquisition course of, account administration and web site creation.Purchase course ofThe Squarespace buy course of begins by directing you to call your website and select a template earlier than you choose a plan. This ensures that you simply received’t buy a plan solely to comprehend you don’t like several of the templates. However, it additionally means you possibly can’t see the costs till you’ve began constructing a website. This is uncommon and irritating, as you may spend ages scrolling by means of templates solely to comprehend you’re not ready to pay Squarespace costs. Screenshot/CNETNext, you’ll be required to create an account (or join a Google account). This indicators you up for a free 14-day trial and directs you to the positioning editor. You’ll must click on the Subscribe button on the backside of the display screen to buy your plan. Screenshot/CNETThankfully, the ultimate levels of the fee course of are easy. You choose a plan, enter your billing data and make your buy. There aren’t any upsells or hidden prices and no large value will increase to fret about when your contract renews — stuff you’re nearly sure to come across if you buy a web site builder plan from a standard internet host like Hostinger or Ionos. However, that is much like what I’ve seen from different web site builder corporations like Wix.Account managementLogging into Squarespace mechanically takes you to the positioning editor, with no apparent hyperlinks to your account data or billing space. Billing is as a substitute nested into the general website settings accessed by means of the gear icon within the backside left nook. Screenshot/CNETYour account settings are much more troublesome to entry. You’ll must click on on a circle together with your first preliminary (situated close to the gear icon within the backside left nook) to achieve the account dashboard, then select Account Settings. These settings embrace your title, profile image and safety settings, like two-factor authentication. Screenshot/CNETSite modifying and managementEditing particular person pages on Squarespace is splendidly easy. You can click on on any content material block to pull it to a brand new space of the web page or see different modifying/design choices. You’ll additionally get an possibility to interchange textual content with AI-generated content material utilizing the three-circle icon. Screenshot/CNETAdding content material blocks (known as “Sections” by Squarespace) is equally simple. You can select from a library of closely formatted sections for issues like testimonials and easier ones for issues like fundamental physique textual content. Screenshot/CNETUnfortunately, the hyperlinks within the website menu aren’t stay hyperlinks. You’ll must exit the web page editor solely and open the Pages submenu within the website dashboard. Here, you’ll have the ability to add new pages, select what pages will seem in the primary menu and click on on particular person pages to edit them. Screenshot/CNETOverall ease of useSquarespace earns a 7/10 ease of use rating. The buy course of is cumbersome, and reaching account/billing settings is tougher than it must be. The web page editor itself is simple to make use of and extra versatile than instruments just like the GoDaddy web site builder, however switching between pages is irritating. Squarespace is easier than WordPress — you received’t want to put in or replace any software program — however it’s not as beginner-friendly as I anticipated. I like to recommend Wix when you’re in search of a very beginner-friendly web site builder.Squarespace efficiency: Excellent uptime, acceptable website speedI created a easy web site with Squarespace and spent one week testing it for 2 efficiency metrics:Uptime: The proportion of time your website spends on-line. Uptime issues as a result of customers who can’t entry your website will typically go elsewhere. This can lead to misplaced site visitors, viewers belief and, within the case of a enterprise web site, misplaced revenue.Site velocity: The variety of seconds it takes on your website to load. Bounce price — the proportion of people that go away your website after solely viewing one web page — decreases by 32% when website velocity goes from seconds three to 1, making it important to maintain your website velocity underneath three seconds if you wish to construct an viewers.Let’s see how nicely Squarespace did.UptimeSquarespace gives the industry-standard 99.9% uptime assure, that means your web site shouldn’t go down because of server points for greater than 10 minutes per week. I monitored my take a look at website with BetterStack for one week to see if Squarespace lives as much as this assure.My website skilled no downtime throughout this week, suggesting that Squarespace may very well exceed the 99.9% uptime assure. This places Squarespace on par with different high web site builders together with Wix, Shopify and Hostinger’s web site builder.Site speedI spent 5 days working velocity checks for my website on WebPageTest. I ran checks at completely different instances every day, conducting each cell and desktop checks in numerous places to judge how customers in several places would expertise a Squarespace website.This testing allowed me to determine the next common loading instances (bear in mind, decrease numbers are higher): USUKGermanyIndiaDubaiAustraliaMobile 3.05333.7943.69Desktop 1.5721.582.632.112.04 These numbers aren’t an correct illustration of each person’s expertise — velocity varies based mostly on the system and web plan they’re utilizing — however they supply a stable knowledge set, letting me create the next averages:Mobile website velocity of 3.39 secondsDesktop website velocity of 1.95 secondsOverall website velocity of two.67 secondsThis total website velocity is underneath the beneficial three-second most, however it’s notably slower than our top-ranking web site builder, Wix (averaging out at 2.38 seconds). It’s additionally slower than Shopify’s spectacular 1.71 second common and the two.34 second common of Hostinger, a standard internet host with a wonderful (and inexpensive) web site builder.There are issues you are able to do to enhance your website velocity — like compressing pictures to cut back the file measurement — however you possibly can’t set up instruments for issues like caching, which limits your capacity to cut back your web site’s loading instances. I like to recommend utilizing a standard internet hosting firm with a guided WordPress set up course of — Hosting.com (previously A2 Hosting) is a good alternative — if you need extra management over your website velocity.OverallSquarespace’s wonderful uptime and acceptable website velocity earn it an total efficiency rating of 8/10, the identical rating as a lot of our top-ranking internet hosts like Wix and Hostinger. This makes Squarespace a good alternative if server efficiency is your principal concern, however the restricted capacity to optimize your website may make a WordPress-based internet hosting resolution extra worthwhile.Squarespace safety: Robust instruments to maintain your knowledge protectedSquarespace websites profit from a number of built-in safety measures:Secure socket layer — SSL — certification: An encryption protocol that interprets knowledge despatched to and out of your website, like e mail addresses submitted by means of a contact kind, right into a language solely computer systems can perceive to stop malicious customers from stealing it. SSL certification additionally tells browsers and VPNs that your website is protected (some received’t even open a website with out it). Moreover, Google penalizes websites with out SSL certification.Firewall: Software that scans all knowledge to your website, trying to filter out malware and different dangerous knowledge. A firewall is like the web site equal of carrying a masks throughout COVID or flu season: it retains many of the dangerous stuff (viruses) out and lets the good things (air, or for web sites, common site visitors) in.Distributed denial of service — DDoS — safety: Software and automatic protocols to stop your website from being overwhelmed by a flood of malicious site visitors.Two-factor authentication: A protocol that requires you to enter your login credentials and a second “factor,” like a quantity despatched to your e mail handle, to entry your account. This makes it tougher for customers who acquire entry to your login credentials by means of illicit means to get into your account and hurt your website.Security monitoring: Squarespace’s Security Operations Center displays Squarespace servers and web sites 24/7 to take away threats and vulnerabilities.This is much like the roster of safety protocols and instruments supplied by rivals like Wix and Shopify, defending your account and all knowledge hosted on — or despatched to — your web site, like prospects’ fee data. These safety instruments and protocols are additionally extra in depth than what you may get from most conventional internet hosting corporations, incomes Squarespace a 10/10 safety rating.Squarespace buyer help: An train in mediocrityWebwebsite builder buyer help begins with a group of tutorials and different paperwork you should utilize to shortly clear up minor website-related points by yourself. For larger issues, buyer help ought to be accessible 24/7 by means of a number of channels, like stay chat or e mail. Response instances ought to be quick — a couple of minutes on stay chat or one to 3 hours by way of e mail — and workers ought to have the ability to assist with quite a lot of points.I examined Squarespace’s information base, stay chat and e mail help to see how they stay as much as these expectations.Knowledge base Screenshot/CNETThe Squarespace Help Center is simple to navigate, with a search bar on the high and classes for Squarespace merchandise like web sites, domains and e-commerce instruments. Individual articles use easy, beginner-friendly language and step-by-step directions that will help you full numerous easy processes.What actually stands out in regards to the Squarespace Help Center is its dedication to video. I went by means of 12 articles and nearly all of them included video tutorials. This makes Squarespace’s Help Center extra accessible to visible learners than most rivals’ information bases, which are likely to solely embrace the occasional video tutorial for advanced processes.Direct communicationSquarespace gives stay chat help from 4 AM to 8 PM ET and 24/7 e mail help. There is not any telephone help, which is a typical situation with web site builders. You’ll want to decide on a web site builder supplied by a standard internet host like Ionos to get telephone help.I contacted Squarespace by way of stay chat first. More precisely, I tried to contact Squarespace buyer help by way of stay chat — twice (as soon as on a Thursday, as soon as on the next Tuesday). The Help Center displayed a message saying, “Live chat availability is limited due to high demand for support on certain topics” on each events. I obtained some fast, useful solutions to fundamental questions by way of the chatbot, then tried to talk to an individual to resolve a extra difficult drawback.Squarespace had me fill out a kind with my contact particulars and query, then informed me it was “Opening a Support Case”. I saved the window open for 4 hours each instances, however so far as I can inform, it by no means truly opened the case. I definitely was by no means related with a human customer support agent. Next, I despatched Squarespace an e mail with some easy questions. I obtained a response in about 40 minutes, sooner than the one to 3 hours I’ve skilled with most internet hosts. Unfortunately, customer support wasn’t capable of reply my query instantly, asking me to additional clarify what I used to be in search of. I obtained a second response an hour later, and the agent did resolve my situation.OverallSquarespace has an ideal information base and quick help ticket system, however its abysmal stay chat buyer help rating of 6/10. Unfortunately, poor customer support is frequent within the internet hosting {industry}. Even Hostinger, our top-ranking host, solely earned a buyer help rating of 6.5. The solely internet hosting corporations I’ve encountered which have each a web site builder and good customer support are Ionos and GoDaddy.ReputeMy expertise with Squarespace is just one expertise. Unfortunately, it looks as if a typical one. Squarespace has a Trustpilot ranking of 1.2 out of 5 stars, with most evaluations citing poor customer support and area administration instruments. The BBB web page exhibits nearly 200 complaints prior to now 12 months. Most of these complaints are closed, however mixed with the Trustpilot evaluations, this means that Squarespace is offering typically shoddy customer support.Squarespace worth: Similar to different widespread web site buildersI analyzed the options and pricing of Wix and Shopify to find out how a lot worth Squarespace offers in comparison with different widespread web site builders.Here’s a fast overview of the essential plans supplied by Wix and Shopify: Company BandwidthStorageSecurityExtra featuresPricingWix Unlimited2GB (Enough for no less than 20 pages)SSL certification, firewall safety, DDoS safety, two-factor authentication, 24/7 safety monitoringFour lead seize kinds, lodge administration instruments, free area for the primary 12 months$17 a month, billed yearlyShopify UnlimitedUnlimitedSSL certification, firewall safety, DDoS safety, two-factor authentication, 24/7 safety monitoringFully-featured retailer builder, e mail advertising instruments, language translation, foreign money conversion, gross sales tax calculator, transport reductions of as much as 77%$29 a month, billed yearly We can draw a number of conclusions from this data:Squarespace gives limitless storage on all plans, offering extra worth than Wix and equal worth to Shopify.Squarespace gives common safety for a web site builder, together with a full roster of instruments and protocols to maintain your knowledge — and your customers’ knowledge — protected. Notably, all three of those web site builders provide higher safety than conventional internet hosting plans from widespread corporations like GoDaddy.Most web site builders, together with Squarespace, restrict e-commerce performance to higher-tier plans. Shopify is the exception to this rule, which is sensible as a result of it’s particularly meant for constructing e-commerce shops.Squarespace gives good pricing, on par with Wix and extra inexpensive than Shopify. Notably, the Basic Commerce plan is barely cheaper than Shopify at $28 a month.Squarespace vs. conventional internet hostsMany conventional internet hosting corporations have launched their very own web site builders prior to now few years. These internet hosting corporations use a unique pricing mannequin with low introductory costs and excessive renewal prices.The web site builder plan from Hostinger, our top-rated internet host, prices $3 a month for the primary time period (based mostly on a four-year contract) and rises to $13 a month on renewal. This plan contains sufficient storage for 1,000 massive pages (or 10,000 small pages), e mail internet hosting for as much as 100 e mail addresses and a free area for the primary 12 months. You’ll additionally get important security measures like SSL certification, firewall safety and DDoS safety.Other web site builders from conventional internet hosting corporations may begin at a cheaper price than Squarespace however rise to the same value while you renew the contract. GoDaddy, for instance, has a web site builder plan beginning at $10 a month, however it renews at $17 a month.Overall worthSquarespace offers extra worth than different widespread web site builders, however it’s costlier than newer choices just like the Hostinger web site builder. This provides Squarespace a worth rating of 7/10.Squarespace: Is it best for you?To reply this query, we’ll want to think about all the class rankings Squarespace earned thus far:Ease of use: 7/10Efficiency: 8/10Security: 10/10Buyer help: 6/10Worth: 7/10All collectively, these rankings earn Squarespace an total product rating of 7.6/10, placing it behind each Wix (our top-ranking web site builder for common customers) and Shopify (our top-ranking web site builder for e-commerce websites). The web site builder is fairly good, however the hoops that you must bounce by means of to create an account and the dearth of constant buyer help make Squarespace irritating to make use of. I solely suggest Squarespace when you’re already assured in your capacity to be taught new tech. Squarespace might be worthwhile when you’re assured in your design abilities and talent to be taught new tech. However, the shopper help isn’t nice, so that you may need to look elsewhere when you anticipate to wish assist constructing your website. The principal downsides of utilizing Squarespace are the cumbersome buy course of and the entire lack of customer support. Many professionals and small companies use Squarespace to host websites in numerous industries. Web designers additionally typically use Squarespace, with many specializing in constructing customized Squarespace templates and websites. Most domains with frequent area extensions (like .com or .internet) price $20 to $30 per 12 months on Squarespace. You can get domains for extra inexpensive costs by utilizing a devoted area registrar like Namecheap.