Squarespare is an attention-grabbing web site builder with an strategy and a characteristic set which instantly stands out from the competitors.
The Squarespace web site does not hit you with prolonged characteristic lists and densely packed comparability tables, as an illustration. As a substitute, it follows a ‘present, do not inform’ strategy, presenting a bunch of templates and design concepts that will help you perceive what’s attainable. And this seems to make a number of sense, as a result of Squarespace has among the most attractive templates round (browse them here.)
This does not imply Squarespace is brief on energy. As soon as we discovered the Features Index we realized the service had a lot to boast about: clever picture optimizations, complete social media integration, efficiency boosting CDN help, picture and video galleries, free fonts, interactive chart controls, a strong running a blog platform, skilled net retailer, the record goes on…
For those who’re on a price range then yow will discover cheaper merchandise elsewhere. For instance, the Wix eCommerce plan offers you loads of options and a succesful net retailer for £10.10 ($14.10) a month. Nonetheless, should you want its energy and performance then Squarespace may have a number of enchantment.
The Private plan does not embody the shop, however in any other case helps all of the core options, throws in a free area, and is priced at £10 ($14) a month, paid yearly.
The Marketing strategy offers you the fundamental retailer and full customization of CSS and JavaScript for £15 ($21) a month paid yearly.
Commerce plans ramp up retailer administration options with help for buyer accounts, stock management, buyer analytics, deserted cart restoration and a complete lot extra. Costs vary from £20 ($28) to £30 ($42) a month, relying on what you want.
A 14-day free trial is offered with no cost particulars required.
Getting began
Constructing your first Squarespace website begins with selecting a template. There have been 91 on supply once we checked, and you’ll filter them by sort, key phrase, or simply browse all of them.
All templates could be previewed in full earlier than making a choice. There isn’t any must spend an age agonizing over this, although – not like some web site builders, should you resolve you do not just like the template later, you are free to change to one thing else.
Choose your favourite design and Squarespace prompts you to create an account by coming into your title and e-mail deal with.
We crammed within the type, our template opened within the Squarespace editor, and inside seconds a few emails arrived providing helpful recommendation and hyperlinks to tutorials and different help assets. Even a complete novice must be prepared to start out exploring the service very quickly.
Editor
The Squarespace editor is nearly as minimalist and light-weight as we have ever seen. There isn’t any toolbar, no cumbersome palette of icons, simply a big and lively preview of your web site (click on hyperlinks and so they work as regular), and a tiny left-hand menu with six easy choices: Pages, Design, Commerce, Analytics, Settings and Assist.
There are various extra choices accessible, however they’re solely revealed if you hover your mouse over the web page or its particular person components. This may be complicated for the primary couple of minutes, as it isn’t instantly apparent methods to perform even essentially the most fundamental of enhancing duties. However as you discover and start to grasp the basics, the strategy begins to make extra sense.
Your chosen template will in all probability include a number of pages, however you’ll be able to add others with predefined layouts: Gallery, Venture, Album, Weblog, Occasions, Merchandise, and an everyday clean web page which permits ranging from scratch.
So as to add a widget to a web page (or a ‘content material block’, as Squarespace calls it), for instance, you should hover the mouse over the web page, faucet Edit > Add, and browse what’s on supply.
Squarespace presents all of the options you’d anticipate, together with buttons, textual content, photos, galleries, video, audio, types, maps, format controls and extra.
Uncommon extras embody interactive pie, line and bar charts, a textual content block with Markdown help, plus a local Calendar (not hosted elsewhere) which shows upcoming occasions by date. There’s additionally a tag cloud which might work with tags from a weblog, gallery, album or merchandise web page.
Social media blocks permit integrating content material from Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, SoundCloud and any RSS feed, whereas different block-based integrations embody Acuity, Bandsintown, OpenTable, Zola, and Amazon.
You are additionally capable of combine Squarespace with Fb, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, IMDB, Dropbox, Vine, Spotify, Yelp, Github and extra. In some instances this simply means displaying an icon or share button, however others permit for importing content material, or publishing content material immediately out of your Squarespace website (write a weblog put up and robotically put up it on Fb).
There isn’t any area right here to start to cowl the main points, however yow will discover out extra in your favourite providers on the Squarespace support site.
The editor does not offer you a lot management over format. Content material blocks could be dragged into accepted areas solely, and you’ll’t exactly reposition them later. We nonetheless managed to supply some handsome websites which displayed nicely in cell, pill and desktop views, although, and that is sufficient to earn a thumbs up from us.
Media
Squarespace supplies a superb stage of media help with some uncommon choices and extras.
The picture management can work as a lightbox with an non-compulsory clickthrough URL, and likewise permits displaying an overlaid or overlapping caption. You are in a position to make use of your individual photos, or search the Getty picture library and licence any footage you want for $10 (£7) every.
A Video management embeds films from YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto or Wistia. You are capable of set a customized thumbnail, an possibility we have hardly ever seen earlier than, and once more you’ll be able to add a caption immediately from the management.
Gallery codecs embody a slideshow, carousel and grid which help as much as 250 movies and pictures per gallery. These have some practical customizations – slideshows could be automated or embody Subsequent and Earlier controls, as an illustration – however you do not get a lot management over their visible type.
A built-in audio participant helps enjoying a single MP3 file which you’ll both add, or host elsewhere and level to its URL. Welcome additional touches embody an choice to show a obtain hyperlink, and the flexibility to create podcasts by producing Apple Podcast-compatible tags on your website’s RSS feed.
Squarespace’s varied net service integrations offer you extra prospects. A SoundCloud block permits customers to navigate an entire playlist, as an illustration, when you can have Squarespace all the time show your newest content material from Flickr, Instagram and different websites. Alternatively, you’ll be able to arrange the management to seek for public photos utilizing a selected hashtag, maybe discovering all footage regarding your organization, wedding ceremony or any main occasion.
Put all of it collectively and we suspect there’s greater than sufficient media dealing with energy for many customers. And even should you want one thing extra, an Embed Code block could permit integrations with different providers, and the Squarespace Marketing strategy supplies Code Blocks to insert customized HTML and scripts.
Running a blog
Squarespace comes with a superb running a blog platform which is completely filled with options, but additionally has such a simple interface that you’re going to be utilizing it instantly.
The method begins if you add a weblog web page to your website. Squarespace opens a clean web page, and tapping Add Put up permits you to begin writing.
Not like among the competitors, the weblog editor does not restrict the controls you should use in a put up. You are in a position so as to add photos, movies, maps, galleries, something you should use inside an everyday net web page.
The principle writing space retains choices to a minimal. As soon as you have completed you’ll be able to add tags or classes, allow or disable feedback for the put up, reserve it as a draft, publish it instantly or schedule publication for later.
Want extra? Simply discover the tabs. You’ll be able to outline an writer on your article, add a thumbnail picture, select an excerpt to be proven on the Record web page, or give the article a customized URL. A Location tab permits for setting and displaying a location for the article on a Google map, and the Social tab tells Squarespace to robotically put up your content material to your chosen social community.
Squarespace comes with its personal well-designed feedback system. Customers can by default enter feedback, alter how they’re displayed, and report, like or reply to something that pulls their consideration. It is a much more succesful setup than you will get with the standard web site builder weblog, though should you’re sad you’ll be able to decide to combine Disqus feedback as a substitute.
Ecommerce
Creating an online retailer is often essentially the most sophisticated space of any web site builder, however as soon as once more Squarespace’s easy interface saves the day. Add a web page, select the Merchandise web page sort, and you’ll be constructing your product catalogue in seconds.
You are in a position so as to add bodily merchandise, digital downloads (the shopper receives a safe hyperlink to the file which expires 24 hours after the primary obtain) and providers. That is an enormous enchancment on many opponents, who usually reserve digital product help for high-end plans.
All merchandise could be assigned a reputation, textual content description and a number of photos, in addition to given tags and classes to assist hold them organized. An Extra Information part helps all the identical blocks as the primary web page editor, permitting you to make use of movies, maps, galleries and every other content material you want.
There’s intensive help for including choices (dimension, shade) and associated variants (small, medium, massive). This is a bit more complicated to arrange than different methods we have seen, but it surely’s additionally much more highly effective. The service does not blindly assume that each one combos of variants can be found, as an illustration – if a medium-sized product is offered in crimson and blue, however the massive model is barely crimson and inexperienced, you’ll be able to set that up in a number of seconds.
Different product catalogue highlights embody the flexibility to specify weight and dimensions (helpful for calculating transport prices), and the likelihood to create a customized type which individuals will fill in after they buy. You can too push the product description to your social media accounts if you put it on-line.
Squarespace solely helps a number of cost suppliers – PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay on suitable gadgets – however they’re straightforward to arrange. As soon as you take orders, Squarespace fees a three% transaction price for customers on the Web site Primary plan, and no price in any respect should you’re on one of many Commerce plans.
We do not have area right here to start to cowl Squarespace’ ecommerce skills in the way in which they deserve, however there’s a lot to discover. A single instance: the Squarespace Commerce plans permit prospects to create accounts the place they will securely save transport addresses, cost strategies, order data and extra, dashing up the checkout course of and maybe encouraging repeat visits. Try the support site for extra.
Assist
Squarespace help is well accessible by clicking Assistance on the primary editor menu. Effectively, it’s straightforward should you’re at that display, slightly than the weblog, the online retailer or wherever else the menu is not seen. That makes it extra of a problem, though because the support site is publicly accessible (you do not have to log in to view it) you’ll be able to bookmark it in your browser and name it up from wherever.
The help pages are properly designed and full of helpful instruments: FAQs, guides, video tutorials, and a bunch of articles neatly organized into key subjects. You’ll be able to take a look at particular person sections – simply the movies, say – to search out out what they’ve to supply, browse all of the paperwork in a tree, or run key phrase searches to search out the doc you want.
The articles go nicely past the feeble ‘Tips on how to insert a picture’ texts we have seen elsewhere. Effectively written articles corresponding to ‘Formatting your images for display on the web‘ cowl a far wider vary of subjects, and supply genuinely helpful assist and recommendation.
Not adequate? No drawback. Squarespace has dwell chat accessible Monday to Friday, 4am to 8pm EST, and e-mail help is offered 24/7 with a claimed response time of ‘nicely underneath an hour’. In our expertise it might probably take a little bit longer, however the help staff are educated and can assist you clear up most points.
Ultimate verdict
Squarespace’s quirky editor and restrictive layouts imply it takes time to grasp, however the attractive templates, highly effective options and glorious help received us over. A must-see for anybody who wants greater than the fundamentals for web site constructing.