IS SQUARESPACE ENOUGH?
From concept to completion, RB Collaborative designs optimized Squarespace websites that quickly yet effectively tell an organization’s story while maintaining audience interest. Squarespace is a user-friendly, all-in-one platform to ensure an attractive, informative, and engaging online presence.
But is Squarespace enough for your website?
We’ll be honest — if you need a ton of custom coding, animations, effects, or databases, or have stringent and specific security needs, then no, Squarespace isn’t for you. For complex website needs, you’ll need a web developer who can custom-code a site for you from scratch. [Psst - we can recommend some great ones if that’s what you need!]
However, for many small businesses, nonprofits, and freelancers, a website built using a web builder is more than enough! Web builders tend to be user-friendly, play well with other programs and CRMs you use, and are relatively inexpensive. Custom-coded sites are spendy. And for good reason. Coding is hard and developers deserve what they charge. But they aren’t in the budget for many. Websites created in web builders are a much more cost-effective option.
Two of the top web builders are Wordpress and Squarespace. Wordpress offers extensive templates, plugins, and customization options. It also has a great support community and integration options. But the platform is not very intuitive to use, and requires more advanced development experience. That’s fine when a professional is designing the site, but many businesses find themselves spending a lot of money just to get simple website updates made once the finished site is handed over.
Wordpress sites are also vulnerable to security risks. Studies show that over 70% of WordPress websites are actually prone to online attacks and malware! This is due to its open-sourced nature, where anyone can create their own themes or plugins.
We love and exclusively use Squarespace for our websites. Here’s why:
The platform is simple and easy to use — Squarespace is an all-in-one platform, meaning that you don't need to worry about hosting and domain fees. It is also designed to make it easy for you to make small updates to the site once it’s live and handed over to you.
It offers a powerful set of e-commerce features — The best e-commerce sites look simple while accomplishing a lot behind the scenes. Squarespace has a full feature set for selling products and managing orders online. Depending on your plan, you can enjoy 0% transaction fees, customer accounts, as well as order, inventory, product catalog management, tax tools, payment tools, and shipping tools. You can even use Squarespace to sell in-person, so that inventory stays up to date. Squarespace’s Custom Merch also helps if you want to create original products that can be printed and fulfilled on demand via Squarespace’s Printful integration.
There is a comprehensive suite of fully integrated tools — Some of Squarespace’s most valuable integrated tools include email campaigns (one-off and automated), built-in email analytics, appointment management tool Acuity Scheduling, reservation platform Tock, members-only areas, and courses.
A mobile-optimized site is included — Don’t lose out on valuable clients because your website struggles when viewed on mobile devices. Squarespace itself does a great job of adapting your site for mobile use, and makes it easy to customize it.
It’s your party and you can code if you want to — Just because it’s a web builder doesn’t mean we can’t use custom code. If there are special features your website needs (or that just make you happy), it’s possible we can include them in a Squarespace site.
The support is like none other — Squarespace has a number of support channels available. If you can’t find the answer to your question quickly, they are easy to reach via live chat.
Learn more about our approach to website design HERE.
