SquareSpace – Should you Believe the Hype?
It is usable by even the most technophobic user due to its drag and drop style, and the heavy emphasis on design produces websites that are minimalist, sophisticated, and visually stunning.
All SquareSpace websites are mobile responsive as standard, so the website will automatically resize to work on any smartphone or tablet. Definitely a must have for any modern website.
What is it like to use? Is it as straightforward as they make out?
Well, almost. SquareSpace is a WYSIWYG platform (what you see is what you get). If you want to make changes to the way your website looks, you drag and drop pictures and text directly into the website builder. No coding knowledge necessary!
You get to see what it looks like straight away, and can easily play around with the design without having to click a ‘preview’ button. However, if you want to change the actual content, such as the wording of text, you do have to go into the back end. This isn’t particularly difficult, and works in a very similar way to WordPress, just with fewer options.
So with such a simple website builder, are you limited on functionality?
It’s true that SquareSpace excels at beautiful, simple websites, but you may struggle if you’re after something more complex. Unlike WordPress, SquareSpace isn’t an open source platform. There aren’t hundreds of user-made themes and plugins as you have on WordPress. In fact there aren’t any at all.
Their in house development team makes all the SquareSpace tools. You do have a much smaller selection to work with, but are not going to come across any plugins made by shoddy developers, that don’t work, or worse, cause errors on your website.
All the tools for SquareSpace are a very high standard. And if you do run into any issues, they have a commitment to answer all questions within 1 hour, 24/7.
How much maintenance is involved?
SquareSpace is extremely low maintenance. It updates both the platform and plugins itself so you don’t have to worry. This allows you to focus on improving and adding new content to your website without being distracted by making it actually work.
Who should be using SquareSpace?
If you are in need of a relatively simple website, that you don’t foresee having to make much more complex in the near future, then SquareSpace is ideal. Your website will look polished and high-end, without the high-end price tag, and you’ll be able to make simple edits yourself, such as adding blogs and news.
