Why Choose Squarespace for Web Design? 3 Good Reasons for Solopreneurs, Nonprofits, and Startups

Disclaimer: I am not employed by nor compensated in any way by Squarespace or any of its agents for my reflections in this post.

Today website designers have no shortage of options. From old stalwarts like Wordpress to newer entries like Webflow, there are plenty of choices for a platform on which to build your website. So why would you choose Squarespace? And why have I chosen to make it my one of my preferred design platforms for nonprofits, solopreneurs, and small businesses? For my purposes here, I’ll mostly be comparing my experience of Squarespace with that of WordPress, the other platform I’ve used most often. 

Three Pros of Squarespace for Web Design

While I am about to break down three particular benefits of Squarespace, they really come back to one basic theme: simplicity. 

1. The Balance of Functionality and Ease-of-Use

I’ve built websites in several of the available platforms, particularly WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace. In fact, the first sites I built when I was a pastor were designed in WordPress using templates. WordPress’ large ecosystem of templates and plugins makes it versatile and robust. But each of those plugins has to be selected, installed, maintained… As a designer, Squarespace gives a good balance of functionality with simplicity. Few if any additional plugins are required. Sites are easy to lay out and easy for clients to maintain, while still being attractive and functional.

2. The Cost and ROI for That Simplicity

I find that Squarespace’s cost is comparable to that of a “fully furnished” website on other platforms. “But,” you say, “Squarespace is not free; WordPress is.” Well, that’s not entirely accurate. WordPress is free, but that variety of plugins that you need to make the platform really hum are not. Most of them require monthly subscriptions to get any real use out of them. By the time you add them all together, I find that the cost is comparable, if not slightly in Squarespace’s favor. (It really depends on how many and which plugins you need for WordPress.) And for that cost, Squarespace puts almost everything I (or my clients) could want under one roof.

3. The Streamlined Design Process

Because Squarespace is a very visual design engine, I don’t feel the need to do much wireframing or similar work when building in it. I just design on the platform as I go. Yes, I have some notes with layout ideas, but they’re just rough sketches, not the kind of detailed design you might find in Figma. As another designer has noted, it seems pointless to do the same work twice. This lets me turn around designs for my clients on a faster timeline and still produce robust, responsive websites. And once I have designed the site, guess what! It’s already built! There’s no need to then send things off to another developer who will take who-knows-how-long to implement the site.

Two Cons (and some workarounds)

Let’s make one thing abundantly clear: no platform is perfect for every single web project. Squarespace does have some downsides, and it’s worth being aware of some of them. 

1. The Provided Templates and Section Layouts

The same ease of use that makes Squarespace a solid platform can also be a downside. In all honesty, most of the predesigned templates the platform provides look very similar to me. And the pre-built section layouts range from okay to just unusable. A reliance on those pre-designed templates coupled with the strict section divisions within pages can make sites feel both “generically Squarespace” and blocky.

The Workaround: Custom website builds (or even good 3rd party templates) can produce attractive pages that break up the blocky section model.

2. Less Robust Search Engine Optimization

Don’t get me wrong: you can do a lot of SEO (search engine optimization) in Squarespace. A strategic approach can yield excellent results. But the way to get good SEO is to push the platform’s more modest capabilities to their limit and utilize some workarounds. This is the downside of an easy-to-use SEO feature set that’s aimed at entrepreneurs and small- to medium-sized businesses (who may not have the resources to do all-out SEO anyway).

The Workaround: Robust content-driven SEO strategies coupled with a clear site structure and use of the provided SEO tools can still get the job done.

The Verdict

For me, Squarespace just gets the job done for these straightforward projects. Yes, there are things I wish the platform did better. No platform checks all my boxes. But I’m a perfectionist. The platform is still “plenty good enough” as we say down in the South. If you’re a solopreneur, startup, or nonprofit, Squarespace may more than meet your needs.

Ready to get started with your own Squarespace website? Contact me and let’s talk about the possibilities!