Website editors: Which is the best (part two)?

Squarespace

I can’t get through more than an hour of YouTube without seeing an advert for Squarespace. I’d assume, from this, that they attract a large number of people to use their editor, so my expectations were high.

Ease of use

Squarespace has plenty of templates for users to choose from. Creating a premium looking website was very easy with this editor. The range of templates matched a number of different design choices. Adding to or tweaking these templates was painless; Squarespace has a number of different pre-set pages/forms for anything you can think of—from FAQs to adding your business’s location. My only concern was the lack of control I felt I had after inserting a pre-set element. It felt to me that, once it was in place, you could only really change its colours—that was it. Whilst this is great if you’re creating a quick and simple website, if you wanted something more advanced, I’m sure you’d soon become frustrated.

Design options

There were loads, and they weren’t locked behind a pay wall either. Squarespace has multiple designs to suit a wide range of genres, and there were even templates for adding new sections to your site. Very impressive.

Cost

It appeared, at first, that most things were free. The free domain Squarespace gives you was professional enough and templates were not locked behind paywalls. Unfortunately, this is not the full story. Your Squarespace website only exists on a free basis as part of a two-week trial—after that, a subscription is required. £10 per month was the cheapest package, and that’s just to keep the site live…no optional extras. I’d be very aware of this, should you choose to use Squarespace.

Extras

Extra features weren’t really a thing. If I were to describe Squarespace, I’d say it’s a 2021 version of WordPress, rather than the Wordpress of 2003 that still exists on the latter’s platform.

Score: 7/10

In summary: Squarespace has all the bells and whistles you may need to make a decent website that’s fit for the twenty-first century. However, be prepared to pay for the privilege.