What Is Squarespace? What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Squarespace?
Squarespace is a user-friendly website builder tool that caters primarily to small business owners. With Squarespace, you can create a professional website in your browser without the need for coding skills, and easily edit it using its intuitive content management system (CMS). Instead of using a web design package and writing lines of code to build your site, you can accomplish everything online using Squarespace’s pre-designed templates and design editor. Simply select a template, customize the layout by clicking on the desired elements, and make adjustments using the style editor controls. For example, you can change the typeface of a text block by clicking on it, or modify the color of a background by clicking on it and selecting a new color.
A new plan from Squarespace –‘Squarespace Select’
In addition to the four main plans mentioned earlier, Squarespace now offers a new plan called “Squarespace Select,” which is currently in its early access stage. Designed for business users, this plan includes an account manager, priority support, and consultations on SEO and website design. The pricing for Squarespace Select is negotiable and tailored to specific needs. Although this review will only cover the existing four plans, we may incorporate Squarespace Select more in the future if it becomes widely available.
The Squarespace plans differ in several key areas, including e-commerce features. The ‘Personal’ plan does not include e-commerce functionality, while the other plans allow you to sell an unlimited number of products and accept donations through your website. However, the specific e-commerce features available depend on the plan you choose. For instance, the ‘Advanced Commerce’ plan includes an important e-commerce feature called abandoned cart auto-recovery, which allows you to identify and email users who placed items in their carts but did not complete their purchase. Other critical online shop features, such as gift cards, subscriptions, real-time carrier transport, and access to the Squarespace API, are also restricted to the ‘Advanced Commerce plan. Although these features are limited to the most expensive plan, they may be worthwhile investments for your e-commerce projects.
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Transaction fees are not charged on the ‘Basic Commerce’ and ‘Advanced Commerce’ plans. However, if you choose the ‘Business’ plan, Squarespace will deduct a 3% fee from all transactions made through your online store. Depending on the amount of revenue involved, the ‘Basic Commerce’ or ‘Advanced Commerce’ plans may be more cost-effective than the ‘Business’ plan.
Squarespace offers a free domain to customers who sign up for an annual plan, which can be a great incentive to pay for a year of service upfront. While Squarespace offers most of the major extensions (.com, .net, .info, etc.) and some country-specific extensions, not every custom domain is available.
It’s important to keep in mind that if you use Squarespace to purchase your domain, both your website and the domain name will be in the same basket. In other words, if you ever lose access to your Squarespace account, you will also lose access to your domain. Some users may prefer to keep their domain account and Squarespace account separate, but for those who prefer to store everything in one place, Squarespace’s domain registration can be a convenient and cost-effective option. While it’s technically possible to host your site on the Squarespace.com domain, using a custom domain name can make your website look more professional.
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Benefits:
- Beautiful and modern templates
- User-friendly interface
- Excellent image management options
- Good selection of export tools
- 0% transaction charge (for Commerce plan)
- Large selection of web fonts
- Video backgrounds feature
Drawbacks:
- No multi-currency selling function
- No automatic tax rate computation
- Limited payment gateway options (only Stripe and Paypal)
- No content versioning is available
- SEO functionality could be improved
- Only Mailchimp can be used as a direct integration for e-marketing
- Customer support is only available via email or live chat, no phone support
