Why Squarespace Sucks

Think Twice Before Squarespace

If you’re considering Squarespace as your next website platform, you might want to think twice. Experienced web developers have identified several reasons why Squarespace may not be the best choice from a marketing standpoint. Here’s why:

Limited Customization and Expansion: Squarespace is known for its designer-friendly website builder and hosting services. However, the platform has its limitations when it comes to customization and expanding functionality through third-party integrations. Squarespace tends to focus on select features, restricting the ability to tailor your website according to your specific needs.
Lack of Portability: When you create a website on Squarespace, transferring it to another hosting provider can be challenging. Squarespace only allows you to export your content, meaning you’ll need to redesign your website from scratch if you want to move it to another platform like WordPress. This lack of portability gives Squarespace a significant amount of control over your website, and they could potentially increase prices for existing customers.
Limited Advanced Marketing Tools: While Squarespace provides essential marketing tools and share buttons, its advanced marketing features are lacking. The SEO capabilities are limited to basic meta structure, and the platform falls short in providing comprehensive tools for effective digital marketing.
Lack of Unique Design: Squarespace offers a variety of templates, but many of them look similar. While there may be a few standout options, they often come with their own set of limitations. As a result, your website may end up looking similar to others on the internet, limiting your ability to create a unique online presence.
Constant Changes and Confusion: Squarespace frequently updates its code and user interface, introducing new features and improvements. While this can be beneficial, it also leads to confusion and the need to relearn how to perform certain tasks. Some designers and developers have had to update their Squarespace training materials regularly, often on short notice, which can be disruptive.
Poor Style Change Implementation: When you make style changes in Squarespace, they are applied after your website loads using JavaScript. This results in a laggy and unprofessional appearance, as visitors initially see the original styles before the changes take effect. Seamless and smooth style transitions are essential for a professional website, which Squarespace fails to deliver.
Limited Multilingual E-Commerce Support: Squarespace does not provide native support for multiple languages on its e-commerce platform. While you can add custom code to support additional languages, this limitation becomes problematic when operating a multilingual store. It restricts your ability to provide a localized experience for different language-speaking audiences.
Poorly Built Templates for SEO: Squarespace’s templates, such as Bedford, are known for their subpar SEO implementation. For example, using meta descriptions to populate header photos on each webpage can negatively impact search engine rankings. Meta descriptions should be concise and attention-grabbing, whereas header photos require visually appealing and concise text. Squarespace’s template choices can undermine your website’s search engine optimization efforts.
Lack of Support for Third-Party Apps and Plugins: Squarespace’s limited support for third-party apps, plugins, and extensions makes it challenging for beginners to customize their websites fully. In contrast, platforms like WordPress have a vast community of designers, developers, and marketers who actively share their expertise and provide a wide range of plugins and extensions.

Considering these drawbacks, it’s clear that Squarespace may not be the best CMS choice for your business. Instead, many web developers and marketers recommend WordPress as the superior option. WordPress is widely used, with about 70% of websites leveraging its capabilities. It offers extensive customization options, a clean code structure that search engines favor