Hello Ecommerce Folks,
With the growing number of brands and individuals who would like to build their online presence, it is always a good idea to have a website first. Regardless, whether starting they’re starting a whole new venture or making a sustaining effort to up their game.
Why?
It offers a lot of options for all sorts of needs, whether you want it to be photo-heavy, text-reliant or both, or if you want to include more interactive options, you can explore it any way you want.
A lot of improvements have been implemented over the years, including the ability to sell any sort of products or services through a website. Apart from that, it is also still one of the best sources of information online.
One of the best website builders available online is Squarespace. And that’s for a good reason.
What is Squarespace?
It’s a website builder meant for creatives who want to showcase their work despite having limited technical knowledge about creating a website.
Leave the codes to the developers, Squarespace is friendly enough to note that not all can understand the Java or the C++ language. This is fool-proof and will allow you to create a website in just a couple of hours.
But how would you know this is the right one for you? Here’s how to use Squarespace and see if it works well for you or not:
What are the Pros of Squarespace?
1. Templates are ready for publication
With a large selection of templates that are ready for publication, Squarespace allows you to magically set up your own website without having to go through the meticulous process of laying everything out.
While of course, it also allows you to do your own design if you prefer it that way, one of its best features is that you can opt to pick among their library of templates to save you a good amount of time.
These templates will make your website look like it was built by a professional builder, and that is one thing you should take a look at.
2. Cool backend design
For a newbie in this whole website-building process, it is understandable that you would want to have a backend that is easy to understand and navigate.
Having a user-friendly backend is a huge deal, and we can’t reiterate more. With Squarespace, that is exactly what you would get—a simple yet highly effective one.
A clean-looking interface is what would make you feel you have everything sorted out, and that is an integral part of website-building. It gives you the chance to see everything in a glance, and not get overwhelmed by the plethora of (sometimes unnecessary) options that other sites have.
3. Offers free trials and ad-free plans
If you are not ready to commit yet, you can take the 2-week free trial period and test whether Squarespace is your best option.
Like any product, a website is also one of those earthly stuff that needs to be beta-tested before setting it out to the public—especially if you mean to sustain it for a long-term period.
Now, if you seem to like the whole package, you can purchase a plan after the trial period and start your new website journey.
4. Good uptime
While websites rely heavily on a stable connection, it is still important to make sure that you have good uptime.
Squarespace, apparently, has an average uptime of 99.95% and is definitely considered to be one of the most respectable web hosts in the industry. If you compare it to other hosts, Squarespace comes out at the top tier and that is a good thing to note.
5. Ecommerce-friendly
Probably one of the best parts about it, Squarespace supports Ecommerce features that happen to be of great demand today.
It understands the need to adapt to the changing needs of every brand and creatives planning to generate income from their works.
What are the Cons of Squarespace
1. High-priced
Compared to other website hosts who offer free plans, Squarespace is on the expensive side of the spectrum.
For those trying to cost-cut, this might be an issue. You might opt to go for the cheaper ones instead of taking Squarespace’s plans or you can grab a Squarespace coupon online for you to save a little bit.
2. Slower than average page load speed
Well, another disadvantage of the site is that it is a notch lower of the industry average when it comes to page load speed.
Although it is not really far off from the average of 890ms, it still clocks in at 955ms which makes the loading speed slightly slower.
3. It doesn’t have free plans
Unlike other hosts, Squarespace does not offer free plans.
Apart from the 2-week trial that the site offers, you are practically left with no choice but to sign up for the whole thing—and pay for the corresponding fee. And if you can’t afford the fee, there is nothing much the site can offer for you.
4. Doesn’t provide phone support
When you encounter a problem that needs immediate troubleshooting, you will not have a way to reach technical support as they do not provide you with a phone number to call.
This might be a game-changing factor to consider especially for those who are really clueless about the way technical things work.
5. Only use Stripe as a payment processor
For some, this could be a disadvantage especially for those who do not have a Stripe account.
While Stripe is the only payment processor that they acknowledge, Squarespace says that they have a high level of integration with Stripe that’s fully trustworthy and ensures that each transaction will run as smoothly as possible.
Over to You,
Overall, Squarespace is still one of our favorite web hosts despite having minimal issues concerning payment, fees, and page loading time.
If you’re a creative who wants to kickstart a stronger online presence for your Ecommerce aspirations, then you might want to go with the 2-week free trial period and see for yourself the reason why a lot of people are still choosing this as their website host.