Squarespace for creative brands

I design websites for all of my branding clients and almost all of them are built on Squarespace. I've also switched my own website to Squarespace a few years ago. These are some of the reasons why I think using this platform makes sense for a lot of creative brands:

It is fast to set up & design
A Squarespace website takes a lot less time to set up than a fully customized Wordpress template, something which I also offer and has it own range of benefits. To set up a Squarespace website I will choose a basic template, add pages & content blocks and then customize the design to fit the newly designed Brand Identity. I know my way around CSS and a bit of Javascript and that allows me to make the website look more unique, but even if you don't do that the website will look good from the start. It will also be responsive, meaning that it will look be optimized for smaller devices such as phones and tablets.

Focus on the images
In the Squarespace template selection you'll see that a lot of the lay-outs have space for (large) images. I design websites for fellow creatives and they often have beautiful images of their work that they can share, or they will hire a photographer to take photos of the workspace, for instance. The templates are designed to make those images stand out, rather than detract from them with a lot of other visual elements. 

Updating your portfolio, shop and blog is simple
Once the website is set up, it can sometimes be a challenge to keep everything up to date. With Squarespace I find that the interface is so user friendly that adding a portfolio item, product or blog post is not daunting at all. You simply log-in, make a few clicks and that's it. Uploading images and adding content blocks is as simple as it can be and you can't really do anything wrong. This helps my clients to keep their websites looking fresh and current.

If you need help, you can quickly find it
I don't offer tech support after the website has been delivered and approved; there are others who are much better at this than I am and I always refer clients to them. With Squarespace though you'll hardly need it. And if you do, there is lots of information readily accessible online and the customer support department has promised to answer any other questions you may have within one hour.

The website is fast & secure
A Squarespace website will generally load very fast. Images are automatically optimized for fast display when you upload them. Also, you don't have to worry about your website being hacked, which can be a concern with Wordpress where you'll need to install security plugins to protect your site. 

When Squarespace is not the best option
Having said all this, there are situations though where Squarespace might not be the best option:

• If your website includes a webshop and Squarespace does not support your local payment system. Squarespaces uses Stripe for payments and currently this does not support our Dutch online payment system called iDeal. 
• If you wish to have a website that has some very unique lay-outs and you wish to have full control over the design of each page. There is a lot you can do with Squarespace but some things are better to build and customize in Wordpress. 
• If you want full ownership of your website in the future. With Squarespace your website is hosted through them and in case they might stop offering your services, you will need to rebuild your website on another platform. This is not likely to happen anytime soon, but if you prefer to host your own website then Wordpress - or another CMS - is a better solution. You can however always export your content from Squarespace if you ever wish to switch to another platform.
• If you need very specific SEO functionalities. Squarespace has good basic SEO built in out of the box which are easy to use and enough for most of the companies I work with, however it is not the main focus of the platform. 

When Squarespace is not the right platform I work together with a developer to create websites using Wordpress - as a custom theme designed & developed from scratch. This will take more time and also requires a larger budget as I will hire a developer to build the site, however it also means that there are more possibilities to make it the best design solution for your needs. In any case I'll always help you to choose the right platform for your needs.