If you're a Squarespace 7.0 user, you know there are downsides to using it. You're completely dependent on their templates (or others if you want to buy them) and need to use Spacer Blocks to create a grid.
If you want to use CSS to help your design around, then you have to have a business account. A lot of tutorials around are built by businesspeople who have purchased the business account. However, I noticed lately that I have those CSS capabilities without a business account, so I think this changed once 7.1 became available.
Squarespace 7.1
So what's Squarespace 7.1? It's their newest version of their website builder and it's really cool.
The #1 reason to try out 7.1 is the lack of template dependance. With 7.0 you were required to start with a template or a blank slate. With 7.1 you can start with a template and customize sections to your heart's content. You could start with one template and end up with something not even resembling what you started with.
This sounds amazing, right? I completely understand. I was entranced by 7.1 and all that it had to offer. I was ready to rebuild my site with the access to new sections, but then I did my research.
It's not possible to transfer your content from your 7.0 site to your newly built 7.1.
All right, fine. You can transfer the content yourself. This isn't too bad if you have the time or you can easily re-create what you have.
screech halt
What was that you may ask? That's your non-refund that's going to happen. If you can cancel your 7.0 site and you still have time left on your plan, you won't receive a refund for the remaining time.
I'm starting to think Squarespace isn't worth it. Are there any other website builders that seem cool?
Thoughts on Webflow
Webflow is a newer website builder that I'm seeing more and more people on social media coming over to it.
Some weeks ago, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and check out Weflow. After playing with their site builder, I came to three conclusions.
Read the documentation first.
You can jump into the Designer and start working on your site, but it's daunting. It looks like the Photoshop interface which brings some familiarity to what you're creating. The Webflow documentation is the 101 Crash Course videos on their website. It's about two hours long and provides more tips and tricks than messing around in the Designer for that same amount of time.
It helps to know HTML & CSS.
Webflow uses CSS to manipulate elements so it's in your favor to know a parent element is going to affect its children. It truly feels like you're working through an HTML document to get your site working.
CMS is robust.
The CMS (Content Management System) is great for case studies if your Webflow site is a portfolio. You're able to build out one page and you can get the same pages done automatically. Case studies that follow the same structure would benefit from this. If you're not building a portfolio site, then the CMS works wonderfully for blogs.
Why I'm sticking with Squarespace
Yes, you read that right. In the meantime, I'm going to stick with Squarespace 7.0 for a number of reasons.
Big Learning Curve
Despite the 101 videos, I still had trouble with building a site. I had a self-imposed time limit (my Squarespace renewal date). I knew there wasn't a way for me to be able to gain enough knowledge to rule the world with Webflow, but I didn't have enough experience to recreate my site the way I wanted to. In this case, I already know Squarespace and without my deadline, I can work on building my Webflow skills.
Analytics
I don't want to lose my analytics. These are already saved on Squarespace and rebuilding those didn't seem like something I wanted to do at the moment. Transferring my content from 7.0 to 7.1 was a no-go and even transferring to Webflow didn't seem practical.
Has anyone made the switch from Squarespace to Webflow?
Top comments (2)
You're right about the learning curve for webflow. I do like it's support for integrations via Zapier so you can have more flexible storage, sign in etc (eg airtable or memberstack)
I didn't get into the nitty-gritty of what Webflow is capable of when I was trying it out. There's a lot going on with it, but it's incredible those integrations are there.