Squarespace Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons, Cost, & Is It Right for Therapists?

Squarespace Review – Key Takeaways

• Squarespace is a DIY website builder that offers many different subscription plans, depending on your needs.
• The editing suite that Squarespace provides is comprehensive and easy to use. There are a large number of plug-ins and extensions available.
• Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan, but the paid plans provide great value and offer a 14-day free trial.
• If you don’t mind a bit of manual work, Squarespace is an excellent tool for creating any kind of website and managing it.

What Is Squarespace?

Squarespace is a self-service website builder designed for general use. While it is not built specifically for therapists or healthcare professionals, its wide variety of options makes it useful for people of all backgrounds. Squarespace costs range from $16 – $72 monthly. There is no free plan, but Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial.

Types of Website Builders

Website builders can range from complete do-it-yourself systems wherein you build the website mostly on your own to professionally managed websites designed by experienced web designers. Different options may be better for you depending on your experience, budget, and the amount of time you’d like to spend on setup.

Squarespace is a full self-service, DIY website builder. While using it, you select a template appropriate to your needs and then customize it to suit your vision for your website.

Squarespace Specs

How Easy Is Squarespace to Use?

Squarespace is very easy to use. To begin, you will enter some information about the type of business you are building a website for. Squarespace will offer up a few templates that should apply to a therapy practice, and after selecting one, you will work with Squarespace’s tools to customize it to suit your needs.

The steps for creating a website with Squarespace are:

1. Select a beginning template: Select a template to start your website with from an assortment of templates. Squarespace will suggest some templates depending on your needs. (5-10 minutes)
2. Edit the template website to meet your needs: After choosing a template, you will edit the contents of it to match your website. Change the text content, fonts, colors, and images from the options available on Squarespace. (30-60+ minutes)
3. Review your draft website and make revisions: Double-check everything to ensure that everything is the way you’d like it, both aesthetically and functionally. (15+ minutes)
4. Your website goes live: Once this process is complete, you will publish your website. After publishing, it’s easy to make changes to your website, if you’d like to update things.

How Much Does Squarespace Website Builder Cost?

Squarespace ranges in cost from $16 – $139 monthly, depending on the plan selected. Discounts are offered for annual billing. While Squarespace does not offer a free plan, there is a 14-day free trial. Free domain registration is included with all annually billed plans.

Here are the current plan prices for Squarespace:

How to Get Started with Squarespace Website Builder

To get started with Squarespace, simply navigate to the Squarespace website, and select “Get started.” After entering a bit of information about your practice, you will select a template and begin editing your website.

Squarespace Core Features

Squarespace offers the typical allotment of features you’d expect to see with a DIY, template-style website builder. However, it rises above the competition in terms of its ease of use and stylish implementation. eCommerce appears to be a strong focus for Squarespace, and the platform also offers a robust offering of additional features.

Templates

Similar to many competitors, Squarespace websites start with a template. Upon creating your website, you will be able to choose from 110 different website templates to get started with. While not all of these will apply to your therapy practice, Squarespace helps narrow down the selection based on your responses to a few questions.

There are a wide variety of templates available, and I genuinely had a difficult time picking one – not due to disorganization, but because there were so many great options available. I decided to select the theme Colima which is available to be viewed in Squarespace’s fluid demo.

Overall, the process of choosing a template with Weebly is intuitive and efficient, as it allows you to filter through all of the available templates by the specific features they offer. It’s easy to preview a template and interact with it prior to committing it to your website.

Design Customization

Squarespace uses a drag-and-drop interface for managing the customization of your website. Moving elements and features around a page is remarkably easy, and the customization interface is very intuitive to use. The editor will gently help guide you without the aggression and lack of flexibility you see in other auto-snapping features with other website builders. In general, the user experience underlying the website editor is helpful, intuitive, and unobtrusive.

Squarespace has included a wide variety of helpful tools so you can get your website looking just right. It’s easy to add animations, videos, or images, with stock art and images available. Simpler changes are also easy to accomplish, like changing the color of individual elements. Squarespace also gives you full control of the layout of your website, the flow it takes, as well as the way certain pages or elements behave and interact with the user.

If you have the notion and expertise, you can also add custom CSS and Javascript code to your website, which allows for a huge degree of flexibility in the features and designs that can be implemented with your website.

Elements that can be customized by you in Squarespace:

• Changing/uploading images
• Changing text content
• Customizing submittable forms
• Creating new pages from a template
• Sitewide color scheme
• Font size and color
• The overall flow of the website
• Recoloring individual design elements
• Moving text, images, or other items around on a page
• Custom code and web APIs in Dev Mode

Elements that cannot be customized by you in Squarespace:

• The website template after it’s been published

Website Integrations

Squarespace offers many useful website integrations. The most useful to a therapist would certainly be the online scheduling tool. By customizing this section of your website, you will allow your website’s visitors to schedule appointments with you directly. This tool can be customized to suit your practice’s needs.

Other integrations native to Squarespace include eCommerce tools for selling and shipping products, blog management, and marketing campaigns. If the base integrations don’t offer a complete solution to your needs, Squarespace also has third-party plugins that can be added to your website. These custom extensions provide a number of services, from on-demand printing and dropshipping to accounting tools.

SEO & Marketing Tools

Squarespace offers a fair number of SEO tools – allowing you to change your search appearance and monitor your website’s performance on search engines. Squarespace operates a knowledge base for ensuring your website is search engine optimized. If you feel you need extra help with your SEO strategy, Squarespace will help link you with an SEO expert to ensure your website is performing well.

Squarespace also offers a number of marketing tools, including social media post creators, a blog management tool, and many third-party extensions. The analytics portal allows you to get detailed data on visitors to your website and their actions while there.

Squarespace Domains & Hosting

On all of its subscription plans, Squarespace includes full hosting of your website. While you can attach your own domain to your website at any subscription plan, plans that are billed annually include a free domain registration for one year.

Squarespace states that all plans include unlimited bandwidth and storage on your website, with access to customer support 24/7. For the Business plan and up, a custom business email address is included.

Who Is Squarespace Right For?

Squarespace, with its focus on online businesses and eCommerce, is a fantastic choice for those who are looking for fast setup times, those who need unlimited bandwidth or storage, and those who need robust eCommerce features for selling physical products or educational courses online.

Those Looking for Fast Set-Up Times

A website can be built from beginning to end with Squarespace in an afternoon’s time. Those in need of a website quickly will be relieved that it doesn’t take weeks to get completely set up like some competitors.

People That Need Unlimited Storage or Bandwidth

Squarespace generously offers unlimited storage and bandwidth for websites on every subscription plan they offer. If you plan on having a large number of visitors to your site or will be hosting a lot of data, then this is very valuable.

Those Needing Robust eCommerce Features

It’s clear that Squarespace was built with eCommerce in mind. The most expensive subscription levels offer a huge degree of functionality for point-of-sale and shipping. However, even on the Business plan, the eCommerce features should be adequate for most therapists. If you plan on selling physical products online, or perhaps, online courses, than this may be beneficial for you.

Who May Want an Alternative to Squarespace?

Squarespace is a great choice for many, but if you are looking for a website builder with a free plan, need a HIPAA-compliant website, or simply prefer a hands-off approach, you may be better served elsewhere.

Those Looking to Build a Website for Free

Unlike some other DIY website builders, there are no free plans available with Squarespace. However, Squarespace does offer a 14-day free trial that doesn’t require a credit card at sign-up.

Another website builder that does have a free plan is Wix. Read more in our review of Wix.

Practices That Need a HIPAA-Compliant Website

Like other generalist website builders available, Squarespace was not built specifically for therapists or healthcare providers. As such, it is not HIPAA-compliant, and you must take extra precautions to protect your clients’ data.

SimplePractice Website Builder is built from the ground up to be fully HIPAA-compliant. Read more in our SimplePractice Website Builder review.

Those Who Prefer a Hands-Off Approach

Squarespace is entirely self-service and DIY. If you’d prefer to have someone with more expertise build your website, a web design consultant may be a better option.

Brighter Vision is a website builder that is made specifically for therapists. They also build your website on your behalf, so there’s less work to be done on your part. For more insight, take a look at our Brighter Vision review.

Squarespace Vs. Brighter Vision

Squarespace and Brighter Vision are entirely different products. Squarespace was designed to be used by anyone and is self-service, so you’ll be left to design the website on your own. Meanwhile, Brighter Vision provides you with a team of experienced website designers to ensure you get a professionally built website.

In terms of cost, Brighter Vision is a custom service, so it’s more expensive than Squarespace. Where Squarespace starts at $16 monthly with no upfront cost, Brighter Vision starts at $69 monthly with an additional $100 setup fee.

To learn more about how Brighter Vision stacks up with Squarespace, take a look at our review of Brighter Vision.

Squarespace Vs. Wix

Squarespace and Wix are very similar. Both offer a self-service platform for building websites and offer a great deal of value. While Wix has over 800 templates to choose from, Squarespace offers fewer and tends to be more specialized in eCommerce.

Wix offers more integrations and plugins, however, does not offer unlimited bandwidth and storage on all its plans as Squarespace does. Wix also offers an AI tool for website design, while Squarespace does not.

Costs for Squarespace and Wix are the same. Both Wix and Squarespace subscriptions costs start at $16 monthly. However, Wix does have a free plan.

To learn more about the differences between Squarespace and Wix, take a look at our comprehensive Wix review.

History of Squarespace

According to Squarespace, the company was founded in 2003 by Anthony Casalena and has been used to build millions of websites (FN1). Squarespace has offices in the United States and Europe.

It is a common misconception that Squarespace is owned by Square, however, this is not true, and the companies have never been affiliated (FN2).

Squarespace – Our Final Verdict

I was impressed with Squarespace. Throughout my time using the software, I felt I could make any type of website I could imagine with relative ease. If you are willing to commit a bit of time and energy to building your website, Squarespace can provide a great deal of value and functionality.

You should consider signing up for Squarespace’s free trial if you:

• Want full control over the design process
• Need a DIY website builder that’s easy to use
• Would like access to best-in-class eCommerce tools

You should consider looking for an alternative to Squarespace if you:

• Want a website builder that’s tailor-made for therapists. Learn more about an alternative in our SimplePractice Website Builder review.
• Prefer a hands-off experience. Brighter Vision offers a full-service platform where professionals build the website for you. Read more in our Brighter Vision review.
• Prefer a DIY website builder with lower costs. An alternative is Wix. Learn more in our Wix review.

FAQs for Squarespace

Is Squarespace HIPAA-Compliant?

No. Squarespace is not built specifically for healthcare professionals and is not HIPAA-compliant. Care should be taken to ensure that your clients’ data is protected.

Is Squarespace Free to Use?

No. Squarespace does not have any free plans, however, the paid subscriptions do offer a 14-day free trial.

Does Squarespace Own Your Content?

No. You retain ownership of the content of your website; Squarespace simply provides you with a platform to publish and host your content.

What Kind of Help and Support Does Squarespace Offer?

Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support on all of its subscription levels, however, the company does not offer support via phone.

What Safety and Security Features Does Squarespace Have?

Squarespace includes an SSL certificate on all of its websites, as well as extra protections for eCommerce. It is worth noting that Squarespace websites are not HIPAA-compliant, so extra precautions must be taken to protect your clients’ data.

Does Squarespace Have E-Commerce Features?

Yes. Squarespace offers a large collection of eCommerce features. The most expensive subscription plans are dedicated to robust eCommerce support with advanced shipping and point-of-sale features.

What are the Disadvantages of Squarespace?

It’s worth considering that Squarespace is not designed specifically for therapists – unlike some competitors that are, Squarespace is lacking a bit in unique features for therapists and HIPAA compliance. As well, Squarespace is entirely DIY, so if you feel uncomfortable with that idea, designing a website on your own could become overwhelming.

Additional Website Builder FAQs

What Is Web Hosting?

Web hosting, in layperson’s terms, is the process of making your website’s data available and accessible to the internet. Web hosting companies provide the storage needed on a physical server, which you would then rent to store your website’s data³.

What Is a Domain Name?

Domain names are human-readable addresses for any given web server accessible on the internet⁴. This address corresponds to a computer’s IP address which your web browser will use to access the page you’d like to view. Domain names are a way to make these IP addresses easier to read for humans.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of optimizing a website to be more visible on the results page of a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo.⁵