4. Squarespace: Best Design Orientated Website Builder (£10/Month)
Squarespace will undoubtedly catch your attention! Their slick drag and drop builder makes creating a website or online store look too easy, but the truth is, it is easy. As well as their stunning templates, you can edit the HTML and CSS of said templates to make them your own. Even if you’re not familiar with coding, this could be your chance to give it a go!
To further aid in customising your website, SquareSpace gives you access to over 1000 Typekit fonts, and over 600 Google fonts. This means you can really make your website stand out. I love playing around with different designs and fonts to create something truly unique.
Although Squarespace may be a little pricier than its competitors, I don’t feel this would put me off. Their easy to use platform makes creating a website an absolute joy, even if you have no coding experience. SquareSpace has 4 pricing plans on offer. 2 plans in their ‘websites’ category, and 2 plans in their ‘business’ category.
Comparing it to the likes of Wix and SiteBuilder which are very intuitive website builders, SquareSpace certainly lacks in this area. After around an hour of using SquareSpace, I got a little frustrated! You may think at this point I had given up on SquareSpace because of the website builder tools, but their features are hard to come by.
SquareSpace lets their users dive into the actual code of the website, making for some exciting design work. If you’ve never used website code before, don’t worry, you don’t have to do this, it’s more experimental. In fact, I’d suggest building a test website and playing around with some of the features so you can see for yourself.
When I monitored my SquareSpace website, my uptime over a 6 month period resulted in 99.95% which really isn’t bad at all! I know that if I continue with SquareSpace, I’ll receive a reliable server where my site will experience very little downtime. This is essential for any website (especially those with lots of visitors like small businesses).
Pros:
Over 60 exquisite templates for free across all of Squarespace’s pricing plans
Access to 1000+ Typekit fonts and 600+ Google fonts to make your website stand out from the crowd
Advanced users can edit the HTML and CSS of some of the templates
Video background creation for a stunning landing page
Email and live chat support with friendly staff who are quick to answer questions
Cons:
Advanced users and eCommerce businesses may not benefit from the lack of a proper file management system and advanced features
Pricing is more in-line with Shopify and BigCommerce without all of the same tools