AdBeYo Blog

So you’ve probably heard about SquareSpace?

SquareSpace provides software for website building and hosting.  Customers use pre-built website templates and drag and drop functionality to create websites.

SquareSpace allows the user to create a variety of different sites including a range of e-commerce sites and has built in elements to make this possible for those with no knowledge of, or desire to code. SquareSpace charges a monthly fee to use their software and host their websites, and the costs vary, depending on what features you want your website to incorporate. SquareSpace’s current prices can be found here.

If it’s the best option for the client, Adbeyo WebDesign will build the client’s website using SquareSpace. We think it’s a great product, and the best website building software out there. Below we’ve listed 6 reasons why we like SquareSpace so much and why we build sites for our clients using it.

Some Benefits of SquareSpace

1. It’s Easy to Use
   
   That’s the no. 1 selling point for SquareSpace. They advertise that you can make great websites without knowing how to code. And it’s true. Just by dragging and dropping, and selecting certain templates, it’s fairly easy to create and update and existing site. It might take a bit of time to get used to the layout and functions, but once you do, it’s quite easy to use.
   
   
2. It has Lots of Stock Pictures you Can Use
   
   SquareSpace has access to a lot of good licence free photos, so it means there’s a lot of fairly good stock photos at your disposal to get your site looking professional.
   
   
3. Wide Range of E-commerce and Marketing Options
   
   Small businesses (without a tech department) are part of SquareSpace’s target market so they provide lots of e-commerce and sales options and configurations for you to add to your website. The more add-ons, generally the more expensive your hosting costs will be, but that’s pretty standard.
   
   
4. Excellent Support
   
   With almost 2 million sites using SquareSpace, it’s not difficult to find support forums or groups if you run into problems. And with SquareSpace being a monthly subscription service, they have a dedicated customer support whose interests it’s in to keep you happy and in control of your site.
   
   
5. Built in SEO features
   
   Once you’ve built your site you want to make sure people can find it, right? SquareSpace helps you do this through providing a number of Search Engine Optimisation tools to help your site get picked up by Google and other search engines.
   
   
6. Monthly Payment Options
   
   SquareSpace charges you on a monthly basis, not annually ( as is the case with more traditional website hosting companies). Although the overall annual cost doesn’t work out cheaper, it at least means that if your business isn’t working out, or your SquareSpace website isn’t right for your business, you’re not tied down to a long contract and can cancel hassle free.

What’s not so great…

So overall, it’s a good option for customers who either want to build the site themselves and don’t have much coding experience, or for a company that wants their site built by a web designer but wants to be able to update it themselves at a later date.

But some of the negatives with Squarespace are that it generally costs more than ‘traditional’ hosting packages. You’re looking at hosting costs of twice, or even more than twice, the cost of hosting with a standard web-hosting company. Also, you need to pay extra for business email addresses, which are set up through Google. It’s not cheap, an extra £10 or £15 a month just for business email addresses.

Also, as it’s template driven with drag and drop functionality, there are more restrictions regarding what you can and can’t do. So if you’re wanting some non standard functionality on your website, it’s going to be more difficult to get that achieved with a SquareSpace website.

So if you like the idea of having a website that’s pretty easy to update after a web-designer has built it, but perhaps don’t have the will or time to design it yourself, then SquareSpace is a pretty good way to go.

If that’s a route you decide to go down, get in touch with us at Adbeyo WebDesign Services in Glasgow, and we’ll help you on your journey…

SquareSpace is a company which allows you to use their software to build a website simply using drag and drop functionality. It’s simple to build great looking websites with SquareSpace as well as adding e-commerce functionality to your site .

ADBEYO can set up your SquareSpace account for you, build your site, and when we’re finished, give you a lesson on how to update and make changes to your site.

SquareSpace sites are hosted on the SquareSpace servers and you’ll need to pay SquareSpace a monthly fee to keep hosting your website.

So what are some of the advantages of ADBEYO building my website with SquareSpace?

• You’ll have a great looking website that you can update and edit easily on your own.
• SquareSpace has a great range of e-commerce options and other online business applications which are really easy to install and update.
• SquareSpace offer technical support as part of their subscription service.
• It’s really easy to make significant changes to your website if you feel you want to freshen things up a bit.

What are some of the disadvantages

• Cost. SquareSpace charge monthly to allow you to build your site and have it hosted online.
• No business emails included in their price. You need to pay extra to get a business email associated with your website name.

Why Don’t I Just Build the Site Myself Using SquareSpace?

Great question. If you’ve got the time and a desire to learn, we say go for it. It’s not difficult to build a website with SquareSpace and if you have the time and interest, you can build a great website in a week or so.

For more information, here’s a link to SquareSpace’s homepage and also their prices.

WordPress is a free Content Management System. You can use WordPress to create and update websites, using a range of free or paid-for templates which have different styles and content.

When ADBEYO builds a site with WordPress, we download the WordPress files onto the client’s website space and then use a WordPress template to build the site.

The completed website will still be stored on ADBEYO’s web-server which is located on a computer owned by a hosting company, but registered under ADBEYO’s account. This reduces any hosting costs that you would otherwise be likely to pay.

WordPress is really popular, and according to Wiki, used to create more than 60 million websites. As such, there is a lot of online support and products for people who build sites with WordPress. So what are some of the advantages of ADBEYO building my website with WordPress?

• You can update your website by logging into the WordPress Content Management System with no knowledge of programming or scripting required.
• There are lots of WordPress add-ons allowing you to add new functionality to your website.
• WordPress is free. You don’t have to pay any monthly fees to use WordPress.
• There are a lot of e-commerce options for WordPress, which allow you to create and run your own online store for free.

So what are some of the disadvantages…

• The ADBEYO set up cost for WordPress sites is higher than other options.
• The WordPress Content Management System can seem quite tricky at first to get used to. Although you don’t need coding experience, it takes a bit of time to get comfortable building and updating sites using WordPress.

WordPress is a good option for small business owners who don’t want to learn too much about website building and hosting but do want to be in control of their website and be able to make changes and updates without having to pay a monthly subscription cost to use the service.

For more information about WordPress see this link. Or watch the YouTube Video below.

When we build a site using Bootstrap and HTML5 , it basically means we are coding the site and not using any pre-designed templates or not using a web-site builder like SquareSpace or Wix.

It means we have more control of the website as we create the code and build the site effectively from scratch. There are no components downloaded which we aren’t familiar with.

It also means we will host the website on the ADBEYO shared server space. This means your website is located on a computer owned by a hosting company, but registered under ADBEYO’s account. This reduces any hosting costs that you would otherwise be likely to pay.

So what are some of the advantages of ADBEYO building my website with Bootstrap and HTML5?

• It works out cheapest for you. You pay the cost for the design and build of the site only, and don’t have to pay any monthly costs as you would if you were using a website builder like SquareSpace or Wix.
• A website name and address is included in the price. You will need to renew this every year however, for the first year, the domain name is included in the price.
• You’ll get as many business emails as you like – this is included in the price.
• Certain web-site technologies work best if you’re not using templates or a website builder.

So what are some of the disadvantages…

• It’s difficult to update the website if you do not have web-design scripting knowledge* (see below).
• Adding e-commerce functionality like shopping carts or booking forms require 3rd party applications, some of which have an additional cost.

Updating your Website Built using Bootstrap and HTML5

So yes, it’s more difficult to update and manage a site built in Bootstrap and HTML5 if you’re not familiar with scripting. However, ADBEYO sites come with the option of built in blogs and social media feeds and links. That means, even if you don’t want to go near the guts of your website, you can still make it seem current by updating a blog on your site, or making some social media posts which can link into your website. No techy experience needed for that.

For more information about Bootstrap here’s a link to their site and here’s a quick link to building sites using Bootstrap.

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