Squarespace has increasingly become the go-to solution for individuals stepping into the world of website design and digital content creation. Particularly for beginners, the daunting task of crafting an appealing, functional website is simplified by Squarespace’s incredibly user-friendly interface and robust features.

Below, we delve into why Squarespace stands out as the best website builder for beginners, covering its user experience, cost-effectiveness, and analytics break-down, among other aspects that make it an ideal choice for those launching their first website. Whether you are starting a blog, opening an online store, or establishing a portfolio, Squarespace provides all the tools you need to create a visually stunning and fully functional online presence, making it a superior choice for newcomers to website design and creation. And if you’re a BlogHer reader, use code BLOGHER10 to get an exclusive 10% off a subscription.

What to Know About Squarespace

Squarespace allows you to create a customizable website or online store with an all-in-one solution. According to the website, whether it’s a business, a profile, or just an idea you love, building a site with Squarespace helps you share it with the world. Squarespace’s website builder is an all-in-one content management system and CMS. A Squarespace website subscription includes content hosting, professionally designed layouts, built-in support for SEO best practices, access to our user-friendly platform for creating beautiful websites and online stores, and the ability to edit your site anywhere with the app.

Features include, but are not limited to, commerce, domains, analytics, marketing, and extensions. And while all of that may sound overwhelming, it’s quite easy to create a website on the platform. All you have to do is choose a template, get a free custom domain name, add your own text and photos using the website builder, customize the site to your liking, create a logo with its online tool if needed, and then publish.

How Easy Is Squarespace to Use?

What makes Squarespace so great for beginners is its premade templates that essentially allow you to “plug in” whatever you want. For me, this also provides ideas of what to actually include in a website design, which can be very helpful for people having their first go. And if you want to customize content, it’s seamless to change fonts and adjust sizes of blocks without disrupting the template. You can take my word for it as I took the liberty testing it out myself. Using the Adri template, I was able to see how easy it is to use. With the platform, no coding skills are necessary. All you need to do is follow the detailed prompts and add your text and images.

Plus, there’s built-in support and resources for SEO best practices and whenever you’re not on-the-go and need to update something on the site, you can do so from anywhere with the Squarespace app.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace offers four types of plans – personal, business, commerce basic, and commerce advanced – which you can pay either monthly or annually. Each plan offers an array of products, such as mobile optimized websites, free custom domain, and design templates, ensuring a plan for any and all website needs. See below for the price breakdown:

• Personal: $16/monthly for annual plan, $25/monthly for monthly plan
• Business: $23/monthly for annual plan, $36/monthly for monthly plan
• Commerce (Basic): $28/monthly for annual plan, $40/monthly for monthly plan
• Commerce (Advanced): $52/monthly for for annual plan, $72/monthly for monthly plan

What Kind of Analytics Does Squarespace Offer?

Squarespace offers a plethora of analytics with its in-depth website analytics tools. For starters, you can learn about traffic and trends i.e. Examples include:

• Traffic overview – View how your site visits, unique visitors, and page views trend over time.
• Geography – Understand where your visitors are coming from.
• Activity log – See how visitors are navigating through your site.
• Google search keywords – Learn what search keywords are leading visitors to your website.
• Traffic sources – Learn where your site visits and sales are coming from and analyze which channels are most effective.
• Site content – Use engagement stats like views, time on page, exit rate and more to quickly identify popular content.

Additionally, the site also offers commerce analytics so you can better understand how your business is doing by tracking revenue, orders, units sold, etc. Examples include:

• Purchase funnel – A visual report that shows how many visits result in purchases and where customers are dropping off.
• Sales overview – Track how key performance metrics, such as Revenue, Units Sold, Orders, Visits, Conversion Rate, Average Order Volume, and Revenue Per Visit, change over time.
• Sales by product – Gain insight into your top performing products with metrics such as revenue and conversion rate.
• Abandoned cart – Gain insight into how many of your carts are being abandoned, recovered, and the revenue those represent.

What Do Squarespace Users Actually Think?

Jessie Quinn artist and lifestyle journalist has subscribed to Squarespace for nearly 10 years and, within that time, used it to host several projects, including a defunct blog and her current writing portfolio. “As a journalist, I have experience using lots of different CMS platforms and find that Squarespace is one of the most user-friendly options out there.

It’s especially great for those without coding skills who feel a bit lost when it comes to designing a website. I love the templates available and how easy it is to update everything for a more customized feel. Squarespace also has a fantastic resource section that walks you through step-by-step how to do certain functions on your website,” she says

Hollie Martin, a freelance writer and summer camp owner agrees, saying that setting up an ecommerce website for the company she owns with her husband, was seamless. “Squarespace allows you to integrate payment platforms such as Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Square, Afterpay, and Clearpay. In my experience, the easier it is to make a purchase, the less likely customers are to abandon their shopping cart.” She adds, “Squarespace also allows us to utilize SEO keywords to optimize our website listing, as well as sell products from our website catalogue to Facebook, Google and Instagram. These available tools have translated into consistent sales.”

Lastly, Kristen Fischer, a journalist and copywriter recommends Squarespace because it’s so easy to navigate (and the gorgeous websites are a plus!). “I’ve used Squarespace for nearly 10 years. It’s very user friendly, and you don’t have to know HTML to make a stunning website. They make it simple to layout pages, adjust photos and add content,” she says. “I also like it because sometimes I need to pop in and tweak something or update my writing clips, and it’s fast and easy to do that.”

Bottom line

It’s clear that Squarespace is in fact the best website builder for beginners. The platform eliminates the steep learning curve typically associated with web development, allowing even the most novice users to produce professional-level websites with minimal technical skills. The appeal of Squarespace lies in its combination of simplicity and power—providing a wide array of customizable templates, cutting-edge design options, and all-in-one hosting solutions.