As someone who used to actually design websites in Squarespace, I feel it’s important for me to make this post, or at the very least I want to justify my decision and give you my opinion on whether I think a similar move is right for you.

Firstly let’s talk about Squarespace.

Squarespace is an all-in-one template-based website-building platform. When I say all-in-one, what I mean by that is you can purchase and host your domain, your email address, and website all within the platform.

There is no need for external parties and going through the process of linking these up and all that jazz, which is one of the things that I absolutely love about the platform because I love a simply streamlined approach to, well, everything!

I’m also terrible at remembering passwords so the fewer login details I have to remember the better!

I discovered Squarespace back in 2017 I believe, when I had big dreams to launch a health and fitness blog along with an online personal training business. I’m actually a qualified personal trainer – bet you didn’t know that about me.

After previously having only built websites on WordPress I immediately fell in love with how easy it was to create just about anything, the whole system was drag-n-drop and there was no need to have a second page open and be constantly refreshing to see how my design was looking – ugh, honestly WordPress is the worst.

Moving forward maybe a year or so, that business was basically a non-starter, turns out that even though I knew my stuff, I just really couldn’t sell to save myself which apparently is a really important part of building a personal training business – who knew!

I also just wasn’t that passionate about blogging about those topics so I ditched that dream.

I’d always loved building websites so decided to dive into the world of website design, and I built many websites on the Squarespace platform right up until 2020 when I decided to close my design business.

Client-based service work just wasn’t for me either, it was stressful and I just didn’t enjoy it. I’d be working all day at my 9-5 for one boss, then have to come home and work all night for another boss even though it was my business.

Moving forward to 2021, I decided what I should do is launch a blog, I always wanted to get into blogging I just never really knew what to blog about – it didn’t take me long to remember that I’m a big nerd who loves learning all about random tech, trying out new software and wasting way too much time determined to figure out anything technical obstacle that stood in my way of what I was doing.

So I decided I was going to launch a tech blog!

After thinking about it and doing a bunch of snooping around the internet at different blogs I realised that all the big, legit bloggers were using WordPress, I think I found maybe one blog that was on Squarespace, which made sense because WordPress is the best of the best when it comes to blogging, it has all the right tools and plugins to ensure you’re doing everything correctly.

But remember, I hate WordPress! and I refused to go back to it.

Then came Showit!

I had known of the Showit platform for quite a while at this point, as a website designer whenever I came across an amazing-looking site I would always have a sticky beak at their page source to see what platform they built it on, and I was noticing Showit popping up on some pretty big name personal brands like Jenna Kutcher, Steph Taylor and Melyssa Griffin.

I had looked into the platform before and loved the idea that it wasn’t based on a template and it was literally a blank canva, a designer’s dream. But was immediately put off by the idea of having to have an external provider for my domain and email, plus the fact it somehow linked into WordPress for the blog portion of it.

From the outside, it seemed really messy and I just wasn’t interested.

But it honestly played on my mind for so long and every time I’d come across another amazing showit website I’d just be so envious. So after reading a blog post by Ida at Hyge Design on How to switch from Squarespace to Showit, I decided to sign up for a free trial.

I was immediately obsessed! It was so much easier to use than I originally thought and all the messy stuff I was using as my excuses was actually really straightforward to sort out.

I was able to move my domain over to Google Domains & then just added my Google Workspace account to it. Linking my domain to my site was so easy and the whole WordPress connection thing, Showit support does this for you, they set up your login and everything.

I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of it all because this post will end up being way too long but it was honestly the best decision, especially for a blog. It gives me the blogging power of WordPress with the complete freedom to design everything just how I want.

Ugh, I’m obsessed!

But please don’t think for a second that I don’t still love Squarespace – I absolutely do! It’s an amazing platform, but unfortunately where I was going and the direction my brand was pivoting meant that it just wasn’t the best fit for me anymore. You can check out my Custom Showit Blog Tour Video here.

So let’s talk about why you should or shouldn’t make the switch.

Who do I think should use Squarespace? 

Squarespace is definitely a beginner-friendly platform, it’s built in a way that makes everything so simple, there is no coding needed, and a single login can give you access to your domain, email and website hosting.

However, there are many well-established businesses that this platform is perfect for.

I still recommend this platform to anyone who just wants a professional-looking website, something that helps build their credibility and gives them somewhere to send potential clients or customers to learn more about them and their services. 

If all you need is a website that tells people who you are, what you offer and how they can contact you then Squarespace is all you need.

If you want a blog as a way to build credibility within your service-based business, then Squarespace is great for this as it has a built-in blogging platform.

You can also easily embed booking systems within Squarespace for your customers to book directly with you without having to call or message you.

Another key element to mention here is that if you do not have any kind of background in design or experience in building websites, starting at a blank canvas like you have in Showit can be extremely overwhelming.

Whereas having a template as a base, like in Squarespace, that you can then tweak and adjust to your liking is a far more achievable option.

Who do I think shouldn’t use Squarespace?

If you want to become a blogger and make a living from your blog, then I would not recommend Squarespace.

It lacks key features that are an important part of blogging, one being a sidebar – although some of the older versions templates had a sidebar, the newer 7.1 version however does not. 

The back-end categorising system is also very simple and doesn’t have a lot of the features that are offered within WordPress and Showit in terms of only showing certain posts on certain pages, making sure a post only appears once on a page etc.

There may be ways to make these things happen but they’d require a fair amount of workaround and manual adjustments each time you post a new blog post.

On top of this, because Squarespace is template-based, they are generally very easy to spot online. It takes some serious coding knowledge to really make a Squarespace website look custom. 

To sum all of this up I am very happy I made the switch to Showit on a personal level, I love the freedom I have to create whatever I want without restriction and I love how once it’s set, each time I post a new blog or video it goes exactly where it should within my website without me having to manually adjust anything.

I’ve also loved being able to flex my design muscle and really push myself to think outside the box with the design, layout and functionality of my blog.

Squarespace still holds a special place in my heart and I will continue to recommend it to anyone I think could benefit from such a platform.

Anyway I know this wasn’t my usual kind of post so If you’ve made it this far thank you, I hope you got something out of this and if you have any questions at all about Squarespace, Showit, or the transition process feel free to leave me a comment below.