Slight Revision vs Squarespace
Squarespace and the design box.
Squarespace makes beautiful sites and knows it. For a portfolio or a restaurant it can be exactly right. Here is what the box does well, where it gets tight, and what we would do instead.
To be fair, the templates really are lovely
What it is
Design-led, hosted, and opinionated.
Squarespace is a hosted builder built around strong templates. You choose a look, fill it in, and Squarespace hosts it. The design constraints are the point: it is hard to make a Squarespace site ugly, and that is a real service to people who do not want to think about layout.
Commerce, scheduling, email campaigns and member areas are available as add-ons or higher tiers, so a simple site can grow into a busier one without leaving the platform.
And being hard to make ugly is a genuine feature
Inside the box
Why it looks this good.
The box is the whole idea, and it works. These are the reasons people choose it.
It looks good by default
Squarespace is particularly good at polished visual templates and strong design defaults, and the editor protects you from your own worst layout ideas.
Great for visual, brochure-style sites
Portfolios, restaurants, studios, venues, a personal site: strong photos and a few pages is where it is happiest.
Everything hosted for you
No updates, no server, one bill. For a site that is mostly a well-designed brochure, that is enough.
Hitting the walls
When the box gets small.
It usually shows up once the site has to do more than look good.
The export is partial
Squarespace offers a useful WordPress-format export for standard content, but it is not a complete copy of the site. Its own help center lists what does not come across: store, index, portfolio and cover pages, video and product blocks, drafts, styles and custom CSS. Those get rebuilt when moving elsewhere.
Growth can change the plan
As needs grow, the plan and connected services may need to grow with them. Commerce, scheduling, memberships and marketing can change what the complete setup costs, so compare the setup you will actually use.
The design box is also a ceiling
The same constraints that keep the site tidy can become limiting when a business needs an unusual workflow, a deeper integration or functionality the platform was not designed around. Sometimes there is an extension or a workaround. Sometimes the better answer is a platform with more room to build.
The business-side connections are still yours
Squarespace handles the hosting and platform maintenance. Someone still needs to manage the domain, email records, integrations, content changes and the decisions about how the website connects to the rest of the business.
Outside the box
Design made for your content.
The same care about how it looks, with a design made for your business instead of chosen from a menu, and people responsible for everything around it.
- Your website, content and domain are yours. If you ever stop working with us, the site can move to another WordPress host. Some tools, licenses and BrightFrame features we provide as part of our managed service may need to be replaced or licensed separately, but the website itself is not trapped here.
- Design built around your content and your customers, not the other way round.
- Open-source software without a platform plan deciding what we can add. A store, a booking flow or a member area is work we choose or build, not a tier you climb to.
- People who run the domain, DNS, email, updates, backups and monitoring.
- Managed WordPress hosting with many ongoing tools included, at a price we have not raised in years.
- Honest advice, including when the answer is “you do not need that.”
Line by line
Squarespace and us, compared.
What you would actually be choosing between.
| Squarespace | Slight Revision | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the site | Your content; the working site stays on Squarespace’s platform | Your website and content; portable to another compatible WordPress host |
| Can it move to another host | Partly: standard content exports, the rest is rebuilt | Yes, to another compatible WordPress host |
| Design | A strong template, within its rules | Designed and built around your business |
| Who does the work | You | We do, with you |
| Cost over time | Subscription; total depends on plan and connected services | Managed hosting and service with many ongoing tools included |
| Support | Squarespace support, which knows the platform | People who know your site and business |
| Custom functionality | What the platform offers | Built to fit, when it is worth it |
Which to choose
When Squarespace is the right pick.
Yes, we sell websites, so of course we think our way is valuable. The point of this page is to say where that value actually matters, and where it does not.
Choose Squarespace if…
- The site is mostly a beautiful brochure: a portfolio, a studio, a restaurant with a menu and hours.
- You like working inside a strong template and do not expect to need much beyond it.
- You have the time to run the domain and email side yourself, or someone who does.
Choose us if…
- The site has to do things: quotes, bookings, payments, forms that reach the right person, tools that fit how you work.
- You want the design to fit the business rather than the business fitting the template.
- You would rather not be the webmaster, and you want to own the result either way.
Questions
Squarespace questions, answered.
What people ask us about Squarespace most.
Can you move my Squarespace site to WordPress?
Yes. The standard pages and blog export as a file we can import; the design and any store, portfolio or index pages are rebuilt. We plan the move so the new site is better than a copy, not just a copy.
Will I lose my search rankings by moving?
A careful migration is designed to preserve as much search equity as possible. We keep important addresses where we can, redirect the ones that change, carry over titles and descriptions, and check the site after launch. Rankings can still move during any migration, so nobody should promise you they cannot.
Can I keep my Squarespace domain?
Yes. Domains registered through Squarespace can be transferred to a registrar of your choice with an authorization code from your Squarespace account, subject to the usual 60-day lock. We handle the transfer.
Is WordPress as nice to edit?
For the everyday changes, it is comparable, and we set it up so the parts you touch are simple. The difference is what happens when you need something the template did not anticipate.
Found something that changed?
These tools move fast. If we have something wrong or out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Thinking about Squarespace?
Tell us what the site needs to do and send a link to anything you have already built. We will tell you honestly whether Squarespace is the right home for it.
