Is Squarespace always so limiting?

Hi guys,

I'm a newbie to Squarespace having used Wix for years and Flash before that. I love Squarespace's simplicity and clean-ness, however I find it just too damn rigid to work with. I'm currently running the trial version, but would I see more design options if I subscribed to the full version?

By rigid I mean...

I can't add hover over text to my image gallery? I can't move elements on my page without digging for CSS? I can't even have my gallery images link to another page on my website?

Wix is buggy and hard to get looking nice but at least using it feels intuitive for a designer. I'd love to get into Squarespace but finding there are too many walls to climb

M

All the things you mention are standard based on certain templates and or which platform 7.0 or 7.1 and the trial version actually lets you do everything including commerce options. Which template are you trying out?

2 minutes ago, derricksrandomviews said:

All the things you mention are standard based on certain templates and or which platform 7.0 or 7.1 and the trial version actually lets you do everything including commerce options. Which template are you trying out?

Template is Gates. I'm guessing 7.1 seeing as I only signed up a week or so ago.

7.1 in my opinion is designed more for first time builders, and for ones who are more mobile driven. As a wix user I think you would find 7.0 more to your liking. 

take a look at these templates. And you can type in Brine at the top, and look at that family of 40 templates. All very good. You can even start a second trial if you wish and work with the template you have now and a 7.0 one and decide what you like best. I have sites built on Wexley, Brine, and Avenue, all 7.0 sites. https://www.squarespace.com/templates?onboarding_v7_1_0819=control

my random views derrick Lee parker

Christine Gregory Photography

https://atlanticcoastwater.com/

Deer Creek Motorcoach Resort Virginia Make Yourself at Home in the Blue Ridge Mountains

just started a 7.0 template. Looks like I do indeed have more options.. thanks for your feedback I'll check this out

Take your time looking at them.  The 7.0 template families are all very unique from each other. If you have any questions do not hesitate to post them back here. 

Wix is more advanced in customisation but in term of speed, Squarespace is better

Hi there, I am starting to work with Squarespace, hope this forum would help me. Thanks for thread

@Falconer you need to get used to it. I use both wix and squarespace and would pick squarespace any day over wix. You will need to learn the CSS tricks to do the things you want but once you have found good resources or are able to use a service like ghost plugins you can make a squarespace site in 1/3 of the time compared to wix. 

Well after spending lots of time with it I can say that Squarespace is now my chosen platform over Wix. It can be frustrating when it won't do things exactly as you'd imagined but it's so elegantly designed that often it's probably preferable that it reins you in a little. 

7.1 has been great for me, I love how responsive it is on desktop and how good my site looks on mobile too.

Here's my finished site anyway if anybody cares to take a look - martinfalconer.com

Had a bit of trouble getting the background video to load properly on the homepage but seems to be alright now. 

Very Nice Falconer. And welcome to the SS family of users and builders. 

@Falconer Great job!

On 6/13/2020 at 12:18 PM, derricksrandomviews said:

7.1 in my opinion is designed more for first time builders, and for ones who are more mobile driven. As a wix user I think you would find 7.0 more to your liking. 

take a look at these templates. And you can type in Brine at the top, and look at that family of 40 templates. All very good. You can even start a second trial if you wish and work with the template you have now and a 7.0 one and decide what you like best. I have sites built on Wexley, Brine, and Avenue, all 7.0 sites. https://www.squarespace.com/templates?onboarding_v7_1_0819=control

my random views derrick Lee parker

Christine Gregory Photography

https://atlanticcoastwater.com/

Deer Creek Motorcoach Resort Virginia Make Yourself at Home in the Blue Ridge Mountains

 

Thanks for posting this link Derrick! I didn't even realize I LOVE the 7.0 templates WAY more. 

Thanks for this post. I thought the same thing and didn't know about the versions. I ended up finding a template I like and was able to make it work. I thought it was just me! Not being able to drag a text box elsewhere seems silly but the template is really clean in nice so it's worth a bit of the hassle.

On 10/2/2020 at 3:32 AM, Falconer said:

Well after spending lots of time with it I can say that Squarespace is now my chosen platform over Wix. It can be frustrating when it won't do things exactly as you'd imagined but it's so elegantly designed that often it's probably preferable that it reins you in a little. 

7.1 has been great for me, I love how responsive it is on desktop and how good my site looks on mobile too.

Here's my finished site anyway if anybody cares to take a look - martinfalconer.com

Had a bit of trouble getting the background video to load properly on the homepage but seems to be alright now. 

 

Wix is the worst, but I do wish that you could edit the site on squarespace to mobile better. Does anyone else agree?

It's also important to note that there are really only 4 families in SS and all templates fall into one of the four. Here's a solid article via SS that compares 7.0 to 7.1. I have been using SS for 8 or so years and really like the 7.1 updates. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360035290252

Hi @Falconer,

Superb first site. Congratulations!

SQSDesign

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. Glad this thread has helped some people work through the same problems I had