How much can I achieve in 7.1 in term of customization?

Hi,

I coded my website from scratch HTML, CSS and JS. However, I needed a CMS and I paid someone on fiverr to help me convert my site into a WordPress theme. But now I understand the true cost of WordPress. Development cost + all plugins that need a "pro" account to get useful features.

Here is my website : testing.nicolas-duclos.com

Yesterday I tried to start from a white canvas on Squarespace, but I don't seem to be able to achieve the same design. What's blocking me is :

- My custom slider using "Swiper.js" to show blog post. I think I wrote to show 2.5 posts which make it smooth in the design instead of a plain 2 posts.

- I can't seem to have the possibility to choose where the post title or categories are... Can't put the text over the image or the categories inside little box on top.

- I can't seem to be able to show portfolio (photography) on the homepage.

- Can't figure how to show a fullscreen featured-image on my blog post.

What's interesting about Squarespace :
- Ecommerce functionalities

- In-depth analytic without plugins

- SEO without plugins

- Easy customization other than what's above.

If my design can't be made in Squarespace, I will continue using WordPress.

Thank you very much.

7.1 is just one template family with 18 named starting designs.  Squarespace 7.0 has many more to choose from, like the Brine Family which has 45 starting points. You should really view them as well. 

You can see many of the 7.0 template familes here: here: https://www.squarespace.com/templates/browse/v7

And the Brine family which many folks say is the best tempate you can use period:

https://www.sarahhalliday.com/squarespace-tips/the-brine-family-template-index

I did a lot of reaseach before moving over to Squarespace with a number of sites I look after. I still do a lot of reasearch and experimenting to help people here on the forums. I am still here and have no plans to move. I stil find it cool (yes I use that word) that I can take a simple classic template like Avenue

https://avenue-demo.squarespace.com/  and turn it into something so different for myself:

my random views

Squarespace is the best place to have one's front facing site, and if it doesn't do something say hotel/motel reservations or such, there are many plugins that will fill the gaps.