Thoughts on SquareSpace and WordPress

I just published 2 new websites, but you won’t see them in my portfolio. They aren’t original designs, so I don’t feel like I can take credit for them.

Over the years, I’ve designed and developed websites using a gaggle of different content management systems. I’ve probably used WordPress more than any other CMS, but I just finished a project using Squarespace. Picking a template was easy enough. They have probably 25 nice-looking templates. You can add custom CSS and Javascript easily enough, and there’s a developer mode to really get under the hood. I didn’t use the developer mode, the store, or even any Javascript, so I can’t really comment on those things.

The website came together pretty fast, with less than 100 custom CSS lines to get the right look and feel, and we were off and running. I would think
Squarespace would work great for someone wanting to get their feet wet with a new website. Check out the final Squarespace website here.

The 2nd website was a redesign for a custom website I designed and coded in 2014. Revel Salon picked the theme from Theme Forest and asked me to set everything up.

The setup was pretty typical. I downloaded the theme and installed it. Getting the theme installed wasn’t bad, but If you are new to building websites, there will be a learning curve. Once installed, there were a lot of options for the theme at the site and page level. And that might also be a little daunting for people unfamiliar with WordPress or content management systems in general. The website came together pretty fast, with less than 100 lines of custom CSS here as well. Anyway, check out the final WordPress website here.

A person with minimal skills could probably get a SquareSpace website off the ground and published relatively quickly. I believe it would be easier than getting a WordPress website off the ground. For the control freaks like me, tinkerers, and those who want to learn, it’s just hard to beat WordPress.