Squarespace
Web Design

Squarespace 7.1 is excellent for content-led brand sites, service businesses with bookings, small-to-mid catalog DTC commerce, and editorial sites where marketing speed matters more than feature depth. It's the wrong fit for >500-SKU catalogs, subscriptions, B2B wholesale, custom checkout requirements, or anywhere the app ecosystem (Klaviyo / Recharge / Yotpo) is doing real work. We'll tell you honestly — we have no Squarespace partner status to protect.

Everything in Squarespace's stylesheet that targets a stable class. Color tokens, typography (including loading custom fonts), spacing, hover states, button variants, header / footer overrides, mobile-specific styling. Squarespace's class names are stable enough that well-targeted CSS survives platform updates. What custom CSS can't change: page structure, template architecture, checkout flow, or anything generated server-side. Business plan or higher required.

7.1 (current, 2020+) ships with Fluid Engine, section-based architecture, unified template (no template-family lock-in), and ongoing feature investment. 7.0 (legacy) is template-locked, uses the Classic Editor, has no Fluid Engine, and is in maintenance — Squarespace isn't building new features for it. New projects go on 7.1; 7.0 migrations require a full rebuild on 7.1 (no automatic migration path).

Substantially — within the platform's intentional limits. Custom CSS gives you design-system control over colors, typography, spacing, and component-level styling. Code injection (header / footer / lock page) lets you add analytics, pixels, and small JS enhancements. Saved sections and section presets create reusable design-system components. What you can't do: replace the checkout, modify server-side rendering, build custom server endpoints, or write platform-modifying code. If you need those things, you don't need Squarespace.

There's no automatic migration. 7.0 to 7.1 is a full rebuild — new template, new section architecture, new Fluid Engine layouts, new design system. We scope it the same way we scope any redesign: content audit, IA, design, build, content migration, QA, launch. Plan for a real redesign engagement, not a one-click migration.

Squarespace Commerce is fine for small-to-mid catalogs (under ~500 SKUs), simple variants, and brands where commerce is secondary to content. Shopify wins on catalog scale, subscriptions (Recharge, Shopify Subscriptions), B2B (B2B on Shopify), international (Markets), app ecosystem depth, checkout customization (Checkout Extensibility), and performance. We have no incentive to push you one way or the other — we run both practices.

Honest answer: Squarespace's Core Web Vitals are platform-bound. LCP is achievable in the 2.5–3.5s range on Fluid Engine pages with disciplined image use; INP is usually fine; CLS depends heavily on layout shifts from font loading and section assembly. Squarespace isn't where you go for sub-2.0s LCP. If CWV is mission-critical, you're looking at Shopify, custom-built Next.js, or Hydrogen — not Squarespace.

WCAG 2.2 AA is achievable on most surfaces — color contrast, focus states, alt text, semantic structure are all controllable. The gaps are in Squarespace's generated HTML for some block types (form blocks, gallery blocks, certain commerce flows) where we can't modify markup. We test with axe-core + manual NVDA / VoiceOver, document residual gaps, and submit AODA / Section 508 audits with honest scoping.

Yes. Acuity Scheduling integration (Squarespace's native booking platform), Member Areas (gated content, paid memberships), Squarespace Commerce (products, services, subscriptions on Squarespace, gift cards), and Email Campaigns are all part of our Squarespace practice. We scope each one against your needs and tell you when a third-party tool (Calendly, MemberSpace, etc.) is the better answer.

Squarespace's SEO foundation is fine — clean URL structure, native title / meta / OG tag controls, automatic sitemap generation, AMP-disabled by default for modern sites. The ceiling is custom schema injection (limited to code injection contexts), redirect management (Squarespace has a redirects UI but it's not bulk-import friendly), and structured-data control (no Yoast / Rank Math equivalent). Our Squarespace SEO team handles the optimization layer on top.

Small marketing / brand site (10–20 pages, 7.1 + custom CSS, content migration, no commerce): typically a fixed-price 6–10-week engagement. Mid-complexity (20–40 pages, commerce, Member Areas, Acuity, custom CSS / code injection): 10–16 weeks. We give you a band on the first call and a written number after a 30-minute scope conversation.