Squarespace CMS Web Design

Today I checked out the Squarespace web publishing platform that allows users to publish web content without editing a line of code. Yes, I know there are literally 100s of these types of packages available, all claiming to be the holy grail for non techie website owners. Most of these website builders are functional but not very effective in allowing the user to get the ‘wow factor’ that will drive them to the site design they always wanted.

For me this is a really impressive package but with a snag – you have to pay for it, but like everything else in life, you get what you pay for and you will save a hell of a lot of design time and headaches. The platform was designed by 27 year old Anthony Casalena who fits the computer geek stereotype, programming since he was 15 and building Squarespace up from scratch. High profile customers include ABC, L’Oreal and Kevin Pollak and serves billions of hits a month.

I tried the free trial with restricted functionality (can’t send form content) and was well impressed. Your website is hosted in a computer cloud based system that is scalable and can cope with spiked traffic. Squarespace uses the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) for the front end customisation which is very user friendly and gives the user the feeling that they are in control of the whole design process.

For those of us who require more design control, there is the option of overriding the system generated CSS code with your own. I loved the feel and layout of the test website I experimented with and would definitely consider using for my clients. Packages range from $8 - $50 a month, but for a website with your own domain name you will need the $20 a month package – maybe a little restrictive for some, but if your building a site that you believe will grow and become profitable, it may be worth not having to worry about self hosting, backups and updating.