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If you’ve been researching ‘best website builders’ on Google, you probably would have seen Squarespace topping a few of those lists.
If you’ve come to this page, though, you’re probably not 100% convinced.
Honestly, I don’t blame you. Squarespace is a lot of things – sleek, modern, and design-savvy, with loads of cash to splash on cool (if not slightly out there) ad campaigns.
But the best website builder out there? Probably not.
Let’s put it this way – for (almost) each thing that Squarespace does well, there’s another website builder that does it better. (And for cheaper, usually.)
In certain cases, you may actually find out that you shouldn’t use a website builder at all (when you need a lot of customization, for example).
Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, creative or ecommerce, I genuinely believe there are other tools that will give you more bang for your buck.
So let’s take a look past Squarespace’s shiny exterior and examine the good, the bad, and the (metaphorical) ugly.
And while we’re at it, check out the best website builders like Squarespace.
First things first – let’s quickly review Squarespace’s pros and cons.
Squarespace’s Pros and Cons
Squarespace Pros
- Template designs – This is definitely Squarespace’s strong point. Very few website builders can compete with Squarespace’s range of sleek, cutting-edge templates – which are especially great for portfolios – although Wix does give them a good run for their money.
- Ecommerce – It’s possible to create a decent online store with Squarespace, with some pretty advanced features too (customer logins, abandoned checkout recovery, real-time shipping in the US). It’s not exactly in the same league as Shopify, but not bad for small store owners.
- Live chat support – A standout feature is their fast and responsive live chat support. If having support is important to you, some might say it’s worth paying the premium for this extra level of service.
- Blogging – Blogs are a staple of website builders these days, but Squarespace’s is more powerful than most, allowing for commenting, trackbacks, scheduling, podcasts, RSS, and even importing content from an existing blog. Too bad its SEO capabilities don’t quite live up to this standard.
- Developer platform – You could argue that Squarespace offers more design flexibility than other site builders, with the ability to edit HTML and CSS files. But this isn’t universally available to all templates, and is only offered on certain plans. You also miss out on any template updates and support, so it’s a bit restrictive.
Squarespace Cons
- Editor usability – OK, so Squarespace’s editor isn’t terrible. But its minimalistic appearance makes you feel like it should be easier to use than it really is. Wix and Weebly are definitely more straightforward to use – more on that below.
- Pricing – You do pay something of a premium for using Shopify – plans range from $16 US–$52 US a month. The real sore point, though, is that there’s no free forever plan. There’s just a 14-day free trial, which isn’t really very much at all.
- Page speed – Template loading speeds are also pretty low, which could hurt Google rankings.
- Relies on high-quality images – Squarespace’s templates look fantastic, but that’s partly because they’re pre-populated with professional photos and images. That polished look starts to fall apart when you replace those images with photos that aren’t high-resolution.
- No backup or restore function – You read that right. If for any reason your site content disappears, it’s gone forever – the responsibility is on you to keep a copy of it saved elsewhere.
You can also read our full Squarespace review to learn more, or try Squarespace for free during 14 days.
Now, let’s take a look at some of Squarespace’s competitors, and how they stack up against Squarespace.
Best Squarespace Alternatives You Can Use
Here’s a list of the 10 best Squarespace alternatives to create a website or an online store:
- Wix: Great Designs
- WordPress: For Large Projects
- Weebly: Easier Than Most
- Webnode: Multilingual Sites
- Shopify: The Ecommerce Giant
- Webflow: For Designers
- Jimdo: The Simple Solution
- Gator: Easy and Flexible
- Duda: Great Marketing Features
- Strikingly: One-Page Websites
1. Wix: Great Designs
There’s a reason why Wix is the world’s biggest website builder. Plenty, in fact.
It’s incredibly easy to use.
It offers hundreds of templates (more than any other provider) for any type of small business.
Their templates look amazing. Put them side by side with Squarespace’s, and you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart.
Plus, a whole bunch of other reasons – all of which are best explained in the video below.
Wix Prices
- Free: $0 a month. Lots of features included. Ads displayed.
- Light: $16 CA a month. No ads.
- Core: $32 CA a month. Online store and payment features (e.g. Wix Bookings) included.
- Business: $46 CA a month. Adds advanced ecommerce features for larger online stores.
Wix Pros
- Design flexibility: With Wix, you have a lot of control over the design of your website – templates can be tweaked pretty much any way you’d like. Visual elements like galleries and animations can also be added.
- App market: Wix’s range of apps and integrations is extensive. Not only do they have their own fully-functional apps (like Wix Bookings and Wix Hotels), but also hundreds of third-party apps to let you add features like forums, forms and media to your site.
- Automatic site backup: Sorry Squarespace, but in my opinion, this puts Wix miles ahead of you. I sleep much better at night knowing that if things go south, my Wix site can be fully restored at any time.
- Ecommerce: Similar to Squarespace, it’s also possible to add an online store to a Wix site with comparable features.
- Backup features: Wix tracks all your changes and keeps a record of those. So you can restore your site to a previous version – a great help when you accidentally delete something.
Wix Cons
- Blogging: Wix’s blog is OK, and SEO-friendly too. But it’s not the most flexible – you’re restricted to a pretty basic layout – and the blog editor isn’t very well-integrated into the main editor.
- Depth of navigation: Like Squarespace, Wix only allows for one level of sub-navigation on menus – not ideal for larger sites.
- Not (completely) mobile-friendly: Wix’s templates aren’t 100% mobile responsive (unlike Squarespace’s). To get your site to display properly on mobile, you’ll need to switch to the mobile editor and make a few changes first.
Why choose Wix over Squarespace? For a similar price, Wix offers a full array of marketing features and nifty apps that are all geared toward small businesses, and make it one of the best choices for building a small business website.
Want to know more? Take a look at our detailed Wix vs Squarespace comparison.
Create a website with Wix for free
2. WordPress: For Large Projects
I couldn’t compile a complete Squarespace alternatives list without mentioning WordPress.
It’s the most powerful solution for building a website, without a doubt. There’s very little that isn’t possible with a WordPress.org site, thanks to its endless plugins and integrations. (Please note that there is also WordPress.com, which is easier to use but also much more restrictive).
If you are building an online business where the main revenue comes from your website, you should seriously consider WordPress.org. It’s not the easiest solution (not that it was ever designed to be) but you can truly scale your site: create a multilingual presence, add an ecommerce store with WooCommerce or just work with one of (probably) millions of WordPress developers, who can create nearly every feature you’ll ever need.
The costs of a WordPress site can quickly add up, as templates and plugins are priced separately.
WordPress Prices
- Hosting: around $6 a month. While the tool is free, it needs to be hosted online unless you opt for WordPress.com. Compare cheap WordPress hosting services, plus other fast and cheap web hosting providers.
- Template: around $50 (one-time fee), although some templates are free. For examples, check out Themeforest.
- Plugins: can cost between $0-200 per year.
- Developer: at least $30 an hour. You’ll need a WordPress developer for more complex sites, and for personalized support.
WordPress Pros
- Unlimited options for customization: The sky’s the limit here. There are WordPress plugins for virtually every website requirement – ecommerce, multilingual sites, membership pages, booking engines etc.
- Flexibility: You get complete control over your site, and it can easily scale to any growing requirements.
- Pricing based on usage: The tool itself is free to use, so you’re paying only for the extras you really need.
WordPress Cons
- Technical knowledge required: This CMS (Content Management System) needs a lot of hands-on work, right from the get-go. This means you’ll need to have some technical or even coding knowledge – of course, you can always hire someone who does.
- Maintenance is your responsibility: Unlike the website builders above, security updates and ongoing maintenance aren’t taken care of for you. You’ll need to keep on top of any updates yourself.
- Support: WordPress doesn’t provide direct support, which often means you’ll need to spend time looking for answers on forums and online.
Why choose WordPress over Squarespace? If your site requirements are complex, and you’ll need lots of extra features, there’s no solution quite like WordPress. Check out our Squarespace and WordPress comparison for more information.
3. Weebly: Easier Than Most
It might not be as glamorous as Squarespace in branding, but this humble-looking website builder packs a surprisingly powerful punch.
Feature-wise, you could call it a less flashy version of Wix. The ease of use is there. In fact, I’d say it’s even more beginner-friendly than Wix.
You have some nice templates to choose from, and an app center too.
So, all the foundations you need to build a fully-featured website.
Take a look at Weebly in action in our video review:
Weebly Prices:
- Free: $0 CAD a month. Displays Weebly ads.
- Personal: $7 CAD a month. Unlimited storage and a custom domain name.
- Professional: $15 CAD a month. Includes video player, password-protected pages, and phone support.
- Performance: $45 CAD a month. Full ecommerce features including real-time shipping rates and abandoned cart emails.
Weebly Pros
- Easy to use: Weebly is great for beginners, with a very gentle learning curve. Its drag-and-drop editor gets top marks for intuitiveness and simplicity.
- Mobile-responsive templates: Similar to Squarespace, all of Weebly’s themes display perfectly on mobile, without you having to touch a thing.
- Ideal for bigger websites: Weebly allows for multiple levels of sub-navigation and submenus – great news if you have plenty of pages on your site.
- Ecommerce: Yup, Weebly do ecommerce stores too, complete with the ability to sell all kinds of products (physical, digital and services), and a shipping and tax calculator.
Weebly Cons
- Range of templates: Although Weebly have some nicely designed templates (‘themes’ as they call them), there’s just not enough of them!
- Design flexibility: The templates are structured quite rigidly, and you don’t have complete control over where you can place elements.
- Limited development: The last couple of years haven’t brought many new features to light. Let’s hope Weebly is still committed to its product.
Why choose Weebly over Squarespace? They’re pretty even when it comes to features like ecommerce, SEO and blogs, but Weebly has the advantage when it comes to building bigger sites.
Feel free to check out our in-depth comparison of Weebly and Squarespace to learn more.
Create a website with Weebly for free
4. Webnode: Multilingual Sites
It’s not quite as well-known as some of the other alternatives. But 30 million users means it can’t be doing too badly.
Like Duda, its strong point is multilingual sites. And it comes with some pretty nice and modern templates, too.
But, it’s missing some pretty important features, as you’ll see in our video below.
Webnode Prices
- Free: $0 US a month. Displays ads, and has 100MB of storage.
- Limited: $4.50 US a month. Allows you to use your own domain (although footer ad still displays).
- Mini: $8.50 US a month. Free domain for 1 year + an email account. Not ad-free, unfortunately.
- Standard: $12.90 US a month. No ads, 2 languages, and a whopping 20 email accounts.
- Profi: $22.90 US a month. 5GB of storage and 100 email accounts (wow!).
Webnode Pros
- Multiple languages: You can display your site in different languages from the Standard plan and upwards.
- Template designs: Their own website might not be the most exciting, but Webnode’s templates look professional and modern.
- Email: Unlike many other website builders, Webnode offers email accounts on most plans.
- Free plan (+ affordable paid plans): Webnode features one of the best free plans thanks to the small ad they display. Their premium plans are pretty good value too.
Webnode Cons
- Blog: Webnode’s blogging features are pretty basic – there’s no way to add comments or tags, for example.
- Lacks key features: The lack of any social media widgets, search bar or app market means that your site will miss out on some pretty important functionality.
Why choose Webnode over Squarespace? If you need a multilingual site without a lot of extra features, Webnode is the way to go. It’s also a big plus that email is included on the Mini, Standard and Profi plans.
5. Shopify: The Ecommerce Giant
Sure, Squarespace has a pretty decent ecommerce feature for smaller online stores.
The only problem: it doesn’t scale that well once you want to go international, do dropshipping or add something like a loyalty program for your customers.
Shopify has almost become a synonym for ecommerce. There are 800,000 active Shopify stores worldwide and raking in an impressive $100b worth of sales. You might find our Shopify vs Squarespace comparison interesting.
Shopify Prices
- Basic Shopify: $29 a month. The most basic package.
- Shopify: $79 a month. Lower transaction fees and more features.
- Advanced Shopify: $299 a month. Includes pro features such as a shipping rate calculator.
- Shopify Plus: starting from $2000 a month. The enterprise solution.
Shopify Pros
- Ecommerce DNA: Shopify was built 100% for its shopping cart. Every single feature they have is optimized for selling online.
- App Store: You can easily add extra functionality such as fraud prevention, shipping calculators or even a POS solution.
- Future proof: Shopify is such a standard solution for online stores, it’ll be easy to find a developer (they have a directory for certified Shopify Experts). And if you want to sell your business one day, most people will appreciate that it’s running on the platform they already know.
Shopify Cons
- Usability: Compared to Shopify, I would say that Squarespace is easier to handle, especially if you want to make style and template changes.
- Blogging: Squarespace’s store is neatly integrated into the website builder and blog. If you are in the content creation business you’ll appreciate all the great features Squarespace is offering.
- Pricing: Squarespace already starts at $29/month. Of course, this won’t give you access to their online store. But if you’re unsure if you really want to sell online, it’s a relatively cheap way to get started (and possibly upgrade later to a commerce plan).
Try Shopify 3-days for free, after $1 a month for the next 3 months.
6. Webflow: For Designers
Webflow was designed for developers and designers, making it a little less beginner-friendly than most tools.
It does give you a ton of options for design customization though, including interactions – so, if having complete control is your thing (and you’re used to working out of complex tools like Photoshop), you might actually really like it.
Webflow Prices
- Starter: free. Publish on a webflow.io domain and get 1GB of storage.
- Basic: $14 USD a month. Use your own domain. Limited to 25,000 monthly visitors.
- CMS: $23 USD a month. For up to 100,000 monthly visitors. Includes 2,000 CMS items.
- Business: $39 USD a month. 1 million visits per month. Includes pro features.
Webflow Pros
- Design flexibility: You get more of this than with any other website builder. Plus, you have options to use JavaScript and CSS, and even publish website designs created in Figma.
- Export code: Website designs can be exported as code, allowing it to be integrated into other applications.
- Membership features: Similar to Squarespace, you can build members’ areas to offer exclusive content to customers.
Webflow Cons
- Learning curve: The interface is complicated, and requires some advanced technical knowledge.
- Template choices: There aren’t very many to choose from, although they can be customized pretty extensively.
Why choose Webflow over Squarespace? Squarespace sites look slick, but Webflow takes them to the next level, giving you greater control over how your site looks.
Want to compare them in more detail? Check out our Webflow vs Squarespace comparison.
Try Webflow for free (or get a 20% discount on a paid plan with the discount code affiliate-tooltester-0228)
7. Jimdo: The Simple Solution
It’s not as big a name as Squarespace or Wix. But what Jimdo is known for is its ease of use.
In fact, it’s probably one of the quickest website builders to get up and running with. The system is simple, and the drag-and-drop editor works nicely.
Jimdo Prices
- Free: $0 a month. With ads. Site is on a Jimdo subdomain.
- Jimdo Start: $11 a month. No ads, and free custom domain for the first year. Limited to 10 pages.
- Jimdo Grow: $17 a month. Create up to 50 pages and get more storage space.
- Jimdo Unlimited: $45 a month. Unlimited storage space, pages and faster support.
Jimdo Pros
- Easy to use: It’s a great option for beginners, with an editor that’s probably the most user-friendly on the market.
- Loading speeds: Jimdo websites are optimized for speed right out of the box.
Jimdo Cons
- Template flexibility: A trade-off for being mobile responsive, I guess – you don’t get a lot of control over where you can place elements within the templates.
- Basic shopping cart: Lacking features like product import and export via spreadsheets, you probably wouldn’t use Jimdo to build an online store if that was your site’s main purpose.
Why choose Jimdo over Squarespace? Jimdo is ideal for small business owners, who perhaps don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to website building. Its easy-to-use editor and basic SEO features make it a good, low-maintenance solution.
8. Gator: Easy AND Flexible
HostGator is widely known for their web hosting services, but they also offer their newly launched Gator Website Builder, an impressive solution.
It’s true that they aren’t the most feature-reach provider and some of the modules are a bit too basic – e.g. ecommerce and blog. However, their designs are visually impressive and their ease of use unmatched.
Their editor reminded me a lot of Wix, as they have a very similar approach.
Gator Prices
- Starter: $9.22 a month
- Premium: $12.29 a month
- eCommerce: $19.98 a month
Gator Pros
- Ease of use: It’s a very intuitive tool, you won’t take long to figure out how to use Gator.
- Designs & Layouts: After Wix it’s probably the website builder with more templates – they are also swanky-looking.
- Site history feature: Gator has a version control system that would allow you to revert your site to a previous version – this comes in very handy when you accidentally delete.
Gator Cons
- Heading and SEO issues: The heading structure doesn’t seem to be properly replicated in their HTML. For example, the <h1> tags can’t be found in the source code – this is pretty bad for SEO.
- Limited ecommerce: They are not the tool to go for if you are looking to launch an online store. Their system is too simple. For instance, you can’t sell digital products.
- Limited blog: The blog module is way too basic and not suitable for intensive blogging – you can’t schedule posts or have a native commenting system (they use Facebook).
- Extra features: Some of the functionalities are missing or they are too primitive – for example, the password protection is very simple.
Why Gator can be a good alternative to Squarespace: Because it’s very easy to use and their editor is more flexible – letting you create virtually any design you want to. Overall, they are also cheaper.
9. Duda: Great Marketing Features
Duda were one of the first website builders to recognize the importance of mobile, offering mobile-responsive website templates way before anyone else did.
Of course, nowadays, that’s not nearly enough to get you noticed.
That’s why they raised the stakes with Really Cool Feature #1: multilingual websites, which, incredibly, hardly any of the popular website builders offer (only workarounds).
If that wasn’t enough, they also brought in Really Cool Feature #2: Personalization tools, which allow you to serve up personalized content to visitors based on their browsing behavior.
There’s no duda ‘bout it – unlike this joke, Duda is impressive. See how it all works in our video below.
Duda Prices
- Basic: $19. Multilingual site, personalization and up to 10 products included.
- Team: $22 a month. Team and client roles & permissions included.
- Site For Life: $299. You get the website and editor features forever if you pay this one-off fee.
Duda Pros
- Editor: Duda’s drag-and-drop editor is among the easiest and most intuitive to use.
- Languages: If you need your website to display multiple languages, Duda is one of the few website builders that can accommodate this.
- Personalization Tools: Think of it as marketing automation for websites. You can display unique and personalized content (e.g. offers and discounts) to visitors based on their specific behavior.
Duda Cons
- No app market: Unfortunately, Duda’s options for adding third-party apps and integrations are very limited.
- Price: Duda’s advanced features come at a premium, and it’s expensive compared to Wix and Weebly.
Why choose Duda over Squarespace? With in-built smarts like multiple languages and dynamic content, Duda allows you to offer a more personalized experience to users – something Squarespace simply can’t do.
10. Strikingly: One-Page Websites
Strikingly’s value proposition is simple, but surprisingly compelling: single-page websites that look superb.
Sure, a one-page site isn’t for everyone. But if you want to build a portfolio, event page, landing page or small web store, you might find that a single page is all you need.
Still not sure? Check out our Strikingly video below for some real-life examples.
Strikingly Prices
- Free: $0 a month. Free forever but just allows you to create a basic site.
- Limited: $8 a month. Displays ads. For up to 5 products in your store. Yearly plans come with domain included.
- Pro: $16 a month. Up to 3 sites, and advanced features like password protection and site search.
Strikingly Pros
- Easy editing: You can edit the entire layout of your site using drag-and-drop, and have plenty of control over the appearance of headlines, buttons etc.
- Domain included: Domain is free on the yearly and 2-year premium plans.
- Mobile-friendly: The templates are responsive, but a single-page layout also lends itself well to mobile viewing, as navigation is mainly driven by scrolling rather than clicking.
Strikingly Cons
- SEO: Basic options for optimization are there, but single page sites generally aren’t SEO-friendly – it’s tricky to get a single page to rank well.
- Limitations of free version: It’s just enough to let you get a feel for the tool. You can’t do things like adding your own code; other builders let you do that on their free plans.
- Price: If you want an ad-free site, you’d need the Pro plan, which doesn’t give you as much as other similarly priced plans do.
Why choose Strikingly over Squarespace? If you think a single-page site could work for you, Strikingly is definitely better built for it.
11. One.com: Low-Cost
They’re probably better known for website hosting and domains, but One.com also offer a website builder in their solution set.
How does it rate? Well, its most basic offering is cheap. And for a small and simple site, it’s awesome value for money.
But it’s not really built for anything more complex than that, as you’ll see in our video.
One.com Pricing
- Starter: $2.65 CAD a month. For sites with less than 5 pages.
- Premium: $7.48 a month. Maximum of 200 pages. Includes backup.
- Webshop: $16.99 a month.
One.com Pros
- Price: If your site is small and basic, One.com is an extremely affordable option.
- Responsive templates: All are mobile-responsive, and they don’t look half-bad, either. Templates are also easy to edit and customize.
- Email: This comes included in all plans.
One.com Cons
- Limited number of pages: Each plan comes with a maximum amount of pages – you’ll need to upgrade your plan to increase this.
- Blog: While it’s possible to add a blog, this needs to be set up separately – it won’t be integrated with your site, and won’t look the same.
- Extra features: These are very limited – you can’t, for example, add Google Maps to your site.
Why choose One.com over Squarespace: If your site requirements are simple, and you don’t want to spend a lot, One.com might be more than adequate.
Try One.com for free for 14 days
12. Mozello: Free Multilingual Sites
You’ve probably never heard of it. But if you need a multilingual site, Mozello is worth looking into.
That’s because they let you build one for free. Not bad, right?
Well, there are a few drawbacks. The tool isn’t quite as slick as some of the others on this list, and the editor isn’t as flexible, either.
But, it is free – so it can’t hurt to try it out.
Mozello Prices
- Free: $0 a month. Displays an ad. Limited online store.
- Premium: $7 a month. Use a custom domain name. 50GB storage, and an online store with up to 30 products.
- Premium Plus: $14 a month. Unlimited products in your store.
Mozello Pros
- Multilingual sites: It’s the only website builder in this list that lets you set up multiple language versions of your site for free.
- Price: If you do need to upgrade to a paid plan, you’ll find their prices to be super competitive.
- Online store: Available to try out on the free plan. The paid plans offer a more fully-featured version of the store.
Mozello Cons
- Extra features: These are definitely lacking – you’ll find little to help you customize or promote your site.
- Editor: Doesn’t quite offer the free-flowing experience you’d like when building your website.
Why choose Mozello over Squarespace? It offers multilingual sites, which Squarespace doesn’t, and lets you run your site (including an ecommerce store) completely for free.
Create a Mozello site for free
13. WebStarts: Decent Free Plan
Claiming to be the top-rated free website builder (although with a relatively modest 4 million users, this is a little dubious), WebStarts actually don’t do too badly feature-wise.
The editor, like Wix, gives you almost free rein, and you have some nice inclusions (such as ecommerce and emails) on the higher-level premium plans.
Webstarts Prices
- Free: $0 a month. Displays an ad. 1GB of storage.
- Pro: $9.78 a month. Ad-free with 5GB of storage, however no SEO or custom domain.
- Pro Plus: $14.32 a month. Comes with custom domain, SEO tools, mobile-optimized site and 10GB of storage.
- Business: $39.98. Online store, membership features and 5 email addresses.
Webstarts Pros
- Editor: You get plenty of freedom with Webstarts’ drag-and-drop editor, allowing you to customize your site easily.
- Live support: This is included in all plans – even the free one.
Webstarts Cons
- Backend: It’s a little old-school, and in need of an update to get it up-to-speed with the other more modern-looking tools.
- Pricing: It’s pricier than other tools, and you don’t necessarily get more.
Why choose Webstarts over Squarespace: The fact they even have a free-plan is a one-up on Squarespace, and you get more flexibility with the editor, too.
14. Mobirise: Install it on Your Computer
If you’d prefer to create and edit your website offline, you might like to know about Mobirise. It allows you to install its website builder software on your Mac or PC (although you’ll need a good understanding of FTP).
The standard free version comes with a few templates and basic features. However, any extra features come at an additional cost (and they don’t actually publish these prices on their website).
Mobirise Pros
- Edit offline: You don’t need an internet connection to work on your site (unless, of course, if you need to publish it or make changes live).
- Freemium model: It’s entirely possible to make a basic site for free with Mobirise, although you’ll need to pay for any extras (and web hosting).
Mobirise Cons
- Slower to make changes: Not working out of a web-based tool also has its downside – it takes a bit of extra work to publish any changes to your site.
- Requires FTP connection: You need some technical knowledge in order to set your site up and get it hosted. In short, not ideal for beginners.
Why choose Mobirise over Squarespace? If being able to work on your site offline is important to you, Mobirise lets you do this a bit easier than Squarespace’s Developer Platform (which is also editable offline) does.
15. Bookmark: AI Websites?
Sometimes having too many options for website designs can be overwhelming. Bookmark solves this problem by taking the decision-making out of the process.
Its ADI feature uses artificial intelligence to build you a site, based on how you respond to a few questions. You get a personalized site with its own theme and colors, ready to go.
It’s not the only website builder to offer ADI-based websites (Wix and Jimdo do too), but they are its specialty.
Bookmark Prices
- Free: $0 a month. Displays ads. Comes with 500MB of storage.
- Professional: $11.99 a month. Ad-free. Unlimited bandwidth and pages.
- Business: $24.99 a month. Includes online store.
Bookmark Pros
- Simplicity: Answer a few simple questions, and get a ready-to-edit website in seconds. It can’t get any easier than that.
- Responsive websites: Designs will automatically adapt to any screen size.
Bookmark Cons
- Luck of the draw: In theory, Bookmark is supposed to suggest the perfect design for you, but you might love your website design, or you might hate it. Not that you’re completely stuck with it – you’ll have options to adapt your designs.
- Price: It is a more expensive option than other website builders.
Why choose Bookmark over Squarespace? Prefer to sit back and let all the work of building a website get taken care of for you? Bookmark is definitely the better choice for this.
16. Weblium: Nice Designs
Weblium describe themselves as ‘a next generation website builder’.
And while it may not be immediately apparent what that means, it’s true that their website (which was built using Weblium) looks very cool and modern, and that the sample websites featured on the site are impressive too.
Their do-it-yourself website builder sports an ‘AI design supervisor’, which automatically adjusts formatting, colors and fonts so that they’re consistent with the style of your site.
Sounds promising, so let’s jump in to see why it’s a good alternative to Squarespace.
Weblium Prices
- Free: $0 a month. Includes Weblium domain and branding.
- Pro: $15/month. Ad-free. Includes cloud hosting, SSL certificate and SEO and marketing tools. (For a 20% discount off the Pro plan, sign up here using this discount code: FQ81XEU)
- Agency: Custom pricing. For 5+ sites.
Weblium Pros
- Templates: Weblium provide a generous selection of templates, all of which look great, too. They’re particularly strong in professional designs, e.g. for business and tech.
- Flexible content blocks: For each section/content block on your site, you can choose from a range of alternative designs and layouts. You can also add in new sections that aren’t already included in the template – there are of hundreds of pre-designed layouts to choose from, ranging from galleries, contact forms, FAQ sections and more.
- Great design options: On top of having modern-looking templates, they also allow you to directly add Unsplash stock photos to your site, and apply site-wide color palettes.
Weblium Cons
- Blog: While there are options to add blog feeds and posts, the blogging functionality is pretty basic (for example, there’s no specific blogging editor). The tool itself isn’t really built for blogging (at least not yet), so if that’s the main purpose of your site I wouldn’t recommend it.
- Subscription forms: There’s no pre-designed content block to add a subscription form to your site. However it does let you add embed codes, which is an acceptable workaround – although the form design may not be consistent with your site.
- No online store: At the moment, it’s not possible to run a ecommerce sites through Weblium.
Why choose Weblium over Squarespace? If you want a website with a high-quality design that’s fairly fast to put together, Weblium with its ready-to-go layouts is worth a go. Note that it’s best for fairly simple websites (e.g. a business website) – it’s not really suitable for more complex sites that require a blog or online store.
Try Weblium for free here (or sign up to their Pro plan and get a 20% discount with voucher code FQ81XEU).
Which Squarespace competitor is right for my site?
As it turns out, there are plenty of great alternatives to Squarespace to help you build any kind of website.
I hope I’ve given you a few ideas as to which one could work best for you. Here’s a quick round-up of the different options:
- For online stores: Wix (smaller stores) and Shopify (medium to large)
- For blogs: Weebly, WordPress
- For larger sites: Weebly
- For multilingual sites: Duda, Webnode, Mozello
- For ease of use: Weebly, Jimdo, Weblium
- For one-page layouts: Strikingly
- For AI-site builders: Wix, Jimdo
- For cheap, small and basic sites: Webnode, Jimdo
- For designers: Wix, Webflow
- For full control: WordPress, Webflow
Best of luck with building your website! If you have any questions about Squarespace, or any of the alternatives above, let us know in the comments below.
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We keep our content up to date
01 Nov 2024: Shopify Trial Period.
18 Jul 2023: Wix and Webnode pricing updates reflected
12 Jan 2022: Checked for accuracy and smaller updates
15 Jul 2021: Update for Jimdo and several other website builders
20 Jan 2020: Weebly pricing update, other changes
14 Aug 2019: A few structural updates
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