Ask HN: Have you developed with Squarespace?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11035302

by jc_811 • 10 years ago

20 6 10 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I don't mean just choosing one of their templates and editing the content, but actually using their developer tools to create your own template/site from scratch.

Documentation: http://developers.squarespace.com/initial-setup

From what I can see it looks pretty solid and a much smaller learning curve than something like WordPress.

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience using Squarespace's developer tools to build your own site, or a client's site from scratch. If so, would you use it again? Would you recommend it to another developer?

ericzawo• 10 years ago

I'm working on this right now for my company. I have limited web developing experience though I've puttered around on Wordpress for about a decade and know some fundamental HTML and CSS. We're moving from Wordpress to Squarespace for both ease of theme customization (from a technically limited standpoint!) and overall more pleasing aesthetic. Our site as it stands is perfectly functional, but looks like it's from 2006, and we currently would rather not hire a web design company again and do it ourselves.

jc_8112• 10 years ago

That's good info, I really appreciate the feedback

johnny_utah• 10 years ago

I've been using Squarespace's developer platform for a gallery site. It's decent. I used the blank developer template, so I built most of the CSS from scratch. In my opinion, some of the drawbacks are:

- The editable text fields only support h1, h2, h3, and p tags. If you plan to have four font sizes or the people maintaining the site don't mind using the editable code blocks, this isn't a bad thing. - If you use the built-in blocks then write your own CSS overrides, you are assuming those classnames (generated on squarespace's side) will be the same. Forever. - I found myself overriding a lot of the system blocks with very bad css (some !importants)

The good things: - Every post has an associated JSON endpoint. No heavy lifting on this side. - In my experience, support gets back to you in a day or less with helpful answers. - The support for custom post types (See the docs) is finally acknowledged.

In my opinion, the developer tools are great for your own site or if the client has familiarity with basic html tags. I am not sure I would use it again for a site to hand off to a non-technical client. If the system blocks (built in video, text, image types) were customizable, I would recommend Squarespace more heartily.

I have not used Squarespace's ecommerce functionality so I am unqualified to comment on those. I have heard good things about Webflow's CMS offering, so I would check that out to compare.

This post was very helpful to me in seeing how other people use the dev platform (I have no affiliation): http://www.instrument.com/latest/creating-a-clean-custom-mai...

Hope that helps!

jc_8112• 10 years ago

Thanks for answering! Definitely very helpful

markplindsay• 10 years ago

I've worked on a client's Squarespace site on and off for the past couple of years. I initially stepped in when they had reached their own limits with customization.

At first I used the in-browser stylesheet and template editors Squarespace's free/low-cost plan had to offer. But almost immediately my clients had to step up to a plan that allowed me to access the Git-based developer platform. Unfortunately, they wanted to retain much of their existing markup and styling. It was all dependent on the system blocks johnny_utah mentioned, so I couldn't take the greenfield approach. This created some problems, but it still didn't take me long to put together a very nice brochureware site. And I am definitely no expert with the platform.

Yes, I would recommend Squarespace over WordPress. It seems very empowering to slightly-technical users who might want to do creative things that would be difficult with even a customized/fully-plugged-in WordPress setup. Also, avoiding WordPress security issues and third-party hosting headaches is a big plus.

yrezgui• 10 years ago

If you play with their JSON Template thing, you'll suffer. Honestly, that pseudo language isn't even well documented. I had to go through so many posts or questions on different forums to find all its features. Their UI tool is still a good thing but it's definitely not that developer friendly.

Ask HN: Have you developed with Squarespace?

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