
Ask HN: Have you developed with Squarespace? - jc_811
I don&#x27;t mean just choosing one of their templates and editing the content, but actually using their developer tools to create your own template&#x2F;site from scratch.<p>Documentation: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;developers.squarespace.com&#x2F;initial-setup<p>From what I can see it looks pretty solid and a much smaller learning curve than something like WordPress.<p>I was wondering if anyone here had any experience using Squarespace&#x27;s developer tools to build your own site, or a client&#x27;s site from scratch. If so, would you use it again? Would you recommend it to another developer?
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johnny_utah
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...](http://www.instrument.com/latest/creating-a-clean-
custom-maintainable-site-with-squarespace)

Hope that helps!

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jc_811
Thanks for answering! Definitely very helpful

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markplindsay
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.

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ericzawo
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.

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jc_811
That's good info, I really appreciate the feedback

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yrezgui
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.

