What is Squarespace 7.1, and should you be using it?
If you’re a die-hard Squarespace fan like me, then you likely know all about Squarespace 7.1.
But if you’re just an average Squarespace user (aka the majority of people reading this) you may have heard of Squarespace 7.1, but really, you don’t know much about it 🤷♀️ (To be fair to you, there’s not much information about it anywhere yet and it is pretty darn confusing.)
So in this article I’m going to do my best to give you a to-the-point, no-fluff overview of what it is, the main differences between 7.1 and 7.0, and most importantly, which you should be using.
What is Squarespace 7.0?
Squarespace 7.0 has been around for a long time now. If you started your website before 2020, you’ll definitely be using 7.0.
What is Squarespace 7.1?
Simply said, it is the new version of Squarespace. It’s not uncommon for Squarespace to do “upgrades” (I presume they worked their way up from 1.0, after all) so this isn’t really any different.
Important note: It’s a little odd that they named it 7.1 (instead of 8.0) as the .1 makes it seem like a small change, but don’t be confused by this, it’s big change and a whole new version.
So, which version are you using?
If you’re not sure which version your website is currently using, you can open up your website, click on “Help” in the sidebar, and there in the sidebar somewhere down the bottom it should say either 7.0 or 7.1 (here’s the instructions directly from Squarespace)
What are the main differences between 7.0 and 7.1?
There are a lot, actually. The biggest differences are:
The way the templates work
In Squarespace 7.0 there was a variety of different templates to choose from. These templates all had different underlaying functions, so depending on while template you chose, your website would have different abilities (more on how that works in 7.0 here).
With 7.1, there’s no more choosing templates with different functionalities The templates for Squarespace 7.1 all have the same underlying functions.
If this is confusing to you, then don’t even worry about it. Basically, all 7.1 sites are equal, which makes things really easy. You will have to still start by choosing a template (see the 7.1 templates here), but the only differences between the templates are the initial designs (colors, fonts, images) and all of the structure and abilities are the same.
Overall this is an improvement on 7.0. Instead of having a ton of different templates that had different abilities, just have one page builder that is the same across the board.
The builder
Page building, site styles and all of the main functions for the actual design portion of your site have changed a lot.
The biggest differences are:
No more index pages: now we can have multiple sections within one page. 7.1 has blessed us with long, stacking single pages instead — this is a huge improvement!
Individual Page section settings: You actually have MUCH more control of each individual page section. You can edit width, height and even color profiles of each section within a page, rather than those settings applying site-wide, which is great!
The Site Styles (now called Design Settings): are organized *arguably* better than they are in 7.0. They are grouped by fonts, colors, buttons (etc) and they are applied site-wide. So instead of having one mega Site Styles that covers everything, they are now organized into separate groups. They are constantly updating the Site Styles section, it definitely needs some work still but they are on the right track.
Portfolio Pages: These are new collection pages and they’re pretty awesome. They are similar to how you would structure Blog Posts but they’re specifically for Portfolios and Galleries. You can find out more info about them here. They’re not perfect yet, but something cool we never had in 7.0.
Sticky Nav: There’s an built-in function to have a sticky header navigation, which is something that 7.0 never had.
There are a ton of other little changes you’ll notice when you start building a 7.1 site, but those are the biggest ones.
It’s lacking some features still
When 7.1 first launched, it was lacking A LOT of features that 7.0 used to have, which made me and many other reluctant to working with it. But, in the last few months Squarespace has been working hard to implement these missing features at our request, and it’s improved a ton.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot missing. Squarespace says that they ARE planning to add a lot of them back in, but right now, the features in 7.1 are still more limited. The whole list of things “missing” from 7.1 is likely too long to list here, so it’s I definitely recommend experimenting for yourself and making sure it has the features you need before you commit to it.
Here’s some important things 7.1 is missing:
No secondary navigation or many options for editing the layout of your header nav. They’ve recently added a few more layout options for the header, but still, the lack of secondary nav is a bit frustrating.
Gallery blocks are no longer a thing
Gallery pages are also no longer a thing. I believe they added the Portfolio Collection pages (I talked about these above) and thought that it would be a replacement for the Gallery pages, but in fact it’s quite a lot different and the Gallery pages were useful for a lot of things that the Portfolio pages can’t replicate.
No Parallax background images - this is something that’s going into BETA as I write this, so I would say it will be available soon, yay!
No Sidebar ability (if you’re a Brine user you probably won’t care, but it’s not good for bloggers) I use this Plugin for my sidebar — it’s a great alternative until Squarespace adds this feature.
The responsive mobile design isn’t very good. There’s hardly any options to edit the mobile styles or spacing, which is frustrating — even less than there was in 7.0 (which wasn’t much). Hopefully they put their focus to this, as mobile design is just as important as desktop design!
No developer more. For most people reading this post, this means nothing. But, for developers, this is a big reason to never use 7.1, *yikes*
This is not a full list of things, not even close, just things that I will miss personally and I know A LOT of people use. The full list is likely a lot longer than this.
Please note: I’m updating this list as often as I can, but because 7.1 is changing so rapidly, it might not be exact. Make sure you check these things out for yourself as some of them may have recently become available!
So, should you use 7.1 or 7.0?
Good question! With a complex answer (sorry)
If you are already on 7.0
Unless you are planning a complete site re-design, I wouldn’t bother moving. There’s no benefit to moving, and there’s no reason you would need to move.
Right now it’s not actually possible to “transfer”. You have to manually start a new site from scratch *facepalm*. This means you can’t transfer your blog posts, shop items or page content, and it could be a long and painful process.
Squarespace has said that they WILL be releasing a way to transfer, but because the platforms are so different right now, it’s probably going to take them a while to get it right.
They have also said that WILL keep supporting Squarespace 7.0 and don’t plan to phase it out anytime soon. I suspect that they will phase it out eventually, but not until 7.1 is actually superior (right now I don’t believe it is), and not until there is a simple way to transfer your current site.
So if you’re on 7.0 right now, my recommendation is to stay put until they release a simple way for you to transfer, and until 7.1 has more features that compare to 7.0.
If you are on 7.0 and want to use one of our premium 7.1 templates, I wrote a more in-depth post here about if you should move or if you shouldn’t move, and how to do it.
If you don’t have a site already
If you have never used Squarespace before, or aren’t too savvy with Squarespace, you’ll probably find that 7.1 will be the easiest place to start. I believe for beginners 7.1 is easier than 7.0.
If you’re not too familiar with 7.0, then you won’t notice any of those “missing features” we talked about, and it should be sufficient enough for what you need.
But, if you’re pretty familiar with Squarespace 7.0 or you’re a Squarespace Designer, there is no harm is still starting with 7.0.
It is still a great platform, and it should be pretty simple for you to transfer down the track when Squarespace brings out a transfer feature.
Squarespace is putting a push on new users starting with 7.1. When you start a brand new site with Squarespace now, it automatically starts you with 7.1. — 7.0 is no longer the first option. But if you really want to start with 7.0, you can do so by accessing the 7.0 templates here.
If you are on 7.1 and want to use one of our premium 7.0 templates, I wrote a more in-depth post here about if you should move or if you shouldn’t move, and how to do it.
Final thoughts
I’m currently updating this post that I wrote a few months ago, and I’m happy to say that my overall opinion of 7.1 has changed dramatically.
After spending a lot of time in it and creating a bunch of Squarespace Template Kits for 7.1, I’ve come to really enjoy it.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s still missing a bunch of stuff that I miss from 7.0. But there’s a ton of new, awesome features to soften that blow. And with Squarespace constantly working on it, I think it will be up to the standard of 7.0, and even better, in no time!
The biggest thing missing right now is having a simple way to transfer your current site over, or even better to upgrade your current site. To me, this is one of the first things that they should have worked on. I’m crossing my fingers for something like this to come soon.
If you’re still not sure which to choose, or if you’re just interested, go ahead and start a 2-week free trial of both, have a play around and see which you prefer! That’s the best way to really see the differences.
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