Should I buy a Squarespace Template or Invest in Custom Website Design?
So, you’ve decided to use Squarespace for your website? Excellent choice! You are one step closer to a chef’s kiss beautiful new home for your business!
If you haven’t fully committed to a website platform yet, check out this post on choosing the best website builder for your business.
Now it’s time to decide if you want to go ahead and purchase a Squarespace Template to get you up and running or if you should invest in a completely custom Squarespace design. This is a question we get asked often and it’s a super valid one, especially for new business owners.
At Big Cat Creative, we sell Squarespace Templates and we don’t offer custom design. However, we’re going to be totally unbiased with the info in this post, because we believe that there’s a place and a need for both of these services and our main goal is to make sure that you’re making the right decision for where you’re at in your business journey!
Hopefully by the end of this blog, you’ll be extra confident in deciding between going with a Squarespace Template or investing in a custom design.
Let’s get started!
Squarespace for Small Business Owners
Before we dive into the nitty gritty of templates vs custom design, let’s talk about why Squarespace, in general, is so great for small business owners.
1. Ease of Use
Squarespace was built with the DIY user in mind. They give you all of the necessary tools but don’t overcomplicate anything or give you too many options to choose from. With the new Fluid Engine editor, creating a basic design in Squarespace is as easy as drag & drop! You can also add a blog, a shop or a course with just a few tweaks and the backend is very easy to learn and navigate.
Being able to make your own changes and updates to your site is an incredible asset as a small business owner. Hiring someone every time you need to make changes can be really really costly and, honestly, a waste of your time.
2. All-In-One Platform
Squarespace is like an all-inclusive resort. Everything you could need to build your website is included and already built into the platform!
You can add a blog or an e-commerce store. You can set up a course, send emails, or create a portfolio. The list truly goes on and on. Squarespace has a tool for pretty much anything! This means that everything can be kept in the same place and split up between third-party platforms.
👉 5 awesome features you can add to ANY Squarespace website
3. Security
Squarespace is a “closed source” platform, meaning that everything you use is completely safe and integrated within the platform by the developers themselves! Squarespace also directly hosts all of its sites (meaning you don’t need to purchase website hosting somewhere else), so they handle all of the updates and security for you!
In addition to that, Squarespace provides free SSL certificates for every website, ensuring that every connection to your site is secure. This keeps your data and your site visitor’s data safe.
4. Customer Support
One of our absolute favorite things about Squarespace is their FREE support! If you ever get stuck it’s good to know that there’s a team dedicated to responding to your questions and helping you out. They also have a huge library of detailed tutorials covering anything and everything to help you out on your DIY journey.
For even more information on why we highly recommend Squarespace for small business owners, check out our full blog post here 👉 Why I recommend Squarespace for small business owners
Squarespace Templates vs Custom Design
Now that you’re (even more) positive that Squarespace is the best move for you and your business, let’s discuss the differences between Templates and a custom Squarespace design.
Squarespace Templates
Squarespace Templates, sometimes referred to as Squarespace Kits or Squarespace Themes, are developed by third party businesses (like us!) to help you build your new website on your own.
The features of these Templates can vary between each provider, but usually include a package of editable graphics and step by step tutorials to show you how to set up your website and make edits.
No two template providers offer exactly the same process, so it’s important to make sure you know what you’re getting before you invest.
Pricing
Prices for Templates can range anywhere from $80-$500 depending on where you’re purchasing from. Our templates range from $197-$497.
Pros of using a Template
Much cheaper than a custom design.
You learn how to actually use and maintain your site in the process, meaning you’ll be able to easily make changes when needed.
You can be picky about which design you like.
Ultimately, you have complete control over your own website.
Cons of using a Template
Since it’s a template, it will never be 100% custom to your business, but this can also depend on how much you edit it.
You don’t get the 1:1 professional designer support that would come with a custom design.
So, when should you use a Squarespace Template?
We would strongly recommend using a Squarespace Template when you’re just starting your business or are in the first year or so.
Your business will change within the first year, whether you plan on it or not! You might not need to completely revamp everything, but you’ll definitely find yourself tweaking and changing things here and there. Because of this, having a Template allows you to:
Go in and make small edits yourself whenever you need.
Save some money - if you’ve invested thousands into something custom and your business model changes, you’ll not only have wasted that money, but you’ll likely need to rehire your designer to make the necessary changes for you, which ends up being really costly.
This isn’t to say that you can’t use a Squarespace Template to build your website further into your business. However, in the beginning, you tend to have:
Less resources
Less money
And are in need of something adaptable and self-sustaining
Cue the Squarespace Templates!
If you’re worried that a Template might not have all of the features you need on your website, just reach out to the provider and ask! In most cases, they will be more than happy to answer your questions and steer you in the right direction (if they’re not, go with someone else).
And there’s always the option of hiring someone hourly to add extra features & touches. Doing that is often still much cheaper than getting something custom.
So, if you’re in the early stages of your business, have a smaller budget, and really want to learn how to build and maintain your site yourself, then we definitely recommend looking into a Squarespace Template!
Custom Website Design
Investing in a custom Squarespace design is exactly as it sounds. You hire a professional to build your website from scratch!
Pricing
Prices for a custom design can range anywhere from $1,000-$10,000 depending on what your specific needs are (you’ll usually get a custom quote). It’s not uncommon for website designers to have a set amount and then charge extra for additional pages, features, etc.
Pros of a custom website design
You get a 100% custom website that’s completely unique to your business.
You’ll be working 1:1 with a designer, so you’ll get professional support throughout the process.
You have the opportunity to add certain integrations and custom coded features that are much harder (if not impossible) to do yourself.
Cons of a custom website design
It’s a large investment.
Custom designs can take a long time to complete, depending on the designer’s process.
If you need to make changes in the future, you’ll likely need to rehire your designer to do it for you which is going to be an additional cost.
So, when should you invest in a custom website design?
Custom websites are amazing, but they’re also an investment. That’s why we recommend only going for a custom design once you have been in business for at least 1 year, and you have a really solid idea of what your business message is.
If you take the leap too early on and decide you want to change things only a couple months down the line, it’s going to be a huge waste of your time, energy and money.
You’ll end up scrapping a large part (if not all) of the website that you’ve already waited on and paid for.
You’ll probably need to rehire your designer (or maybe even find a new one if you weren’t happy with the first) to make the changes you’re needing because you didn’t learn the platform for yourself.
After 1 year of business you’ll also, hopefully, have the funds to make this investment without going into debt. Obviously, this is huge as you really don’t want to be getting yourself into too much debt at any point of your business!
Now, If you do decide to go custom (at any point in your business journey) we highly recommend hiring someone who also plans to show you how to make updates to your site OR someone who is in your budget to potentially hire on a monthly or hourly basis after the main project is complete. Here’s why:
You will need to make changes to your website content at some point during the life of your business.
Websites are never really “done” and you want to make sure that you have support for tweaks and edits if you aren’t able to do it yourself.
With technology, things can happen unexpectedly (like a link breaking or a page going down) and you might not be able to find a designer you’ve never worked with before to help on the spot. At least not anyone remotely affordable!
It’s also a common mistake to think that just because you want or need one special feature, plugin, or app installed on your website that you have to get a completely custom design. There’s always the option to hire a designer/developer later on to add a feature for you at an hourly rate, and oftentimes doing this, on top of a Squarespace Template, is still cheaper than getting a completely custom design!
Just always make sure you check with the Template provider as well as your custom designer/developer to make sure that the extras you want are possible before committing.
With that being said, if you do need a whole bunch of custom features, you’ll probably be better off going custom right from the start.
All in all, custom websites can really be incredible, so if you’re in the right stage of business and financially ready to invest in one, then we say go for it!
An important note on choosing your custom web designer or template provider
If you are considering investing in a custom Squarespace design, please please please pick your designer carefully. There are SO many Squarespace Designers on the internet, and it’s really easy to spend a small fortune on something that you could probably do yourself with a Template. OR, you could end up skimping out and get a “custom design” for cheap that is just really awful.
Because Squarespace is such a user friendly platform, literally anyone can claim that they’re a “Squarespace Designer”. This just means that it’s so important to do lots of thorough research before you hire anyone.
Make sure that they are legitimate and that you have seen previous work that they have done as well as plenty of good testimonials! You can also get on a phone call with them to make sure that it feels like a good fit in person, not just on paper. And make sure you sign a contract!
You’ll also want to do really good research when you’re purchasing a Squarespace Template.
Similarly, there are a TON of Squarespace Template designers out there these days too, but not all templates are made equal. You will get a whole different process and different resources with your Template depending on who you buy from. So, make sure that you’re fully aware of what you’re buying.
We would not recommend purchasing based on design alone! You’ll want to look at what’s included, what kind of support they offer, customer testimonials, and examples of actual customer designs using the Templates. Then you can weigh up your options confidently.
We hope that you are now much clearer on the differences between Squarespace Templates and Squarespace custom designs and feel good about making that big decision for your own business!
If you have any questions about our Squarespace Template Kits, feel free to get in touch. We’re happy to help!
Want more tips? Check out the posts below! 👇
How much will building your website on Squarespace actually cost
8 pages you should have on your website as a small business owner
The best Squarespace website templates for bloggers
The Best Portfolio Squarespace Templates to Showcase your Work
The best Squarespace website templates for photographers
