If you’ve listened to any podcast ever, you already know the spiel: Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder that makes it easy to create a beautiful online presence. Numbers-wise, it’s one of the most popular web building and hosting service out there, supporting millions of websites across the internet. 

One of the primary reasons why Squarespace has seen this success — well, aside from all of those ad slots — is that it’s inherently all-inclusive. For about £10 to £30 per month, Squarespace plans offer access to hosting, around the clock customer support, website metrics, mobile optimisation, SSL security, unlimited storage and bandwidth, an intuitive drag-and-drop page builder, and dozens of original, modern templates.

Most of those features are self-explanatory, although the latter could benefit from a bit more elaboration: A Squarespace template determines how your site looks and works. Users have more than 90 different options to choose from, each of which has been designed and coded exclusively for Squarespace (which means you won’t find them on WordPress, Wix, or other site-building platforms). 

Every Squarespace template belongs to a so-called template family, or a group of similarly coded templates that are alike in their basic structure, functionality, and customisation options. Squarespace categorises its templates this way, per its support page, “to showcase their versatility and to help you find the layout and pre-set style options that work best as a starting point for your site.” Poking around within a family can be helpful if you want to see how Squarespace’s tools can be used to make websites look different, it adds, pointing to Brine and Thorne (below) as good examples of two templates that are in the same family of template, but styled differently:

What’s great about Squarespace is that it caters to users of all web design skill levels, with each template falling somewhere on a customisation spectrum. Some templates give you the tools to go all-out with fonts, colours, image effects, border sizes, landing pages, and more, letting you fine-tune every detail, whereas others offer only a few style options to eliminate any potential hassles. It’s up to you to decide how much time and effort you’ll dedicate to designing your site.

At this point, you’re probably wondering: How do these features set Squarespace apart from, say, WordPress, another popular platform? The short of it is this: You get what you pay for. With WordPress, you’ve got virtually unlimited customisation options if you cough up some dough for hosting services, quality themes, and reputable plugins. 

Squarespace offers far less flexibility in comparison, but all of its templates are ultra-reliable and mobile-ready. And while they’re not as prolific as WordPress plugins, Squarespace supports the official integrations of certain services, including Acuity Scheduling (to let visitors schedule an appointment), Apple News (to cross-publish your content), and Paypal (to let your site accept PayPal payments from customers), among a few dozen others. Plus, most of the technical drudgery for your site is handled by Squarespace’s team of experts so you can direct your focus elsewhere. 

If Squarespace sounds like the right solution for you, know this: You really can’t go wrong with any of its templates. Like, it’s almost impossible to make an ugly Squarespace site, but just in case you need a little help to get the ball rolling on the site of your dreams, save yourself a Google search and just keep reading.

These are 10 of the best template options for all sort of purposes, from podcasts to portfolios and beyond.

Best for blogging

Image: five

The Good

Sidebars, sidebars everywhere • Highly flexible

The Bad

No index page

The Bottom Line

An oldie and a goodie for bloggers who value versatility and a sidebar (or two).

Five

An oldie and a goodie for bloggers who value versatility and a sidebar (or two).

• Family: Five

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Five may be one of the older Squarespace templates out there, but it’s anything but washed up. One of its main draws is its support for sidebars, which can play an important role on one’s blog. 
You can use a sidebar to highlight promotions, house a call-to-action, or plug your bio and social media handles to build your brand. Every page on a Five site can feature up to two sidebars; in fact, Five is the only Squarespace template that features a two-sidebar design. 
With Five, you’ve also got options to showcase your content in the form of full-width banners and videos, tweak your navigation menu, style galleries as grids or slideshows, create events, and much more. Plus, Five supports Squarespace’s integrated commerce feature so you can set up an online store once your blog takes off.  

Best for e-commerce

Image: galapagos

The Good

Interactive shopping experience • Clean layout

The Bad

Few opportunities for customisation

The Bottom Line

Sometimes basic isn’t a bad thing, especially if it takes the fuss out of incorporating interactive design elements.

Galapagos

Sometimes basic isn’t a bad thing, especially if it takes the fuss out of incorporating interactive design elements.

• Family: Galapagos

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For an elegant online shop that requires minimal effort on your part, Galapagos is where it’s at. 
Its customisation options are pretty limited compared to most other ecommerce Squarespace templates, but that means you can spend less time designing your site and more time selling your stuff. Your customers won’t even know the difference, either, because the final result will look and work as if you spent hours perfecting its design: With a Quick View feature, Product Image Zoom, and several product layouts and special on-hover effects to choose from, Galapagos can make your shop fully interactive in just a few clicks and drags. 
Besides your Products page, the Galapagos theme can also support list-style blogs with one sidebar, galleries styled as slideshows or grids, calendars or lists of events, an album page with playable music, and a unique landing page.  

BEST FOR A PORTFOLIO

Image: wexley

The Good

Adaptive grid layout • Tools for online shop • Single sidebar can be added to blog

The Bad

Non-landing pages are pretty unexciting

The Bottom Line

A simple yet beautiful way to showcase your best creative work that facilitates visitor exploration.

Wexley

A simple yet beautiful way to showcase your best creative work that facilitates visitor exploration.

• Family: Wexley

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Wexley is another older template that’s stuck around for a reason: Its “adaptive mosaic” layout for visuals — that’s Squarespace’s way of saying “fancy grid” — has proven to be a compelling way to flaunt one’s artwork and photography. 
It works like this: You’ll put together a landing page that features the best of your portfolio, wherein every image will be optimi