Honest thoughts on Squarespace’s new Fluid Engine

I’ve made it no secret that WordPress is my preferred platform and that Squarespace has not been my fave.

What haven’t I like about it? 
❌ The simplicity of the builder meant all websites generally look the same and cookie-cutter
❌ If you didn’t want it to look cookie cutter, you had to use a lot of code
❌ You had no control (without writing code) of the mobile responsive design 
❌ The rigidity of the spacing and where you could place elements made it hard to make it look *exactly* how you wanted it to look or create modern designs (which as a web designer, I did NOT love).

And then a few months ago, Squarespace released a new builder called Fluid Engine. 

A lot Squarespace designers are not happy, jan. They really don’t like the update. I get it, change is hard when you’ve invested a lot of time learning a platform.

But me – I love it. 

The 3 main reasons I love Squarespace’s new Fluid Engine builder

1. You can create complex designs – with ZERO code

Squarespace’s classic builder was rigid, which in some ways was great because it made it hard to create a bad design. But, it also made it hard to create a unique, modern or creative design.
With Fluid Engine, you can now easily create unique and complex designs, with no code – simply by dragging and dropping. Check it out >

2. You have full control over the mobile design

In the classic builder, your mobile design was just your desktop design stacked, and that was that. You had no control, unless you used code, and often it was not a pretty site (get it). 

For example, if you had a desktop design that went:
<Image> <Text>
<Text> <Image>
On mobile, that would stack to be:
<Image>
<Text>
<Text >
<Image>
Those two text boxes together instead of alternating image, text, image, text – killed me every time. 

But with Fluid Engine, you now have complete control over the mobile design as well. Just as on desktop, you can drag and drop and create any mobile design you like. 

In 2022 your mobile site design is so. damn. important. 
And with Squarespace/Fluid Engine, you finally have the ability to make it an amazing user-experience. 

3. More flexibility and control of your fonts and text design

In the old builder, you’d have one font, one size and one colour setting for each of your heading levels (H1, H2, etc) and there was no flexibility. 

In Fluid Engine, you can change the colour of every text element on your page and make it any colour from your colour palette, and you can also add a background colour to text boxes.
You can also adjust the vertical alignment of your text box (top, middle, bottom), or change your heading to “fit” the size of the text box you’ve created.

So, is Squarespace / Fluid Engine for you?

While I have decided that I will be adding Squarespace builds as an alternative option to WordPress for my clients – I still don’t believe it’s for everyone. 

For example, if SEO is important to you – WordPress is 100% the way to go. Or if you want a website that will grow with your business and be able to add any functionality you could ever possibly imagine as your business grows and evolves – again, WordPress. Using Elementor (the WordPress page builder I use) you do not need to know any code to build a WordPress website. 

I recently build a site for a client with Fluid Engine and still needed to use code in a number of places to get the desired look or functionality.

But if SEO and future capability needs aren’t your concern – 
and you want a site that requires no maintenance, minimum tech knowledge, is easy to use – and now, has the capability to create unique designs to represent your brand… Then Squarespace is for you. 

Note: Fluid Engine is only available with Squarespace 7.1. If you want to check whether your current Squarespace site is compatible with Fluid Engine – Log into your website > Click ‘Help’ > Scroll to the bottom of the panel until you see “Squarespace Version 1.X. If it’s 7.1, you can use Fluid Engine. If it’s 7.0, you would need to rebuild you whole site on a new 7.1 site to access Fluid Engine.

Would you like to see Squarespace (Fluid Engine) Website Templates?

With the new capabilities of Fluid Engine, I believe it’s now possible to recreate my WordPress|Elementor Website Template designs in Squarespace. If that is something you would like to see me create, please register your interest below.