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IDK the lack of ability to export _your_ data and leave when _you_ feel like it is pretty much crap. Frankly, from a product perspective it's short-sighted. Le

IDK the lack of ability to export _your_ data and leave when _you_ feel like it is pretty much crap. Frankly, from a product perspective it's short-sighted. Let people leave. Find out why. Fix the problem(s). But if you hold them hostage you're holding your own product back _and_ you're creating ill-will towards your brand. Lose, lose. That's not forgivable.

ghaff 6y ago
I don't see anyone's data being held hostage. I do see a specialized hosting service that will require you to rebuild/redesign your site if you migrate away. Yes, there are higher migration costs if you use Squarespace. For a lot of people those are reasonable in exchange for lower up-front and maintenance costs. People should absolutely consider the lock-in factor but there's not a universal correct answer.
- lupire 6y ago
  My website HTML+JS content is my data.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Then use a more generic hosting site. I don't see anyone preventing you. There's always a tradeoff.
    - chiefalchemist 6y ago
      Because it's too much trouble for an outfit like SP to write an export feature?? And why not read the whole comment? You buried the lede.
      - ghaff 6y ago
        So they should have an export function to export all the supporting Squarespace code? Yes, that seems like an unreasonable expectation. If being able to easily lift and shift is important to you, no one is keeping you from hand-coding your site and/or using some sort of static site generator and hosting it on a generic platform. If you write an application using AWS-specific services, you're not going to be able to trivially migrate that either. It's a tradeoff.
  - djrogers 6y ago
    If that’s how you feel, then curl away…
  - bpicolo 6y ago
    Every page on Squarespace has a JSON format if you want the lot: https://www.squarespace.com/?format=json https://www.squarespace.com/?format=json
kevinob11 6y ago
I get where you are coming from as an idea, and generally I agree you should own your data. That being said you can export your data from Squarespace, you just can't "transfer" your site to alternative hosting because the platform is proprietary. So it isn't that they won't let you leave, it is that you are trading (pros) not having to think about hosting and security for (cons) slightly higher migration costs, and I think in this case pros outweigh the cons for sites below a certain level of scope.
debaserab2 6y ago
They have an export feature right in the settings page for your site.

ghaff 6y ago

I don't see anyone's data being held hostage. I do see a specialized hosting service that will require you to rebuild/redesign your site if you migrate away. Yes, there are higher migration costs if you use Squarespace. For a lot of people those are reasonable in exchange for lower up-front and maintenance costs. People should absolutely consider the lock-in factor but there's not a universal correct answer.

lupire 6y ago
My website HTML+JS content is my data.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Then use a more generic hosting site. I don't see anyone preventing you. There's always a tradeoff.
  - chiefalchemist 6y ago
    Because it's too much trouble for an outfit like SP to write an export feature?? And why not read the whole comment? You buried the lede.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      So they should have an export function to export all the supporting Squarespace code? Yes, that seems like an unreasonable expectation. If being able to easily lift and shift is important to you, no one is keeping you from hand-coding your site and/or using some sort of static site generator and hosting it on a generic platform. If you write an application using AWS-specific services, you're not going to be able to trivially migrate that either. It's a tradeoff.
- djrogers 6y ago
  If that’s how you feel, then curl away…
- bpicolo 6y ago
  Every page on Squarespace has a JSON format if you want the lot: https://www.squarespace.com/?format=json https://www.squarespace.com/?format=json

kevinob11 6y ago

I get where you are coming from as an idea, and generally I agree you should own your data. That being said you can export your data from Squarespace, you just can't "transfer" your site to alternative hosting because the platform is proprietary. So it isn't that they won't let you leave, it is that you are trading (pros) not having to think about hosting and security for (cons) slightly higher migration costs, and I think in this case pros outweigh the cons for sites below a certain level of scope.

debaserab2 6y ago

They have an export feature right in the settings page for your site.