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Squarespace is the perfect solution for non-tech-savvy brick-and-mortar business who probably won't update their site more than once every 5 years. I'd say it h

Squarespace is the perfect solution for non-tech-savvy brick-and-mortar business who probably won't update their site more than once every 5 years. I'd say it has way better defaults than Wix. Beyond the mom-and-pop flower shop down the street or the friend that needs a portfolio site...not so much. Squarespace is good for the aforementioned users because the platform makes it hard for them to create bad designs and do stupid things. Putting either of those types of users on a Wordpress site would just be a total nightmare. HOWEVER, if you're even mildly tech-savvy, Squarespace (or site builders like Wix) become frustrating and limiting almost immediately. This is why I believe Webflow is ultimately the answer. It addresses all the downsides of Wordpress with none of the limitations. I think 5 years from now, Squarespace/Wix will completely own the mom-and-pop and portfolio space. I think Webflow will ultimately own the space inhabited today by Wordpress (as well as static site generators), and be powering the marketing & content sites for most businesses. Which is where the real money is.

armonraphiel 6y ago
If Webflow added native i18n support, I wouldn't be surprised if they ate up considerable marketshare from most headless CMS providers.
at-fates-hands 6y ago
>> I think Webflow will ultimately own the space inhabited today by Wordpress (as well as static site generators) Not sure about static site generators though. They already have a pretty big head start. Netlify, Stackbit and others are constantly adding services for both tech savvy and non technical folks. The area where Squarespace sets itself apart is really their available themes. Most are way better than Wordpress themes, and easier to change to suit your needs without much work. Static site generators like Gatsby just don't have the depth of themes like WP and Squarespace do. Its kind of the app store comparison. One is Apple and Android with millions of really good apps (WP, Squarespace) and the other is the MS app store which has a limited, sort of the run of the mill stuff (Gatsby, Netlify, Stackbit). If WebFlow can offer better designs out of the box, then I agree, they will most likely own the space. Design will always be the X factor to me.
cloogshicer 6y ago
I don't know if I agree. I recently tried Webflow and was not so impressed. It's basically a UI on top of CSS. Which is OK for developers, but there is still too much complexity and too many footguns for non-technical users. For example, take position: sticky. This CSS property is basically one-to-one mapped to a dropdown in Webflow. So I thought it would just work. But alas, just like the CSS pendant, it only works if the parent element has the correct properties. Also it only works in browsers that support it, and isn't polyfilled automatically. Maybe what I'm asking for is technically not feasible, but then the UI should disable the option in such cases and not hide this in a support page imho. I think a truly powerful website builder would have to leave the CSS paradigms behind and invent something new.
- terpimost 6y ago
  Tilda Publishing is the perfect balance
- migueloller 6y ago
  I agree 100%. It can’t just be a UI on too of CSS. At that point just write the HTML and CSS...
  - pembrook 6y ago
    To me that's the best part, they haven't abstracted away HTML/CSS, so you have control over everything like you would if you built a site from scratch. Creating HTML/CSS through a realtime updated UI is just so much faster and the better experience IMO. Its a great example of "Inventing on Principle," re: this great Bret Victor talk https://vimeo.com/36579366 https://vimeo.com/36579366 That said, coding from scratch, while slower than using Webflow, isn't the real pain point for me. But I can see how someone less technical might see that as the real value. The real hassle in building static sites from scratch is the nightmare of NPM, git, bad static site generator defaults, complicated headless CMSs configurations and fragile dependencies.

armonraphiel 6y ago

If Webflow added native i18n support, I wouldn't be surprised if they ate up considerable marketshare from most headless CMS providers.

at-fates-hands 6y ago

>> I think Webflow will ultimately own the space inhabited today by Wordpress (as well as static site generators) Not sure about static site generators though. They already have a pretty big head start. Netlify, Stackbit and others are constantly adding services for both tech savvy and non technical folks. The area where Squarespace sets itself apart is really their available themes. Most are way better than Wordpress themes, and easier to change to suit your needs without much work. Static site generators like Gatsby just don't have the depth of themes like WP and Squarespace do. Its kind of the app store comparison. One is Apple and Android with millions of really good apps (WP, Squarespace) and the other is the MS app store which has a limited, sort of the run of the mill stuff (Gatsby, Netlify, Stackbit). If WebFlow can offer better designs out of the box, then I agree, they will most likely own the space. Design will always be the X factor to me.

cloogshicer 6y ago

I don't know if I agree. I recently tried Webflow and was not so impressed. It's basically a UI on top of CSS. Which is OK for developers, but there is still too much complexity and too many footguns for non-technical users. For example, take position: sticky. This CSS property is basically one-to-one mapped to a dropdown in Webflow. So I thought it would just work. But alas, just like the CSS pendant, it only works if the parent element has the correct properties. Also it only works in browsers that support it, and isn't polyfilled automatically. Maybe what I'm asking for is technically not feasible, but then the UI should disable the option in such cases and not hide this in a support page imho. I think a truly powerful website builder would have to leave the CSS paradigms behind and invent something new.

terpimost 6y ago
Tilda Publishing is the perfect balance
migueloller 6y ago
I agree 100%. It can’t just be a UI on too of CSS. At that point just write the HTML and CSS...
- pembrook 6y ago
  To me that's the best part, they haven't abstracted away HTML/CSS, so you have control over everything like you would if you built a site from scratch. Creating HTML/CSS through a realtime updated UI is just so much faster and the better experience IMO. Its a great example of "Inventing on Principle," re: this great Bret Victor talk https://vimeo.com/36579366 https://vimeo.com/36579366 That said, coding from scratch, while slower than using Webflow, isn't the real pain point for me. But I can see how someone less technical might see that as the real value. The real hassle in building static sites from scratch is the nightmare of NPM, git, bad static site generator defaults, complicated headless CMSs configurations and fragile dependencies.