Squarespace | coursetoolbox.in

Gabrielle’s take:

Squarespace was founded in 2003, one of the very first tools of its kind that gained and sustained popularity in the early days. Fast forward to 2024, I think service-based small business owners are the only type of audience who benefits the most from the platform (e.g., you are offering consultation, coaching, etc.). The platform integrates a lot more features, but for each one of those features, you could always find alternatives that are either cheaper or better suited.

Squarespace’s strength:

Best for people who need a website + meeting scheduling tool + email service provider (ESP). Start with $16 (Core) + $5 = $21/month

For people selling digital products, recommend the following substitutes:

Getting started: Podia (https://www.podia.com/). It is a great option for people who are just getting started and don’t want to lock themselves into a yearly subscription plan. Their free version offers a website builder, email service provider, and blog, which is perfect for someone who just started out building an online presence.
Getting started: Gumroad (https://gumroad.com/) (Flat 10% fee with a discoverable marketplace and no monthly subscription charges compared to the 9% fee + monthly subscription of Squarespace.
Selling with high volume. Graphy (https://graphy.com/us/pricing/). The $36 monthly plan has no transaction fees, unlimited products, and up to 10,000 contacts

For people selling courses

Getting started: Teachable (https://teachable.com/pricing). It has a free tier (10% fee after sales) for 1 published product of each type (course, coaching, downloads). However, it does not have integrated email marketing or custom domains.
Selling with high volume: Learnworlds (https://www.learnworlds.com/pricing/) The $24/month starting plan has unlimited paid courses and a $5/course sale fee. Great for anyone who has multiple course offerings.

eCommerce

Shopify (https://www.shopify.com/). Still, the No.1 eCommerce platform to date. It has a huge collection of 3rd-party apps specifically tailored to online sellers that no other platform could be comparable. It also offers a $1/month plan for the first three months which is good enough for people to test the waters and decide if they want to commit to online sales.

Squarespace features

Email builder

Email Campaigns are a great starting point for business owners who simply need to send weekly or monthly newsletters to their smaller audience.

However, they aren’t the best option for advanced funnels and automation, which usually come with their own needs and requirements from an email campaign platform.

So, if you’re a business owner who is just starting and looking for easy integration between your website and email list, I’d say go for it!

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