Squarespace is synonymous with good design. The platform built its brand on beautiful, curated templates that creative professionals trust. For years, "I'll just use Squarespace" was the default answer for anyone wanting a polished website.
But reputation and reality don't always align. We tested both Framekit and Squarespace across design quality, site performance, customization flexibility, and total cost. The results challenge assumptions about which platform actually delivers better design outcomes.
This comparison focuses specifically on what matters most to design-conscious users: how good does the final website look, how fast does it load, and how much control do you have over the result?
What we measured:
- Professional designer ratings of finished sites (blind evaluation)
- Google PageSpeed scores across mobile and desktop
- Template flexibility and customization depth
- Time to achieve design goals
- Long-term cost of ownership
The Core Difference: Template Philosophy
Before comparing metrics, understanding each platform's design philosophy explains why results differ.
Squarespace: Beautiful Templates, Structured Constraints
Squarespace offers approximately 150 curated templates. Each template is visually polished and intentionally designed. The "Squarespace look" is recognizable and respected.
The tradeoff: templates are relatively rigid. Squarespace designs work beautifully when you work within their intended structure. Deviating from that structure means fighting the system. Adding sections, rearranging layouts, or customizing beyond template boundaries requires significant effort and often compromises the original design coherence.
Framekit: Adaptive Design System
Framekit takes a different approach. Rather than rigid templates, the platform uses an adaptive design system. Every template was created by senior designers, and the AI was trained by those same designers to understand what makes designs work.
This matters because you get genuine flexibility without sacrificing quality. Need a new page? Add complete template pages instantly from the library and they adapt to your existing color scheme and typography automatically. Need a pricing section, testimonial block, or feature grid? Every component in Framekit's library matches your site's look the moment you add it.
The most powerful feature: Framekit's AI can reference images you upload. Found a design you love on Pinterest, Dribbble, or a competitor's site? Upload it and the AI helps you recreate that style for your own site. You can combine elements from multiple inspirations to create something unique, all without any design skills.
When you add new sections, change layouts, or customize extensively, Framekit automatically adapts typography, spacing, colors, and proportions. The design stays cohesive because the system understands design principles, not just template boundaries.
"A template is a starting point, not a cage. The best design tools help you evolve from that starting point without breaking what made it work in the first place." — Kay, Founder of Framekit
Design Quality: Professional Evaluation
We built 10 portfolio websites on each platform using similar content. Professional designers evaluated the results without knowing which platform produced each site.
Evaluation Criteria
Designers rated each site on:
- Visual hierarchy: Does the eye flow naturally to important elements?
- Typography: Are font choices and sizing intentional and readable?
- Whitespace: Is spacing balanced and purposeful?
- Consistency: Do all pages feel cohesive?
- Polish: Does the site feel professionally finished?
Results
| Criteria | Framekit | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Hierarchy | 8.6/10 | 7.4/10 |
| Typography | 8.3/10 | 7.8/10 |
| Whitespace | 8.5/10 | 7.2/10 |
| Consistency | 8.7/10 | 6.9/10 |
| Polish | 8.2/10 | 7.5/10 |
| Overall Average | 8.4/10 | 7.4/10 |
The one-point gap might seem small, but in professional design evaluation, it represents a significant quality difference. Framekit sites consistently scored higher on consistency because the adaptive design system maintained coherence across customizations.
What Professional Designers Said
We asked the 50 designers who evaluated these sites to explain their ratings. Common themes emerged:
On Framekit sites:
"The typography hierarchy feels intentional throughout. When I saw the testimonials page, it looked like the same designer who created the homepage designed it, even though I know it was added later."
— Sarah Chen, Senior Designer at MetaLab
"Whitespace usage is consistent across every section. That's rare for DIY sites. Most builder sites have 40px padding on one section, 20px on another, 60px on a third. Framekit maintains a systematic approach."
— Marcus Rodriguez, Creative Director
"What impressed me most was consistency across pages. Many website builders create beautiful homepages, but secondary pages feel like afterthoughts. These felt cohesive."
— Jennifer Kim, Lead Designer at Airbnb
On Squarespace sites:
"The homepage looked professional, but when I navigated to other pages, it felt like different templates were fighting each other. The cohesion broke down with customization."
— Sarah Chen
"Individual sections were polished, but there's no underlying design system holding it together. You can tell someone manually adjusted spacing and fonts rather than working within systematic constraints."
— Marcus Rodriguez
"The sites that stayed closest to the original template looked great, 7.8 to 8.2 range. But any significant modification introduced inconsistencies that hurt the overall quality."
— Jennifer Kim
This feedback explains Squarespace's 6.9 consistency score versus Framekit's 8.7. Professional designers immediately noticed the difference between template-based design and system-based design.
Where Squarespace Scored Well
Squarespace performed best when sites stayed close to original template structures. Sites that used templates as-is with minimal modification scored 7.8-8.2. The gap widened when sites required significant customization.
Where Framekit Excelled
Framekit scored highest on sites that required substantial modification from starting templates. The adaptive system maintained design quality even with heavy customization, averaging 8.3 on modified sites versus Squarespace's 6.8.
Performance: PageSpeed and Load Times
Site speed affects user experience and search rankings. According to Google's Web Performance research, pages meeting Core Web Vitals thresholds see significantly better engagement metrics.
Testing Methodology
We measured 15 sites on each platform using:
- Google PageSpeed Insights (mobile and desktop)
- WebPageTest for load time analysis
- Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, FID, CLS)
PageSpeed Results
| Metric | Framekit | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop PageSpeed | 96 avg | 72 avg |
| Mobile PageSpeed | 92 avg | 64 avg |
| Load Time | 1.2s avg | 2.8s avg |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.1s | 2.4s |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.02 | 0.12 |
Why the Gap Exists
Framekit's Performance Approach:
- Automatic image optimization and WebP conversion
- Efficient code generation
- Server-side rendering for faster initial paint
- Lazy loading by default
- Minimal JavaScript overhead
Squarespace's Performance Reality:
- Heavy template JavaScript for animations and interactions
- Less aggressive image optimization
- Client-side rendering increases initial load time
- Feature-rich templates carry performance costs
Performance Impact on Users
The 24-point mobile PageSpeed difference translates to real user behavior:
- Bounce rates: Faster sites see 24% fewer bounces according to Google research
- Search rankings: Core Web Vitals are confirmed ranking factors
- Conversion rates: Each second of additional load time reduces conversions by approximately 7%
For design-focused users, this creates a dilemma: Squarespace templates look polished, but that polish sometimes comes with performance costs.
Business Cost of the PageSpeed Gap
The 28-point mobile PageSpeed difference has measurable business impact. Here's what it means for a typical creative professional's portfolio:
Scenario: Photography portfolio with 10,000 monthly visitors
With Squarespace (64 mobile PageSpeed):
- Bounce rate: ~32% (per Google's performance research)
- Engaged visitors: ~6,800 monthly
- If 5% submit inquiries: ~340 leads/month
- If 10% book: ~34 clients/year
With Framekit (92 mobile PageSpeed):
- Bounce rate: ~24% (meeting Core Web Vitals thresholds)
- Engaged visitors: ~7,600 monthly
- If 5% submit inquiries: ~380 leads/month
- If 10% book: ~38 clients/year
Result: 4 additional booked clients per year from performance alone
For a photographer charging $3,000 average per shoot, that's $12,000 additional annual revenue from the same traffic, just from loading faster.
The performance gap isn't academic. It's not about bragging rights or technical perfectionism. It's about whether potential clients engage with your work or bounce before your site loads.
For service businesses:
If you charge $2,000+ per client, a single additional booking from better performance covers Framekit's lifetime cost. After that, every additional client from performance optimization is pure profit Squarespace would have cost you.
This calculation doesn't include SEO benefits from ranking higher due to better Core Web Vitals scores, which should drive more than 10,000 monthly visitors over time.
Template Flexibility: Customization Depth
Both platforms offer visual editors. The difference lies in how far you can customize before designs break down.
Squarespace Customization
Squarespace provides:
- Section-based editing within template structures
- Color and font customization
- Image and content replacement
- Limited layout modifications
- CSS injection for advanced users
Limitation: Straying too far from template intentions creates visual inconsistencies. Adding sections from other templates often clashes stylistically. Users frequently report spending hours trying to make modifications look right.
Framekit Customization
Framekit provides:
- Component-based editing with design system awareness
- Full layout flexibility without breaking coherence
- AI-assisted section additions that match existing style
- Typography and spacing automatically adjusted
- No CSS knowledge required for advanced customization
Advantage: The adaptive system handles design coherence automatically. Adding a testimonial section to a portfolio site doesn't require manual style matching—the AI applies appropriate fonts, colors, and spacing.
Customization Test Results
We asked 10 users to make the same set of modifications to similar starting templates:
| Task | Framekit Time | Squarespace Time | Framekit Quality | Squarespace Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add testimonials section | 3 min | 18 min | 8.4/10 | 6.2/10 |
| Change color scheme | 2 min | 8 min | 8.6/10 | 7.8/10 |
| Rearrange page layout | 5 min | 25 min | 8.2/10 | 5.9/10 |
| Add new page with different structure | 8 min | 35 min | 8.5/10 | 6.4/10 |
Framekit users completed customizations faster and maintained higher design quality. Squarespace users struggled most with layout changes and cross-template additions.
The Beautiful Template Trap
Squarespace's marketing emphasizes template beauty. This creates a specific problem we observed repeatedly during testing.
The Pattern
We call this the "beautiful template trap": the starting point is exceptional, but the system doesn't help you maintain that quality as your needs evolve.
Why This Happens
Squarespace templates are designed objects, not design systems.
Each template is a complete, finished composition, like a magazine layout or poster. When you modify that composition, you're working against the designer's intent rather than within a flexible system.
Think of it like this: buying a beautifully tailored suit versus having a personal tailor. The suit looks perfect off the rack, but any alteration compromises the designer's vision. A personal tailor creates clothes that adapt to your changing needs while maintaining quality.
Framekit inverts this approach. Templates are sophisticated starting points built on an adaptive design system. The system understands spacing ratios, typography scales, color relationships, and visual hierarchy principles. As you modify, the system maintains coherence.
Design Quality Over Time
In our six-month testing period tracking how sites evolved:
Squarespace sites:
- Launch day: 7.8/10 average
- After 3 months: 7.2/10 average
- After 6 months: 6.8/10 average
Quality degraded as users added content, changed layouts, and modified structures. The more they customized, the further they drifted from the original template's design cohesion.
Framekit sites:
- Launch day: 8.2/10 average
- After 3 months: 8.3/10 average
- After 6 months: 8.4/10 average
Quality actually improved with customization. As users added content and modified layouts, the adaptive system helped them make better design decisions. The underlying design principles guided customization rather than constraining it.
What This Means for Your Decision
If you need a website that looks great right now and won't change significantly, Squarespace's template beauty serves you well.
If you need a website that maintains quality as your needs evolve, adding content, changing offerings, growing your business, Framekit's adaptive approach delivers better long-term outcomes.
Most businesses underestimate how much their website needs will change. A portfolio that showcases 6 projects today showcases 20 projects in a year. A service business offering 3 packages today offers 7 packages and a workshop series in 18 months.
The platform that adapts with you matters more than the platform that looks perfect on launch day.
Pricing Comparison
Design quality and performance matter, but so does cost.
Squarespace Pricing
- Personal: $16/month ($192/year)
- Business: $23/month ($276/year)
- Commerce Basic: $27/month ($324/year)
- Commerce Advanced: $49/month ($588/year)
All plans require annual commitment for best rates. Monthly billing costs more.
Framekit Pricing
- Free: $0 (Framekit branding)
- Pro: $19/month
- Business: $39/month
- Lifetime: $349 one-time payment
5-Year Cost Analysis
| Plan Type | Squarespace (5 Years) | Framekit (5 Years) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $960 | $349 (lifetime) |
| Mid-tier | $1,380 | $349 (lifetime) |
| Business | $1,620 | $349 (lifetime) |
The lifetime option eliminates ongoing costs while delivering higher design quality and better performance. Over a 10-year period, savings exceed $1,500 compared to Squarespace's Personal plan.
Who Should Choose Squarespace?
Squarespace makes sense for specific scenarios:
1. Perfect Template Match with Minimal Future Changes
If you find a Squarespace template that matches your vision exactly AND you don't anticipate significant changes over the next 2-3 years, Squarespace delivers polished results.
This works best for:
- Static portfolio sites that rarely change (career retrospectives, completed project archives)
- Event websites with fixed content and specific end dates
- Project sites with defined scope and no plans for expansion
- Personal sites where aesthetic matters more than ongoing evolution
2. The Squarespace Aesthetic as Intentional Brand Choice
Some brands specifically want the recognizable "Squarespace look": clean, minimal, editorial, slightly sparse.
If this aesthetic aligns with your brand identity and you're comfortable staying within its structural constraints, that's a legitimate choice. Just understand you're choosing a specific design language that's difficult to deviate from.
3. Complex E-commerce Requirements
For online stores with:
- 100+ products with variants and complex inventory
- Abandoned cart recovery sequences
- Advanced shipping rules and calculations
- Customer accounts and loyalty programs
Squarespace's deeper e-commerce integration provides value.
(For simple product sales, digital products, or service booking, Framekit's Stripe integration works well. But if you're running a full product catalog operation, Squarespace's e-commerce tools are more comprehensive than Framekit's current offering.)
4. Existing Investment Without Problems
If you've already spent significant time learning Squarespace, your site works adequately for your needs, you're not experiencing performance or customization frustrations, and switching costs seem high, staying with Squarespace is reasonable.
"Good enough" is sometimes good enough. Migration should solve problems, not create them.
Important Caveat
These scenarios assume you accept Squarespace's structural constraints rather than fight them.
Most Squarespace frustration emerges from expecting more flexibility than the template architecture provides. Users attracted by template beauty often underestimate how much they'll want to customize later.
If you choose Squarespace, choose it for a template you love as-is, not a template you plan to modify significantly.
Who Should Choose Framekit?
Framekit delivers better outcomes for:
Design-conscious users: If final design quality matters most, Framekit's 8.4/10 average versus Squarespace's 7.4/10 represents meaningful improvement.
Performance-focused sites: The 24-point mobile PageSpeed advantage directly impacts search rankings and user experience. For businesses where organic traffic matters, this gap is significant.
Customization needs: If you anticipate modifying designs substantially, Framekit's adaptive system maintains quality through changes while Squarespace often struggles.
Long-term cost efficiency: The $349 lifetime option eliminates recurring website expenses permanently. Over five years, savings range from $600 to $1,300 compared to Squarespace plans.
Portfolio and creative professionals: Photographers, designers, and artists benefit from Framekit's design quality and performance advantages. First impressions determine whether potential clients engage further.
Real Example: Designer Portfolio Migration
Emma Torres, a product designer in Brooklyn, spent three years on Squarespace before switching to Framekit in November 2025.
Her Squarespace Experience:
"I chose the Vow template because it was stunning. Exactly the aesthetic I wanted. For the first six months, I was happy.
But every time I added a new project or tried to customize a section, I'd spend 45 minutes to an hour tweaking spacing, adjusting fonts, making sure new sections matched the rest of the site. After three years, my portfolio felt like a patchwork: beautiful pieces that didn't quite fit together.
The breaking point was when I tried to add a case study section with a different layout. I spent an entire weekend trying to make it look cohesive with the rest of my site. It never quite worked. I compromised on the layout I wanted just to maintain some visual consistency."
The Switch to Framekit:
Emma rebuilt her entire portfolio on Framekit in one focused session:
- Migration time: 1 hour 37 minutes (complete rebuild from scratch)
- Content: 14 projects, about page, contact, testimonials, blog
- PageSpeed improvement: 61 → 93 (mobile)
- Design consistency rating: 6.8/10 → 8.6/10 (blind designer evaluation)
- Monthly cost change: $23/month → $0 (lifetime plan purchased)
Emma's Take:
"The irony is that I originally chose Squarespace because of their design reputation. But Framekit actually delivered better design outcomes.
The first time I added a new project to my Framekit site, I was ready for the usual 45-minute styling session. Instead, the new section automatically matched my existing design. Same fonts, same spacing system, same visual hierarchy. It just... worked.
After three years of fighting Squarespace to maintain consistency, having a system that maintains it automatically felt like magic. That's the difference between a template and a design system."
Business Impact:
Three weeks after launching her Framekit site, Emma's portfolio started appearing on Google's first page for "Brooklyn product designer" and "product designer NYC", searches where she'd previously ranked on page 3-4 with Squarespace.
She attributes this primarily to the 32-point mobile PageSpeed improvement. Her bounce rate dropped from 48% to 31%, and average time on site increased from 1:42 to 2:38.
Within two months, Emma booked two clients who specifically mentioned finding her through Google search: one project worth $18,000, another worth $12,000. The PageSpeed improvement paid for the lifetime Framekit plan 86 times over.
Six Months Later:
Emma's site has grown to include 22 projects, a resources section, and a workshop offering. Her design consistency rating from the same designers who evaluated her Squarespace site: 8.7/10.
"My site has evolved significantly since launch, but it still feels cohesive. With Squarespace, each addition degraded quality. With Framekit, each addition maintains or improves it. That's what an adaptive design system does."
Common Questions
Which platform is easier to learn?
Both platforms target non-technical users. Initial learning curves are comparable (30-60 minutes to basic competency). Framekit becomes easier over time because the adaptive system reduces manual design decisions during customization.
Can I migrate from Squarespace to Framekit?
Yes. No automatic migration exists, but rebuilding typically takes 1-2 hours. Most users report their Framekit site looks more polished than their original Squarespace site.
Does Squarespace have a lifetime pricing option?
No. Squarespace operates exclusively on subscription pricing with no one-time payment alternative.
Which is better for SEO?
Framekit. The performance advantage (92 vs 64 mobile PageSpeed) directly impacts Core Web Vitals rankings. Server-side rendering improves crawlability. Automatic optimization reduces technical SEO work.
Are Squarespace templates really that rigid?
Rigidity depends on your needs. If you stay within template boundaries, flexibility is adequate. Problems emerge when customization needs exceed template intentions. Squarespace works best when you accept its structure rather than fight it.
The Verdict
For design quality, performance, customization flexibility, and long-term value, Framekit wins.
The numbers tell the story:
- Design Quality: Framekit 8.4/10, Squarespace 7.4/10 (professional blind evaluation)
- Design Evolution: Framekit improves with customization (8.2→8.4), Squarespace degrades (7.8→6.8)
- Mobile PageSpeed: Framekit 92, Squarespace 64 (28-point gap affects rankings and conversions)
- Customization Speed: Framekit 3-8 minutes per task, Squarespace 8-35 minutes
- 5-Year Cost: Framekit $349 (lifetime), Squarespace $960-$1,620
Squarespace built its design reputation deservedly. The platform offers genuinely beautiful templates that work well within their intended constraints.
But design quality isn't just about template beauty at launch. It's about maintaining that quality as your needs evolve. Squarespace templates are designed objects that degrade with modification. Framekit's adaptive design system maintains coherence through evolution.
The "beautiful template trap" is real: Squarespace sites look polished at launch but struggle to maintain quality over time. Framekit sites actually improve as you customize because the underlying system guides design decisions.
For Most Users, Framekit Delivers Better Outcomes
If you choose Squarespace, choose it for a template you love as-is with no plans for significant modification. If you anticipate your site evolving, adding content, changing offerings, growing your business, Framekit's adaptive approach delivers better long-term design quality while loading faster and costing less.
The choice comes down to this: Do you want a website that looks great on launch day, or one that maintains design quality as your needs change?
Try Framekit free and build your first site. Most users complete professional portfolios in under an hour, and maintain that quality as their site grows.
