Squarespaceβs Missing Features 2024
The Squarespace product roadmap is not public, which makes it difficult for users to know when or of missing features will be added. In January 2019, I ran a little experiment to see what Squarespace users wanted from the platform. I created a Squarespace Feature Request page on the excellent featureupvote.com platform and invited some of the top Squarespace experts from around the world to add their own top feature suggestions and allow everyone to vote on them. This post describes what I learned.
The Unofficial Squarespace Feature Upvote site was born
The feature upvote site was open for a few weeks in January 2019, during which the following features were requested and then voted on by others. The results are shown below in order of popularity, with the most popular request first. Iβve updated this post to comment on what happened next. You may be surprised.
1. Gated membership features
The most popular request by far was for gated membership content and in November 2020, Squarespace added Member Areas. This allows you to create pages that are only available to users who join as members. New features have been added to Member Areas regularly since then. Take a look at the up-to-date list of missing features.
2. Add more heading options
Resolved in Squarespace 7.1! The newest version of Squarespace now has H1, H2, H3, H4, P1, P2 and P3 styles, without the need for custom CSS. (The old version of Squarespace - known as v7.0 - only has H1, H2, H3 and Paragraph styles.
3. One template that supports all features
Resolved in Squarespace 7.1! In November 2019, Squarespace launched Squarespace 7.1. This completely new version of the platform has a single template that supports all the available features. Yay! There are now hundreds of themed βstarting pointsβ on Squarespace 7.1.
4. Increase the Summary Block limit beyond 30 items
This has never been fixed and is still a major headache today. However, thereβs a great third party tool called Lazy Summaries (affiliate link) that you can buy. This allows you to display unlimited items in a Summary Block, as well as other great features. For example, you can change the sort order or decide the number of items to show horizontally in a grid.
5. Page speed improvements
Squarespace sites are fairly fast - thereβs certainly no need to have any concerns - but users always want sites to be faster. There are a number of improvements that Squarespace are making to defer code and allow pages to load more quickly. Squarespace are actively working on these changes and made a number of improvements in 2021 and 2022, particularly on the Squarespace 7.1 platform. More improvements are coming in 2023.
6. Upload file feature on Squarespace Form Blocks
Visitors to your site cannot upload files. Youβll need to use a third-party service like the Squarewebsites Uploader.
7. Table Block
Adding tables to Squarespace has always been a headache. Squarespace should add a Table Block to make this easier. If you need a solution right now, youβll find that the Custom Table Block (affiliate link) is excellent.
8. SVG support for logo images
Squarespace does not support SVG images, so if you want to add an SVG logo you can only do this with code.
9. A file manager and central store to organise images and assets
In 2022, Squarespace created the Asset Manager. This new tool allows you to view and manage all the JPEG and PNG images on your Squarespace website as well as your videos. Unfortunately, this doesnβt allow you to manage other file types, like PDFs.
10. Referral/affiliate programme
When this list was produced in 2019, Squarespace only offered an affiliate programme for bloggers, but nothing existed for Squarespace Designers. Squarespace now run an affiliate scheme for designers who join the Squarespace Circle.
11. Support for mobile-first
Improved in Squarespace 7.1! In 2022, Squarespace introduced a totally new layout tool on Squarespace 7.1 called Fluid Engine. This has an entirely separate mobile view, allowing you have a mobile view that is laid out differently. (On Squarespace 7.0, mobile is secondary. Squarespace websites are responsive and will adjust for mobile devices, but there isnβt a way to change the mobile design without using code.)
12. Recurring events
Squarespace has an Events page and a Calendar Block but these do not support recurring events. Each occurrence must be duplicated manually. This is still a major headache today in 2024.
13. Additional Content Blocks for accordions, tabs and cards
Squarespace added an Accordion Block to both Squarespace 7.0 and Squarespace 7.1 in October 2021. Weβre lobbying Squarespace to introduce a tabbed card option but, at the moment, this requires custom code.
14. SEO tab for blog posts
15. Gallery sliders
A range of new gallery sections were added to Squarespace 7.1.
16. Add sidebars as an option on the latest templates
17. A better contributor permissions model
Contributor permissions do not allow you to have a contributor that can only edit the blog. Users would like to see more granular permissions that allow permissions to be set according to the menus. For example, contributors cannot currently access the Marketing panel (to change the announcement bar).
18. Allow Product Bundling
This is a major omission for Commerce. There are two third party extensions available, one called Trunk Inventory and another called SKU IQ but they are both very expensive (>$40 per month) and therefore out of reach for many micro businesses.
19. Allow βhardcoded text stringsβ to be edited.
Since this was published, Squarespace have added a number of additional languages to the Squarespace 7.1 platform, including Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. However, there are still a number of βhardcodedβ phrases on the Squarespace platform that cannot be changed. This affects websites, commerce and scheduling features. For example, blog dates appear in a number of different formats in different areas of the site. The phrases βpickupβ, βshippingβ and βzip codeβ appear on the site where alternatives may be better - even in English, where collection, delivery and postcode may be more appropriate.
20. Allow Squarespace sites to be backed up
In 2019, Squarespace introduced the Site Duplication feature, making it possible to take a point in time backup of a site and save it as a trial. This a massive improvement for web designers who need to protect against accidental changes by clients in the first few months of site ownership.
Squarespace have also introduced a number of βbackupβ features in the form of
An undo feature on page edits
A way to recover pages and collections if they are deleted (up to 30 days)
21. Product specific shipping/delivery
On 29 March 2023, Squarespace added Fulfilment Profiles. This is a huge release that allows you to create tailored sets of shipping (and pickup/collection) options and then assign these to products - individually!! With fulfilment profiles, you can limit the shipping options at checkout to those in the productβs fulfillment profile. For example, if some of your products are fragile items that require additional packaging, you can create a fulfillment profile for βfragile itemsβ to ensure customers only have shipping options that capture the additional cost. There are some fixed and βby weightβ delivery options, but for many businesses a product specific delivery charge is required.
22. Allow Social icons to be added without requiring logon information for the accounts
This feature was added in November 2019. You can now add multiple social icons without providing the login details for the accounts.
23. Select specific posts / products to go into a summary block
24. Allow the website's custom domain to be used for emails that are sent to the website owner
When forms are submitted, they use the Squarespace domain.
25. Upsell Feature in Squarespace Cart
26. Offer customization at the content Block level
27. Multi Language sites - support for multiple languages on the same site.
In March 2022, Squarespace partnered with Weglot to offer a new Squarespace extension that makes it easier to create a multilingual site. Squarespace 7.1 users can reach their audience in their preferred language and increase visibility in new markets without spending hours on translations or managing multiple versions of their site. With the Weglot extension, you can:
Make any 7.1 site multilingual (you can do the same on Squarespace 7.0 buy purchasing the Weglot plugin separately)
Automatically translate site content
Edit and manage translations through your Weglot dashboard
Exclude content that you donβt want to be translated
Configure a subdomain for your translated language(s), for better SEO and a more fully-translated experience for site visitors
Display a language switcher in your siteβs header
28. Customisable eCommerce Emails by individual product
29. Increase the digital product file size limit beyond 300MB
30. Show stock levels to encourage purchase
Good news! In April 2019, Squarespace introduced limited-availability labels to allow you to flag products with low stock or show the stock level of individual products.
31. Allow more changes to the checkout page
Itβs fine that itβs locked down, but some more flexibility is required.
32. Visually identify featured items inside collections
33. Add Royal Mail Shipping Support for UK customers
USPS shipping is of no help outside the US. Please add native shipping/delivery support in other countries. Royal Mail have created an extension that allows you to use Royal Mail's Click and Drop service with Squarespace. I wrote a guide about it.
34. Include site references on credit card billing
Back in 2019, when Squarespace billed us for a site (or other service) it was impossible to determine which site/domain the bill related to. This information is now included in email notifications, but it does not extend to credit card billing. The credit card bill will only show βSquarespaceβ.
35. Product Filtering
Squarespace still needs a way to allow us to filter products by size, colour and so on. You can currently achieve this with the excellent plugin called Universal Filter.
Things have improved
For years, long time Squarespace advocates like me had been asking Squarespace to offer us a better feedback mechanism but it didnβt really fit with their operating model at that time. However, in 2016 they launched the βSquarespace Circleβ, finally recognising the large and vibrant community of creatives, developers, and designers who use Squarespace to build websites, and knew what they needed.
Since 2019, experienced Circle members have finally had an opportunity to genuinely engage with Squarespace leaders who have listened to our feedback. As a Squarespace Circle Leader, Iβm pleased to say that I can now discuss limitations and feature requests in depth with Squarespace teams and Iβm excited that together we are able to find ways to make the Squarespace experience better for everyone. Many new features will be added in 2023 that will make the platform even better.
In November 2023, Squarespace launched aβ¦β¦β¦..Feature Request Board for Circle members, where you can raise a request or upvote existing requests!! If you have a request for a new feature please add your request! If you arenβt a Circle member yet, you can still log a ticket with Squarespace Customer Care.
Paul