As a designer, it's essential/mandatory to have a portfolio and especially an online one so that it's easier to update and share it with the whole world. And I've built my portfolio more times than I can remember. I used numerous platforms, such as Béhance and Adobe Portfolio. And they mostly worked well for their purpose. But aesthetically always fell a little short, as I wanted it to be more dynamic and not just a gallery of images, and I also wanted to be able to customize it more to my liking.

And that's when I discovered Squarespace, about four years ago. And I thought why not have something more elaborate, with more pages, a website of my own, not just a portfolio page. At the time, one of the platforms I heard most about was Wordpress, but it seemed too complex for what I wanted. I wanted something simple, easy to use and above all fresh, modern and beautiful. When we talk about portfolios, especially as designers, they have to be aesthetically pleasing. So I went with Squarespace.

I started by discovering that you can start from a template, which is great, because I didn't want to have to build a website from scratch and lose a lot of time. Portfolios are always a headache and take a lot of time, so it had to be simple and quick. And having a template where all I had to do was place my images and text was perfect.

Squarespace checked all those boxes. When I started browsing their templates, I confess I got lost, it was hard to choose. They're all beautifully designed. But being able to filter by the type of template I wanted helped a lot. And not just the type of template but also the topic, as it helps to ensure that the template you choose is the most appropriate and has all the sections you need.

And now, as an online business owner, I had to choose Squarespace for my website. Of course, as my training in web design evolved, I no longer started from a template. But it was those first portfolios that made me fall in love with Squarespace and become a Squarespace developer.

My top 3 reasons why I love Squarespace

N.º 1 - Simplicity

With all this history, I've already told you about two of the main reasons why I chose Squarespace and why it has become so popular. Squarespace is incredibly simple: Nothing beats the simplicity of Squarespace, without having to subscribe to a ton of other applications and software. It's an all-in-one-platform. For business owners, small and medium-sized, one of the main things you need is to get started quickly and showcase your offerings as soon as possible. And Squarespace has everything you need to do it yourself and look professional. Especially when you're a small business owner, it feels good to have that control over your business, to be able to build your entire website in just a few hours. Everything is super intuitive, from the moment you choose your template, start building it, choose your domain, which Squarespace also allows you to do within the platform, until the launch you'll never feel overwhelmed.

N.º 2 - Beautiful

And that brings me to the other reason for choosing Squarespace, which is that it's absolutely beautiful. One of the best-designed platforms I've ever seen. I've already told you about the beautiful and wonderful templates, but their back-end is what made me a fan. Beautiful designed, uncomplicated and simple so that you can update your website yourself, even if you didn’t designed it yourself. Let me give you an example that I always use. I've used other website platforms like Wordpress, which also has its advantages, but its back-end is so confusing that as soon as I saw it I felt overwhelmed. And you can't have that on your website. It should be, and usually is, constantly changing and you have to feel comfortable and at ease to be able to do so, because otherwise there's no point in having a fantastic blog, for example, if you can't update it. Squarespace's premium touch is in the design…templates, images, back-end... all super beautiful!

N.º 3 - Secure

And the last reason, also super important, is secure. They don't use third-party software, all the code behind it is developed and updated by their own developers and extensions that you can use are also pre-approved by them. No more worries about monthly maintenance to make sure certain plugins don't stop working.

These were not only the main reasons that led me to use Squarespace as a business owner, but they also led me to specialize in it, as a Squarespace developer. After that I realized the true power of Squarespace and how it is a complete and robust platform. And it's growing all the time.

You can use Squarespace for much more than portfolios, or for your blog, or to showcase your services:

• You can also use it for your e-commerce site.

• To sell services directly on your website with online scheduling (via Squarespace's Acuity Scheduling which more and more people are using.

• Squarespace also offers e-mail marketing.

• They recently launched a back-end for project management, that you can within your website.

• And finally, something I'm super excited about, as are all course creators. Squarespace recently launched Courses, an area you can customize it to your brand and built your online course, all on the same platform as your website, where you can also sell your course.

If you're just starting your business or if you're looking for a new and better solution for your website, go check-out Squarespace. I hope I've helped you take that step and if you still have any questions about Squarespace or if it's the best solution for you, reach out to me so I can hop on a call with you and see how I can help build an amazing website for your business.