A beautiful template is still a template.
Intro
Squarespace makes good-looking templates, and that is exactly the problem: everyone gets the same good-looking templates. Your site ends up polished but interchangeable. It was built to get a tidy page online fast, not to carry a brand that needs to look like itself and grow past a template. We build bespoke sites on a modern stack: , , a bespoke admin, and design that follows your brand instead of a layout picker, and we host and run the site for you.
The problems
Every Squarespace site looks like a Squarespace site
The templates are tasteful, which is why they are used everywhere. A trained eye, and increasingly your customers, recognise the layout, the fonts and the spacing at a glance. Your brand ends up wearing someone else's clothes.
Limited control over speed and SEO
Squarespace decides how the page is built and served. You can't restructure the markup, control the , or fix the way a bespoke build can. You are capped at whatever the platform hands everyone.
The platform ceiling
It is fine until you need something the editor can't do: a custom database, a bespoke integration, a feature that isn't in their menu. Then there is nowhere to go but out.
No real export
Squarespace's export is partial at best; most of the content, structure and design stay inside the platform. Leaving means rebuilding, not moving.
Comparison
You build and update it yourself in their editor
We host, update and keep the site secure for you
Content and design are locked inside Squarespace
Content, images and data are yours and exportable anytime
Platform-controlled markup, often middling
Sub-second on , from
You get the platform's defaults, little control over the markup
Server-rendered straight from , semantic and structured
Style tweaks within the template; logic stops at their menu
Bespoke design tailored to your brand, no platform ceiling
Partial export; most content and design stay locked in
A you can pull with in one shot
Recognisable as a Squarespace template at a glance
Design that follows your brand, not the platform
Case
Amka, bespoke wine site
A brand that looks like itself.
Amka is an Icelandic online wine merchant with over a hundred wine entries, producers, regions and food pairings, plus Evín, a bespoke wine advisor built on with over the full catalogue. It is precisely what a template can't carry: catalogue depth, a bespoke database, a chatbot that cites the wines on the list, and a design that is Amka's own rather than a layout everyone shares. Every pixel is part of the brand and every system is editable by Amka's staff themselves.
See the case study →Our stack
- Next.js 16
- React 19
- TypeScript
- Supabase Postgres
- Tailwind v4
- Vercel Edge
- Server components
- Claude (Anthropic)
Common questions
But Squarespace looks great already?
It looks tidy, and it looks like Squarespace. Clients, investors and partners increasingly recognise the templates on sight. If your brand needs to stand on its own, the design has to be yours, not shared with thousands of other sites.
Isn't Squarespace simpler to run?
Until you need something outside the editor: a custom database, a bespoke integration, a feature that isn't in their menu. Most businesses hit that ceiling within a few years. A bespoke site is tailored to your brand, faster and safer, and we build and run it for you.
Can't I start on Squarespace and move later?
You can start there, but the export is partial and the migration means rebuilding, not moving. We usually recreate the design and hand-port the content. That isn't better than starting right the first time.
What about the online store?
Squarespace commerce works, but it locks you to their checkout and apps. A bespoke store keeps the checkout and the data in your hands and is tailored to your brand.
See also
On Vefapp
Next
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