Squarespace templates, so what are they?
Those who have been following our goings-on at PixelHaze Academy will have noticed that we have recently launched our growing range of Squarespace templates.
An example of our Squarespace Template Kits. Logistiq is delivered specifically for corporations that may struggle to find suitable hi-res photography.
We have collated some of the most pressing and regularly asked questions from our community since we have started developing template kits for Squarespace.
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I just wanted to take this opportunity to give you a quick breakdown of what Squarespace templates are, how they fit in with our service offering here at PixelHaze, and how they can potentially save you a lot of money and time.
These answers are applicable whether you take your project through an agency like ourselves, or are ready to tackle the DIY approach to Squarespace design. If you have a question about anything involving Squarespace plugins or templates, just give us a shout via the live chat feature below. If your question is relevant to other members of our community, we will add it to this page in due course.
What is a Squarespace template kit?
A Squarespace template kit is essentially a pre-built website structure on the Squarespace 7.1 platform. Upon purchasing a template, a member of our team will install all relevant code and get your new website ready for content addition within two working days, all for a modest fee. By barely lifting a finger, you could be smugly positioned half to three-quarters of the way through the whole project!
You will also have a first-hand glimpse of features, and third-party plugins that you may not have known about if you are tackling a Squarespace website for the first time.
What are the main benefits of a Squarespace template over building your own, or working with a Squarespace specialist or trainer?
I suppose the first point is that it's not an either-or decision. The main aim of utilising Squarespace templates is to significantly speed along the process. Once the template is installed, there still needs to be an element of strategy around how you fit your content into the new framework, and often with required tweaks or adjustments to fit them to your requirements.
Many Squarespace designers are happy to work on templates as a starting point, reducing your overall cost providing you are happy to sacrifice some bespoke elements. Likewise, if you are building your own Squarespace website, you are essentially buying a 'queue jumper' to take you further into the project process. When you consider that many DIY designers often struggle at the first hurdle, buying a prebuilt template will speed things along nicely.
You will also be provided with a comprehensive step by step guide demonstrating how you can get the most out of your template kit, with a series of video tutorials in the pipeline.
Don't Squarespace offer premium templates at the sign-up stage anyway?
That is correct. All Squarespace websites are built from starting templates and they look gorgeous. The quality of the starter templates was the main reason why I was drawn to the software over other options such as Wix or WordPress. However, for seasoned designers like myself, we can definitely see a trend and a certain aesthetic that is apparent with all of these premium Squarespace templates. It certainly has a strong visual appeal but is not suitable for every business or industry sector.
For example, many of our PixelHaze Studio projects are developed for the manufacturing and the service industry, with a wide range of solicitors, accountants, and other professionals services companies on our books. If you are developing a new inner-city boutique coffee shop, then you may well find that one of these templates will do the job for you. Fantastic. The templates are often less flexible or instantly suitable for some other industries out there in what I would refer to as more corporate sectors.
You will find a range of pre-designed solutions that lean towards the service and manufacturing sectors in our template shop so it is often a case of horses for courses.
If I choose a template and stayed very close to the structure and theme, will my website look like many others out there on the web?
Pharmex is another corporate Squarespace template design kit available at our store.
Of course, there is a risk for that to happen when buying from template shops. However, bear in mind that by the time you apply your own brand colour scheme. Even by just changing the content and photography within a website it will already start to look quite different. You will need to gauge how important this risk is against other factors like budget and turnaround time.
If you are working with a web designer to enhance your template, or if you're in DIY mode and feeling adventurous; you can always move away from the template a little. So for example, you can start out by using the overall base structure, but then you may want to add your own features or browse our plugin library and add a couple of effects that will add a certain degree of customisation to your site.
At PixelHaze, we are developing a new service that will allow us to build small template-driven websites from a starting price of only £400. Plus, there will also be the option to add in certain effects and bolt-ons on a case by case basis. This isn't driven with the same degree of flexibility and detail on our custom projects (starting at £1,200), but it's certainly opening up a new startup and micro-business market for us.
If that's not enough customisation for you, we can also sell and install any of our pre-built Squarespace plugins on an ad-hoc basis. Our library of Squarespace plugins can be found over at the PixelHaze Store.
Do you offer any free Squarespace templates?
Unfortunately not, our templates are built as if they were the centre point of our bespoke web design projects (costing over £1,000 if delivered directly to a client), therefore we can not offer any template for free that matches our standards without making a considerable loss.
We are also prepared to go at great length to prepare easy to follow installation details and videos of our entire template range. The good news is that as fast-growing Squarespace service providers, our PixelHaze team are passionate about making our fees competitive. Our templates start at only $99 which is a fraction of the fee for hiring a Squarespace designer.
I'm a PixelHaze Academy member, is there a discount for me?
So glad you mentioned that! Of course, our priority is to support our members first and foremost for only $60 per year. You will have free access to over 20 of our plugins and access to all of our VIP PixelHaze created courses.
And on top of that, Academy members are eligible for a 25% discount on all of our Squarespace templates, all year round. That's without even mentioning the fact that our members get a 20% discount on their first year of hosting for any Squarespace plan. It has been our intention from day one to develop an all-encompassing toolkit for budding Squarespace designers at a fiercely competitive fee. If you're still in full-time education, contact us here for further discounts on the membership.
So if I buy a template. When can I start designing my new website?
There is a manual setup process that we need to complete to get your project off the ground. As we were a small team, e are unable to deliver this setup instantly or over 365 days per year. Therefore, we will always aim to turn around this request within two working days.
Is any support available to build my template?
Yes, you can contact a member of our team to book a consultancy session (£25 for 25 minutes or £50 for 50 minutes). On top of that, for the first 10 template purchases, you will have a 25-minute session, free of charge, whilst we're building our entire help and support documentation library.
Are there other templates available for Squarespace 7.1?
Absolutely. We are building a growing range of templates that are inspired by some of our successful projects over the past five to six years. There are other template libraries that are only a google search away. We will be looking to collaborate with some of our favourite Squarespace Template Kit designers available on the world wide web. Hang tight for some exciting news coming down the line in the near future.
Will Squarespace templates work for e-commerce shops?
The great news is that all of our templates have been created to work with the Squarespace e-commerce platform out of the box. Each pack will contain free templates for e-commerce pages within the $99 fee.
If you are ready to take your Squarespace design process into hyperdrive, head over to our Squarespace template shop at www.pixelhaze.store.
