Squarespace vs SubHub: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Squarespace and SubHub cater to different needs, with Squarespace excelling in general website creation and SubHub specializing in membership sites.

• 
  Squarespace (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  is a versatile website builder known for its user-friendly interface and extensive design functionalities. It offers a wide range of templates and customization options, making it ideal for users who prioritize aesthetics and ease of use. Squarespace also provides robust ecommerce features, comprehensive marketing tools, and strong customer support, making it a solid choice for creating professional websites without coding.
• 
  SubHub (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is tailored for content creators and entrepreneurs looking to build and manage membership sites. It simplifies the process of setting up subscription models and managing member access, making it an excellent choice for those aiming to monetize their content. While it may not offer the same level of design flexibility or ecommerce capabilities as Squarespace, SubHub’s focus on membership site functionalities makes it a valuable tool for building a community and providing exclusive content.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Squarespace is a more robust option for ecommerce, offering a comprehensive set of features and tools, while SubHub is more specialized for membership-based businesses but lacks the depth in ecommerce functionalities.

• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace is a user-friendly ecommerce solution for businesses, simplifying online store setup with an intuitive interface and customizable templates. It streamlines product management, ensuring a visually appealing and responsive store on various devices. The platform handles secure payment processing, flexible shipping options, and automated tax calculations, while also providing built-in marketing tools, SEO optimization, and detailed analytics for enhanced store visibility and performance. Best for ecommerce score: 8.2.
• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub supports various ecommerce features including sales of physical goods, digital products, and pay-per-view content, with a customizable storefront and product categories. It offers flexible shipping and tax configurations, inventory management, and automatic order confirmation emails. However, it lacks support for distributing free products and does not manage the dispatch of physical goods, potentially requiring sellers to handle their shipping logistics. Best for ecommerce score: 5.9.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Squarespace is the superior choice for creating informational and business websites, thanks to its user-friendly interface, extensive design options, and robust support and security features. SubHub, while specialized for membership sites, falls short in comparison for general informational website needs.

• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace excels in providing a seamless experience for creating professional and visually appealing informational websites. With a score of 8.4, it offers a wide variety of templates, an intuitive editor, and comprehensive support and security features. Squarespace is ideal for users who prioritize design flexibility and ease of use.
• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub, scoring 7.2, is tailored for membership sites and content creators looking to monetize their content. While it offers tools for managing subscriptions and member access, it lacks the design flexibility and broader functionality that Squarespace provides. For general informational websites, SubHub may not be the best fit when comparing Squarespace vs SubHub.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Squarespace.

Squarespace offers a wider variety of templates and more creative design possibilities, making it the better choice for users who prioritize design flexibility and aesthetics.

Squarespace boasts an impressive variety of website templates, offering over 120 pre-designed options to choose from. These templates cater to a wide range of needs and industries, from creative portfolios and sleek online stores to professional business websites and personal blogs.

Squarespace Themes

On the other hand, SubHub offers a variety of customizable membership website templates designed to cater to different needs and themes. There are 14 specifically themed templates available, each designed to help users jump-start the design of their membership website homepages.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. With a score of 8.3, Squarespace is known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward navigation, making it easy for users to create professional websites. SubHub, scoring 7.7, also offers a user-friendly platform but is more specialized for building membership websites and online courses. If ease of use is a priority, Squarespace is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Squarespace goes a step further with its comprehensive Help Center, clear video tutorials, live webinars, an informative blog, and an active community forum. SubHub also provides learning resources, including video guides and tutorials, but lacks a large community of users.

Squarespace is a user-friendly ecommerce solution for businesses, simplifying online store setup with an intuitive interface and customizable templates. It streamlines product management, ensuring a visually appealing and responsive store on various devices. The platform handles secure payment processing, flexible shipping options, and automated tax calculations, while also providing built-in marketing tools, SEO optimization, and detailed analytics for enhanced store visibility and performance.

Squarespace ecommerce features:

• Intuitive interface
• Secure payment processing
• Built-in marketing tools
• SEO optimization
• Website analytics

SubHub ecommerce features:

• Paypal and Stripe integration
• Physical and Digital product listings
• Pay-per view products

Ecommerce themes & templates

Squarespace provides a diverse selection of around 50 ecommerce templates, catering to various industries like fashion, beauty, home goods, and technology. These templates range from clean and minimalist to bold and colorful, accommodating different brand aesthetics and product types. Offering unique layout elements such as product sliders and featured collections, these templates enhance visual interest and engagement. On the other hand, SubHub does not have ecommerce specific templates.

Product page customization

Customizing Squarespace product pages offers options for layout, design, and interactive elements. Choose templates, customize colors, fonts, and content. Enhance engagement with features like customizable buttons, wishlists, comparisons, reviews, and related products. Advanced options include custom code injection and third-party app integrations. Limitations include fixed core page structure and the need for technical expertise. Free templates have fewer customization options than premium ones.

The SubHub website builder offers a range of product page customization options, allowing for the addition of physical items, digital downloads, and pay-per-view content. Features include the ability to manage product variants, upload images, and set visibility preferences. Users can also implement SEO strategies through meta tags and manage tax settings. Additional functionalities include member-specific discounts, image carousels, and individualized shipping costs.

Payment processing

When it comes to payment processing, Squarespace provides flexible payment processing for online stores with integrated gateways like Stripe and PayPal. External gateways can be set up for specific needs. Transaction fees may apply depending on the plan and payment method. Security measures include PCI compliance and fraud prevention. Additional features include payment links, support for subscriptions, and the ability to accept international payments in various currencies.

SubHub website builder supports two main payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal. These integrations allow for secure payment processing for subscriptions and store items using debit or credit cards. The platform itself does not charge commissions on transactions.

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Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace, with a score of 8.3, offers a user-friendly editor that allows easy drag-and-drop website creation without coding. With visually appealing templates and customization options, it caters to beginners and pros alike. The real-time editing experience ensures instant previews. Prioritizing content, it’s mobile-responsive and offers functional features like forms, social media integration, and online stores. Squarespace seamlessly integrates with tools for extended capabilities.

SubHub’s editor, scoring 6.9, is tailored for creating and managing membership sites, catering to content creators and entrepreneurs aiming to monetize their offerings. Its features encompass customizable templates, diverse content publishing options, and flexible subscription plans with seamless integration for recurring revenue through payment processors. Additionally, SubHub supports online course creation, provides marketing tools like landing page builders, and offers detailed analytics for monitoring website metrics.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Squarespace

. Both Squarespace and SubHub offer mobile capabilities, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Squarespace provides a mobile app that allows users to manage their website, edit content, view analytics, manage their online store, and schedule social media posts. However, it does not offer the full range of functionalities available on the desktop version.

On the other hand, SubHub does not have a dedicated mobile editor app. Users can manage some content on their website using the mobile browser version, but it’s not possible to change the layout and design of the website on mobile. Given this, Squarespace is the clear winner in this category due to its more comprehensive mobile editing capabilities.

In summary, Squarespace receives a higher rating due to its more comprehensive mobile editing capabilities, while SubHub is limited in this aspect and may be better suited for users who primarily manage their website on a desktop.

Overall Result

:

Squarespace wins

. Squarespace scores 7.4, slightly higher than SubHub’s 7.0. Both platforms offer a 14-day free trial, but Squarespace provides access to most of its premium features, except for custom code, premium integrations, and removal of Squarespace branding. SubHub allows testing of premium features during the trial. Squarespace also offers a full refund within 14 days of the first payment, while SubHub provides a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Squarespace offers a more affordable range of plans compared to SubHub, and it also provides a higher discount on annual billing.

Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace offers proprietary cloud-based hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and data centers across North America, Europe, and Asia. SubHub, on the other hand, offers managed cloud hosting but does not provide uptime statistics or guarantees, and does not disclose the locations of its data centers. This gives Squarespace a clear edge in terms of hosting quality.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

Both Squarespace and SubHub have strategies in place for website speed optimization, but Squarespace comes out ahead with a more comprehensive approach and better transparency about their performance.

Squarespace’s approach to website speed optimization includes responsive design, image optimization, use of a content delivery network (CDN), code minification, and lazy loading of images. This comprehensive strategy has resulted in load times ranging from 0.7s to 9.1s, with an average of 2.9s. PageSpeed scores for Squarespace sites range from 20/100 to 93/100, with an average of 62.7/100. Squarespace also emphasizes improvements in Core Web Vitals, specifically LCP, FID, and CLS.

On the other hand, SubHub’s strategy for website speed optimization includes image optimization, caching, and mobile-optimized design. However, they do not provide specific information about their load times, PageSpeed scores, or Core Web Vitals improvements. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to accurately assess their performance in these areas.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace.

With a score of 6.8, Squarespace offers more integrations and extensions than SubHub, which scores 5.7. Squarespace’s integrations cover a wide range of functionalities, including ecommerce, analytics, marketing, and social media. On the other hand, SubHub focuses on simplicity and integrated functionalities for building membership-based websites, with limited third-party integrations. While SubHub provides a comprehensive toolkit for creating and managing membership sites, Squarespace’s diverse range of integrations gives it the edge in this comparison.

Squarespace Applications

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Overall Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace stands out for its comprehensive marketing tools, especially in social media integration and analytics. SubHub, while strong in SEO and email marketing, lacks social media integration.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. In the comparison of Squarespace vs SubHub, Squarespace takes the lead with a customer support score of 7.8. Squarespace offers a variety of support options, including live chat, email, a community forum, and a comprehensive help center. Live chat and phone support are available on weekdays from 6 AM to 6 PM PST, while email support is accessible 24/7. The community forum and help center provide round-the-clock access, ensuring users can find help whenever needed.

SubHub, with a customer support score of 6.3, provides support primarily through email and a support portal for detailed queries. While it also offers an FAQ section for immediate answers, it lacks the extensive support channels and availability that Squarespace provides. SubHub does not offer dedicated enterprise support, which further limits its appeal for larger businesses seeking comprehensive assistance.

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Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace takes a comprehensive approach to security, with measures including secure hosting, SSL certificates, vulnerability scanning, malware and spam filters, two-factor authentication, data encryption, and compliance with security regulations. This ensures that both your website content and customer information are well-protected.

SubHub, on the other hand, does not provide any information about the security measures it employs to protect websites built on its platform. This lack of transparency is a significant drawback, especially for a platform designed to handle membership sites, which often deal with sensitive user data.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace, with a score of 7.5, offers a range of AI-powered features that assist in website creation, eCommerce, content generation, and other areas. These tools contribute to a more efficient and effective platform.

SubHub, on the other hand, does not have any AI capabilities. This lack of AI features may limit the platform’s efficiency and effectiveness, especially in areas such as eCommerce and content generation.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace and SubHub offer different approaches to user management.

• Squarespace’s user management varies by plan. The Personal Plan allows one owner, Business and Commerce Plans permit 2 collaborators with different access levels, and the Enterprise Plan offers unlimited users, each with customizable access privileges, from full administrators to restricted contributors.
• SubHub allows multiple user accounts, however the platform does not specify how many accounts are supported.

Squarespace User Roles and Access Levels:

SubHub User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Squarespace is well-liked for its easy-to-use interface and versatile tools, making it ideal for those who aren’t tech-savvy. It offers various features like website creation, SEO, online selling, and more, catering to different users. Customers appreciate its good customer support and visually appealing templates, creating a professional online presence. However, some users find issues with domain transfer/setup, limited customization options, and consider the pricing slightly higher. There are also occasional concerns about customer service and technical limitations like template rigidity and missing features.

User feedback on SubHub presents a mix of positive and negative experiences, emphasizing the platform’s feature-rich environment and customizable templates. Users appreciate the flexibility and the quality of customer service, highlighting the platform’s continual updates and support as key benefits. However, some users express dissatisfaction with aspects such as the platform’s interface, lack of community features, and service fees for ticket resale. Concerns were also raised about the custom design service and mobile-friendly solutions taking longer than expected.

FAQ