After years of development, Squarespace 6 is finally here. The company announced their revolutionary new web publishing platform last week, which empowers anyone to build a high-quality website or blog with greater ease than ever before.
50 new features paired with cutting-edge web design technology like HTML5 and CSS3 position Squarespace 6 as a serious future contender in the website/blog building space. And if you take a look at their long-term plan, it's not hard to see why some think Squarespace 6 may even be poised to take on Wordpress.
Squarespace 6: An Interesting Hybrid Between Two Worlds
Squarespace CEO and founder Anthony Casalena recently gave TechCrunch a look into his long-term strategy for Squarespace 6. He calls it, "an interesting hybrid between two worlds." Squarespace 6 is a product that is made for both developers and consumers.
Developers have access to a highly complex and customizable layer of Squarespace 6, while end-users are greeted with an intuitive and simple set of tools to facilitate everyday web building tasks. "We think of it as kind of a first," he said.
And Tuesday's announcement was just the beginning. The $38.5 M in funding Squarespace received back in 2010 not only allowed them to build what they released last week in Squarespace 6, but also set the stage for the evolution of the product into the future.
"[The investment] set the company on a trajectory to go for what we wanted to make, which was stuff like this platform, and a lot of other things we can't talk about right now but will come out on the heels of this platform." - Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena
Squarespace 6 will likely evolve quickly and through the help of the highly talented pool of Squarespace designer/developer enthusiasts. And the company itself hints at frequent feature releases and powerful new features such as ecommerce on the horizon.
Squarespace 5 vs. Squarespace 6
Squarespace v5 has served its users well for a half a decade, but it started to feel like an eternity in Internet years to its passionate customer base. Squarespace 6 will no doubt soothe the masses who have been frothy for the new platform since first getting a taste of the beta program last year.
Squarespace 6 is completely different from version 5. Existing customers will need to build a new website on Squarespace 6 and then shut down their current v5 site. There are pretty decent import tools in Squarespace 6, but the products really are too different to map things over one-to-one.
At first glance, this might strike some as inconvenient. Not me though. I'm using the transition as an opportunity to clean up my website content and prune some sections that are currently just adding clutter. A streamlined site and the new structure and benefits of Squarespace 6 will make the effort of migration worthwhile.
Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace 6
Are you a current customer of Squarespace using v5 and looking to transition? Are you looking to builld a new website and Squarespace 6 caught your eye? Hang out with Squarespace experts and novices alike on Tuesday, July 31 at 6:45pm CDT for Big Picture Web's Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace through a Google+ Hangout. (Space is extremely limited so register now if you'd like to be a part of the event.)
Have you tried Squarespace 6? What features do you like so far? If you're still waiting to try the new version of Squarespace, what features are important to you in a new web publishing platform? Share your thoughts with me.