WHY LEAVE
Why people leave Squarespace.
And when it's time.
Squarespace is pretty and simple, as long as you want what the template can do. After that, the simplicity becomes a limit.
The template holds you back
Layouts come from the template and its blocks. Anything they don't cover, you solve with injected code and custom CSS.
SEO only goes so far
You can set the title, description and URL. You can't edit robots.txt or structured data.
A half-finished export
The WordPress XML export takes pages and one blog. Products, events and the images themselves aren't in it.
Little structure in your content
Squarespace has no custom content types. Case studies, a team page or a catalog get pieced together from blocks by hand.
Features built on injected code
Whatever the template can't do comes from third-party scripts and plugins. They slow the site down and can break when the template changes.
The platform decides for you
Squarespace changes the editor and features on its own terms. Moving from version 7.0 to 7.1 meant rebuilding the site by hand.
MIGRATION TARGET
WHAT CARRIES OVER
What carries over.
And what replaces the extensions.
I export what the Squarespace export can handle, pull the rest from the published site and move it all into the new structure. Here's where everything goes.
| SQUARESPACE | WEBFLOW | SANITY CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Blog posts | Blog CMS collection | Documents in Sanity |
| Pages and sections | Pages and templates | Pages built from blocks |
| Categories and tags | Reference fields in the CMS | References between documents |
| Images and galleries | Assets, compressed | Sanity media library |
| SEO titles and descriptions | Title, description, OG, canonical URL | The same fields on every document |
| Form blocks | Webflow forms | Forms connected to your system |
| Portfolio, events and products | CMS collections with custom fields | Content schema in Sanity |
| Member areas and comments | Not migrated, handled separately | Not migrated, handled separately |
What replaces the add-ons
| EXTENSION | WEBFLOW | SANITY CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Code Injection and custom CSS | Custom code and embeds in Webflow | Code directly in Astro components |
| Third-party template plugins | Components and custom code in Webflow | Astro components with content in Sanity |
| Form blocks sending to email or Google Sheets | Webflow forms with integrations | Custom forms with storage and integrations |
| Weglot and duplicated pages for languages | Webflow Localization | Language versions in Sanity and Astro |
| Squarespace Scheduling | An embedded booking system | A booking system connected through an API |
| Member Areas | A members area through an external service | Authentication and permissions in a custom app |
PROCESS
How a Squarespace migration works.
From export to rank monitoring.
Squarespace audit
I crawl the whole site, export the content to XML and list the pages, collections, blocks and the URLs the export leaves out.
URL map and redirects
URLs with dates, galleries and collections become clean new URLs, each with a 301 redirect.
Content conversion and cleanup
I move content from blocks, and from pages the export leaves out, into a clean structure. I download the images from the Squarespace CDN.
Your content review
You go through the site in a dedicated feedback tool. You leave comments right on the page, and I fix them.
Launch
I switch the domain, check redirects, forms and analytics, and submit the new sitemap. You cancel your Squarespace subscription only after you've checked the new site.
Post-launch monitoring
I watch Search Console and traffic. Whatever shows up after launch, I fix.
Send me your site's URL. I'll tell you what it takes.
I'll go through your site, blocks and collections and suggest whether to move to Webflow or go custom. No commitment, no sales pitch.
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FAQ
What people ask
about leaving Squarespace.
Isn't the WordPress export Squarespace offers enough?
It's a good start, but it's not all your content. The export takes pages, one blog and galleries. I bring over products, events, other blogs and images separately, or they'd be missing from the new site.
Will my posts and their URLs carry over?
Yes. I move the posts along with their categories and images and redirect every old URL to its new one with a 301. URLs with dates get simplified along the way.
My site has more than one blog. Is that a problem?
No. The Squarespace export only takes one blog; I move the others from the published site. In the end, they all sit in one structure.
My domain is through Squarespace. What happens to it?
We either transfer it to another registrar or just point it at the new site. Before the switch, I check whether your email runs through it too, so nothing goes down.
I have an online store on Squarespace. Can it be migrated?
Products can be exported to CSV. Whether to move the store to Webflow or connect a different solution, I'll recommend after the audit, based on how many products you have and how you take payments.
Will I still edit the site myself, like before?
Yes. In Webflow you edit text and images right on the page, in Sanity in an editor with a live preview. And you're no longer tied to template blocks.
Does Squarespace have to go offline during the migration?
No. Squarespace keeps running until you approve the new site. You cancel your subscription only after the domain is switched, when all the images have already been moved.
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