Why I Love Squarespace for Music Studio Websites (updated for 2023)

Music teacher, what’s your studio website platform?

Wordpress? Squarespace?

Weebly? Wix?

My Music Staff?

These are common website platforms for music teachers, and there are a lot of opinions out there about which one is the best for our studio needs.

When I built my first studio website in 2013, I chose Squarespace as my website platform.

Prior to that, I had attempted to start a website with Wordpress and eventually gave up in frustration. It felt unwieldy, confusing, and - most importantly - I could not seem to finish it!

Like most teachers prior to 2013, I knew almost nothing about website-building. I needed something that I could figure out on my own in a reasonable amount of time. My husband, Jeremy, told me about Squarespace. He liked their business model, their values, and their goal to make the website-building process simple for everyone.

So I took my laptop to a local brewery for a few afternoons to make sure I would work without distraction. I spent a total of about 20 hours building my first studio website on Squarespace.

When my studio website was done, I was so proud of it. It wasn’t perfect, but it looked modern and I received frequent compliments on it. And the process was almost fun!

Fast-forward a couple of years. I realized that my website no longer looked modern; it looked very...well, 2013. It was time for an update.

I went back to the brewery for a website overhaul. And this time the process was definitely enjoyable.

I wish I had taken screenshots of my first several studio websites. It’s fun to look back at what you’ve created - and to see how much you learn over time.

While both early iterations of my website were unpolished and very simple, they were both good online representations of my studio. I felt confident that my online image supported my professional studio image to parents.

Fast-forward a few more years, and we now run a thriving business building websites for small business owners - including many music teachers. We are still Squarespace fans - every website we build is on Squarespace - and my reasons for loving the Squarespace platform have multiplied.

Here’s why I love Squarespace for music studio websites:

1. Squarespace Websites are Straightforward to Build

Once you invest some time in learning the backend of Squarespace, it’s a fairly simple process to build a website that looks beautiful and up-to-date. The backend of Squarespace makes sense. You can find your way around easily, and the layout of the tools is simple.  

In fact, many of our Studio Rocket clients comment on how much easier it is to make updates to their new website than they were expecting.

Technology has come so far that coding is completely unnecessary to having a great studio website. While the prospect of building a website on your own may seem daunting, you already have the skills to build one on your own - no coding needed.

It will take time and patience, for sure, but you don’t need to choose between hiring a web developer to code your website and having a studio website that is out of date or unattractive.

2. Squarespace Support is Great

Even now, after spending countless hours of my life working on websites, I will occasionally be stumped by something.

Enter Squarespace support.

I can easily find an answer to my question in their extensive help library, watch a video that explains a process, or start a quick chat with a website expert who knows their stuff.

I’ve never been unable to find the answer to my problem. Usually I’m back to building in just a few minutes.

3. Responsive Design Is Built In

It’s absolutely imperative that your studio website be mobile-responsive. Having a website that doesn’t translate well to a phone - the images are “off,” the text goes out of alignment, or the spacing is all wrong - will make your studio look unprofessional. And, since we are constantly shopping and visiting websites on our phones, it’s likely that a huge percentage of your audience “meets” your studio for the first time through their phone screen.

Squarespace’s Classic Editor has built-in mobile responsiveness. This means that, even if you don’t do anything special to your website, it won’t look bad on a phone. It may not look quite how you prefer, but it won’t give a bad first impression to parents.

A note about Squarespace versions: Squarespace rolled out a new editor last year (I’m updating this in 2023, so the rollout was in 2022), called Fluid Engine. It offers more flexibility in designing separately for mobile views, but it’s not great for built-in mobile responsiveness. If you decide to build your own website in Squarespace in 2023, I’d recommend reaching out to a web designer (like us! 🙋🏻‍♀️) and seeing if they can help.

Thanks for reading, friend, and I hope this was a helpful comparison!