A Squarespace alternative that reads your blog's export
Squarespace exports a blog in WordPress format, the file Typoza imports. What you give up is the design.
Free to start, no card. You can export your posts at any time, on every plan.
The export, on Squarespace
- A .xml file in WordPress format
- One blog page per file
- Image addresses, but no image files
- No design, shop or event pages
The import, on Typoza
- The same .xml, dropped on the import screen
- A preview of its contents, before anything changes
- Pictures fetched from your live Squarespace site
- Published posts published, the rest as drafts
A Squarespace site begins with a template. You pick one, adjust it in the layout editor, and add a blog, a shop or bookings as sections of the site.
The blog is one of those sections, edited inside a designed page layout. Typoza has no layout editor: one theme you set once, and an editor made for posts.
Moving across starts with one file. Squarespace exports a blog as a .xml in WordPress format, and that format is the one Typoza's importer reads.
Point by point
| What we compare | Typoza | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Posts. The theme lays them out. | Design. The blog is one section of the site. |
| Design | One theme: colours, fonts, text width. No layout editor. | Templates, and a layout editor on every page. |
| Importing a blog | Reads Squarespace's WordPress-format export, from the Collective plan. | Imports from several blogging platforms. |
| Exporting | Markdown and JSON, with a list of image addresses, whatever your plan. | A WordPress-format file with one blog page and no media files. |
| Beyond posts | Pages and a newsletter. No shop or bookings. | Shop, bookings, courses and more under one subscription. |
| SEO | Handled on publication: meta tags, sitemap, feeds, structured data and a share image. | Built-in SEO settings, page by page. |
| The editor | A slash menu and eight blocks, tabbed code blocks among them. | Blocks placed within the page layout. |
| Writing together | Six roles, with a review status between draft and published. | Contributors with permission levels. |
What Squarespace does better
Every comparison has this section, and it is never empty. We lose on these points:
- Design. A Squarespace site looks considered from the first day. Typoza's theme lets you change colours, fonts and text width, and nothing about the layout.
- The layout editor. You decide where each element sits, page by page; Typoza has no such editor.
- Breadth. Selling, bookings and courses run on the same subscription as the site. Typoza publishes and stops there.
- Photography. Galleries and portfolio templates suit people whose work is pictures; Typoza's gallery block holds a few images side by side.
- Maturity: a long-established product, with many agencies that build on it.
Moving from Squarespace
Export the site from your Squarespace settings as a .xml in WordPress format, then drop the file on the import screen in your Typoza workspace settings. The screen previews what the file holds before importing it. You need the Collective or Studio plan to import.
What comes across
- Posts with their dates. Published posts stay published; the others arrive as drafts.
- Categories and tags.
- Each post's slug, as the file gives it.
- Pictures. The export holds only their addresses, so the importer downloads them from your live Squarespace site into your library. Import before you close the old site.
What does not
- Everything that is not the blog. Squarespace leaves product, album and event pages out of its export, along with audio and video blocks.
- The design: styles and custom CSS stay behind.
- A second blog. The export holds one blog page; check which one before you rely on it.
- Pictures the importer cannot take: files too large for the upload limit, or no longer online. The report counts them.
- The end of a long series of pictures in one post. The importer takes the first ones, so check your largest posts afterwards.
- The shop, if you had one.
So, which one?
Pick Squarespace if…
The look of the site is the product (a portfolio, a studio, a shop), or you want selling, bookings and publishing on one subscription.
Pick Typoza if…
The writing is the product, arranging page layouts has become a chore, and a move that starts with one file appeals to you.
Questions people ask next
Do I need to copy my posts by hand?
Not for the blog. The file Squarespace exports is in the format Typoza's importer reads. Pages outside the blog, and whatever the export leaves out, you rebuild yourself.
Will my images come across?
Most of them. The importer downloads the pictures in your posts from your Squarespace site into your library, where they count toward your storage. It needs the old site online: import, read the report, then cancel.
Can I keep my shop on Squarespace and move the blog?
Yes. Keep the shop there, move the writing to Typoza, and link the two sites to each other. Typoza has no commerce, so the shop has nowhere to go here.
What about my Squarespace domain?
From the Collective plan, you point it at Typoza from wherever it is registered, and we handle the certificate. A domain registered through Squarespace can also be transferred out.
Will my addresses change?
The domain can stay the same, but paths may differ, since Typoza serves posts at the root of the site. After the import, compare a few old and new addresses, and add a redirect by hand for each old one that still gets visits.
The post you keep putting off
Write its first paragraph today. The post stays a draft until you publish it, and no reader sees it before then.
Free to start, no card. You can export your posts at any time, on every plan.