Fluid Engine is Squarespace’s new editor for all 7.1 websites. It’s a content editor which uses regular page sections with a range of blocks. The concept is that it allows more flexibility in website design by allowing the creator to resize, overlap and have more freedom with the structure of a web page.

If you’re already a Squarespace user or have been in the past, you’ll know the Classic Editor which is the reliable drag and drop blocks for content - image, text and spacers - that lock the content into place and making designing pages relatively hassle free. It’s one of the main reasons my clients love this platform.

Squarespace’s reasons for upgrading the content editor is to get onboard with a more UX centric, interactive editor that’s a hard-hitting competitor to WordPress Divi, Showit and Webflow. Having used all three of these recently and compared to Fluid Engine, I can advocate for Squarespace’s thinking. Fluid Engine holds up well and makes the process of site design less regimented and more bespoke.

Do you need to move from Squarespace 7.0?

If you’re on a 7. 0 site or older, then you’re using Classic Editor. Currently Squarespace do not have any easy way to export content from 7.0 to 7.1. The process requires the design of a 7.1 website, exporting out the data, and manually importing it. This is very frustrating, though are plug-ins that can export data with varying degrees of success.

My advice is to plan it out, ideally in the four- six months before your renewal date if you want to avoid duplicate hosting fees as Squarespace do not currently refund when one site closes. A few months should be ample time to export and reload content with time to rewrite.

What are the good bits about Fluid Engine?

One area that WordPress have excelled in is creativity and Squarespace have now gained ground by creating an editor that makes sites stand out. It’s so easy to get lost in our online world with a boring site that lacks any originality or so tangled in security or fear of breaking a site that the appearance starts to look dated.

Fluid Engine brings uniqueness at last. I hated the heavily templated nature of past versions of Squarespace. I’d have to use a lot of code to break the site free from the standard formats and always turned to WP if I needed something creative if my client was okay with that. That’s fine for us who don’t mind coding but terribly unfair on those who wanted to play a bit. It seems like Squarespace have finally given allowed all users to get creative.

It’s an important point. My clients come from different business backgrounds. They don’t want the same site. Flexible Fluid Engine means I can provide bespoke sites without adding in heaps of code. I’m sure I’ll be adding a bit but for most users, that’s not going to be necessary.

Separate mobile editing

WordPress Divi does this so well. Sorry to harp on about WP, but it’s clearly the main competitor for Fluid Engine. Users have long been able to tailor their mobile and tablet views. Now you can with Squarespace, hurrah! The mobile Fluid Engine is entirely separate from the desktop view and still based on the design structure making it super easy to edit. The win is, of course, better mobile accessibility and a higher rate of conversion from tablets and phones.

Anything bad about it?

It’s still buggy. The Squarespace Circle (for those of us who have created multiple functioning websites) publishes regular updates for members and it’s clear the Fluid Engine has some teething problems. Unfortunately Squarespace do have a history of releasing things to their Circle before being fully tested and using us a unwitting betas which isn’t terribly good practice for us or our clients! That said, we are best placed to see the issues and Squarespace are very responsive to tickets and solutions. These issues are being solved very quickly.

It’s a lot to take in. The temptation with any new toy is to play and there’s almost too much stuff here. My advice is to work with me to create a plan of what you want the website to do, and the wish list of nice to haves. Then I’ll create the site, as the principles of good design still apply - the space, the fonts, the journey and the site map all matter. I can see lots of users with limited design and UX savvy creating some very poor experiences for web users and that could devalue Squarespace’s reputation.

In time you will need to upgrade. Squarespace will add a button to your 7.0 site (including this Hello Lovely site that’s on 7.0, - yes I’m dreading taking 142+ Tips and Tricks over) and you’ll have to make the switch. I’m leaping on this wagon by updating the Full Stop’s website by taking it from 7 to 7.1 and using that experience to create a best practice. I’m already booking in site updates and have created several large site builds since July 2022 in Squarespace 7.1 with Fluid Engine. I’m also hoping they’ll come up with a way to move the sites over and encourage users to keep asking Squarespace to make this easier to avoid people heading off to the competitors.

Takeaway

If you rarely update your 7.0 site then you’re probably okay for a while but if you are reliant on your site and update weekly or more often, then it’s a good idea to get planning.