Today, we’re excited to announce an open beta for our new Squarespace Developer Platform.
Web development has traditionally been segmented into two discrete worlds: you can either (1) opt into a hosted platform with limited – if any – code control, or (2) get a shared hosting account, where you have complete platform control but are forced to deal with the burdens of managing your own server – from security, to scalability, to updates, and more.
With the Squarespace Developer Platform, we have taken a significant step to bridge these worlds together, eliminating the need for a shared web host for the most demanding website designs. The platform is easily one of the most advanced parts of the new Squarespace system. While this is the first time we are making the developer platform open to the public, we’ve used it internally for over a year to create Squarespace.com, and every one of our templates.
We’ve got a few incredible surprises for you as part of the announcement today, which we’re confident you’ll love:
- Total Control – By signing up for a developer account, you get complete access to your template’s source code, from the opening tag to the closing tag, allowing you to create any website you can imagine. Some examples of sites that have already been built using the platform are listed below:
-Destination Kors
-Hoodinkee
-Alexandra Posen
-Squarespace
- LESS, JSON-Template, YUI3, and more – Squarespace templates are built using modern technologies. LESS, JSON-Template, and other powerful tools are integrated on the server. Prefer jQuery instead? No problem. With complete code control you can use whatever client-side libraries you wish.
- JSON Everywhere – Squarespace allows you to access the data behind ANY page of your site by simply adding ?format=json to the URL (or ?format=json-pretty, if you’d like the human-readable form). This is very useful when creating dynamic, Javascript-heavy sites.
- Image Loading – Squarespace provides integrated image loader libraries that guarantee you’ll have an easy time loading the proper version of your images. Fit, fill, and other operations are also supported.
- Automatic Script Comboing – When you use our developer platform, Squarespace will automatically create “combo” files that ensure your scripts are loaded in a single server request.
- Use Git, SFTP, or both – You can use SFTP or Git, along with all of the web development tools you’re already used to (we’re fans of Sublime Text 2 and Coda here). We also expose a Git endpoint for every template, so you can always roll back your template to any point in time. If you opt to use SFTP instead, all commands will be silently translated into their Git equivalents, meaning that everything will stay consistent and in order. These are the same tools our in-house team uses to create Squarespace templates themselves.
The Squarespace Developer Platform is free to develop on.
Developer accounts have an unlimited free trial. Take as much time as you need before launching your site, and pay nothing until you do. We want to make it as easy and risk-free as possible for you to get to know our platform without any time or financial constraints.
Once you’re ready to make your site live, a Squarespace Unlimited package ($16/month) is required to use the developer features.
We’re launching in public beta is to give everyone faster access to the platform while we work out any final kinks in the system. Keep in mind, you can launch public sites while we are in beta, and we ask that you be generous with feedback so we can continue to make an incredible platform.
To get started, visit the Squarespace Developer Center.