Can you create an online course in Squarespace?
20 July 2023: Quick update to this article to say that Squarespace is launching a new Courses functionality next month! This is a super-exciting development and it's going to be a game-changer to be able to build courses directly in Squarespace, without having to send people over to a separate platform. So bear this in mind as you read the article below! Soon it will be possible to host your course in Squarespace, I just don’t know what it look like yet 🙌
The short answer is yes. Squarespace offers a couple of ways of hosting gated, monetised content. But it Squarespace is not a Learning Management System in the same way as Kajabi, Teachable or Thinkific. What I mean is that the UX (User Experience) in an online course set up in Squarespace will be quite different to a traditional LMS.
What do I mean?
Well, for example in Squarespace you won’t be able to do the following:
show course progress
enable students to click ‘complete’ at the end of a module
drip-release content dynamically. In other words you can’t drip-feed content to a student based on when the date when they sign up to the course.
add quizzes or tests at the end of a module
So, what can I do in Squarespace if I want to host your course there, along with my website?
Well, firstly, you have a choice between using the new Memberships functionality or not. If you don’t, then your students won’t be able to have their own log-in and password to access the course. It will be the same password for everyone. This is not a huge deal, given that passwords are always shareable, but it’s not ideal. Also, you will use the usual commerce set-up to sell your course if you decide not to use Squarespace Memberships, so you won’t be able to sell memberships or have recurring payments.
You might be wondering what it looks like to host a course in Squarespace. Well, again, it depends on whether you opt for Squarespace Memberships or not. If you don’t want to go down that route, we can use some custom code to make the site look more like an LMS. In other words, we can add a sidebar for quick navigation links to your course modules, code to hide your site header and footer and other tricks to make it easy for your students to navigate through your modules. It works very well and when you are just dipping your toe in the world of online courses, it’s a good place to start.
So what about Squarespace Memberships, why would I use that then?
With Squarespace Memberships you can create different payment plans for your courses. Also, students get to create their own passwords to log in to your course. There is a well-designed navigation for your students too, in Squarespace Memberships. It depends on which version of Squarespace you are using. Member Areas comes with two navigation options depending on which version of Squarespace you are using.
In version 7.0 your students see an overlay to the right when they log in. This overlay shows a list of all lessons for each of the Courses to which they have a subscribed.
In version 7.1 when the student logs in, the main navigation is replaced with a Member Area navigation and they simply need to hover over the Member Area to see the course content.
You may have noticed that Squarespace have updated their Customer Notifications for all Commerce products. It is much more customisable now, thankfully. Before, everyone got the same notification no matter what they had purchased. Now there is a notification specifically for Member Area purchases and you can style and customise to match your course branding.
Another benefit of Squarespace Member Areas is security. While other platforms allow users to bypass paywalls, Squarespace tools ensure a seamless and secure member experience.
Can I connect my Member Area to my Squarespace Email Campaigns? Yes, Member Areas connect seamlessly with Squarespace Email Campaigns and Profiles. So you can manage lists and send newsletters all from the same place.
It goes without saying that by hosting your course in Squarespace you get to keep total brand consistency across your website and course areas. There is a seamless transition for your students from your website and sales page to your course content area. You are not sending them off to another platform or LMS where the look and feel will undoubtedly be slightly different. It won’t have that lovely Squarespace aesthetic.
How much does Squarespace Member Areas cost?
Ok, so this is where you need to be careful about doing your maths. Squarepace Member Areas has three different payment plans and, depending on the value of your course and how many sign-ups you think you are going to have - or how many transactions if you are using payment plans - you may not necessarily opt for the basic plan. You can find out more about Squarespace Member Areas pricing here. As I say, do your calculations based on your own course pricing etc to determine which plan is the best for you.
So, what’s the verdict? Should I stick to Squarespace for my online courses or should I use an LMS?
Well, it depends. Some of the LMS on the market do offer functionalities that you won’t find in Squarespace other than the ones listed at the top of this article. For example, if you want to sophisticated email marketing (which I highly recommend - your email list is the foundation of a successful course launch), Squarespace Email Campaigns won’t cut it. You can’t set up marketing pipelines the way you can seamlessly in Kajabi, for example. Also, Squarespace doesn’t natively host videos. Which means you will have to use Vimeo for your course videos. This works perfectly well, but there will need to pay for the Vimeo account. Not can you drip feed content via email in Squarespace, or automate emails to students based on their activity within your course content.
So it really depends on how sophisticated you want your online course set-up to be, and your course marketing. You can do a lot in Squarespace, and I know plenty of high-profile Squarespacers who are using the platform for their online courses. It depends on your priorities, budget and marketing strategy.
I hope this helps! It’s a bit of a minefield trying to work out the best route. I can fully understand why you’d like to keep everything under the one roof if your website is already in Squarespace. But if you want to be the next Amy Porterfield, you might want to consider something more sophisticated like Kajabi.
