My honest review of Standout Squarespace 2.0
Standout Squarespace* is a comprehensive online course that teaches everything from designing and building websites on Squarespace 7.1 to diving into custom CSS and running a web design studio.
Even if you’ve been using Squarespace for years, this course will teach you to streamline your process and design & build websites that truly stand out online.
In this post, I’ll go over my favorite parts of the program and give my honest thoughts as a student of Standout Squarespace.
The newest version (Standout Squarespace 2.0) is broken into 2 pillars - Foundations and Advanced. You can choose to start with the Foundations and upgrade to the full tier (and only pay the difference).
In this post, I’ll be reviewing materials and modules accessed in the full-tier program.
How the course is organized
The instructor, Rache puts a very high level of thought and intention into each piece of the course, and it shows. It’s a pretty complex course with many modules, lessons, additional resources, and a community aspect. Even so, it is well organized and broken down into easy-to-digest modules. Rache makes it easy to follow along and find the things you need in what could be an overwhelming amount of information.
Additional resources & materials
Even if you go through the course and only access a fraction of the additional resources you will have gotten your money’s worth.
Beyond the modules, you also get access to the Code Toolkit (in Notion), Templates (including all the templates you need to use with clients), Q&A space, and 12 months of access to additional coding workshops, code toolkit updates, and coding support.
After the 12 months is up, you have the option to pay the alumni price ($1000/year as of March 2024), for ongoing access to the advanced workshops, coding support, and code toolkit updates. If you do not sign up for the alumni plan, you still get to keep the current version of the code toolkit.
The Squarespace Knowledge Base: includes all of the course materials, resources, and code toolkit.
Time commitment
I’m sure you’ve gathered this is a very robust course. It requires a pretty big time commitment. Especially as you will need to practice the techniques taught in the lesson videos. I recommend opening the course in one browser window and opening the project in another browser window so you can follow along in real-time. For more complex lessons, I started by watching the lesson and then replayed the video and followed along the second time through.
Another thing to consider is that this course is entirely self-led. You have immediate access to all modules and materials. This can be great if you are ready to dive in and power through, you have the option to do so.
However, if you need accountability and regular check-ins, you’ll want to find a partner to go through the course with.
The Community
The Standout community is a huge selling point for the program. Rache and her team are in the group regularly answering questions and providing support. The community is also a great place to find inspiration and connect with other designers.
A lot of times, I can find the answer to an issue I’m having just by using the search feature and finding a thread that relates to my problem. You can also upload screenshots and videos to help describe your problem and get support.
Additional workshops available in the Standout Squarespace Community
Level of difficulty
Standout Squarespace 2.0 is split into two sections—Foundations and Advanced. This version of the course is more beginner-friendly in my opinion, than the previous version of Standout Squarespace.
The first section of the course, Foundations, teaches the strategy and design best practices, how to efficiently build your mockup in Squarespace 7.1 fluid editor, and how to streamline your studio.
The Advanced section is included in the full-tier plan. The Advanced modules go deeper into custom CSS. Rache also teaches her CSS techniques, which help to organize the code and make edits much easier and faster.
Final thoughts
Standout Squarespace is the most thorough and valuable Squarespace CSS course I’ve taken. Rache goes beyond giving copy-and-paste code, and teaches core concepts so that we can learn to understand, write, and troubleshoot custom CSS.
If you want to learn more about Standout Squarespace, you can start by checking out this free workshop. In this workshop, you’ll learn what’s inside the program and get an idea of Rache’s teaching style.
Rache also offers a free 35-minute workshop teaching the basics of CSS in Squarespace 7.1. In this free course, you’ll go through the steps of recreating a stylish homepage using CSS.
Overall, I can’t recommend Standout Squarespace enough. It’s the most complete, well-organized, and thoughtful Squarespace course out there. No matter what your design style is, you’ll leave this course with the tools to build a beautiful, unique, and effective Squarespace 7.1 website.
*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase via one of these links I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I will only ever share or promote tools and resources that I love and have used myself.
