We offer a variety of templates you can customize to create a site that presents your style, brand, and vision to the world. While every template works for different purposes, each has its own features and style.

This guide explains different ways to pick a template, so you can find the method that works for you. After you've made your choice, you can preview or switch templates at any time.

These steps are for version 7.0. All sites on version 7.1 are part of the same template family.

Answer questions to create a custom template

If you haven't yet started a trial, you can use our interactive site builder. This creates a custom template with the pages and layouts you choose.

To get started, visit Using the Custom Template.

Browse examples to find one you like

Visit our template store and click Preview on any template to see its demo site. Each demo site uses sample content to show the template's features and provide inspiration for your design. Use the categories on the left to filter the templates by site type.

Rather than focus on the demo content, look for specific features that appeal to you. For example, the Basil demo site is for a restaurant, but you can use Basil's parallax scrolling Index Page to combine bold headlines and images for any type of site.

Tip: If you've already started a site, you can browse options in the Template panel.

Brine is a great place to start

Brine is one of our most popular template families, and for good reason. It's stylish and highly customizable, and supports the Advanced Products Page, a stacked Index Page, a modern Blog Page, and parallax scrolling. You can always switch to a different template later, but the Brine family is a great place to start.

There are more than 40 templates in the Brine family, and they all support the same features and style options. To browse these templates, view the Brine page in our template store.

Choose by specific feature

Many common features are available in all templates, but every template has special features that are unique to its template family. For example, on any template, you can create a Blog Page. But only the Skye and Farro template families support Infinite Scroll and built-in related posts.

Here are some features that vary significantly by template. If any of these features are important to you, explore templates that support them.

Tip: If a template you like doesn't support a specific feature, there may be a different way to achieve the same goal.

Feature	Description	Suggested templates
Index Page	An Index Page highlights content from multiple pages. They're a great way to present a portfolio, information about a business or project, and more.	Brine's Index has stacked banners. Tremont's Index is a background image slideshow. Avenue's Index creates a grid of thumbnails. See all templates with Index Pages.
Navigation menus	Some templates have extra menus or special features.	Margot has two header menus and a footer menu. Skye has an overlay navigation. Bedford creates menus from folders. See options by template family.
Sidebars	Vertical areas you can customize with text, images, links, and more.	Skye has a sidebar on blog posts. Avenue has one on the blog landing page. Five supports up to two sidebars on any page. See all templates that support content sidebars.
Footers	The bottom section of your site, below your page content. All templates except Wells have footers, but some have special features.	Mentor has two content areas and a footer navigation, and folders can display as columns. Pacific also has two content areas and a footer navigation. Avenue has individual page footers. See all footer options by template.
Full-bleed images	In some templates, images extend from one edge of the browser to the other.	Aria has full-bleed banners and Indexes. Bryant also has full-bleed banners and Indexes. Avenue has a full-bleed background image. Learn more about full-bleed options.
Image animations	Images that move slightly as visitors interact with your site can help grab their attention.	Shift in the Brine family has parallax scrolling. Images in the York family's Project Page appear to slide up from the bottom.
Share buttons	You can add links to help visitors share your content on any template, but some have buttons with advanced styling options.	See them on these demo sites: Pedro Skye Farro Or see all templates that support advanced Share buttons.

Good templates for stores

All templates include the ability to sell products, but some have extra Commerce features like Quick View and Image Zoom.

If your primary goal is to sell goods or services, use a template with the Advanced Products Page. Examples of this include:

• West
• Thorne
• Stella

Good templates for blogs

Your site's Blog Page sets the layout of your posts and affects what metadata displays, like author, date, categories, and tags. If blogging will be an important part of your site, select a template with a Blog Page you love.

Our latest templates' Blog Pages showcase thumbnail images to grab readers' attention. Here are some good options to explore:

• Skye
• Farro
• Brine

To see an overview of options by template family, visit Blog features by template.

Good templates for images

Many templates feature Gallery Page designs for displaying media in exciting ways, including full-bleed images that span the width of the page. If galleries will be an important feature of your site, explore the Gallery Pages in these templates:

• York (Project Page)
• Tremont
• Avenue

To see an overview of key Gallery Page options by template family, visit the template comparison charts.

If you'd like to use images throughout your site, in many templates, you can add full-bleed banner images to the top of individual pages. Here are some suggestions:

• Aria has full-bleed page banners, and you can stack multiple banners in an Index.
• Bryant also has full-bleed banners and a stacked banner Index.

For a full list, see all banner options by template.

Good templates for businesses and organizations

If the goal of your site is to provide information to visitors, like business hours, who you are, or an overview of a project, you can use any template.

For example, on any template you can create About and Contact pages and add search options. In all templates except Wells you can add information and links to your footer. If your site will be primarily text-based, we have tips for creating a site without images.

To get you started, here are some templates to explore:

• Keene
• Pursuit
• Sofia

Template feature alternatives

If you love a template but one of its features doesn't work for you, there may be an alternative way to achieve the same effect.

On any template, you can:

• Create custom image layouts with Image Blocks and Gallery Blocks.
• Add text links to create custom navigation menus.
• Create a custom blog landing page layout with Summary Blocks.
• Create a custom store layout with Product Blocks.
• Add related blog posts with Summary Blocks.
• Use Cover Pages to create full-bleed background image effects and uniquely-styled pages.

More help

You can learn more about templates in these guides:

• Understanding Squarespace templates
• Switching templates
• Template comparison charts
• What's my template and its family?
• We have an in-depth guide for each template family

Sometimes it helps to ask an expert. If you have more questions after reading these tips and exploring our templates, contact us so an Advisor can help you find the perfect one. Provide any of the following information to help us suggest a template for your needs:

• What is your site for?
• What are the most important features you're looking for?
• Do you want an image-heavy site, or would you prefer more white space and text?
• Any examples of other sites you're using for inspiration.