Ghost Plugins vs Spark Plugin: Which is Squarespace's Best?
Want to customize your Squarespace website to make it stand out from the rest?
Adding plugins to your site is an easy and effective way to transform the style of your site and enhance the user experience.
Spark Plugin and Ghost Plugins are two popular platforms to try if you want to add more features to your website. However, which one is the best?
Here's our comprehensive guide to what both customization platforms do and which one you should use to change the design of your Squarespace site.
Interested in Squarekicker instead? Here's how Squarekicker and Spark Plugin compare!
What do Ghost Plugins and Spark Plugin have in common?
Both platforms have the same end goal – to help you customize your Squarespace website and show off your brand to web visitors. They also have:
A vast library of customizations
New customizations added all the time
Affiliate schemes that can help you earn money
Both websites are also members of Squarespace Circle, meaning you can trust them as knowledgeable and skilled experts on all things Squarespace.
But the platforms have a few differences too. Let's see what they are.
Ghost Plugins has more customizations
Ghost Plugins has a wider selection of customizations to choose from – over 500. There is also the Ghost Marketplace, which sells customizations by third-party developers.
Spark Plugin has over 100 customizations, so still a lot!
But…
While Ghost Plugins offers breadth, Spark Plugin offers depth. All the customizations from Spark Plugin have been thoroughly tested and futureproofed to safeguard against future Squarespace updates. This means you can use them on your website with complete confidence.
Both platforms regularly add brand-new customizations, so if you don't see what you want, it's well worth checking back at a later date!
Spark Plugin and Ghost Plugins have different pricing structures
Spark Plugin's pricing structure is very simple. You pay a monthly fee, and for that, you can use all the customizations on your site.
Ghost Plugins pricing is a bit more complex. There are free plugins available, as well as paid-for ones.
You can also pay a monthly fee for Ghost+. This gives you access to all the plugins on offer, as well as a wide range of professionally designed templates – ideal for developers and agencies.
Spark Plugin is easier to use and manage
Spark Plugin is designed for people with no web development experience. All you need to do is add a short snippet of code to your website.
Once this is done, you have access to all of the customizations on offer, which you can easily add to your site through the Squarespace menus.
The great thing about this approach is that it's 'one and done'. If there are any new customizations, they'll be automatically added to your website menus, and if Squarespace makes any significant updates, your customizations will still work perfectly. Ideal if you've not got much time to regularly check the back end of your website.
While Ghost Plugins has lots of awesome customizations, adding them is a little trickier.
For each customization, you get a piece of CSS code that you need to add to your Squarespace site. This can be a little daunting if you don't know much about custom code. However, Ghost Plugins explains how to do it and how you can tweak the code to get the desired results.
The issue with this approach is that if Squarespace updates its systems, you have to check the code for each customization to make sure it still works. Updates can often cause problems with manually added code.
Plus, adding multiple bits of CSS code to your Squarespace site can cause it to load more slowly, which can be bad for the user experience and for SEO. If you do add CSS customizations to your site, regularly review and remove code that you no longer need.
Ghost Plugin has customizations for Squarespace 7.0
Spark Plugin only works for Squarespace 7.1 – if you're not sure which version of the platform you're on, you can find out in a matter of seconds.
Ghost Plugins has a 'legacy' section, which contains customizations for Squarespace 7.0. This means you can style your site no matter which version you use.
(Although bear in mind that as these plugins are legacy ones, there's no guarantee they will work on your website.)
So, should you use Ghost Plugins or Spark Plugin?
There isn't a definitive answer!
The great thing about Ghost Plugins and Spark Plugins is that they offer different things. For example, Spark Plugin doesn't have a funky doodle pen option, but Ghost Plugins doesn't let you add a flurry of falling snow to your site.
While Ghost Plugins has a wider range of customizations, Spark Plugin customizations are more premium and easier to add to your site.
At the end of the day, it's personal preference. I recommend looking at both options to see which customizations you want to add to your site.
If you're a web developer or run an agency, why not sign up for Ghost+ and Spark Plugin? This gives you the best of both worlds and means you can use the customizations that best suit your clients' needs.
Over to you – do you prefer Ghost Plugins or Spark Plugin?
Ghost Plugins vs Spark Plugin: frequently asked questions
What are Ghost Plugins and Spark Plugin?
Ghost Plugins and Spark Plugin are websites that offer customizations that allow you to enhance the functionality and design of your Squarespace website.
What is the main difference between Ghost Plugins and Spark Plugin?
Spark Plugin only needs to be added to your website once, then you can access all the customizations on offer. Ghost Plugins has more customizations, but you have to add them all individually.
Are Ghost Plugins and Spark Plugin free?
There is a monthly subscription for Spark Plugin. Ghost Plugins offers several free plugins, as well as paid-for ones. You can also pay a monthly subscription for unlimited access to all plugins.
