Squarespace Themes: Understand the differences
Why This Matters
Picture this: you’re eager to launch your new site, you’ve found the “perfect” design on Squarespace, and now you’re itching to tweak it until it matches your business vision. Then, about three steps in, you collide headfirst into a wall of confusion. The internet’s full of advice: “Add some CSS! Just customise the template! Don’t use anything except Brine!” Meanwhile, you’re stuck scouring help docs, forum posts, and YouTube tutorials made for a platform that never seems to look quite like yours.
Not all Squarespace templates are created equal. Each template family (Brine, Ishimoto, Bedford, and many more) comes with its own quirks, limits, and hidden gems. Some play nicely with custom code. Others fight you every step. Waste a few days poking at the wrong settings or wondering why your site’s behaving oddly, and the lost hours and growing frustration can turn a fun project into a time sink.
Every week, members of the Pixelhaze Academy find themselves with the same familiar headaches:
- “Why do some CSS snippets work perfectly for my friend, but break my own site?”
- “Aren’t all Squarespace templates basically the same under the bonnet?”
- “Everyone loves Brine, but I can’t even figure out if I’m using it.”
Understand how template families work and you’ll dodge costly redesigns, broken layouts, and that familiar urge to ‘just start over’. Get this right and your site’s style, plus your confidence in taking charge of your online presence, will both grow.
Common Pitfalls
The number one trap: assuming all Squarespace templates are interchangeable. There’s a persistent myth that if you just sprinkle in the right magic CSS, you can bend any template to your will. In reality, it’s a lot more like choosing between a family saloon and a pickup truck for a cross-country road trip. They’ll both get you there, but how you pack and what you can do along the way differs wildly.
Typical mistakes I see (and I’ve watched plenty of perfectly intelligent humans fall into every one):
- Copying CSS or code written for a different template family – Result: nothing changes, or (worse) something breaks and looks dreadful on mobile.
- Spending hours tweaking settings that flat-out don’t exist in your family – Bedford, Brine, and Pacific all have completely different options behind the scenes.
- Choosing a template because it ‘looks nice’ in the demo, then hitting a wall when trying to adapt structure or layouts for your real content.
- Not knowing that certain templates are discontinued or unsupported, leading to unnecessary troubleshooting.
A common occurrence is being told by a well-meaning stranger to “just use Brine” without a clue what that actually changes, and then wondering why your site menu won’t stick, or why your fancy banners disappear.
Step-by-Step Fix
1. Identify Your Template Family and Template Name
Before you do anything, go and check exactly which template your Squarespace site is running on. This is the cornerstone. Every other step flows from here.
- Log in to Squarespace.
- Open the main menu, then click Design.
- Click Template (sometimes labelled as ‘Site Styles’ or similar—the wording shifts across versions).
- Your active template name will appear at the top, such as “Bedford” or “Sofia”.
There’s a twist here: what you see as a “template” is actually a variant within a bigger theme family. This is a crucial difference. Compare “Brine” (theme family) with “Heights” or “Mojave” (specific templates within Brine). Many tutorials and forums reference families, so it's important to match advice correctly.
If you’re ever uncertain, scroll down to the bottom of your site in edit mode and right-click “View Page Source”. Use CTRL+F (or CMD+F on Mac) and search for “templateId” or the actual template name string in the code. It’ll be hidden somewhere near the top, and is very useful when Squarespace’s menu isn’t clearly displaying your template.
2. Reference the Squarespace Theme Family Chart
This is the point where most confusion unravels—matching your template to the correct family. Why does this matter? Because functionality, code names, and even standard layouts change family by family. Bookmark this quick comparison chart to keep things organized:
| Theme Family | Templates Using It | Pixelhaze Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Brine | Aria, Basil, Blend, Brine, Burke, Cacao, Clay, Ethan, Fairfield, Feed, Foster, Greenwich, Hatch, Heights, Hunter, Hyde, Impact, Jaunt, Juke, Keene, Kin, Maple, Margot, Marta, Mentor, Mercer, Miller, Mojave, Moksha, Motto, Nueva, Pedro, Polaris, Pursuit, Rally, Rover, Royce, Sofia, Sonny, Sonora, Stella, Thorne, Vow, Wav, West | Most flexible and nearly always recommended for custom websites and advanced styling. Brine covers a vast array of features. If you can start here, do so. |
| Bedford | Anya, Bedford, Bryant, Hayden | Clean layouts, good for portfolios and small business, but fewer bells and whistles. Still a reliable choice. |
| Farro | Farro, Haute | Visual-heavy sites benefit from this family, although it's less versatile than Brine for custom structure. |
| Pacific | Bryler (discontinued), Charlotte, Fulton, Horizon, Naomi, Pacific | Excellent for single-page or minimal sites. |
| York | Artesia, Flores, Harris, Jasper, Jones, Lange, Shibori, York | Like Pacific, great for scrolling ‘one-page’ designs. |
| Montauk | Julia, Kent, Montauk, Om | Older layouts, best for simple brochure sites or blogs. |
| Others | Avenue, Adirondack, Aviator, Five, Flatiron, Forte, Galapagos, Ishimoto, Momentum, Native, Skye, Supply, Tremont, Wells, Wexley | Many are now legacy or discontinued. Use caution, and check template support status. |
If you’re not certain how your template fits into these families, use this list every time you search for custom code or troubleshooting advice.
When searching for code help (“how to style buttons in Squarespace”), always include your family name (e.g., “Brine buttons CSS”) to avoid irrelevant answers or theme conflicts.
3. Learn the Naming Conventions for Each Family
Here’s an area that often trips people up: Squarespace didn’t settle on a universal naming scheme for content areas or elements across its template families. If you tweak the wrong selector, nothing will happen—or you might end up styling parts of the site you hadn’t intended. Let’s look at the basics:
- Main Page Area
- Brine:
Main - Bedford:
#siteContent - Pacific:
#page
- Brine:
This might seem minor, but when you apply code from a YouTube tutorial that references “#siteContent” on your Brine site, you’ll quickly see why it matters.
Other elements, like headings, buttons, and blockquotes, are more consistently named, but it's important to always double check.
A simple code like:
#siteContent h1 {
color: red;
}
won’t affect your site if you’re running Brine.
Before you commit to any code change, use your browser’s “Inspect Element” tool to check exactly what the element’s called in your version of Squarespace. This is a web designer’s best friend and prevents you from editing blind.
4. Use Theme-Appropriate Custom CSS and Features
You might want every site to feel entirely custom, and CSS is a great way to add your own personality—as long as you remember its limitations. CSS will help you restyle any visible part of your Squarespace site, but it can’t add or change underlying structure or functionality.
For example:
- Need a sticky menu? Brine has it inbuilt. Bedford doesn’t.
- Want parallax scrolling? Brine can do it.
- Fancy banner layouts? Only certain templates will work well.
Always match your tutorials, code, and expectations to your template family. If a video or forum post describes a feature you don’t see, check if your template supports it before using code hacks.
Look for the official Squarespace ‘Features by Template’ documentation before searching for third-party workarounds. This will save you time and effort.
5. When in Doubt, Ask the Community
If you’re still stuck, chances are someone else has faced and fixed the same problem. Pixelhaze Academy’s library, Squarespace’s forums, and designer-led communities all have discussions focused on theme-specific quirks.
Experienced users often share both the solution and their reasoning, so you can avoid repeating the mistake. Include your template family and version in your question to get the most targeted advice.
Keep a quick note file on your computer or phone with your template name, theme family, and any quirks you’ve found. This will help you with troubleshooting later and you’ll be ready with helpful details when asking for assistance.
What Most People Miss
Even experienced users can miss this key idea. Success is about starting with a foundation that fits your project from day one. Picking Brine because it’s popular is like buying a race car to do the weekly shop. Sometimes, flexibility is essential, but many businesses and creatives do well with simpler templates when they’re chosen with purpose.
The main advantage is knowing when your problems come down to theme features and can be solved by picking the right template, and when you actually need CSS or external tools. Getting this right saves hours or even days over the life of your site.
The Bigger Picture
When you understand how Squarespace’s themes and templates function, every step gets faster and the process is far less frustrating. You’ll stop wasting time trying to force the wrong design into place. Instead, you start with a template family that covers most of your needs and polish the rest with CSS or Pixelhaze snippets.
Over time, this knowledge saves more than just time. It cuts out that “why doesn’t it work for me?” feeling. It gives you the confidence to scale, refresh, or redesign without starting from scratch. The real benefit is a reliable site foundation that will support your business growth without ongoing rebuilds.
A subtle mindset shift makes the difference: view your theme choice as a strategic decision.
Wrap-Up
Squarespace offers countless ways to make your site stand out, but they only work when you build on the right foundation. Find your theme family, understand its quirks, and learn them before getting deep into customisation or code. This approach lets you design faster, solve problems sooner, and feel more in control with every update.
Keep this guide on hand to avoid classic mistakes. If you want more help, guides, and practical solutions, join the Pixelhaze Academy family for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership. You’ll find practical guides, a jargon-busting community, and real solutions for every Squarespace question.
Squarespace custom code, Squarespace Templates, Squarespace Theme Families, Elwyn