There are lots of new Squarespace templates coming out these days, but most of them follow the same pattern. You get a polished homepage, some nice demo pages, and solid typography. But as soon as you start building, you realize how limited the design really is.
That’s what made Ore from Ghost Plugins stand out to me.
Instead of feeling like a typical template, Ore comes across as a flexible design system for Squarespace. That difference really matters.
Ore doesn’t lock you into a fixed website design that becomes frustrating to customize. Instead, it gives you a solid starting point with a big library of reusable sections and layouts you can mix and match as needed.
Flexibility is at the core of the whole system. Ghost says the kit comes with over 50 moveable sections and more than 10 pre-designed pages, and you notice that right away when you start using it.
What I really like is that it doesn’t feel too much like a typical template.
Many Squarespace templates look great in demos but get tricky when you try to adapt them for a real business with real content. Ore avoids these issues by keeping the structure clean, open, and modular. It seems purposefully built to handle client edits, which is actually pretty rare.
Ghost Plugins’ “Paper” approach is also smart. Their Paper templates are basically non-branded systems, so you don’t have to work around someone else’s strong visual style.
You get a much cleaner starting point.
As someone who builds websites for a living, I find this is where Ore really proves its value.
For freelancers and agencies, it could really speed up project delivery. Ghost says it can save 10 to 15 or more hours of setup and layout work, and I honestly believe that.
The biggest time drain in Squarespace projects usually isn’t the platform. It’s having to build consistent sections, spacing, responsive layouts, and page structures from scratch each time.
Ore seems to have solved many of those problems before you even get started.
Ore feels neutral, editorial, modern, and adaptable. You could realistically turn it into a site for a creative studio, consultant, personal brand, agency, service business, or even something more product-focused without needing to rebuild everything.
It’s also worth noting how Ghost Plugins has grown within the Squarespace community. They started out mainly focused on plugins, but over time have quietly built a strong ecosystem of templates, design systems, and tools. Their platform is now used on over 100,000 Squarespace websites, which is pretty impressive for this niche.
You’ll also hear Ghost Plugins mentioned often by other respected Squarespace creators and educators when people talk about useful Squarespace resources and plugin providers.
Overall, I think Ore is best for people who want a professional starting framework instead of a super-stylized, one-click website.
If you like tweaking layouts, reordering sections, refining typography, and making a site truly your own, this is probably a much better option than most traditional Squarespace templates out there.
It feels less like buying a finished website and more like getting a well-designed creative system.
Honestly, that’s probably the direction more Squarespace templates should go.