Another website building startup wants to take on Wix and Squarespace

In an effort to make a name for itself against Wix or Squarespace, Universe, a website building and commerce platform designed for mobile devices, has announced a series of updates to its GRID system.

The company said the updated functionality on its mobile website builder app is “as easy as putting together Lego-style building blocks.”

The new update, GRID II, will be released in stages over the next month, providing Universe customers with a no-code creation and commerce tool.

What is the GRID?

Universe’s GRID is the main component of the company’s website builder application. It is a gesture-based interface that allows users to build a site by tapping, dragging and pinching building blocks.

The GRID II update includes additional features to the Universe app that will help users customize their websites, including stores and product offerings, as well as new website themes and a redesigned creative control offering .

In addition to a new styling kit, Universe introduced Layers, a new set of features that aims to redefine the way users create compositions and design websites on the GRID. Website builders will be able to layer blocks on top of each other, stack and organize their order in the app.

“If you wanted to use a computer in 1980, you had to know how to code. The advent of graphical user interfaces made it possible for anyone to use a computer. Universe GRID is a graphical interface for creating the Internet: now anyone who uses the Internet can create it, ”said Joseph Cohen, founder and CEO of Universe.

“The Internet is humanity’s greatest invention – an ever-changing web of our art, our ideas, our hopes, our dreams, our fears and our experiences. He promises to reflect us all.

Ryan Poolos, CTO and Product Manager at Universe, echoed Cohen in saying this is an upgrade moment for GRID as a platform.

“We introduce and design these features together to create a transparent platform for expression. Users will be able to build much more with this new platform and from a technical point of view we are also laying a new basis for even more platform extensions in the future, ”Poolos added.

“It has been a complete team effort to plan, design and develop a platform extension that is powerful, remains simple, and is only available to all existing sites. I have never been so excited about the future of GRID.