One snippet, pasted into a Code Block on the page — because it's social proof for a specific project, so it goes inline next to what it's vouching for. Squarespace hosts millions of small-business and portfolio sites, and almost none of those sites want another extension just to render a small piece of live data. No extension. Squarespace renders raw HTML and script tags inside a Code Block, so there is nothing to install from the Extensions marketplace.
The free GitHub stars badge that doesn't slow your page or eat your repo's API quota. Shields.io renders a flat SVG via 3rd-party requests on every page load. Star-history.com is heavyweight. This GitHub stars badge is a 4 KB script tag — pulls the live stargazer count from GitHub's public API, caches it server-side for 6 hours, and shows '★ 42.3k stars' as a crisp pill in 6 themes. Free, no signup, no API key.
Code Injection (Settings → Advanced) needs a Business plan or higher. Code Blocks exist on every plan, but JavaScript and iframes inside them only execute on paid plans above Personal. So Personal users see the block but not the widget — move up a plan or use a service that renders a plain image. Everything from Core upward works with a Code Block.
Squarespace renders a grey placeholder for Code Blocks while you're editing and doesn't run injected scripts in the editor at all. Save, then open the live URL in a normal tab — and hard-refresh, because Squarespace caches aggressively at the edge. Most 'it doesn't work' reports are an editor-only check.
Brine-family 7.0 templates load pages via AJAX, so a script placed in the body may not re-run when a visitor clicks through your nav — the widget appears on first load and vanishes afterwards. Fix: Site Styles → uncheck Enable Ajax Loading, or put the snippet in Code Injection Header instead so it runs once for the whole session.
No extension. Squarespace renders raw HTML and script tags inside a Code Block, so there is nothing to install from the Extensions marketplace. Installing an extension for this would mean an extra dependency, an update cycle and a security surface to render one snippet. Paste it into a Code Block on the page and you're done.
A Code Block on the page — because it's social proof for a specific project, so it goes inline next to what it's vouching for. Open the page in the editor and click an insert point where the widget belongs. Click Add Block and choose Code. Paste the snippet, keep the mode set to HTML, and save. The editor shows a placeholder rather than the widget — open the live page to see it render.
No. The script tag is async, so it never blocks your page from rendering, and the widget draws itself after your content is already on screen. Squarespace serves your site from its own CDN and the snippet is one async tag, so it loads beside your content. Prefer the Footer field over Header in Code Injection for anything script-based — it keeps the tag out of the critical path on every page at once.
Squarespace 7.1 editor: Add Block → Code. Code Injection: Settings → Advanced → Header or Footer. Page Settings: Advanced → per-page code injection on Business and above. 7.0 templates: same Code Block, plus turn off Ajax loading. Any builder with a raw-HTML or code block will render it, because there's nothing framework-specific in the snippet.