A Detailed Guide to Squarespace Pricing and Services Offered
In spite of its premium pricing model, Squarespace managed to attract countless customers over the years and can rightly be considered one of the most popular website building platforms currently available. While we don’t have any specific figures, we do know that Squarespace powers several million websites as of 2024. Research shows that around 1.5% of all websites that exist today were created using Squarespace. That may not sound like much, but it’s worth considering that the majority of websites found on the internet were built using free content management systems like WordPress.
Unlike long-time rivals like Wix or Weebly, Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan and the company’s services are known to be somewhat expensive. However, this is one of those situations where you get what you pay for. Squarespace has some of the most beautiful templates out there and allows you to create a professional-looking website with very little effort. The platform also stands out from the crowd thanks to its accessibility, good performance, and interesting features. Perhaps even more importantly, though, Squarespace gives you everything you need to build and launch a new website, including web hosting, domain name, website builder, and more.
Squarespace has a fairly simple pricing model when compared to similar platforms but it can still be difficult to figure out which plan to buy if you’re unfamiliar with the service. Especially since the company supports two types of billing cycles and offers a few extra services that are somewhat hidden. With that in mind, we figured we’d help you get started on the right foot by putting together a comprehensive article that covers everything you need to know about Squarespace services and prices.
Main Squarespace Products
Squarespace has four different plans you can try, each of which is aimed at a certain type of user. The first two packages are great for pretty much everyone while the final two are geared towards eCommerce. You won’t get additional resources by buying one of the more expensive plans but you will get a lot more features. We’re only going to focus on prices and features in this article so make sure to check out our Squarespace review if you want to learn more about other aspects like performance, user interface or customer support.
Squarespace Personal
If you’re new to website building this is the plan you’ll want to go with. Personal is perfect for novice webmasters who want to learn the ropes without spending too much money. The entry fee is $12 per month billed annually but if you’re not comfortable with a long-term commitment, you can choose the monthly billing option instead for $16/mo. Compared to similar platforms, there’s not a huge price difference here between the two types of billing, and Squarespace doesn’t charge extra for renewals either.
The Personal package comes with everything you need to start building a website, including a free domain name but only with yearly billing. If you choose to pay on a month by month basis, you’ll need to purchase a domain separately. Domain aside, you can also expect unlimited bandwidth and storage, an SSL certificate, analytics tool, access to all available templates, and more. A couple of noteworthy limitations of the Personal plan are that it only supports two contributors and doesn’t include free professional emails.
Squarespace Business
Business strikes a good balance between price and features, making it the most popular and easiest to recommend plan. The Business package will set you back $18 per month with a yearly contract or $26/mo with a monthly one. The number of contributors you can add to your website is no longer limited with this plan and you can also expect free emails, though there’s a little catch. Squarespace provides Business users with a G Suite account but it will only remain free during the first year. You can add multiple users to your G Suite account, however, only the account owner can benefit from the freebie. Any additional users will be billed individually at the standard rate.
An important feature that becomes available with the Business plan is the ability to access your website’s CCS and JavaScript code. This allows you to customize your website to a much higher degree than would normally be possible, somewhat similar to what you can do with WordPress. While not specifically optimized for online stores, the Business plan also unlocks basic eCommerce functionality. Among other things, you can sell digital and physical goods, accept donations, and give out gift cards. There is a drawback, however, in that Squarespace tales a 3% cut from all transactions.
Squarespace eCommerce Basic
Even though you can sell goods with the Business plan, you’ll want to go with one of the specialized eCommerce packages if you’re planning to open a full-fledged online store. At $26 per month with a yearly contract, eCommerce Basic is fairly pricey compared to the other two packages but it does include some nice features that can make it worth your while. If you decide to pay monthly, it will only cost you a few bucks extra. Namely, $30 per month.
Just like before, you can expect everything that’s included with the previous plan plus a number of extra features and tools. eCommerce Basic unlocks the Point of Sale feature, which lets you sell items in person via Squarespace’s Commerce app. This feature is only available to merchants based in the United States, for now at least. With eCommerce Basic, you can also create a dedicated checkout page for your customers, allow users to create accounts on your website, integrate with social media to promote your products on Instagram, Facebook, and more.
Squarespace eCommerce Advanced
Last but not least, you have eCommerce Advanced, the ultimate all-in-one package for online stores. The plan comes in at $40 per month on a yearly contract, a significant difference when compared to the Basic variant. But is it worth it? Well, it’s pretty safe to say that most users can stick to one of the previous plans. If you’re a serious merchant, however, then yes, eCommerce Advanced is a must-have. Once again, if you’re not a big fan of yearly commitments you can avoid a large upfront investment by choosing the monthly billing option. Doing so will increase the price to $46 per month.
Squarespace users who opt for the Advanced plan can sell subscription-based products and services to their customers and integrate their stores with third-party eCommerce APIs. Other highlights include advanced shipping, advanced discounts, and limited availability labels. You also don’t have to worry about transaction fees because Squarespace doesn’t take a cut from eCommerce Basic or Advanced customers. That said, now would be a good time to mention that the company only supports payments via Stripe and PayPal. If you’re selling products in person, on the other hand, you’ll have to work exclusively through payment processor Square.
Additional Squarespace Products and Services
Squarespace packs in a lot of nice features with its plans but the company also offers a few extra products and services on the side. While you can get some of these for free if you subscribe to a yearly plan, others are only available if purchased separately.
Domain Registration
A good website starts with a good domain name and luckily you can get one for free with any of the four plans, provided you choose the yearly billing option of course. But what if you want to opt for monthly billing or need multiple domains? In that case, you’ll need to purchase them separately or transfer them from a different registrar. Domain transfers are free but you will need to pay a renewal fee.
Registering a new domain name with Squarespace will cost you $20, which is pretty expensive all things considered. By comparison, HostGator and other popular registrars only charge around $13. But the good news is that Squarespace includes domain privacy for free whereas most registrars charge for it separately. Equally important is the fact that Squarespace doesn’t charge extra for renewals so you can expect to pay $20 per year for as long as your domain remains active.
Extensions
Third-party extensions are available with any of the four plans but many of them will cost you a pretty penny. The company doesn’t have an app market per se, but if you go to this page you can find around 20 extensions that support integration with Squarespace websites. The selection isn’t nearly as impressive as the ones offered by Wix and Weebly but sometimes lesser is better.
The extensions allow you to automated post-purchase customer feedback surveys, manage social media product feeds, integrate with big marketplaces like Amazon, eBay or Etsy, automated sale taxes, and more. While some of these extensions will set you back $40 per month or more, there are a few that are either completely free or have both free and premium plans. A few examples include AfterShip, Outfly, Printful, and Greenback.
Email Marketing
When done right, email marketing campaigns can be a very powerful tool for attracting new customers and engaging with existing ones. While you don’t necessarily need a special tool for launching email campaigns, you can make things a lot easier for yourself by using Squarespace’s Email Marketing service. The service allows you to customize your emails with various layouts and automate your marketing campaigns, among other things.
Squarespace’s Email Marketing service is available in four different variants, with prices ranging from $5 per month to $48 per month. Just like the regular plans, the Email Marketing packages support monthly billing. The basic plan only lets you launch 3 email campaigns per month but can be used to send up to 500 individual emails. The next two plans come with their own limitations while the third one supports an unlimited number of marketing campaigns.
Professional Mailbox
As mentioned earlier, Squarespace includes a free G Suite account for one year with all plans except for the cheapest one. Once the first term expires you’ll need to renew it at a rate of $72 per year if you want to keep using it. Alternatively, you can renew it on a monthly basis for $6. These prices are applied per user so if you want to give colleagues or friends access to your account you will have to pay a fee for each of them.
If you don’t want to use Squarespace’s Email Marketing service it’s worth noting that you can also launch campaigns via G Suite, though it won’t be quite as easy. The main appeal of G Suite is that it allows you to create domain emails and gives you access to products like Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, and more.
Squarespace Pricing FAQ
What Are Squarespace’s Main Rivals?
There are several other platforms out there that offer all-in-one packages just like Squarespace. In terms of direct rivals, you’ve got Wix, Weebly and to some extent WordPress. Not the content management system you can download from WordPress.org but the hosting service you can subscribe to by going to WordPress.com. All three have plans and prices that are somewhat similar to those of Squarespace. Then, there’s Shopify, a platform that functions just like Squarespace but is aimed exclusively at eCommerce enthusiasts.
Does Squarespace Offer a Free Trial?
While there’s no free plan, you can test out the service by checking out the free trial. The trial only lasts for 14 days but that should give you enough time to figure out if Squarespace is worth the asking price.
Can I Transfer My WordPress Website to Squarespace?
Yes and no. You can transfer your domain, provided you pay the renewal fee, and you can import the content from your WordPress website, but you won’t be able to transfer the design and layout. If your site was built using a different CMS you may not be able to transfer the content either as the feature only works with WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr sites.
Do I Have to Pay Separately for Web Hosting?
No. Web hosting is included for free with all Squarespace plans regardless of whether you choose the yearly billing option or the monthly one. Aside from the domain name (with monthly billing), you don’t have to pay for anything separately at Squarespace. There are a couple of extra services but those are entirely optional.
What is Squarespace’s Refund Policy?
Squarespace doesn’t have a great refund policy as it only offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. The policy only applies to plans purchased using the monthly billing option and the company doesn’t work with prorated refunds. The money-back guarantee for domain names is just 5 days.
Final Thoughts
Squarespace is a bit more expensive than its competitors but the platform is definitely worth looking into in our opinion. You’ll find the service to be very user friendly and while the template variety isn’t as impressive as we would have liked, there’s no doubt that Squarespace has some of the best looking designs out there. Virtually anyone can create a professional website using the platform and if you’re not sure how to get started, Squarespace has an AI system that can help you choose the perfect design for any type of website you want to build.
The only real downside of Squarespace is the pricing, especially when you compare it to services like Wix and Weebly that offer free plans. However, most of the paid plans offered by those companies are actually pretty close to those found at Squarespace both in terms of price and features.
Still not sure if Squarespace is the service for you? Check out our top 10 Squarespace alternatives for similar platforms that might be right up your alley.
