Squarespace

This Squarespace review covers what the website builder is used for, its key features, Squarespace pricing plans and fees, its ecommerce features, where it shines and falls short, and how it compares with other website builders. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform: you pick a template or let Blueprint AI generate a starting design, edit pages in the drag-and-drop Fluid Engine editor, and publish on Squarespace's own hosting with an SSL certificate included. Domains, an online store, member areas, appointment scheduling and email campaigns all live in the same account, so there are no plugins to install or servers to maintain. Anthony Casalena launched Squarespace in New York in 2004, and it has been privately owned by Permira since October 2024.

What is Squarespace used for?

Squarespace is used to build and run websites for small businesses, creatives and personal brands. Typical sites are portfolios for photographers and designers, restaurant and hospitality sites, service businesses that take bookings, small online stores, blogs, and course or membership sites. Because hosting, security and updates are handled for you, it suits owners who want a polished site without hiring a developer or managing WordPress.

The beautiful templates are the main draw. Squarespace templates are designed for visual work and brand identity, with large images, clean typography and web design that already looks good on mobile devices. You do not need custom design skills to get a professional looking site. Squarespace templates are a starting point: fonts, colors and layouts can all be changed in the editor. Many people launch a first Squarespace website in a day or two, then add a store, bookings or newsletters as the business grows, from personal sites to small business websites with an online store.

Key features

• Templates and Fluid Engine: start from a template, then move sections and blocks freely on a grid in the drag-and-drop editor. Every template is responsive.
• Blueprint AI: answer a few questions and Squarespace generates a starting site with pages, layout and copy you can edit.
• Ecommerce features: sell products, digital products, services and subscriptions, with inventory management, customer accounts and a secure checkout that accepts cards, Apple Pay, Klarna and Afterpay. Core and above add abandoned cart recovery, shipping labels and commerce APIs, and the Squarespace mobile app lets you sell in person with point of sale.
• Member areas and online courses: put content behind a paywall or sell online courses, videos and memberships from the same Squarespace website.
• Scheduling: Acuity Scheduling, which Squarespace acquired in 2019, lets clients book and pay for appointments.
• Email campaigns: send newsletters built from your site's styles and products.
• Domains: register a domain through Squarespace Domains, which took over the Google Domains business in 2023; annual plans include a free custom domain for the first year.
• SEO tools and marketing features: editable page titles and descriptions, clean URLs, automatic sitemaps, contact forms for lead generation, and website analytics on Core and above.
• Hosting and security: unlimited bandwidth and an SSL certificate on every plan.
• Extensions: the Squarespace Extensions marketplace adds third-party integrations for shipping, accounting and marketing.

Squarespace pricing plans, free domain and Google Workspace

Squarespace has four pricing plans, all with a 14-day free trial and no free plan. In US dollars, Website Builder Expert lists these prices (August 2026); the Squarespace pricing page shows the same four plans in local currency.

• Basic: $19 a month billed annually, $25 monthly. Up to 2 contributors and a 2% transaction fee on product sales.
• Core: $29 a month billed annually, $39 monthly. Unlimited contributors, no transaction fee on physical products, advanced analytics and a year of Google Workspace email.
• Plus: $49 a month billed annually, $65 monthly. Lower fees on digital products and more commerce tools.
• Advanced: $99 a month billed annually, $139 monthly. No Squarespace fees on any sales and a lower card rate.

The cost surprise to check is fees on top of the plan price. According to the Squarespace Help Center (April 2026), digital products and memberships carry a fee of 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and none on Advanced. Card processing through Squarespace Payments adds 2.9% + $0.30 per domestic card payment, or 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced. The free custom domain is only included when you pay annually; with monthly billing you pay for the domain. Add-ons such as Acuity Scheduling, Email Campaigns and Google Workspace email after the first year are billed separately.

Squarespace offers a free domain for the first year on every annual plan, which makes paying annually the better deal for most sites. Core and above also include a year of Google Workspace email on your own domain; after that, Google Workspace is billed per user by Google. The Advanced plan adds lower payment processing fees and removes every Squarespace transaction fee.

Which Squarespace plan fits depends on how the website makes money. When to upgrade: the cheapest plan, Basic, is enough for a portfolio or brochure website. Move to Core as soon as you sell physical products, to Plus when digital products or memberships are a real income stream, and to Advanced when fees on large sales volumes cost more than the upgrade.

Squarespace for online stores and bookings

For anyone who wants to sell products, Squarespace offers a complete store inside the website. It is a good fit for small stores with a curated catalog. Products, variants, inventory, shipping rules, taxes and discount codes are all built in, and the checkout matches the site design. It is less suited to large catalogs or complex B2B selling, where a dedicated platform such as Shopify has more apps, more payment options and better multichannel tools. For service businesses, Acuity Scheduling adds calendars, intake forms and payments, which makes Squarespace a common choice for coaches, salons and consultants who want one system for their website and bookings.

Getting started and search engine optimization

Sign up for the free trial, pick a template or use Blueprint AI, and replace the demo content with your own text and images. Connect or register a domain, set page titles and descriptions for SEO, and publish when the trial ends and you choose a plan. Squarespace makes the technical SEO basics easy with built in features: free SSL certificates, mobile-friendly templates, sitemaps and clean URLs, so a Squarespace site is ready for Google search from the start. Content and backlinks still decide rankings, so plan the pages and keywords of the website before you design. A Squarespace website also works on mobile devices without a separate mobile site. If you outgrow the built-in tools, code injection on Core and above lets you add scripts, tracking and custom code.

Where Squarespace shines — and where it falls short

Strengths:

• Squarespace pros: polished, mobile-ready templates for visual brands and a clean editing interface.
• Hosting, security, domains, commerce and scheduling in one site builder account, on any Squarespace plan.
• Easy to learn, with 24/7 customer support.
• No plugins or updates to maintain.

Trade-offs:

• Less design freedom than Webflow or Framer for custom layouts, and fewer templates than Wix.
• Transaction fees on Basic and on digital products below Advanced.
• Smaller app ecosystem than WordPress or Shopify.
• Moving a site off Squarespace means rebuilding it; export options are limited.

How Squarespace compares

• Wix: more templates and apps, with more freedom and more clutter.
• Webflow: full design control and a CMS for designers and agencies.
• WordPress: open source with unlimited plugins, but you manage hosting and updates.
• Shopify: the stronger choice for larger online stores.
• Framer: fast, design-led marketing sites for startups.
• Canva and Ghost are not direct replacements: Canva makes graphics and simple one-page sites, and Ghost is a publishing platform for newsletters and blogs.
• Duda and Strikingly: simpler builders for agencies and one-page sites.

Is Squarespace worth it?

In this Squarespace review, the verdict is clear for most small sites: Squarespace is worth it for small businesses, creatives and service providers who want a beautiful website, a small store or online bookings without technical work. The beautiful templates and the free domain in the first year keep the start simple, and the website grows with the business. Most websites for a portfolio, restaurant or local service fit comfortably on the Basic or Core plan. The all-in-one plans cost more than basic hosting, but they remove plugins, updates and security work. It is less of a fit for large stores, complex web apps or teams that need full design and code control, where Shopify, Webflow or WordPress suit better. If you want help to design, migrate or extend a Squarespace site, the website agencies and developers on LowCodeDevs can take it on.

Sources

• Squarespace pricing: plans, features and transaction fees.
• Selling on the Basic, Core, Plus, and Advanced plans, Squarespace Help Center: transaction and card processing fees, April 2026.
• Squarespace pricing, Website Builder Expert: US prices, August 2026.
• Squarespace, Wikipedia: launch, Acuity Scheduling and Google Domains acquisitions.
• Permira completes Squarespace acquisition, TechCrunch: the October 2024 take-private.