Squarespace Pricing 2024: Is Squarespace Good Value for Money?
Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more
Squarespace is one of the industry’s finest website builders, providing a user-friendly experience and high-quality templates to creatives and businesses. You can choose between four premium plans, ranging from $16 to $49 per month (billed annually).
There are optional paid extras as well, such as Squarespace Email Campaigns and Acuity Scheduling. Get started with Squarespace’s 14-day free trial to test things out for yourself, and get 10% off your chosen plan with our code “WBE10”.
Squarespace Pricing Plans
- Personal ($16) – For online portfolios
- Business ($23) – For side hustles
- Commerce Basic ($27) – For growing small businesses
- Commerce Advanced ($49) – For larger online stores
Our pricing review will take a closer look at each plan, examining the fees and features so you can find the right fit for your website.
How Much Does Squarespace Cost?
Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial so you can get familiar with the platform and its settings before spending a cent. No card details are necessary – simply sign up with an email address and get testing. Unlike Wix, Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan, so the trial period is the only chance you get to explore the platform.
Once you’re ready to upgrade, Squarespace has four premium plans to choose between: Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, and Commerce Advanced.
Personal | Business | Commerce Basic | Commerce Advanced | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Annual pricing | $16 | $23 | $27 | $49 |
Monthly pricing | $23 | $33 | $36 | $65 |
Storage space | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Ecommerce | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Squarespace’s pricing ranges from $16 to $49 per month (billed annually) – you can save up to 30% by paying annually instead of every month.
Save 10% on your Squarespace plan by using our exclusive code “WBE10” at checkout.
Is Squarespace Good Value for Money?
Squarespace is one of our top-rated website builders, sitting just behind our first choice, Wix, in our ranking of the best website builders of 2024. Not only is Squarespace the easiest website builder to use, thanks to its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop editor, but it performed exceptionally well in our value for money research.
With Squarespace, users can expect a suite of impressive features from the cheapest plan, including mobile-optimized sites, stunning templates, a free custom domain for the first year (with any annual plan), and unlimited storage space.
While GoDaddy remains our best value for money website builder because of its incredibly affordable premium plans (starting from $10.99 per month), Squarespace is more cost-effective than other top platforms, such as Wix or Shopify, which score low ratings in our value for money tests.
Personal: $16 – For Online Portfolios
Annual price: $16 per month Monthly price: $23 per month |
Squarespace’s Personal plan is the cheapest option available. As the entry plan into Squarespace’s website builder, you’ll unlock the following features:
- SEO tools, including an SEO checklist to guide you through optimizing your site, a search preview tool so you can see what your website looks like in the SERPs, and integration with Google Search Console
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage space – in comparison, you’ll have to pay for Wix’s most expensive plan, Business Elite ($159/mo), for unlimited storage
- Up to 30 minutes of video storage so visitors can stream video content directly on your site
- 24/7 support through live chat, email, and a detailed Help Center
- Drag-and-drop editor using Squarespace’s Fluid Engine – we particularly love the grid structure which helps you align elements to keep your pages looking professional
- 2 contributors – this is useful if you have multiple employees or you’re outsourcing work
- Basic website metrics to monitor your site’s traffic and performance
- Free SSL certificates
- Access to Squarespace’s AI tools to help generate or tweak site content, such as blog posts
- Install third-party integrations, such as Mailchimp and Printify, through Squarespace Extensions
- Custom merch – start designing products with Squarespace (but you’ll need to upgrade to a higher plan to start selling)
- Audience management tools to help track and engage your target audience
Who Do We Recommend the Personal Plan For?
All of these features create a great starting point for anyone looking to get online or build a website, but it’s not ideal if you want to sell products due to the lack of ecommerce functionality. We recommend the Personal plan for simple sites, digital portfolios, and creatives that don’t need the added features of the more expensive plans. If you’re simply looking to showcase work and share information, the Personal plan is the right choice.
Business: $23 – For Side Hustles
Annual price: $23 per month Monthly price: $33 per month |
The Business plan, which costs $23 per month (billed annually), is Squarespace’s best value plan, according to the builder. It’s also the cheapest option if you’re looking to sell products online – this is more affordable than Wix’s first ecommerce plan which costs $27 per month.
The Business plan is only a slight step up in price from the Personal plan, but it delivers plenty of additional features, including:
- Squarespace ecommerce features, including a secure checkout page and the ability to sell unlimited products
- 3% transaction fees for physical products and services – you can’t reduce or minimize the fees unless you upgrade your plan
- Advanced website analytics – get additional sales data with the Business plan
- Unlimited contributors
- Receive a branded Google email address so you can send professional correspondence
- Advanced customization for the tech-savvy with CSS and Javascript
- Add promotional pop-ups and banners to your site to alert customers to news, updates, and upcoming events
- Provide customer accounts for a faster checkout experience
- Generate and sell courses, memberships, and online videos
Who Do We Recommend the Business Plan For?
We recommend the Business plan for small businesses or side hustles getting started online, especially if you only sell a few products. Due to the high transaction fees (3%), Squarespace will be more cost-effective long-term if you upgrade your plan or you could choose an alternative builder like Wix or Shopify since these offer native payment solutions that remove transaction fees entirely if used. Serious businesses with large or growing inventories should opt for one of the two Squarespace Commerce plans instead.
Commerce Basic: $27 – For Growing Small Businesses
Annual price: $27 per month Monthly price: $36 per month |
The first of two dedicated ecommerce plans, Commerce Basic costs just $27 per month (billed annually). The plan provides additional support for selling online and eliminates transaction fees – something that’s still included in the Business plan.
With the Commerce Basic plan, you’ll unlock the following benefits:
- 0% transaction fees when selling physical products or services
- Powerful merchandising tools to help you showcase products, such as low-stock labels and product waitlists
- Sell online or in-person with Squarespace’s Commerce app and accept payments through Square
- Highlight product reviews on your site – customers trust other customers, so we highly recommend adding reviews when you can
- Start selling on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram
Who Do We Recommend the Commerce Basic Plan For?
The Commerce Basic plan is ideal if you run a small business looking to sell more than 10 products. It costs the same as Wix’s cheapest ecommerce plan but is more affordable than other ecommerce options, such as Shopify’s Basic plan, which costs $29 per month. That being said, Wix’s $27 per month plan includes abandoned cart recovery and automatic discounts – you’ll need to upgrade to Squarespace’s Commerce Advanced plan to unlock these features.
Commerce Advanced: $49 – For Larger Online Stores
Annual price: $49 per month Monthly price: $65 per month |
For larger or more complex online stores with many products to sell, you’ll want to upgrade to Squarespace’s most expensive plan, Commerce Advanced. Pricing starts from $49 per month (billed annually). The Commerce Advanced plan introduces advanced ecommerce functionality, such as:
- 0% transaction fees when selling physical products or services
- Advanced shipping tools so your store can offer free shipping and customized shipping rates
- Abandoned cart recovery – this feature is available for a cheaper price point with Wix’s Core plan ($27/mo)
- Offer unique discounts
- Sell subscriptions – let customers buy products on a weekly or monthly basis with a recurring payment
- Build custom commerce APIs to help you manage and grow your online store
Who Do We Recommend the Commerce Advanced Plan For?
With the Commerce Advanced plan, you can take your store to the next level thanks to the advanced ecommerce features. It’s ideal if your online store is growing rapidly or looking to expand in the future – but there’s nowhere up from here. Other website builders, like Shopify, offer greater scalability to help your business succeed in the long run.
Additional Squarespace Fees
Plenty of other website builders come with hidden costs in addition to the regular website builder plan. For example, you’ll need to pay for a custom domain separately with Shopify which can cost an extra $20 per year. With Squarespace, you’ll get a free custom domain name for one year (if you choose an annual plan), but it’ll cost around $20 per year – the same as Shopify – once it’s time to renew.
Besides the custom domain name, there are no other hidden fees with Squarespace, just optional extras. There are plenty of add-ons available with Squarespace that you can integrate into your website builder, such as:
- Acuity Scheduling – use this if you’re looking to offer bookable services to customers (pricing starts from $16 per month, billed annually)
- Squarespace Email Campaigns – use this to engage with your target audience and customize emails, newsletters, and more (pricing starts from $5 per month, billed annually)
- Squarespace Members Area – use this to help monetize your content and build a community online (pricing starts from $9 per month, billed annually)
- Digital Products Add On – use this to sell digital products like courses, lower transaction fees, and increase your site’s video storage capacity (pricing starts from $9 per month, billed annually)
Like most website builders, you’ll also face transaction fees with Squarespace. What you pay depends on your plan:
Business | Commerce Basic | Commerce Advanced |
---|---|---|
3% | 0% | 0% |
If you’re considering selling products online, we recommend choosing either the Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced plans to remove transaction fees. This will eliminate the extra cost and help you avoid losing too much money as you make more sales.
How To Save Money With Squarespace
We know that setting up a website or establishing an online business can quickly make a dent in the budget, but there are ways to keep the costs low with Squarespace:
- Select an annual plan instead of paying monthly – save up to 30% if you pay for the year
- Choose the right plan for your needs – you can stick with the cheapest Personal plan ($16/mo) if you don’t need to sell products or offer services
- Limit your extra features – make sure you’re only paying for what your website or business needs, such as scheduling tools or the ability to sell digital products
We also recommend checking out our guide to Squarespace’s promo codes for all the latest deals and offers. And, remember, you can get 10% off your Squarespace plan with our exclusive code “WBE10”.
How We Test Website Builder Pricing
How do we determine if Squarespace is good value for money or not? Our in-house research team has clocked over 200 hours of data collection and testing to help us bring you accurate and up-to-date recommendations.
Our research process reviews six core research categories, covering user experience, website features, and more.
When reviewing pricing, we focus on our value for money category. This examines whether a website builder offers a free trial or plan, the quality of features for the price you pay, and the average costs of plans. We also assess how much you have to pay for standard features, such as SEO and unlimited storage.
We then award each website builder a rating out of five for each research category – for example, Squarespace receives a score of 4.2 out of 5 in our value for money category.
Squarespace Pricing: Which Plan Should You Choose?
Squarespace is the easiest website builder to use, offering beginners and designers an intuitive editor, stylish templates, and affordable plans. Its four premium plans range from $16 to $49 per month, but you can test out the builder yourself with Squarespace’s 14-day free trial.
Because of Squarespace’s reasonable prices and ease of use, Squarespace’s Personal plan is the ideal starting point for straightforward sites or portfolios. We especially recommend the builder if you’re a creative looking to build a visual-heavy site, such as an artist website.
However, if you want to sell products online, you’d be best off with either the Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced plan. With these, Squarespace removes transaction fees which is great if you’re selling a lot of products regularly, and you’ll unlock advanced features such as abandoned cart recovery and product reviews.
FAQs
We recommend Wix for most users, but if you’re looking to sell services or build a creative site, such as an online portfolio, consider Squarespace instead. You can see how the two compare in our detailed comparison: Wix vs Squarespace.
154 comments