Squarespace Review: Features, Pricing and Who It Suits Best
Squarespace costs $19 to $99 a month in 2026, with no free plan and fees that vary by tier. We cover each plan in this review and who should choose it.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-10T04:29:00+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-10T04:29:00+00:00
Squarespace Review: Features, Pricing and Who It Suits Best
Squarespace is a website builder that bundles hosting, templates, and selling tools into one subscription. It suits portfolios, small business sites, and online stores that value design over deep customisation. This review covers its 2026 plans, prices, and limits, based on published vendor material. It is a research-based assessment, not a hands-on test.
Squarespace review: plans and pricing
Squarespace has four website plans. There is no free plan. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial that needs no card. Prices below are US list prices before tax.
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Store transaction fee | Digital content fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $19 a month | $25 a month | 2% | 7% |
| Core | $29 a month | $39 a month | 0% | 5% |
| Plus | $49 a month | $65 a month | 0% | 1% |
| Advanced | $99 a month | $139 a month | 0% | 0% |
Squarespace renamed its plans in 2025 and 2026. Personal became Basic, Business became Core, Commerce Basic became Plus, and Commerce Advanced became Advanced. Prices also rose in July 2026. Basic went from $16 to $19 a month on annual billing. Core went from $23 to $29. Plus went from $39 to $49. Advanced stayed at $99.
Annual plans include a free custom domain for the first year. Card processing is a separate charge on every sale. Standard US card rates are 2.9% plus $0.30 on Basic and Core, 2.7% plus $0.30 on Plus, and 2.5% plus $0.30 on Advanced. The plan fee is only part of the cost of selling.
What you get on each plan
Basic covers a personal site or portfolio. It allows 2 contributors and 30 minutes of video storage. It adds a 2% fee to store sales and 7% to digital products, courses, and member sites. It suits a site that does not sell much.
Core is where most small businesses land. It removes the store transaction fee. It adds unlimited contributors, code injection, discounts, shipping labels, and a free year of Google Workspace email. The digital content fee falls to 5%.
Plus adds lower card rates, a reserved cart with a timer, and a 1% digital content fee. Advanced adds the lowest card rate, a 0% digital content fee, Commerce APIs, and high-traffic checkout. Both plans suit stores with real order volume.
Templates and design
Squarespace's templates are its strongest asset. They are clean, modern, and consistent across devices. The drag-and-drop editor is simple to learn. You pick a template, swap in your text and images, and publish. No code is needed for a good-looking site.
The trade-off is flexibility. You work inside Squarespace's structure. Deep layout changes need custom code, which starts on Core. You cannot export your site to another host in a usable form. Moving away means rebuilding.
Selling online with Squarespace
Every plan can sell products. Basic adds a 2% fee to each sale. Core removes that fee. Plus and Advanced lower card rates and digital fees. The checkout is built in. You do not need a separate store plugin.
Squarespace also sells courses and memberships. The fee on digital content falls as you move up the plans. It is 7% on Basic and 0% on Advanced. That fee can matter more than the monthly plan price for a course seller.
SEO, marketing and add-ons
Squarespace includes SSL, unlimited bandwidth, and basic SEO tools on every plan. It offers built-in analytics and social sharing. Email Campaigns and Acuity Scheduling are separate paid subscriptions. They are not included in any website plan. Budget for them if you need them.
Where Squarespace falls short
- There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial.
- Transaction fees on Basic eat into small sales.
- Customisation is limited without code injection.
- You cannot easily move your site to another platform.
- Email marketing and scheduling cost extra.
- Domain renewal and business email cost extra after year one.
Who Squarespace suits best
Squarespace suits a portfolio, a photographer, a restaurant, or a small shop that wants a polished site fast. It suits a business that sells a modest volume online and does not need complex store logic. It suits a course creator who can absorb the digital fee on a higher plan.
It suits less well a large store with thousands of products, a site that needs deep custom code, or a business that wants full control over its hosting. Those users should look at a self-hosted platform instead.
How to launch a Squarespace site
- Start the 14-day free trial. No card is needed.
- Pick a template that fits your site type.
- Add your pages and swap in your text and images.
- Set up your store if you plan to sell.
- Connect a custom domain, free for the first year on annual plans.
- Pick a plan and publish.
The whole process takes a few hours for a simple site. A store with many products takes longer. You can change templates later, but some content needs rebuilding after a switch.
Squarespace vs the competition
Wix is the closest rival. Its Light plan costs $17 a month on annual billing, against $19 for Squarespace Basic. Core costs $29, the same as Squarespace Core. Wix has a free plan. Squarespace does not. Wix is easier for a beginner. Squarespace templates look better out of the box.
WordPress.com is cheaper. Personal costs $4 a month on annual billing. Premium costs $8. Business costs $25. WordPress.com allows plugins on every paid plan since April 2026. It offers more flexibility and a lower price. It also needs more setup and more decisions. Squarespace is simpler because it makes most choices for you.
Webflow suits a designer who wants full layout control. Its Basic plan costs $15 a month. Its Premium plan costs $25. Webflow is harder to learn than Squarespace. It rewards that effort with more design freedom.
Squarespace for different site types
A portfolio is where Squarespace shines. The templates show images well. The editor keeps the focus on the work. Basic at $19 a month is enough for a portfolio with no selling. Add Core if you want code injection for small tweaks.
A restaurant or service business gets a clean brochure site with menus, hours, and a contact form. Core adds pop-ups and promo banners. Scheduling through Acuity costs extra. That matters if you take bookings online.
A blog works well on Squarespace. The editor handles text, images, and video. The built-in analytics show which posts get read. A blog that earns through ads or affiliates should check the plan limits first. Premium themes and advanced analytics sit on higher tiers.
A small store is the hardest case. Basic adds a 2% fee to every sale. That fee can exceed the price gap to Core fast. A store selling $1,000 a month pays $20 in store fees on Basic. Core costs $10 more a month than Basic and removes the fee. The maths favours Core for almost any real store.
Bottom line
Squarespace costs $19 to $99 a month on annual billing. Core at $29 is the sensible pick for most small businesses. It removes the store fee and adds the tools a real business needs. Basic is fine for a personal site. Advanced is for stores with high volume. Pick the plan that matches your sales, not just your site.
This is a research-based assessment. Prices were checked against published vendor pages and may change. No hands-on testing was performed.