Squarespace vs Webflow: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Squarespace vs Webflow comes down to speed versus control. Compare pricing, design tools, ecommerce and ease of use to pick the right builder for your site.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-10T01:25:53+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-10T01:25:53+00:00
Squarespace vs Webflow: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Squarespace vs Webflow is a choice between speed and control. Squarespace gives you polished templates and an all-in-one setup. Webflow gives you a visual design canvas with far deeper control. Both build real websites. They suit different people. This comparison covers pricing, design, ecommerce, and ease of use. Prices below come from the official pricing pages, checked in November 2026. Pick Squarespace if you want a beautiful site live fast. Pick Webflow if design freedom matters more than speed.
Squarespace vs Webflow at a Glance
| Feature | Squarespace | Webflow |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No; 14-day free trial | Yes; Starter plan on a Webflow subdomain |
| Starting paid price | $19 per month, billed annually | $15 per month, billed annually |
| Design approach | Template-based editor | Visual canvas with CSS-level control |
| Built-in CMS | Blogging and pages included | Full CMS on the $25 Premium site plan |
| Code export | No | Yes, on paid Workspace plans |
| Ecommerce from | $19 per month, billed annually | $29 per month, billed annually |
| Transaction fee | 2% on Basic; 0% on Core and above | 2% on Standard; 0% on Plus and above |
Squarespace vs Webflow Pricing
Squarespace has four website plans. Basic costs $19 per month when billed annually, or $25 month to month. Core costs $29 per month billed annually, or $39 monthly. Plus costs $49 per month billed annually, or $65 monthly. Advanced costs $99 per month billed annually, or $139 monthly. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial. Annual plans include a free custom domain for the first year.
The plan you pick changes the fees you pay. Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on store sales and 7% on digital content and memberships. Core drops the store fee to 0% and the digital content fee to 5%. Plus drops the digital fee to 1%. Advanced charges 0% on both. Card processing starts at 2.9% plus $0.30 on Basic and Core. It falls to 2.7% plus $0.30 on Plus and 2.5% plus $0.30 on Advanced.
Webflow splits its pricing in two. Site plans pay for one website. Workspace plans pay for your account and team. The Starter site plan is free. It includes a Webflow subdomain, two static pages, 1 GB of bandwidth, and 50 form submissions. Basic costs $15 per month billed annually. It adds a custom domain, 300 static pages, 10 GB of bandwidth, and unlimited form submissions. Premium costs $25 per month billed annually. It adds the Webflow CMS, site search, and form file uploads.
Webflow ecommerce is a separate site plan. Standard costs $29 per month billed annually. It supports 500 ecommerce items and charges a 2% transaction fee. Plus costs $74 per month billed annually. It supports 5,000 items with a 0% fee. Advanced costs $212 per month billed annually. It supports 15,000 items with a 0% fee. Workspace plans start free. Core costs $19 per month billed annually. Growth costs $49 per month billed annually. They add staging sites, code export, and team controls.
On headline price, Webflow starts cheaper. Its $15 Basic site plan undercuts Squarespace Basic at $19. But the comparison shifts with your needs. Webflow charges per site. Squarespace charges per website too, yet bundles more into each plan. A content-heavy site needs Webflow Premium at $25. A store needs a Webflow ecommerce plan on top of a site plan. Check the total before you judge the sticker price.
Design and Ease of Use
Squarespace is built for speed. You pick a template, swap in your text and images, and publish. The templates are polished and consistent. The editor is simple. A beginner can launch a good-looking site in a day. The trade-off is control. You work inside the template's structure. Deep layout changes are hard. Custom CSS and JavaScript need the Core plan or higher.
Webflow is built for control. Its Designer is a visual canvas that maps to real CSS. You can build grid layouts, set breakpoints, and style nearly every element. It writes clean, standards-compliant HTML and CSS for you. You can export that code on paid Workspace plans. The learning curve is steeper. A beginner will need days, not hours, to feel comfortable. A designer will feel at home fast.
Both tools include built-in AI helpers. Squarespace lists built-in AI tools on every plan. Webflow includes Webflow AI across its site plans. Neither replaces good design judgment. They speed up drafts and routine text.
Content and CMS Compared
Squarespace includes blogging on every plan. You can publish posts, schedule them, and organize them by category. It suits a small blog or a portfolio with a news page. It is not a structured content database. You cannot build custom content types with linked fields.
Webflow CMS is a real content system. You define collections with custom fields. You design one template page. Webflow generates a page for every item in the collection. That scales to hundreds or thousands of pages. It suits blogs, directories, job boards, and resource libraries. The catch is the price. The CMS only comes with the Premium site plan at $25 per month or higher.
Ecommerce Compared
Squarespace sells on every plan. There is no limit on the number of products. You can sell physical goods, services, and digital products. You can send invoices for free. Core adds professional shipping and tax tools, sales funnel analytics, and API integrations. Plus adds cart reservations and countdown timers. Advanced adds the lowest card rates and the full commerce toolkit.
Webflow ecommerce is powerful but narrower. You design the cart and checkout yourself. That gives a store a custom feel that templates cannot match. The limits are strict, though. Standard caps you at 500 items. Plus caps you at 5,000. Advanced caps you at 15,000. Small catalogs fit fine. Large catalogs get expensive fast.
Who Should Choose Which
Choose Squarespace if you want a polished site with little effort. It fits portfolios, small business sites, restaurants, and creators. It fits small stores that sell a modest catalog. It fits anyone who values a single bill and one support team. The 14-day trial lets you test the editor before you pay.
Choose Webflow if design control is the priority. It fits designers, agencies, and startups with a brand to express. It fits content-rich sites that need a real CMS. It fits teams that may export code or hand a site to a developer later. The free Starter plan lets you learn the Designer before you spend anything.
Hosting, Publishing, and Switching Costs
Both tools host the sites they build. Squarespace bundles hosting into every plan. You publish from the same dashboard where you design. Webflow works the same way on paid site plans. You design, then you publish to Webflow hosting. The free Starter site plan runs on a Webflow subdomain. A custom domain needs a paid site plan.
Switching costs differ sharply. Squarespace has no code export. Leaving means rebuilding your site elsewhere. Your content can move, but your design cannot. Webflow lets you export clean HTML and CSS on paid Workspace plans. That gives you an exit path. It also lets a developer take a Webflow design and host it anywhere. If you value the freedom to leave, that difference matters.
Support follows the same split. Squarespace offers one support team for the whole product. Webflow offers support too, with priority support on its Team platform plan. Both tools have large help centers and template galleries. Webflow also has a community showcase where designers share cloneable sites.
Bottom Line
Squarespace wins on simplicity and all-in-one value. Webflow wins on design freedom and content scale. A simple site or small store belongs on Squarespace. A custom design or a large content site belongs on Webflow. Try both free options first. Build one page in each. The editor you enjoy using is the right one.