Christine Darby // Published: August 2023 // Updated: October 2023

Squarespace Courses are intended to be an easy way for individuals and small businesses to build and sell professional online digital products. The all-in-one platform hopes every professional, wellness instructor, marketer, and photographer will want to “turn their knowledge and expertise into income” by sharing their skills via monetized digital offers—but is investing time and resources in building online learning products right for everyone? Let’s dive into the pros and cons to help you decide.

Squarespace Courses and Digital Products

Using Squarespace’s built-in functionality, you can design, host, and sell multimedia courses, memberships, and other digital offers on your own domain with relative ease, while maintaining brand consistency. There are a number of ways to structure digital products on Squarespace. Fees for the platform’s many offerings can be confusing, so refer to our in-depth pages on Squarespace’s pricing plans and customer payment options to learn more about the plan fees and transaction fees.

Squarespace 7.1 and 7.0 differ in their features and page types for creating online products. Also keep in mind, none of the options below are as robust as stand alone best-in-class solutions, but they are more than sufficient for many use cases.

Squarespace Courses is only available on version 7.1, but if your course doesn’t require sequential lessons, you can build a course using a membership site on version 7.0.
The Squarespace course builder includes sequential lessons, chapters, and progress tracking. And over time, depending on the popularity of Courses, Squarespace will likely continue to build out features that are more in line with traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as the ability to release curriculum a set number of days after a student enrolls.
When you build online classes, you are promising in-depth knowledge and a structured learning experience. You’ll want to design modules, chapters, or lessons with a logical progression. Online course creation can include video lectures, written content, interactive quizzes, assignments, and supplementary materials like worksheets or reading lists.
Potential challenges with any online course are maintaining consistency, ensuring that every module offers value, and keeping your content updated.
Note, Squarespace Courses is not compatible with SCORM or xAPI standards.
Membership sites are available on both versions of Squarespace, see the latest instructions.
A Squarespace member site can be used to bundle together many different types of digital content to sell as one offer. For example, a member area could include a course, a video library, and a members-only store.
Members expect exclusivity and value in return for their commitment or subscription. This could be a mix of articles, videos, webinars, and other resources that aren't available to the general public. Membership sites include continuous updates, community engagement, and often layered content catering to different segments of the membership.
Challenges of membership models include regularly producing content to keep members engaged, curating a mix of content types, and fostering a sense of community.
A video specific page with a paywall is available on version 7.1, while on 7.0, you’ll use a gallery page or regular page inside of a Membership area.
VOD users anticipate quality and variety in video content, seeking both entertainment and informational value. An online video library might include tutorials, documentaries, episodes, or any other type of video content relevant to your target audience.
Challenges include ensuring high-quality video production, keeping content fresh and relevant, managing storage, and potentially handling licensing or copyright issues for certain types of content.
Online books offer detailed information on specific topics, divided into chapters or sections. A blog can be used to self-publish almost any type of book—novel, memoir, business book, etc. You can charge for the ebook by placing the blog in a Member Area.
A client posted their first novel using this method before moving on to self-publishing. They included interactive features like music playlists and maps to enhance the reading experience.
Business, technical, or academic books will contain diagrams, case studies, examples, and actionable steps, and can be similar to an online professional learning course. The key is to offer both in-depth theory and real-world application.
Challenges of ebooks include making your content digestible, balancing visuals with text, and ensuring the information stays relevant over time.
If using Squarespace to create a paid newsletter, you’ll use a Member Area or a Subscription product (available on the Advanced Commerce plan) alongside Squarespace Email Campaigns. This can be achieved on 7.0 or 7.1.
While newsletters don’t need to be as exhaustive as the options above, they should offer substantial value, especially if they’re paid. Newsletters can contain curated content, summaries of recent developments in your field, exclusive insights, or mini-tutorials. Depth here is about timely, relevant, and actionable content.
Challenges include staying updated with industry trends, producing content at a consistent frequency, and balancing promotional content with genuine value.
Note, if you already use Mailchimp, you can create a paid newsletter with Mailchimp.
Virtual events and summits bring together experts and enthusiasts in an online conference format. These online gatherings often feature a series of keynote speeches and panel discussions, usually focusing on a particular niche or topic.
If your event includes interactive workshops or networking sessions for attendees, then you’ll want to use dedicated online event software. But if a virtual summit consists of only pre-recorded videos and conversations, Squarespace can host this program with a little administrative setup. A client hosted a week-long virtual summit with prerecorded speakers by using two Squarespace Member Areas—one for free signups and one for paid access.
Challenges associated with hosting virtual summits include securing high-profile speakers, creating engaging content and a varied agenda, maintaining participant engagement over the duration of the event, ensuring a stable and reliable technical infrastructure, and managing time zone differences for a global audience.
Squarespace does not yet include 3rd-party community software—discussion boards and forums where students can post questions, engage in discussions, and share resources—but community-building features might roll out in the future.
Challenges of running an online community include ensuring consistent engagement, maintaining a positive and respectful environment, and moderating content to prevent misinformation and harmful behavior. The larger a group becomes, the more difficult it is to control—as The New York Times learned with its Facebook cooking community.

Tip: Courses can be paywalled or open to the public. A public course is available to search engines for crawling and indexing. If you do not want a public courses’s individual lesson pages to be indexed, learn about hiding content on Squarespace. Membership sites are not accessible to search engines.

The Appeal of Digital Courses

Diversified revenue stream: Digital products can allow creators to monetize their expertise, creating a source of income to complement other revenue streams.
Scalability: Unlike physical classes with limited seating, online courses can be sold to an unlimited number of students simultaneously without any significant additional costs per student.
Global reach: The online nature of these products means they can be accessed and purchased from anywhere, potentially expanding your audience base. Note, you’ll already want to know how to reach your audience with various strategies such as: SEO content, email marketing, social media marketing, or search engine ads.
One-time creation, recurring profits: Once a digital product is built, some can be sold an infinite number of times without additional production costs. Unfortunately, this benefit doesn’t apply universally, particularly if your product centers on a topic with frequent changes.
To illustrate, when we launched in 2013, the Squarespace platform had minimal support documentation. We briefly considered developing a “how to use Squarespace” course and watched with interest as another business implemented the idea. The issue? Their in-depth course was focused on Squarespace 6.0 and within weeks Squarespace released version 7.0.
The dismay experienced by the course provider was palpable. And it underscored an important point: if you build a product based around someone else’s product, you give up control over your product’s lifespan and adaptability. It could mean perpetual adjustments and amendments to your course material, negating the initial appeal of “one-time creation, recurring profits.”

Drawbacks of Digital Products

Time-intensive creation process: Creating high-quality digital products, especially courses or ebooks, requires a significant time investment upfront.
Updates and maintenance: Many digital products will require updates to stay relevant, incurring additional time costs.
Market saturation: Over the years, many creators have jumped on the digital product bandwagon, so it’s easy for your content to be lost in the noise. Offering authentic courses with unique value propositions is important for differentiation and achieving long-term success.
Loss of authenticity: As some creators become more focused on monetizing digital products, there’s a noticeable shift in priorities. The initial drive, authenticity, and ethical principles that once defined their content can get overshadowed by the lure of increased revenue. Partnering indiscriminately with affiliates, allowing others to use your brand to market substandard products, or endorsing products without genuine backing will dilute your credibility. This trajectory risks alienating your audience and compromises the trust you built over time.
Revenue dependency: Over-reliance on digital product sales can be risky if market demand drops or if there’s a shift in audience behavior.

Who should consider creating a course?

Subject matter experts: If you possess deep knowledge in a particular field, developing an online course or certification can be an effective way to share and monetize your expertise. Classes can be built across numerous domains, depending on your area of expertise, interests, and market demand.
Effective courses are built by those with genuine passion and deep expertise in a given topic. A teacher’s authentic connection to the subject leads to richer content and a more engaging learning experience.
Established content creators: Those with an existing audience can leverage their followers to market and sell digital products. If you have healthy organic site traffic or a social media following, you will have an easier time than starting from scratch.
Businesses seeking value-adds: For SMBs looking to add value to their customers or diversify their offerings, digital products can be a natural extension.

Who might want to reconsider?

Novices without a defined niche: Without a clear target audience or area of expertise, building a digital product can be directionless and less profitable. Experts can benefit from brainstorming sessions with AI as an exploratory phase, but if you’re asking ChatGPT “what course should I build,” it’s a sign you’re not ready.
Those seeking quick profits: The creation of valuable digital products takes time. If immediate revenue is the goal, other avenues might provide a more immediate revenue stream. Don’t fall prey to the get-rich-quick gurus that want to sell you a course on how to make a course about making a course.
Businesses with bandwidth constraints: For small businesses already stretched thin, the additional demand of product creation, marketing, and maintenance might be overwhelming.

The Realities of Building an Online Course

In the world of online courses, user-friendly platforms like Squarespace serve as accessible gateways for creators and small businesses. However, despite the perceived ease and potential benefits touted, the reality is that the market is increasingly saturated. This makes it a challenging venture, especially for those without a background in marketing or a substantial following.

Platforms and course creation mentors paint an optimistic picture, but keep in mind, they will profit regardless of whether your course succeeds or fails. Potential creators need to be aware of the realistic challenges they will face.

Furthermore, you’ll want to consider the “sunk cost fallacy,” a phenomenon where individuals continue to invest in a project due to the resources already spent, even when it might not be the most rational choice. When people invest considerable time and effort into building a product, it can be difficult to halt or withdraw it, even if it’s underperforming. Creators cling to the hope that sales might pick up in the future or feel attached to the content they created. It’s important to maintain an objective viewpoint, evaluating the current circumstances rather than being swayed by past investments.

Nonetheless, we’ve seen that creators who hone in on specific niches, offer high-quality content, and know how to reach their ideal audience have the potential to carve out a success story, even in a crowded market.

Final Thoughts

Selling digital products on Squarespace offers an easy way for creators and businesses to tap into the digital economy. Success will hinge on the quality of your content, clarity of your target audience, and consistent marketing efforts. Before diving in, evaluate your resources, expertise, and market demand.

And when pursuing monetization, make sure the drive for revenue doesn’t overshadow the authenticity and ethical principles that originally defined your content. Genuine value and integrity are what set successful creators apart in a competitive environment.

As you contemplate joining the online course movement, ensure your approach is well-planned and grounded in the realities of the market. Yes, courses offer numerous opportunities, but your business moves should be guided by strategic decisions.

More Resources

With Squarespace’s new course builder, there will likely be an influx of courses on “How to Build a Squarespace Course.” Yet, with video tutorials and free how-to resources available, we think DIYers are already well-equipped. Squarespace’s support documentation also includes: