How much is Squarespace?

How much does Squarespace cost? Well, it depends on several factors: the hosting plan you choose and any additional Squarespace extensions or add-ons you might find necessary for your website. 

In the early days, Squarespace was appreciated for its simple, all-in-one pricing. It was easy to understand what you were getting and how much it would cost. However, as the platform began offering more specialized functionalities, they transitioned to a more layered (i.e. complex) pricing system. Today, identifying the ideal Squarespace package isn’t as straightforward as it once was. You’ll need to sift through various plans and extra features to find what suits your needs best—and this can feel like a math puzzle at times.

Here, we do the math so you can see which plan is best for you. Topics this guide covers:

• 2024 Squarespace Pricing for hosting:

  • Personal Plan: $192 annually

  • Business Plan: $276 annually

  • Commerce Plan: $336 annually

  • Advanced Commerce Plan: $624 annually

  • Website Platform Plans: This pricing is not published. In 2023, Squarespace began offering some customers “Platform Plans” which roll individual services into a single fee—similar to their older pricing strategy. If offered one of these plans, you can choose traditional “à la carte” pricing or a “platform plan,” but platform pricing has not been made public. If you are offered one of these plans, feel free to reach out and we can help you sort through the options to find your best fit.

  • Enterprise or bulk plans: Custom pricing requires a call with the Squarespace Enterprise sales team.

• Additional Fees: See other Squarespace fees plus additional costs to consider.

• Squarespace Marketplace: What is it and how much does it cost?

• Free Trial: Learn how to get an extended 6-month trial.

• Squarespace Discounts: Save on your first year.

Startups, established SMBs, and even enterprise organizations choose Squarespace for varied reasons. But if you plan to use the platform only for blogging, proof of concept, or to promote a short-term initiative you’ll have very different needs than a membership-based business that also sells products.

Comparing the annual Squarespace cost for low-end and high-end setups:

• Least expensive setup: If you keep things as simple as possible with only a Personal Plan website and a custom .com domain, your expenses will be a little over $200.

• Most expensive setup: If you used all the Squarespace bells and whistles available with an Advanced Commerce website, a newer TLD domain, the Max email marketing plan, Powerhouse appointment scheduling, and a Pro digital product add-on, your expenses would be over $3000 each year.

So if your small business is budget-minded, take time to figure out which features you need to get started. Many sites using the Business plan should actually be on the Personal plan. And just as many Business plan sites would be better served by a Commerce plan.

⚠️ NOTE: Forbes incorrectly states: “Unlike other site builders, there are no hidden fees and pricing doesn’t increase upon renewal,” this isn't accurate—prices do increase.

In the past, the cost of hosting was determined by the time of your sign-up, and it would persist at that rate. Previously, Squarespace's official documentation mentioned, “we'll honor the pricing you signed up at.” However, in 2022, Squarespace changed their policy and adjusted renewal rates universally, impacting even their longstanding legacy plans.

Despite these changes, for many small businesses, Squarespace remains the most suitable platform. Learn more in our updated Squarespace Review.

Squarespace Pricing Explained

Squarespace offers 4 pricing tiers for hosting. All plans apply to both 7.0 and 7.1 templates. The four plans differ in features and transaction fees—visit Squarespace’s pricing page for an up-to-date features list. See our calculator to configure your pricing.

Annual vs Monthly Hosting

Our usual recommendation is to pay annually—versus month-to-month—to save on fees. And in the case of Business vs Commerce plans, a monthly Business plan will cost you $96 more than an annual Basic Commerce plan for the year. Overall, if you plan to use Squarespace for at least a year, it makes sense to pay for the year in advance.

Note, Squarespace only offers refunds of annual plans within 14 days of purchase.

If these prices seem high, keep in mind Squarespace is designed to be an all-in-one hosting platform—and everyone is eligible for a Squarespace discount their first year.

All Squarespace plans include:

• A mobile-ready website with hosting

• SSL-security

• Blogging capability

• 30-minutes of video storage

• Ability to install Google Analytics 4

1) Personal Plan

Start here if you do not need to sell products or services online.

When should you upgrade from Personal to Business? When evaluating Squarespace personal vs business plans, if you want to sell products or services, integrate 3rd party apps, or use certain built-in marketing features (see below), then you’ll need to upgrade.

2) Business Plan

This upgrade offers the ability to customize your website with code. It also gives you nice-to-have marketing features like a Promotional Pop-up, an Announcement Bar, and a Mobile Information Bar. And you can use Squarespace Commerce for an additional 3% transaction fee on top of payment processor fees.

When should you upgrade from Business to Commerce? This decision is based on how much you sell:

• If you pay annually: There is a $60/year difference between the Business and Commerce annual plans. If you sell at least $2000 of products or services via Squarespace commerce each year, you will be charged $60 or more in extra transaction fees on the Business plan, so go ahead and upgrade to the Annual Basic Commerce plan.

• If you pay monthly: There is a $4/month difference between the Business and Commerce monthly plans. If you regularly sell at least $135 of products or services via Squarespace commerce each month, upgrade to Monthly Basic Commerce.

3) Basic Commerce Plan

The biggest benefit of this upgrade is 0% transaction fees. You also get commerce-specific metrics, customer coupon codes, and shopping on Instagram.

See the Business Plan section above for an explanation of when it makes financial sense to switch to this tier based on transaction fees.

4) Advanced Commerce Plan

This upgrade adds the ability to sell subscriptions, more flexible customer discounts, abandoned cart recovery, and real-time shipping rates.

Pro Tip: If you are upgrading to sell subscriptions, depending on your subscription model, you might be able to utilize the less expensive Membership add-on instead.

Special Consideration: Legacy Pricing

The prices shown above are what you would pay if you sign up or switch plans today. But if your site has been around for a while, you might have a Squarespace legacy plan. In 2022, Squarespace removed pricing and feature information from their legacy plan page—this was tied to their decision to increase plan prices across the board—but the information is available on the Wayback Machine.

IMPORTANT: Many legacy plans are feature-rich and cost much less than current plans, so crunch the numbers before switching plans.

Additional Squarespace Fees

What about other Squarespace fees? Squarespace is intended to be an all-in-one hosting platform. But there can be extra costs or “hidden fees” that catch some customers off guard. In addition to the pricing plans outlined above, you’ll want to consider Squarespace add-ons and other website costs such as:

Domains: See Squarespace Domain pricing

You’ll pay to register a custom domain (pricing varies by TLD): www.yourbusiness.com

Note, you do not have to use Squarespace for domain registration, but it can make things easier for some organizations. You can also look at companies such as GoDaddy or Hover. Squarespace’s domain registration service is powered by Squarespace LLC and Tucows. Tucows is also the parent company of Hover—overall it is less expensive to buy and renew directly from Hover.

Email Marketing: See Squarespace Email pricing

If you want to send marketing emails, you’ll need to use an email marketing platform. Squarespace offers paid plans. Mailchimp offers a free tier for new businesses.

Scheduling: See Acuity Scheduling pricing

Many businesses are interested in integrating a scheduling or booking app. Squarespace acquired Acuity Scheduling in 2019 and added the functionality to the backend of Squarespace. If you want something simple, Calendly offers a free plan—learn how we use Calendly with Squarespace.

Squarespace Digital Products: See Digital Products pricing

All plans have access to sell digital products for a 9% transaction fee. Alternatively, you can choose a Digital Products add-on package to lower or eliminate these fees.

If you plan to build Squarespace courses, membership programs, or ebooks first define your requirements to determine if you can use Squarespace’s digital product solution. If your business requires robust learning management system functionality, then you might need to consider a different platform as Squarespace is still building out features.

Business Email: See Google Workspace Pricing via Squarespace

Your business needs professional email: name@yourbusiness.com

Squarespace does not host email, so check with Google Workspace or your domain registrar regarding email hosting.

Credit Card Transaction Fees

If you take payments online or accept credit cards, you will pay processing fees. We prefer Stripe vs Paypal. Learn more about Squarespace payments and associated transaction fees. Note, if you add Afterpay to Squarespace, you’ll encounter higher fees.

Remember, depending on your hosting plan and chosen add-ons, Squarespace may charge additional transaction fees—see the quick reference links above for more info.

Third-Party Apps

Third-party apps you use to run your business (shipping, accounting, inventory, etc.) will likely have their own monthly or annual fees, plus possible transaction fees.

Many third-party services can be embedded into your site using custom code. To inject code, you’ll need the Squarespace Business plan or higher.

In 2019, Squarespace launched what they call Squarespace Extensions. These third-party integrations can be used alongside Squarespace stores (Business and Commerce plans) and the individual apps may charge fees.

Legal Information

You’ll want to consult with a lawyer regarding your Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Legal Disclaimer, Affiliate Disclosure or any other legal information.

Images and Graphics

Free stock images are available, but at some point you’ll likely hire a graphic designer to create a logo and other brand assets. Or you might purchase stock images or videos. And you might need a photographer for headshots or photos of your business.

The Squarespace Marketplace

In 2019, Squarespace launched what is called the Squarespace Marketplace on the 99designs platform. The Marketplace is a list of independent providers offering services such as websites, email marketing, or online strategy at varying levels of expertise and thus varying price points.

Marketplace-based projects include fees that you don’t find in normal invoicing channels: a 5-15% fee paid by the designer, 5% paid by you, plus a $100 introduction fee. For example, a $5000 project actually invoices to you for $5250. On that same project, a top-level designer pays $350 in fees (5% plus the intro fee). And an entry-level designer would pay $850.

This differs from typical invoicing where you pay $5000 and the designer pays a standard 2.9% credit card transaction fee or no fees if paid by check.

The “client introduction fee” substantially impacts smaller projects. For example, on a $500 Marketplace quote, you pay $525, yet a top-level designer only earns $375 (paying $125 in fees). Most designers take these fees into account when quoting small Marketplace projects.

For some users, there is confusion around the distinction between Squarespace Support vs Squarespace Marketplace. The Squarespace Support team is comprised of Squarespace employees, while Marketplace is independent agencies and freelancers. The level of support available from the formerly award-winning Squarespace Support team has changed over the years—today you might be directed to the Marketplace for help.

Related: In late 2021, Squarespace changed wording in their support documentation from “hire a Squarespace expert” to “hire a vetted SEO expert.” The links lead you to the Squarespace Marketplace, but none of the profiles—including our profile—have been vetted for SEO skills. Why bring this up in a pricing article? Because Squarespace charges you a fee to use the Marketplace and the wrong hire can increase business costs. If you need SEO help, first learn how to verify basic SEO skills.

Squarespace Free Trial

Standard 2-week trial: Squarespace does not offer a free website option, but they do offer a default 2-week free trial without a credit card.

Extended 6-month trial: If you work with an approved Squarespace designer, you get an extended 6-month free trial (plus a 20% discount on your first annual payment).

Squarespace Discounts

Currently, there are 3 ways to get a Squarespace promo code for your first year:

1) 10% Squarespace Coupon for Everyone

Many sites suggest they have an “exclusive offer code,” but these are simply Squarespace affiliate sites. They offer the same promotional 10% off that anyone and everyone can get directly from Squarespace: GIMME10.

2) 20% Squarespace Discount for Designers

Work with an approved Squarespace designer to get a 20% discount and an extended 6-month free trial. The discount and extended trial apply whether a designer builds your entire site or provides Squarespace training.

3) 50% Squarespace Student Discount

Students are eligible for a 50% off coupon through Squarespace's education program. To qualify, you must be a current student at an accredited university or college and have a valid school email address. (Faculty discounts are no longer available.)

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