Squarespace pricing: everything about the builders offerings

In this article, I’m going to delve deep into Squarespace pricing – including its plans, additional costs, tips, and more.

If you need an introduction, here’s an in-depth Squarespace review. However, if you’re already familiar with it, you might be already aware that Squarespace is known for its gorgeous themes, rich built-in features, and abundant marketing tools. But what about its prices?

Price vise, Squarespace is a more premium provider. However, undoubtedly, the price goes in line with the builder’s offerings. You pay for resource-rich plans and many useful features.

To really dig deeper and analyze Squarespace’s price and value ratio, I’m going to cover all things related to the builder’s cost and plans today. Let’s dive in.

Squarespace pricing Pros and Cons

Squarespace pricing plans

Squarespace has 4 plans ranging from $16.00/mo to $49.00/mo: Personal ($16.00/mo), Business ($23.00/mo), Basic Commerce ($27.00/mo), and Advanced Commerce ($49.00/mo). In regards to paid options, the builder also offers a 14-day free trial with no payment information required.

All Squarespace plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage as well as freebies. This includes a domain for a year, an SSL certificate, SEO features, and basic website metrics.

Plan	Features
Personal ($16.00/mo)	On top of the features listed below, the plan allows 2 contributors and offers Squarespace extensions.
Business ($23.00/mo)	Unlimited contributors, a professional email address from Google, access to premium integrations and blocks, customizations with CSS and JavaScript, full access to marketing tools, and basic eCommerce access with 3% transaction fees.
Basic Commerce ($27.00/mo)	All Business offerings, plus access to more advanced eCommerce features with 0% transaction fees, advanced eCommerce analytics, and products on Instagram.
Advanced Commerce (/mo)	On top of the Basic Commerce plan’s resources, it includes selling subscriptions, advanced shipping and discounts, and abandoned cart recovery.

Let’s take a closer look at the plans.

Personal

This plan costs $16.00/mo and is best used for basic personal websites. For instance, blogs, portfolios, and small passion projects.

Its features include:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage;
• Free custom domain for a year;
• Free SSL certificate;
• SEO features;
• Two contributors allowed;
• Basic website metrics;
• Limited access to the Video Studio App.

Overall, Squarespace’s Personal plan is ideal if you need a fuss-free basic platform to blog or display your work since it’s pretty generous with resources. But, since it’s limited in terms of features, don’t expect things like eCommerce integration or advanced tools.

Business

The Business plan costs $23.00/mo and is a solid option for small retailers or other basic sites that accept payment and donations online.

Here are its features:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage;
• Free custom domain for a year;
• Free SSL certificate;
• SEO features;
• Unlimited contributors;
• Basic website metrics;
• A single professional email from Google;
• Premium integrations and blocks;
• Customization with CSS and JavaScript;
• Full access to marketing tools;
• Ability to receive online payments with 3% transaction fees;
• Basic eCommerce functionalities.

Business is the best plan for small business websites. The plan comes with full access to marketing tools, plus you can sell a couple of products online. Just keep in mind, a 3% transaction fee applies.

Basic Commerce

Priced at $27.00/mo, Basic Commerce should be your top pick if you’re looking to run a functional small-to-medium eCommerce site.

It comes with:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage;
• Free custom domain for a year;
• Free SSL certificate;
• SEO features;
• Unlimited contributors;
• Basic website metrics;
• A single professional email from Google;
• Premium integrations and blocks;
• Customization with CSS and JavaScript;
• Full access to marketing tools;
• Ability to sell online with 0% transaction fees;
• Unlimited products;
• More advanced eCommerce functionalities.

With its liberal eCommerce and marketing tools/features, Basic Commerce has all that you need to jumpstart your online business.

Advanced Commerce

Advanced Commerce, which costs $49.00/mo, is ideal for established online stores and bigger retailers that process many orders.

The plan includes:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage;
• Free custom domain for a year;
• Free SSL certificate;
• SEO features;
• Unlimited contributors;
• Basic website metrics;
• A single professional email from Google;
• Premium integrations and blocks;
• Customization with CSS and JavaScript;
• Full access to marketing tools;
• Ability to sell online with 0% transaction fees;
• Unlimited products;
• Full eCommerce functionalities.

Overall, Advanced Commerce is the front-runner for eCommerce-focused/exclusive sites. With its 0% transaction fees and well-rounded eCommerce features, the plan is ideal for those that require advanced eCommerce functionality.

All things considered, Squarespace pricing is on the premium side of things. But, it’s still very reasonable considering that all plans come with generous storage, bandwidth, basic metrics, SEO tools, and freebies like a domain and SSL.

Which Squarespace plan should I choose?

Squarespace plans can be split into 2 groups: the Personal plan on one side and those that support eCommerce on the other.

The Personal plan is great for basic websites that don’t need eCommerce capabilities. If you’re building a blog, portfolio, or a simple business website that doesn’t need to sell online, the Personal plan would be perfect.

Meanwhile, Squarespace eCommerce plans (including the Business plan), as the names give away, offer fully integrated eCommerce functionalities. Depending on which eCommerce plan you go for, you can manage everything from a small online shop to a full-fledged eCommerce retailer website that requires advanced sales, marketing, and shipping features.

Personal vs Business

Although both plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage, Personal costs less than Business. $16.00/mo and $18.00/mo, accordingly. But, in return, Business offers more features.

	Personal	Business
Price	$16.00/mo	$23.00/mo
Free domain and SSL	Yes	Yes
Professional email account	No	Yes
Premium extensions	No	Yes
CSS and JavaScript customization	No	Yes
Selling online	No	Yes
Website analytics	No	Yes

Unlike Personal, Business offers a professional email, premium integrations and blocks, and customizations via CSS and JavaScript. Additionally, marketing-vise, Business also provides the whole shebang, including advanced website analytics.

However, the biggest difference is eCommerce integration. While you can’t sell online with Personal, Business allows you to sell unlimited products – plus accept donations and sell gift cards – on your site with a 3% transaction fee.

For those that need stripped-back basic sites for personal blogs and portfolios, Personal would be more than sufficient. Meanwhile, Business is a better fit for those looking to sell online.

Basic Commerce vs Advanced Commerce

Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce have much in common. For starters, both plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage, free domains, and SSL certificates. Plus, there’s no Squarespace transaction fee when you sell online with either plan.

	Basic Commerce	Advanced Commerce
Price	$27.00	$49.00
Free domain and SSL	Yes	Yes
Selling online	Yes	Yes
Transaction fees	0%	0%
Abandoned cart recovery	No	Yes
Selling subscriptions	No	Yes
Advanced discounts	No	Yes

Now, let’s talk about differences. Basic Commerce is cheaper at $27.00/mo than Advanced Commerce, which is priced at $49.00/mo. For Advanced Commerce, you’re paying more for, well, advanced eCommerce tools.

With Advanced Commerce, you get access to more sophisticated tools such as abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping and discounts, and commerce APIs. Plus, you also get to sell subscriptions.

With its many eCommerce features, Basic Commerce is a safe bet for most online stores. However, if you need advanced shipping and marketing solutions or want to sell subscriptions, Advanced Commerce is the better option.

Squarespace additional costs

Squarespace is all-inclusive, so you do get all the vital elements like free hosting, templates, and more. Hence, generally, you shouldn’t see many additional costs. However, things like a domain name, email addresses, transaction fees, or any add-ons might still add up later.

Domain name

While you do get a free domain for the first year with Squarespace, you’ll still need to renew it after that period. To renew with Squarespace or get a new domain, the cost starts from $20/yr for the more common TLDs like .com. Others are more expensive and could cost upward of $50/yr.

Alternatively, you can connect a domain that’s hosted elsewhere, too. This can be a cheaper option. For instance, Squarespace’s yearly cost for a basic .com TLD is $20, but you can get the same one for only $9.99/yr with Hostinger and $5.17/yr with GoDaddy.

Email marketing

Some of Squarespace’s email marketing features are free – including building mailing lists, creating draft campaigns, and sending three trial blasts. But, to truly utilize the solution, you’ll need to pay, which could add quite a bit to your Squarespace monthly cost.

There are 4 plans:

• Starter ($5/mo) – 3 standard campaigns and 500 emails per month bearing Squarespace’s branding.
• Core ($10/mo) – 5 standard campaigns, unlimited automated campaigns, 5000 emails per month, as well as no Squarespace’s branding.
• Pro ($24/mo) – 20 standard campaigns, unlimited automated campaigns, 50000 emails per month, and no Squarespace’s branding.
• Max ($48/mo) – unlimited standard and automated campaigns, 250000 emails per month, no Squarespace’s branding.

If you plan on taking advance of Squarespace email campaigns, it’s good to know that some extra costs might be needed for an effective emailing process.

Transaction fees

Squarespace charges transaction fees for its eCommerce plans, and they apply to all sales and donations. The rates depend on your plan – Business will see a 3% fee while Squarespace Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced can enjoy a 0% transaction fee.

Frankly, it’s quite a bit of a jump between 0% and 3%. What this does is that it causes anyone looking to build a Squarespace store online to automatically gravitate to the more expensive Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce plans in a bid to escape the fees.

It’s also worth noting that while transaction fees aren’t unheard of, 3% is rather high. For comparison, Squarespace’s competitor Wix doesn’t charge transaction or commission fees. Meanwhile, Shopify does, but the fees are considerably lower than 3%.

Instead, here’s what they look like:

• Basic Shopify: 2.0%
• Shopify: 1.0%
• Advanced Shopify: 0.5%

Simply put, it’s only natural to seek lower transaction fees if your website heavily relies on online payments.

Additional integrations

Squarespace is well-rounded with its features. But, if you want more integrations, you’ll need to pay for them. For instance, extensions like ShipStation for shipping, 1800Accountant for bookkeeping, and Spocket for dropshipping will cost some additional $.

Obviously, the prices differ according to which extension you opt for. Plus, the third-party integrations could also offer their own selection of plans with different prices. But, generally, you can expect to pay anywhere from a few cents per use to hundreds of dollars per month.

In other words, some third-party extensions might be cheap or even free. However, often, to get the full functionality, you will have to spare an additional cost of a few $/mo.

Squarespace pricing tips

Naturally, Squarespace’s additional costs can be disappointing. However, it’s still possible to snag a good deal with the builder. Below, I’ll outline all the tips on how to cut monthly costs, additional expenses, and even get a discount.

1. Sign up for an annual subscription

If you pay annually rather than monthly, you can save from 25% to 30%, depending on your plan.

Here’s how each plan’s monthly and annual prices compare:

Plan	Monthly rate	Annual rate
Personal	$16.00/mo	$16.00/mo
Business	$26.00/mo	$23.00/mo
Basic Commerce	$35.00/mo	$27.00/mo
Advanced Commerce	$54.00/mo	$49.00/mo

As a whole, it’s pretty obvious that choosing a longer billing period will save you money in the long run. However, keep in mind that the full sum will have to be paid upfront.

2. Purchase a domain elsewhere

Since Squarespace domain price is higher than with most providers, you can cut down your Squarespace cost by purchasing a domain with a .com TLD elsewhere. In fact, on average, you can save anywhere from 50% to close to 75%. That’s a whole lot of savings considering that this is a recurring yearly cost.

For a detailed comparison, you can refer below:

Domain registrar	Yearly price for .com domain	Renewal price for .com domain
Squarespace	$20	$20
Hostinger	$9.99	$13.99
GoDaddy	$5.17	$19.17
Namecheap	$9.48	$13.48

3. Compare email marketing service prices

Squarespace email marketing service isn’t the cheapest, either. Hence, you might want to check out other options such as Omnisend and MailChimp.

See, all 3 platforms offer a free option. But, while you can only build mailing lists, create draft campaigns, and send 3 trial campaigns with Squarespace one, the same can’t be said for the others.

For instance, MailChimp’s free plan includes 2000 contacts and a maximum of 10000 monthly emails. Meanwhile, Omnisend lets you reach up to 250 contacts and send 500 emails/mo, 60 international SMS, and 500 web push with its free plan. Much more generous offerings indeed.

In sum, it’s obvious that both MailChimp and Omnisend offer far more resources and features than Squarespace does. Best of all, for free.

4. Get a special Squarespace discount

Besides that, Squarespace offers a variety of discounts, too. This includes a first purchase discount, a student discount, and more.

Here are some of the Squarespace discounts that you can find:

• First purchase discounts – 10% off website or domain on any plan, with the promo code CYBERNEWS10. This is only available for first-time purchases.
• Student pricing – verify your student status with Student Beans, and you can get 50% off an annual website plan.
• Non-profit organization discount – if you’re looking for a website builder for your non-profit organization, Squarespace offers a one-time 10% discount for all its plans.
• Black Friday offers – change each year, but you can expect anywhere from 10% to 50% off its annual plans. The offer usually runs a week before Black Friday up until Cyber Monday.

To recap, you can save big on Squarespace pricing by opting for an annual subscription, purchasing a domain from a third party, choosing a third-party email marketing service, and making good use of its available discounts.

Squarespace vs competitor pricing

Squarespace is not the cheapest website builder out there. So, if you aren’t looking to spend that much or flexibility is something you value a lot, you can absolutely find alternative builders for eCommerce and/or better features at lower prices. Your options include Hostinger Website Builder, SITE123, and Wix.

Hostinger Website Builder

With an extremely easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor and very affordable prices, Hostinger Website Builder is a close competitor.

Hostinger Website Builder vs Squarespace for personal websites:

Hostinger Website Builder's single plan ($1.79/mo) can be compared to Squarespace’s Personal ($16.00/mo). Both include unlimited bandwidth and generous storage, free SSL certificate and domain, and SEO tools. But, Hostinger's plan comes with far more premium features – including AI, visitor remarketing, and more – than Personal despite being more than 3x cheaper.

Hostinger Website Builder vs Squarespace for eCommerce websites:

You can also put Hostinger Website Builder's single plan eCommerce ($1.79/mo) against Squarespace’s Basic Commerce ($27.00/mo). However, while both accept online payments, only Squarespace does not take any transaction fees.

SITE123

SITE123 is very affordable, but it lacks advanced customizations. The builder has a free plan, but it’s only fit for testing. For that reason, let’s take a look at its premium plans.

SITE123 vs Squarespace for personal websites:

A rival for Squarespace Personal ($16.00/mo) is SITE123’s Basic plan ($12.80/mo), which is very similar in price. However, Squarespace is far more liberal with its resources and features since it offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, free SSL certificate and domain, and SEO tools. Meanwhile, SITE123’s Basic only comes with 10GB storage, 5GB bandwidth, and a free domain for a year.

SITE123 vs Squarespace for eCommerce websites:

SITE123’s Advanced plan ($19.80) and Squarespace’s Basic Commerce plan ($26/mo) cater to somewhat similar users. The Basic Commerce plan has the edge since it offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth as well as a wide range of eCommerce functionalities. Meanwhile, Advanced comes with only a free domain, 30GB storage, 15GB bandwidth, and 2 mailboxes.

The one area where SITE123’s Advanced is ahead is that it offers 1000 mailing list messages, which is a paid feature with Squarespace.

Wix

Wix is a web builder that offers complete customization and flexibility. If Squarespace is Apple, Wix is its Android.

Wix vs Squarespace for cheapest personal plans:

Wix’s Combo ($16.00/mo) doesn’t come with much except a free domain, an SSL certificate, and 3GB storage. Meanwhile, Squarespace’s cheapest plan (Personal $16.00/mo) is slightly cheaper, yet it offers better resources – unlimited bandwidth and storage – and far more features.

Wix vs Squarespace for cheapest eCommerce plans:

Wix’s Business Basic ($23.00/mo) and Squarespace’s Business ($18.00/mo) are both the cheapest eCommerce options. Squarespace’s Business is more generous with storage (unlimited rather than 2GB), but the two plans have rather similar features. One thing to note, Wix’s Business Basic is commission-free, while Squarespace’s Business has a 3% transaction fee.

In brief, Hostinger Website Builder, SITE123, and Wix are a few good Squarespace alternatives. But, each has its own strengths and weaknesses in terms of resources and price.

Squarespace pricing plans compared

All things considered, Squarespace pricing might be more premium than its counterparts. However, the builder is absolutely worth it to many people. After all, featuring generous resources, extensive eCommerce features, and free-handed freebies, the builder offers good value for money.

	Personal	Business	Basic Commerce	Advanced Commerce
Price	$16.00	$23.00	$27.00	$49.00
Domain name	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SSL certificate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unlimited bandwidth and storage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free templates	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Professional email	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Premium integrations	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
eCommerce	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Transaction fees	–	3%	0%	0%

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Squarespace’s best plan for a regular website is Personal. At a relatively affordable $16/mo, the plan comes with generous resources that should be more than sufficient for most basic websites.

Basic eCommerce is Squarespace’s best plan for eCommerce. Priced at $27/mo, it offers extensive eCommerce functionalities as well as 0% transaction fees.

Visit Squarespace

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