If you read my review of Squarespace you’ll know it’s my most recommended website builder— I think it’s the best over all.
But is it worth the money? Is it expensive compared to competitors like GoDaddy and Wix? What about compared to Wordpress?
Read on to find out.
Is Squarespace Expensive?
Squarespace is not expensive compared to other website builders— it’s actually quite average.
In fact, the top website builders all charge about the same price for an entry plan with no ads and unlimited bandwidth.
Cheapest Plans From The Top Website Builders:
| Website Builder | Plan | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | Personal | $12 |
| GoDaddy | Basic | $12 |
| Webflow | Basic | $12 |
| Wix | Unlimited | $14 |
| Square | Professional | $15 |
Note: Wix has cheaper plans but those cheaper plans include ads and bandwidth limitations— which I’d suggest you avoid!
What Does Squarespace Cost?
Squarespace offers four plans:
- Personal
- Business
- Basic Commerce
- Advanced Commerce
Most websites should choose either the Personal or Business plan. I explain the differences here.
Ecommerce websites should choose either Basic Commerce or Advanced Commerce. I explain the differences here.
Squarespace's four plans.
Want to save money? Choose an annual plan.
Here’s what you would save if you paid for the Personal or Business plan annually instead of monthly:
| Plan | Term | Payments | Cost | Domain | Total | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | Monthly | 12 | $16.00 | $20 | $212 | |
| Personal | Annual | 1 | $144.00 | Free | $144 | 46% |
| Business | Monthly | 12 | $26.00 | $20 | $332 | |
| Business | Annual | 1 | $216.00 | Free | $216 | 53% |
What Is The Difference Between The Personal And Business Plans?
The Personal plan is Squarespace’s cheapest plan and it will be good enough for most websites.
The Business plan is more expensive. Here are the four reasons you’d want to upgrade to the Business plan:
1. Ecommerce
The Business plan lets you sell products and accept donations— though there is a 3% transaction fee.
This may be useful if you’d like to just try out ecommerce. If you’re doing any sales volume you’ll want to upgrade to Squarespace’s ecommerce plans (which have no transaction fees).
2. 3rd Party Integrations
The Business plan let’s you use 3rd party tools like Gmail, Opentable, Chownow, Acuity Scheduling and Mailchimp.
3. Advanced Metrics
The Business plan includes conversion metrics in your Squarespace’s analytics. These metrics are used for tracking how visitors convert on your goals (example: filling out a contact form, booking a service, joining a mailing list).
4. Marketing Tools
The Business plan includes promotional pop-ups, mobile information bars and announcement bars.
Which Plan Should You Choose For Ecommerce
There are three Squarespace plans you could choose for ecommerce.
So which one should you use?
1. Business Plan
Technically Squarespace’s cheapest plan with ecommerce is the Business plan—but it includes a 3% transaction fee on purchases. These makes it suitable for testing ecommerce but not really for a full-blown ecommerce store.
2. Basic Commerce
This is the ideal ecommerce plan to start with— it includes all the basics ecommerce. Plus it has no transaction fees, gift cards, customer accounts, integrations with ShipStation and Xero and more.
3. Advanced Commerce
This is the ecommerce plan for growing stores— it adds subscription products, gift cards, more flexible discounts, abandoned cart auto-recovery, real-time shipping rates and an orders API that lets you build custom integrations with 3rd party systems.
Setting Up Email With Squarespace
If you’d like to setup email with Squarespace you’ll need to use their integration with G Suite by Google.
You will need to be on the Business, Basic Commerce or Advanced Commerce plan.
Is G Suite Any Good?
Yes. G Suite is the only email provider I would recommend. It basically gives you Gmail for your domain name email addresses.
What Does G Suite Cost?
G Suite costs money— you will have to pay for any email address connected to a domain name. That’s just reality. (If you want a free email address just use a @gmail.com email address.)
Squarespace offers the standard G Suite pricing, which is based on the number of email addresses:
| TERM | PRICE PER EMAIL ADDRESS |
|---|---|
| Annual Billing | $50 / €40 / £40 / $66 |
| Monthly Billing | $5 / €4 / £4 / A$7 |
Domain Names
If you sign up for an annual plan, you get the first year of your domain name free.
Otherwise a .com domain costs $20 / year with Squarespace.
You can actually find cheaper deals on .com domain names through a Namecheap— which provides .com domain names for $14.27. The downside is you’ll need to do some technical work to connect your Namecheap domain name to your Squarespace hosting.
Squarespace includes free whois privacy— which anonymizes your personal information (domains require public contact information called whois). I appreciate this, as website builders such as Weebly charge you for whois privacy.
Squarespace Add-ons
In addition to websites, Squarespace also has some paid add-ons:
Appointment Scheduling
Squarespace offers a paid add-on for appointment scheduling.
There are three plans:
| Feature | Emerging | Growing | Powerhouse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14 / month | $23 / month | $45 / month |
| Calendars | 1 | 2-6 | 7-36 |
| Calendar Syncing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Card Vaulting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic Reminder Emails | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMS/Text Reminders | No | Yes | Yes |
| Gift Certificates and Subscriptions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Time Zones | No | No | Yes |
| Custom API & CSS | No | No | Yes |
| HIPAA (BAA) | No | No | Yes |
Members Area
Squarespace recently started offering a Members Area add-on.
Here’s what it costs:
| Feature | Starter | Core | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of member areas | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Transaction fees | 7% | 4% | 1% |
Email Marketing
Squarespace offers a paid add-on for email marketing.
There are four email marketing plans:
| Feature | Starter | Core | Pro | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campaigns / Month | 3 | 5 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Emails / Month | 500 | 5,000 | 50,000 | 250,000 |
| Automation | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $5 | $10 | $24 | $48 |
My Squarespace Coupon Code For 2021
Want to save some money?
Use the coupon code PARTNER10 and sign up through THIS link.
It will give you 10% off an annual plan. 😊🙏
No Free Plan, But Free Trial is Available
Squarespace does not have a free plan.
Fortunately they do offer a 14-day free trial to try it first— and it does not require a credit card required.
If you’re looking for a free website builder, check out my in-depth article about free website builders.
Honest, Upfront Pricing
Some website builders (not Squarespace or any website builder I recommend) have deceptive pricing. For example:
- 1&1 — Advertises a $0.99 monthly rate but it’s actually an introductory rate that jumps after the first year.
- Web.com — Advertises monthly rates that are actually 28 days long. SERIOUSLY! This means you get charged 13 months in a year with Web.com.
Fortunately Squarespace does not do this kind of thing. I have found no hidden costs or misleading advertisements in Squarespace.
Cancellation
Some website builders go out of their way to make it hard to cancel. That’s why I pay and cancel for every website builder I try with my own credit card.
I’m happy to report cancelling Squarespace is easy and done through a web-based cancellation system. Awesome.
Frequently Asked Questions
How expensive is Squarespace?
Squarespace's cheapest plan is Personal and it costs $12 / month (annual term). This is the same price as GoDaddy and Webflow and $1 cheaper than Wix's cheapest plan with no ads and unlimited bandwidth (which Squarespace includes in Personal).
Which is cheaper Wix or Squarespace?
Wix's Connect Domain plan is cheaper than any Squarespace plan— but it includes advertisements and bandwidth limitations.
Is Squarespace free?
No. Squarespace does not have a free plan. Their cheapest plan is Personal and it costs $12 / month on an annual term.
Can I cancel Squarespace at any time?
Yes. It's easy to cancel with Squarespace's web-based cancellation system.
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