# Squarespace

> Template-based website builder with an online store and invoicing

Squarespace is a hosted website builder that starts from designer templates and adds an online store, invoicing, paid memberships and promotional tools. Every plan includes hosting, SSL and unlimited bandwidth, and paying a year at a time adds a free domain for the first year. Higher plans lower the fees on sales and unlock custom code, shipping labels and commerce APIs.

- **Category:** Website & Landing Page Builders
- **Made by:** Squarespace, Inc. (since 2003)
- **Website:** https://www.squarespace.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Squarespace is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $19 per site / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | $19 per site / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly) | A full website and store with up to 2 contributors, 30 minutes of video, a 2% fee on online sales and 7% on paid memberships. |
| Core | $29 per site / month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly) | Unlimited contributors, no fee on store sales, custom CSS and JavaScript, shipping labels, commerce APIs and 20 AI credits a month. |
| Plus | $49 per site / month, billed annually ($65 billed monthly) | Lower card rates (2.7% + $0.30), a 1% fee on paid memberships, 50 hours of video and 40 AI credits a month. |
| Advanced | $99 per site / month, billed annually ($139 billed monthly) | The lowest card rates (2.5% + $0.30), no fee on memberships, unlimited video and 120 AI credits a month. |

Read from https://www.squarespace.com/pricing on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Squarespace before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Pay yearly to save about 24% to 29%** (Annual discount): Basic costs $19 a month billed yearly against $25 billed monthly, and Advanced $99 against $139. Squarespace's page advertises savings of up to 36%. Source: https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
- **Free domain for a year with an annual plan** (Other savings): Annual website plans include one year of free registration for one domain on Squarespace's cheapest pricing tier; it then renews at the standard rate. Source: https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
- **Students get 50% off the first year** (Education): Students who verify their status through Student Beans get 50% off their first full year on a new annual website plan. Source: https://www.squarespace.com/students

## Key features

- **Templates and drag-and-drop editing:** Sites start from a designer template and are laid out in the Fluid Engine drag-and-drop editor. Every site is adjusted for phones automatically.
- **AI site builder and AI credits:** Blueprint builds a starting site from a few answers, and built-in AI writes content. Credits run from 10 one-time on Basic to 120 a month on Advanced.
- **Online store on every plan:** Sell unlimited physical products, services, digital goods, gift cards and subscriptions, with abandoned-cart emails on all plans. Basic adds a 2% fee on store sales.
- **Invoicing, memberships and paid content:** Branded invoices and pay links are free on every plan. Courses, memberships and paywalled content carry a fee of 7% on Basic, falling to 0% on Advanced.
- **Hosting, SSL and unlimited bandwidth:** Managed hosting, free SSL certificates and uncapped bandwidth and storage come with every plan. Video hosting runs from 30 minutes on Basic to unlimited on Advanced.
- **Forms, newsletters and SEO tools:** Form and newsletter blocks feed a contacts panel, and SEO guidance and keyword reports come built in. Pop-ups and the announcement bar need Core or higher.

## Good for

- Creatives and small businesses who want a polished site from a template
- Service businesses that also invoice clients and take payments
- Small shops that want the store and the website in one subscription

## Worth knowing

- There is no free plan; after the 14-day trial every site needs a paid plan.
- Basic takes a 2% fee on online store sales and allows only 2 contributors; Core removes both limits.
- Custom JavaScript, code injection, pop-ups and shipping labels all need Core or higher.
- The free domain covers the first year of an annual plan only and then renews at Squarespace's standard rate.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Squarespace is the one for people who want a site that looks designed without designing it, with a shop, invoices and memberships already in the box. Basic is $19 a month on yearly billing and takes 2% of store sales. There's no free plan, though, just a 14-day trial.

- **Value for money: C.** Basic is $19 a month for one site on yearly billing ($25 monthly), and it's the plan a small business would buy, since the store comes with it. That's the ordinary middle of this category ($9 to $22). Core at $29 drops the 2% store fee.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** No free plan. There's a 14-day trial with no card needed, which is long enough to build the thing and see if you like it, but after that every site needs a paid plan.
- **Features: B.** Templates, a drag-and-drop editor, a store on every plan, invoicing, memberships, forms, newsletters and SEO tools. That's the whole job of a small business site. Custom code and pop-ups wait for Core, but nothing core is missing.
- **Ease of use: B.** 4.6 from about 18,800 App Store ratings for its phone app. Templates do most of the design work, so you're mostly swapping in your own words and photos.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Google Workspace, Mailchimp, Zapier, Stripe, PayPal and Printful, plus commerce APIs on Core and up. There's no desktop app, which keeps it off an A.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Squarespace's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among website and landing page builders

- Squarespace's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 25 of the 30 other website and landing page builders we grade, and level with 3.
- It stands best on ease of use (B, above 27 of 30) and worst on value for money (C, above 2).
- Its paid plans start at $19 a month, against a middle price of $14 for the category: 18 of the 29 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.0 out of 4. 2 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/website-builders

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** The plain part of Squarespace you could make: templates, forms and invoicing. What surrounds it you could not. The 4 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 25 of the 30 other website and landing page builders we grade. It costs $228 a year.

- You could make: Templates, forms and invoicing: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Google Workspace, Mailchimp and Zapier among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.6 out of 5 from 18,849 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1361797894

## Works with

Google Workspace, Mailchimp, Zapier, Stripe, PayPal, Printful, OpenTable, Google Merchant Center

**Tags:** Templates, AI features, Forms, Invoicing, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Wix](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wix): Drag-and-drop website builder with an AI agent and business apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/squarespace-vs-wix)
- [WordPress.com](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wordpress-com): Hosted WordPress with themes, plugins and a free plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/squarespace-vs-wordpress-com)
- [Webflow](https://toolgpa.com/tools/webflow): Visual website builder with a CMS, hosting and code-level control. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/squarespace-vs-webflow)
- [GoDaddy Website Builder](https://toolgpa.com/tools/godaddy-website-builder): Template website builder with marketing tools and a free plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/godaddy-website-builder-vs-squarespace)
- [Framer](https://toolgpa.com/tools/framer): AI website builder with a visual canvas, CMS and hosting. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/framer-vs-squarespace)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.squarespace.com/pricing
- https://www.squarespace.com/
- https://www.squarespace.com/about/company
- https://www.squarespace.com/students
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/squarespace-run-your-business/id1361797894
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squarespace.android.squarespaceapp&gl=US

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/squarespace
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).