What is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a hosted website builder. You start from a designer template, or answer a few questions and let Blueprint AI draft the pages, then change layouts, fonts and colors in a drag-and-drop editor and publish with hosting, SSL and a domain handled for you. The same subscription runs an online store, bookings, memberships, invoices and email sign-ups.
Against WordPress, there are no plugins, servers or updates to manage, but you work inside the template system, and code injection and commerce APIs need the Core plan or higher. Webflow gives designers a freeform canvas and CMS; Squarespace keeps you in its sections and templates.
Who is Squarespace best for?
Squarespace is best for small businesses, creatives and service providers who want a polished website, store or booking page live without code.
Photographers and creative portfolios
Designer portfolio templates and built-in video hosting let artists and photographers show their work without a developer.
Service businesses
Bookings through Acuity Scheduling, branded invoices on every plan and lead forms keep client work on one site.
Small online stores
Unlimited products, subscriptions, gift cards and abandoned-cart emails, with no store transaction fee from the Core plan up.
Creators selling memberships
Courses, paywalled blogs and member areas are built in, and the fee on that revenue drops from 7% on Basic to 0% on Advanced.
What's included with Squarespace?
Designer templates, an AI site builder, unlimited store products, built-in payments, domains, AI search tracking and point of sale in the US.
- Templates and editor
- Designer templates and a drag-and-drop editor for layouts, fonts, colors and images, on every plan.
- Blueprint AI
- Drafts a site with copy, images and design from a few questions; AI credits run from 10 one-time on Basic to 120 a month on Advanced.
- Commerce
- Unlimited physical, digital and service products, subscriptions, gift cards and abandoned-cart emails on every plan.
- Squarespace Payments
- Cards, Apple Pay, Klarna and Afterpay in one dashboard, with Stripe and PayPal as other options.
- Domains and email
- Domains from $14 a year with free WHOIS privacy and SSL; Core and up add a free first year of Google Workspace email.
- AI Visibility
- Tracks how your brand shows up in AI search answers, from 10 one-time prompt runs to 120 a month.
- Point of sale
- Take in-person payments through the Squarespace app with Square, in the US, synced with your online inventory.
How much does Squarespace cost?
Squarespace has no free plan: after a 14-day trial it costs $25 to $139 a month billed monthly, or $19 to $99 a month billed yearly.
- 2 contributors, 30 minutes of video
- 2% fee on online store sales
- Cards 2.9% + 30¢ with Squarespace Payments
- No fee on online store sales
- Code injection, commerce APIs, shipping labels
- 20 AI credits a month
- Cards from 2.7% + 30¢
- 1% fee on digital content and memberships
- 40 AI credits a month, 50 hours of video
- Cards from 2.5% + 30¢
- No fee on digital content and memberships
- 120 AI credits a month, unlimited video
There is no free plan; every site starts with a 14-day free trial. Paying yearly lowers the plans to $19, $29, $49 and $99 a month and adds one year of free domain registration. Digital content and memberships carry a 7% fee on Basic and 5% on Core. Automatic tax calculation costs 0.05% to 0.15% per transaction, capped at $0.99, and is not on Basic. US prices. Full pricing on squarespace.com. We checked these prices on .
How do readers rate Squarespace?
No one has rated Squarespace yet. Be the first.
Sign in to rate. One rating per account.
Squarespace pros and cons
It gets a polished site live fast with everything in one bill, but customization limits and steep renewal increases are the common complaints.
Pros
- Users say it is one of the quickest ways to get a good-looking site live without writing code.
- Its templates are a common pick for photographers and creatives who want a clean portfolio.
- Hosting, security, domains and the store sit in one bill, with no plugins to patch the way WordPress sites need.
Cons
- Customization is the most common complaint: layouts beyond what a template allows need custom code or a hired expert.
- Renewal prices have jumped; many long-time users report annual renewals up by close to half.
- Site owners who push hard on page speed and SEO say they run into limits they cannot tune.
- Some users find the newer editor unintuitive, with simple changes taking more clicks than expected.
How do I connect Squarespace to my AI agent?
Squarespace MCP is Squarespace's official MCP server. Add it to your agent once, then ask it to check domains and manage store products and orders on Squarespace.
Connects your agent to Squarespace for domain search and pricing and, once you sign in, to the products, contacts and orders on one of your sites, with your own permissions.
$ claude mcp add --transport http squarespace https://mcp.squarespace.com/mcp
Claude Code connects to Squarespace over the web.
Run /mcp and sign in to Squarespace in the browser.
Then ask your agent
- Runs
- On the web
- Sign-in
- OAuth
- Checked
- Answered 13 Nov
What are the best Squarespace alternatives?
Wix for a free plan and a free-form editor, Webflow for full design control, and Site123 for a simpler, cheaper site.
WixFreeChoose it when you want to start on a free plan, pick from more than 2,000 templates, and edit on a free-form canvas by hand or with its AI builder.
WebflowFreeChoose it when a designer or marketing team needs full control of layout, interactions and a CMS, and wants to build free on a webflow.io address first.
Site123FreeChoose it when you need a plain site or small shop for less: it has a free plan that needs no credit card and a single Premium tier above it.
Questions about Squarespace
What is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a hosted website builder for small businesses and creatives, combining designer templates, an AI site builder, an online store, bookings and domains in one subscription.
Who is Squarespace for?
Squarespace is best for small businesses, creatives and service providers who want a polished website, store or booking page live without code.
Is Squarespace free?
No. Squarespace has no free plan, but every site starts with a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card. After that, plans start at $25 a month billed monthly, or $19 a month billed yearly.
How much does Squarespace cost?
Squarespace's paid plans are Basic at $25 per month, Core at $39 per month, Plus at $65 per month and Advanced at $139 per month.
Does Squarespace have an MCP server?
Yes. Squarespace MCP is Squarespace's official MCP server, so agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and GitHub Copilot can check domains and manage store products and orders on Squarespace. Squarespace runs it on the web and you sign in with your Squarespace account.
What are the best Squarespace alternatives?
The closest alternatives on Recaply are Wix, Webflow and Site123.
Can Squarespace build my website with AI?
Yes. Blueprint AI asks a few questions about your business and generates a site with copy, images and design choices that you then edit. Later AI writing uses credits: 10 one-time on Basic, then 20 to 120 a month on higher plans.
Does Squarespace take a cut of my sales?
On Basic, Squarespace adds a 2% fee to online store sales and 7% to digital content and memberships. Core and above charge no store fee, and the membership fee falls to 5%, 1% and 0%. Card processing, from 2.9% + 30¢, is separate.
Does Squarespace come with a free domain?
Yes, on a yearly plan: it includes one year of free registration for one domain, which then renews at the standard rate. You can also connect a domain you already own, and Squarespace sells domains from $14 a year.
Can I sell in person with Squarespace?
Yes, in the US. The Squarespace app takes in-person payments through Square and keeps inventory, customers and sales in sync with your online store, on every plan.
Our verdict
Squarespace is a safe choice for a small business or creative who wants a polished site live quickly and is happy to work inside its templates.
Hosting, domains, a store, bookings and invoices come in one subscription, and the designer templates do most of the visual work.
- Skip it for
- Anyone who needs pixel-level layout control, a large catalog tuned for speed, or the cheapest possible site.
- Check first
- The renewal price of the plan you pick, since users report large increases at renewal.
ChatGPT Sites
Silex
Webstudio
WebWave
Frappe Builder
Builder.io