Squarespace Pricing- What You Should Know
It’s probably no secret that I think Squarespace is the best website builder out there for small business owners. In this article, I’m going to lay out a few things you should know before signing up in terms of Squarespace pricing.
How much does Squarespace cost?
Your Squarespace website cost is going to depend on a number of factors; the Squarespace plan that you choose will alter your total cost, along with your chosen domain provider, newsletter service provider and more. Below, I’ve listed out the four options for Squarespace plans, along with the features that each plan includes.
Squarespace Plans
Squarespace offers four website plans for businesses- two options for general websites and two for ecommerce store owners:
You can choose to pay for your Squarespace website monthly or annually. Annual website plans offer the advantage of some serious cash savings- they are cheaper, offer student discount options, include a free domain name for a year AND include a free g-suite email account for a year.
General Website Plans: Personal and Business
Between the two cheaper Squarespace website plan options (the Personal plan and Business plan), the Personal plan should be sufficient for most websites. The essential differences between the two plans lies in the following:
Squarespace Analytics - The Business plan includes insights and conversion metrics that track how visitors convert on your call-to-actions (i.e. signing up for a newsletter, contact submissions, booking a discovery call or other website service).
Marketing Tools - There are a few differences in terms of marketing tools; the business plan offers Squarespace users with promotional pop-up options, announcement bars and mobile information bars.
Basic Ecommerce - One of the essential differences between the plans lies in the ecommerce functionality. With the business plan, you are able to sell products and accept donations on your website. However, it’s important to note that there is a 3% transaction fee. So if you plan on selling a high volume of products on your site, you will most likely want to upgrade to one of Squarespace’s ecommerce plans (which don’t have a transaction fee attached).
Advanced Integrations - Content block integrations with Mailchimp, Acuity Scheduling, Opentable, Zola, Bandsintown, Chownow and more.
Ecommerce Website Plans
Squarespace’s most inexpensive ecommerce plan is the Business plan. However, the Business plan isn’t labeled as an ecommerce plan, as it does include a 3% transaction fee on product purchases. If you are getting a large number of sales, you will most likely want to check out the Squarespace ecommerce plans. However, if you are just starting out your small business and simply want to test the ecommerce features, then the Business plan is most likely the best suited option for you.
If you need more advanced ecommerce functionality (or want to get rid of the Squarespace transaction fee), then choosing one of Squarespace’s two ecommerce plans might be the better option for your business. Along with zero transaction fees attached, you have access to advanced ecommerce analytics, customer accounts and site integrations with ShipStation and Xero.
Squarespace G-Suite Service
Squarespace offers its users the ability to quickly and easily setup email addresses for your domain names using the G-Suite professional email service by Google (i.e. hello@fallongerst.com).
Squarespace offers standard G-Suite pricing, and this is based on the number of email addresses you would like to have:
Annual Billing: $50 per email address
Monthly Billing: $5 per email address
Additionally, Squarespace offers a free year of G-Suite for all of its website plans except for the Personal plan.
Squarespace Domain
If you sign up for an annual plan with Squarespace, you receive the first year of your domain name free of charge! There are a few different options you could choose in terms of registering a domain, including:
A .com domain with Squarespace for $0/year with an annual website plan (no technical setup required)
A .com domain with Squarespace for $20/year with any website plan (no technical setup required)
A .com domain with Namecheap for $14.27
A .com domain with GoDaddy for
A .com domain with BlueHost for
A .com domain with any other domain name provider
The downside to choosing a domain name provider other than Squarespace is that there will be a bit of technical work involved; you’ll need to connect your third party domain name to your Squarespace hosting, but this process is relatively simple to setup.
Is Squarespace Free?
No, Squarespace unfortunately does not offer any free plans at this time.
Is Squarespace expensive?
When compared to other website builders such as Wix or Wordpress, you may think that Squarespace is expensive. However, when you consider the hidden costs of other hosting providers, you may come to a different conclusion. For example, with a website build like Wix, you may find a cheaper entry-level website plan. However, the cost of its entry level plan doesn’t immediately disclose that Wix advertisements will be displayed on your website.
Squarespace Free Trial
Although Squarespace doesn’t offer free website plans, they do offer a 14-day free trial period with no credit card required.
Can I upgrade my Squarespace plan?
After completing your 14-day free trial period, you are able to upgrade your trial website to any of the four Squarespace plans available. If you choose a plan and decide that it isn’t right for your business, you can then upgrade/switch your website plan to better suit your needs.
Squarespace Pricing for Students
Squarespace also offers discounted rates for students. By signing up with your official university email address, you receive 50% off your first full year of Squarespace. For more information, visit squarespace.com/students.
Squarespace Cost
The cost of your Squarespace website is going to depend on a number of factors listed above, such as the Squarespace plan that you choose, your domain provider, newsletter service provider and more. The ongoing cost for a Squarespace website will range from $144/year for the Personal plan to $480/year for the Advanced ecommerce plan. While the Advanced plan may not be every business owner’s first choice, it is reserved for businesses that need more advanced ecommerce functionality (without transaction fees for purchases). Your total cost is going to depend on your needs as a business owner, so you will ultimately need to decide which website plan is best suited for you.
If you have questions about any of the information listed in this Squarespace article, please feel free to leave a comment below! I will get back to you as quickly as possible. For more information on Squarespace plans and rates, you can visit Squarespace.com/pricing .
*Disclosure; Some of the content above may contain affiliate links. However, I wouldn't recommend tools, apps or resources if I didn't use them and find them helpful myself.