squarespace pricing explained – Dessign Themes

Updated: Jul 14, 2022 By Dessign Team

Reader Disclosure: When you purchase through referral links on our site, we might earn a commission (at no additional cost to you)

Squarespace has simple plans with straightforward pricing and only pays what you need. The best thing about Squarespace is its 14-day free trial no credit card is required. It is nice to try this website builder before you decide which plan is the best option for you.

Squarespace has four price plans from $16 to $49 per month paid annually or $23 to $65 billed monthly. If you are confused about the Squarespace pricing, we recommend signing up for the $23/mo billed monthly after your 14-day free trial expires. If you are not 100% happy a few months later, you can cancel and look for other website builders we recommend if you need alternatives.

Below we research the best plan for any beginner needing an explanation as to which plan is the best option if you are unsure or on the budget. In addition, we will explain the advantages and disadvantages of each plan and any discounts you can get if you sign-up for an annual subscription vs. month-to-month.

Squarespace Pricing Plans Explained (Monthly vs Annually)

In a Hurry? Below is a quick overview of each plan and savings you can get annually or monthly. The four Squarespace plans are Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce.

Which Squarespace plan is best for you?

According to Squarespace, the best plan is the Business plan, but if you are starting and need a simple personal website or portfolio, then going with the Personal Plan makes more sense. Once you outgrow your plan, you can always upgrade to a Business Plan later on.

If you are looking to open an eCommerce store and sell online goods, Squarespace has two options: a Basic Commerce plan or an Advanced Commerce plan. Once again, if you are just a beginner online seller going with the Basic Commerce will save you money vs. the Advanced Commerce which in detail is not that advanced as we will look at the extra features you will get.

The Personal or Business plan is for you if you want to start a website. Just decide if you wish to signup for a monthly or annual – to save you money, get the yearly plan.

If you want to sell products online, your best choice is the Basic Commerce or Advanced Commerce plan. But, you need to decide on the price and if you want a monthly or annual subscription.

Squarespace four plans explained in detail

1. Personal Plan: ($16/month paid annually) or ($23/month paid monthly). This Plan is perfect for a basic website, and it’s the cheapest Plan they offer. It gives you free custom domain, SSL security, unlimited bandwidth, SEO features, and its mobile-optimized website, which will automatically be responsive on all devices. You get a 30% discount if you sign up for an entire year. If you are happy after your 14-day person and confident that Squarespace is a great website builder, we recommend going with the annual Personal Plan.

2. Business Plan: ($23/month paid annually) or ($33/month paid monthly)this is a more expensive Plan because you can build a website and also sell online with a 3% transaction fee, great Plan for anyone who wants regular website plus simple online eCommerce. Also, with the Business plan, you get a professional email from Google, Complete Customization with CSS and JavaScript. One benefit of the Business plan is you get the marketing tools: Advanced Website Analytics, Promotional Pop-ups and Banners, and Google ads will get you $500 of free ads after you spend $500 on it.

3. Basic Commerce Plan: ($27/month paid annually) or ($36/month paid monthly) this Plan is for an eCommerce store if you want to open a fully automated online Ecommerce with Product Reviews, Checkout on Your Domain, Powerful E-Commerce Analytics and Products on Instagram this is great Plan to get started. The best part of the Basic Commerce plan vs. the Business plan is that there is a 0% transaction fee, so if you sell a lot of merchandise, you should consider the Commerce plan.

4. Advanced Commerce Plan: ($49/month paid annually) or ($65/month paid monthly) once you outgrow your Basic Commerce plan, the Advanced Commerce plan will be your ultimate Plan for selling and growing your online presence. It also comes with a 0% transaction fee. Still, you also get Abandoned Cart Recovery, Sell Subscriptions, Advanced Shipping, and Advanced Discounts, and the important one is Commerce APIs, where you can build integrations to third-party systems. 

The advantage of signup with an annual subscription is that you will get a free domain name, if you signup with a monthly subscription you will have to pay around $20/per year for domain name.

Squarespace discounts & coupons

Does Squarespace offer any discount or coupons besides the ones with annual subscriptions? Yes, but only for students. You will get 50% OFF Squarespace on any plan with your valid school email address if you are a student. Great deal for any student looking to save some money and signup with any plan you like to save 50% off your first year.

Personal Plan vs Business Plan explained in detail

Personal Plan: ($16/month paid annually) or ($23/month paid monthly)

A personal plan is the best plan if you just want a user-friendly well, designed website without worry about hosting, SSL certificates, or bandwidth/traffic issues. With a personal plan you get the following:

• Free Custom Domain
• SSL Security
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Video Storage
• SEO Features for Site Visibility
• Free Templates
• Mobile-Optimized Websites
• 24/7 Customer Support
• Basic Website Metrics
• Squarespace Extensions

Business Plan: ($23/month paid annually) or ($33/month paid monthly)

With a Business plan, you get everything that the Personal plan has plus many extras. Most of it will be that you can open an online store and sell your product with a 3% transaction fee. If you are only selling a few goods, this is not a problem, but if your website keeps selling more, we recommend switching to the Commerce plan. It’s simple and easy.

The Business plan also has many marketing tools to help you grow your website. As we mentioned, it gives you a professional business look with custom email and Ecommerce options. You will get the following:

• Professional Email from Google
• Complete Customization with CSS and JavaScript
• Advanced Website Analytics
• Google Ads Credits
• Promotional Pop-ups and Banners
• Fully Integrated E-Commerce
• Sell Unlimited Products
• Accept Donations
• Gift Cards

Basic Commerce vs Advanced Commerce explained in detail

Basic Commerce Plan: ($27/month paid annually) or ($36/month paid monthly)

The Basic Commerce plan is perfect for anyone looking to sell online products. But, if you are looking for a worry-free solution, Squarespace has everything. The Commerce plan we tested is straightforward to use and easy to learn. Pick from many beautiful design pre-made templates, add your product and connect your PayPal or Stripe account and you are ready to sell.

We recommend getting Basic Commerce if you are new and don’t have much traffic or experience with online selling. You will get all the essential tools to help you plus a 0% transaction fee, and once you outgrow the Basic plan, move on to Advantage Commerce.

• Fully Integrated E-Commerce
• Sell Unlimited Products
• Customer Accounts
• Checkout on Your Domain
• Powerful E-Commerce Analytics
• Powerful Merchandising Tools
• Products on Instagram
• Limited Availability Labels

Advanced Commerce Plan: ($49/month paid annually) or ($65/month paid monthly)

The Advanced Commerce plan is for anyone who outgrows the Basic commerce plan, and it’s ready for more integration and more features. Advanced Commerce gives you all the basic plan features plus many more that will help you grow your business. One of the best features is Abandoned Cart Recovery which lets you send an automated email to customers who did not finish the transaction so that they can complete the transaction with an extra 10% off. This will help you make more sales.

The Advanced plan is more expensive, but it has excellent features that might be worth the small price hike compared to what you get as benefits to your online store.

• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Sell Subscriptions
• Advanced Shipping
• Advanced Discounts
• Commerce APIs

Advanced commerce will let you integrate the third-party systems with their Commerce APIs integration tools so you can use other systems to help you sell more products.

Squarespace Email-marketing pricing explained

Squarespace also has its email marketing solution, so you can send newsletters or promotional offers to your clients who signup for your email.
Great way to upsell or stay in contact with your clients or future prospects who might buy other products from you in the future. It has advanced email marketing tools, many pre-built email templates, and an audience management system to grow your mailing list.

Squarespace email campaign pricing is straightforward. It also comes with a monthly or annual subscription. If you want to save money, we recommend signup up annually, and if you are not happy, you can downgrade the plan or upgrade their plan anytime.

For example, if you want to send five emails monthly, you would go with the Core plan for $10/mo annually. This will let you send around your email to 5,000 subscribers, and if your list has over 50,000 subscribers, you will upgrade to the Pro plan and pay $24/mo. Squarespace pricing is very user-friendly and not confusing as some other website builders.

The advantage of signup for annual subscriptions is that you can save around 28% per month on any plan.

Does Squarespace offer FREE plan?

Unfortunately, Squarespace doesn’t have any free plans to offer. You can try Squarespace free for 14-days, but after that, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan, or your work will be removed and the account closed.
However, if you are on the budget and need a free website builder, we put together a great list of over 20+ best website builders that you might want to check out. 

Squarespace cancellation

You have 14-days to cancel your paid subscription fully. You can cancel your active website subscription at any time. There are two ways to end your subscription:

1. Cancel your subscription and immediately take your site offline
2. Disable auto-renew and let your site expire

Squarespace makes canceling your subscription easy and hassle-free, so you have nothing to worry about. In addition, they have a 14-day money-back guarantee.