Squarespace pricing 2024: how much will it cost to build a website?

One of the most popular website builders on the market, Squarespace offers a variety of pricing plans. But does it have one to suit your business? And is Squarespace worth it? Let's find out...

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How much should a website cost in 2024? Pricing can vary across website builders, but Squarespace is one of the best value builders I’ve tested. Squarespace has four premium plans, ranging from £12 to £35 per month when billed annually.

In this article, I’ll walk you through each plan in greater detail, discussing the features available, hidden costs, and how to choose the right Squarespace plan for your business.

Squarespace pricing: at a glance

  • Personal: £12 – For simple, informational sites
  • Business: £17 – For starting a small business
  • Commerce Basic: £23 – For growing online shops
  • Commerce Advanced: £35 – For larger brands

How much does Squarespace cost?

Split across four premium plans, Squarespace costs between £12 and £35 per month when billed annually. Each plan offers a variety of features, but you’ll need to subscribe to at least the Business plan if you want to sell products online.

Here’s a quick breakdown of Squarespace’s plans:

Swipe right to see more
0 out of 0

Personal

Business

Commerce Basic

Commerce Advanced

Price

£12 per month (billed annually)

Price

£17 per month (billed annually)

Price

£23 per month (billed annually)

Price

£35 per month (billed annually)

Free custom domain
Free custom domain
Free custom domain
Free custom domain
Ecommerce
Ecommerce
Ecommerce
Ecommerce
Transaction fees

N/A

Transaction fees

3%

Transaction fees

0%

Transaction fees

0%

You can see why we rate Squarespace and its affordable plans so highly in our detailed Squarespace review.

Squarespace pricing need-to-knows 💰

  • Squarespace is one of our top builders for value for money
  • Squarespace has a 14-day free trial
  • It’s cheaper to pay for an annual subscription rather than monthly
  • You’ll need to subscribe to at least the Business plan to sell online
  • You don’t have to pay transaction fees on the Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced plans

Does Squarespace have a free plan?

Squarespace isn’t a free website builder, but you can test out the platform with its 14-day free trial. During the free trial, you’ll have access to most premium features, as well as customisable templates, so you can create a website to your exact requirements without spending a penny.

When testing Squarespace myself, I found the free trial provided everything I needed to build a website from scratch. Plus, I didn’t need to supply credit card information in order to sign up.

Of course, there are limitations to the free trial. You won’t be able to accept payments or use advanced sales features, and your site won’t be indexed by search engines until it’s published on a paid plan. To help you decide which premium plan is right for you, I’ll explore their key differences in the sections that follow.

Squarespace free trial countdown visible in the website editor

My account provided a visual reminder about how long I had left on Squarespace’s free trial. Source: Startups.co.uk

Personal plan: £12 per month

The Personal plan is Squarespace’s cheapest option, costing just £12 per month (billed annually) or £16 per month (billed monthly). This is an incredibly affordable starting point for business owners.

With the Personal plan, you’ll unlock the following features:

  • A free custom domain name for the first year
  • SEO tools
  • Unlimited bandwidth and storage
  • 24/7 customer support
  • Two contributors – this is useful if you need to delegate work to others
  • Basic website analytics to monitor traffic and performance
  • An SSL certificate – this is a must if you want a professional and secure website
  • Access to Squarespace Extensions to add extra functionality
  • Marketing features, including unlimited email subscribers and audience segmentation
  • Sell online courses and memberships – but you can’t sell products on the Personal plan

Should you pay for the Personal plan?

The Personal plan is well-suited to businesses or individuals who want to create a stylish yet small and informational website. It’s great for letting people know who you are and what you do, whether you want to establish a basic web presence for your company or showcase your portfolio of work. Of course, without ecommerce functionality, the Personal plan isn’t suitable for businesses looking to sell products.

Squarespace email marketing campaign editor for a discount email

I could create a range of email marketing campaigns, from seasonal messages to targeted discounts. Source: Startups.co.uk

Business plan: £17 per month

Squarespace’s Business plan costs £17 per month (billed annually) or £24 per month (billed monthly), and it’s a real step up from the cheaper Personal plan.

The big advantage of the Business plan is the ability to sell online. You’ll get everything from the Personal plan, plus:

  • Unlimited contributors 
  • A professional Google email address
  • Pop-ups and banners for promotions and brand announcements, such as seasonal sales
  • Sell unlimited products
  • Basic ecommerce functionality, including inventory management tools and shipping options
  • 3% transaction fee per sale

Should you pay for the Business plan?

The Business plan is perfect if you want an affordable way to build and manage a business website or start a small online store. As Squarespace’s cheapest ecommerce plan, it’s only slightly more expensive than Wix’s Core plan (£16 per month) but cheaper than Shopify’s Basic plan (£19 per month).

However, the Business plan is perhaps too simple to cater for every business that wants to sell online – if you’re serious about scaling your online shop, I’d recommend considering either the Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced plans.

Editing an announcement bar in Squarespace's website editor

With the Business plan, you can create announcement bars like the one I added to my test website. Source: Startups.co.uk

Commerce Basic plan: £23 per month

Commerce Basic costs £23 per month (billed annually) or £28 per month (billed monthly), and is the first of Squarespace’s two dedicated ecommerce plans.

If you choose the Commerce Basic plan, you’ll get everything from the cheaper plans as well as some essential selling tools, such as:

  • No transaction fees
  • POS integration for in-person selling – this is great for marketplaces and pop-ups
  • Add product reviews
  • Improved ecommerce functionality, including low-stock notifications and multichannel selling options

Unfortunately, the Commerce Basic plan lacks other key sales features, such as abandoned cart recovery – this can only be found on Squarespace’s Commerce Advanced plan.

Should you pay for the Commerce Basic plan?

The Commerce Basic plan provides your business with a powerful online store that can scale as you grow, making it a great fit for small businesses with growing inventories. I recommend this plan for ecommerce brands that don’t require sophisticated sales tools – if you want to take advantage of Squarespace’s full suite of ecommerce features, you might want to upgrade even further.

Commerce Advanced plan: £35 per month

Commerce Advanced is Squarespace’s most expensive plan, costing £35 per month when billed annually or £43 per month when paid monthly.

The Commerce Advanced plan includes all of the features on Squarespace’s cheaper plans, plus:

  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Sell products on a subscription basis
  • Advanced shipping options, such as dynamic shipping rates
  • Discounts to encourage sales and boost customer loyalty
  • Build custom ecommerce integrations

Should you pay for the Commerce Advanced plan?

Squarespace’s Commerce Advanced plan is the best choice for medium-sized online businesses, especially if you see a high volume of sales each month and have the budget to play with. The major downside to this plan is the cost, as many of Squarespace’s competitors (such as Wix and Shopify) offer features like discounts and abandoned cart recovery at a cheaper price point. For example, Wix offers these features on its Core plan for £16 per month.

Which Squarespace plan should you choose?

Now you’ve read my detailed breakdown of each plan, it’s time to decide which you should pick. Here’s a quick summary:

  • Personal: For informational business sites, portfolios, or personal blogs
  • Business: For small businesses looking to sell a few products online
  • Commerce Basic: For growing stores wanting to avoid paying transaction fees
  • Commerce Advanced: For medium-sized businesses in need of advanced sales features

Of the four, I’d recommend the Business plan as the best place to start. For just £17 per month, you can sell unlimited products and unlock additional tools, such as promotional pop-ups and a branded email address. That said, it’s important to consider your budget, the range of features you need, and the power you need behind your online store before deciding on a subscription.

Is Squarespace good value for money?

If you asked me for the best website builder in 2024, I’d say Squarespace is up there with the best – in fact, our testing found it to be the second-best builder overall, behind Wix. Now, when it comes to value for money specifically, Squarespace is tied with GoDaddy for the gold medal.

While I’ve already mentioned that Wix and Shopify provide some of the same features as Squarespace (but on cheaper plans), Squarespace offers more value for money overall because of its affordability. You also don’t need to worry about steep price increases as you scale your business. For example, Squarespace’s plans range from £12 to £35 per month (billed annually), whereas Shopify’s plans start at £19 per month and increase to an eye-watering £259 per month (billed annually).

How we test website builder pricing

We regularly test website builders to bring you up-to-date recommendations. For pricing reviews, we focus on one research area in particular: value for money. This means we examine average pricing, the quality of features available for the price point, and whether or not there’s a free trial or free plan.

How to save money with Squarespace

As I’ve already mentioned, Squarespace is a very affordable builder, but if you want to save as much money as possible when getting online, there are a few simple tricks:

  • Choose the right billing cycle – Squarespace offers two billing cycles: monthly or annually. It’s much cheaper to pay annually than month by month. For example, the Personal plan will cost you £16 each month, or you can pay for a year upfront, the price of which means you’ll only spend £12 for each month.
  • Minimise transaction fees – Paying transaction fees can quickly add up, but you can remove them entirely if you subscribe to the Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced plan.
  • Shop around for domain name costs – Every Squarespace plan comes with a free custom domain name for the first year. After 12 months, it’ll renew automatically at the standard annual rate. A .co.uk domain name will cost £16 per year. One way to keep your domain name cost low is to shop around for a cheaper provider, and then transfer your domain name to Squarespace.
  • Choose apps and plugins carefully – Squarespace offers a limited range of third-party apps through Squarespace Extensions. You won’t be charged for connecting these plugins to your site, but many will have a monthly fee.

You should also look out for discounts before you subscribe! You can use the code SU10 to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans.

Squarespace domain name checker, showing results and pricing for the name "frostingcakes"

Squarespace shared lots of domain name options based on my business name. Source: Startups.co.uk

Final thoughts: is Squarespace worth it?

Squarespace is the easiest website builder to use and one of the most affordable options for getting your small business online. With four paid plans, ranging from £12 to £35 per month (billed annually), there’s a plan suitable for most business types and individuals.

Squarespace offers top-of-the-range features and the creative freedom to create a really slick and professional site for your business – and its plans are great value for money, so you’re not getting ripped off.

If you run a small online store, I recommend starting on the Business plan for £17 per month. Its ecommerce features are limited compared to the two Commerce plans, but it’s a great way to get a feel for the platform, and you can always upgrade later as your business grows.

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Written by:
Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma works on Startups’ reviews and recommendations for building a website for your business. She is the Lead Writer at Website Builder Expert, having first joined the team in 2022. She manages Website Builder Expert’s topical content strategy to help website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Emma specialises in hands-on testing and research of all the leading website builder platforms, including Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify. Her work and expertise have been featured in Digiday, TechRound, Industry Today, and Digital Information World.
Reviewed by:
Ollie Simpson profile photo
After three years of refining my skills in data analysis, I transitioned to a role as a researcher to help understand our readers' preferences and needs. My professional journey started as a researcher in law enforcement, where I developed strong analytical abilities. Later, I moved into operations, strengthening my understanding of quantitative data. Now, I blend my quantitative analysis skills with qualitative research to explore both audience preferences and product nuances. Armed with a UX design diploma, I translate research findings into actionable insights that facilitate informed decision-making. Whether enhancing Startups offerings or delivering research presentations, I am driven by a relentless pursuit of improvement and results.
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