How to Choose the Right Squarespace Pricing Plan for your Website
Squarespace is an affordable website building platform that enables you to DIY your own website at a low cost. But depending on your business and website needs, Squarespace has several pricing plans to choose from.
This means I often get the question: "Which Squarespace plan is right for me?"
Squarespace plans are either a monthly or yearly subscription, and range from $12 - $40 depending on your needs. There are many different factors that affect the website plan you'll need to purchase, and this post will be covering them in detail.
What are the Squarespace pricing plans?
Squarespace offers four different plans:
Personal ($12 per month, billed annually)
Business ($18 per month, billed annually)
Basic Commerce ($26 per month, billed annually)
Advanced Commerce ($40 per month, billed annually)
You may be wondering if there is a free plan you can subscribe to, but Squarespace only offers a two-week free trial before you'll need to pay to continue editing your website. Start your free trial by clicking this link.
Squarespace Circle Members can create websites with a 6 month trial, which means you can take your time before needing to pay! All of our Squarespace templates come with a 6 month trial since we are Squarespace Circle Members.
Which Squarespace plan is best for me?
Choosing the right plan can seem overwhelming initially, so we'll be breaking each plan down so you know what functionality you're getting on your website.
Every plan that Squarespace offers comes with:
Unlimited pages
Unlimited bandwidth
Unlimited storage
Automatic mobile optimisation
Intuitive interface
Custom CSS
Free domain*
24hr customer support
Important website analytics
*When you pay an annual Squarespace plan.
Squarespace Personal Plan
$12/month billed annually or $16/month billed monthly
This plan is best for when you're just starting out with a new website and need the bare essentials to get up and running.
Benefits of the Personal Plan
Low cost. The personal plan is the inexpensive option for those wishing to save money when they first start out. At $16 per month (billed monthly), this equates to 3-4 Starbucks coffees to get your business online!
Squarespace benefits. The personal plan includes the initial benefits of choosing Squarespace, as listed above.
Drawbacks of the Personal Plan
No email marketing integrations. If you want to start building an email list, you'll only be able to use Squarespace Email Campaigns as your email marketing platform. This is a very basic platform and as you grow it won't be able to support your needs. This is the biggest reason why I recommend using the Business plan.
Limited contributors. Contributors are additional users who are able to make edits to your website. If you're starting small, it's unlikely you'll need more than two people to do this through their own account.
No premium blocks. We touched on this with email marketing, but there are specific "blocks" which you cannot use unless you are on the business plan. These are blocks like Amazon Blocks, Code Blocks, Menu Blocks, Pop Ups and more. Click here for a rundown of all premium blocks.
No ecommerce. This is the only plan that will not allow you to make sales through your website. This means you cannot take payment for products/services or collect donations. However, you may be able to use an alternative cart service like ThriveCart or SamCart to take payments instead, as long as they only require you to link a URL.
Basic analytics only. Squarespace comes with built-in analytics which allow you to track basic information like pageviews, users and sessions. This does not include form or button conversions unless you upgrade to the Business Plan or above.
Squarespace Business Plan
$18/month billed annually or $26/month billed monthly
This plan is best for most businesses and online shops that need premium blocks and ecommerce, but do not require advanced ecommerce functionality.
Benefits of the Business Plan
Ecommerce. The name of this plan and the ecommerce plans are a tad deceiving. You do not need to buy the Basic or Advanced Ecommerce plan to have ecommerce functionality. You can sell products on your website using the Business plan!
Marketing integrations. The announcement bar and pop up both become available on this plan, meaning you can promote your email list or latest offering in other places on your website. Alternatively, you can use a code block to embed a sign up form, which also lets you collect email addresses.
Premium blocks. The full list of premium blocks become available on the business plan. This means you can embed email sign up forms from any provider, and add other advanced blocks like scheduling forms.
Code injection. Unlike Custom CSS, code injection is a feature only available on this plan and will allow you to add HTML and Javascript to your website. This means you can add third-party plugins to your website - for example, we use it to add Memberspace, which hosts the video tutorials for our Squarespace templates.
Google Workspace for free. If you pay for the Business Plan annually, you'll receive a free year of Workspace, which means a professional business email, and access to all of the Google Workspace tools like Google Docs and Sheets. This alone puts the value of this plan up by $72!
Drawbacks of the Business Plan
3% payment processing fees. While you can sell products on your website, Squarespace will take an additional 3% in processing fees on top of the Stripe/Paypal fees of 2.9% + 30p. If you make more than $266 per month in sales, it will save you money to upgrade to the Basic Ecommerce Plan and avoid the 3% fee.
No advanced ecommerce features. This includes inventory, orders, tax and coupons; products on Instagram; label printing; customer accounts; advanced ecommerce analytics, limited availability labels.
Squarespace Basic Commerce Plan
$26/month billed annually or $35/month billed monthly
This plan is best for online shops that make sales of more than $266 per month, and/or require advanced ecommerce features.
Benefits of the Basic Commerce Plan
No transaction fees. This plan has zero processing fees which means you'll only ever pay the standard PayPal/Stripe fees of 2.9% + 30p on any sales you make.
Some advanced ecommerce features. This includes inventory, orders, tax and coupons; products on Instagram; label printing; customer accounts; advanced ecommerce analytics, limited availability labels.
Drawbacks of the Basic Commerce Plan
Not all advanced ecommerce features. This means no subscriptions or gift cards, limitations on discount code use, no abandoned cart auto-recovery, no smart calculation of real-time shipping rates.
Squarespace Advanced Commerce Plan
$40/month billed annually or $54/month billed monthly
Perfect for booming online shops, the Advanced Commerce Plan includes extra features which may be useful to shops looking to increase conversion rates and expand their shipping options.
Benefits of the Advanced Commerce Plan
Subscriptions. Generate recurring revenue by selling subscriptions to a service or a product. This could be a digital product membership, or weekly yoga classes.
Gift cards. Sell gift cards to your shop so people can purchase a voucher for your products or services to gift to a friend.
Extra discount code capabilities. Offer discounts that automatically apply at checkout, or have a limited use/expire.
Abandoned cart auto-recovery. The features allows you to send automatic emails to customers who have left items in their basket.
Smart calculation of real-time shipping rates. Control shipping rates at zip-code level and get real-time shipping rates from FedEX, UPS and USPS.
Can I switch between Squarespace plans?
Squarespace makes it super easy to switch between plans as needed. Whether you've paid monthly or yearly, you'll get a refund of the remaining time on your plan.
For example, if you've paid for a annual Squarespace plan for $108 dollars and have used 6 months of that plan, you'll get a refund of the remaining six months.
$108 ÷ 12 months = $9
$9 x 6 months = a refund of $54
If you need to ask for a refund, you can contact Squarespace via their live chat which runs Monday - Friday, 4:00AM to 8:00PM EDT. They're always super helpful and responsive, so I definitely recommend doing it this way!
If you're downgrading, remember that you'll loose out on some of the website features and functionality you may be using. Always check which features will be removed before making the switch.
Because Squarespace makes switching so easy, it's best to go for the least expensive plan that works for your needs, and switch to a higher one later if it's beneficial to your business.
Can I get a discount on my Squarespace plan?
Yes! There are plenty of ways to get discounts on Squarespace ranging from 10% to 50%. I've written a post rounding up the best ways to get a Squarespace discount.
Related: 4 Ways to Get a Discount on Your Squarespace Plan
If you purchase my course, Squarespace Made Simple, you'll also receive 20% off your first year of Squarespace.
So which Squarespace Plan Should I Join?
If you're just getting started with your business and need a basic website, I recommend purchasing the Personal plan. All the necessary functionality is included, and you'll get access to important features like unlimited pages, blogging and custom CSS.
If you're looking to add a shop to your website and are just getting started with ecommerce, you'll need the Business plan. If you need to build an email list and don't want to use Squarespace Email Campaigns, you'll also need this plan.
Lastly, if you're an already established business making more than $266 per month, the Basic Commerce Plan is going to save you money. Alternatively, if you need more advanced shop features from the get-go, this will also require the Basic or Advanced Commerce Plan.
Squarespace also has a great page breaking down each plan and you'll be able to compare the features side by side.
Still unsure which Squarespace plan to choose?
Squarespace offers a free 14-day trial. Sign up with this link to get started with your new website, and explore the different features that Squarespace offers.
