Which Squarespace hosting plan is right for my website?

We are going to dive in to the four Squarespace pricing plans:  Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce, and help you figure out which plan is the best fit for your website.

 

First things first: What is a Squarespace Plan?

Simply put, these are paid subscriptions that allow you use Squarespace to both build your website and host your website. It’s an all-in-one service. 

 

What About the Two-Week (Or Six-Month) Free Trial?

One of the nice benefits that Squarespace gives you is a two-week free trial to let you kick the tires and see if it’s for you. In that two weeks, you get access to all the website builder tools in Squarespace, but you will not be able to publish your site to a public website address where other people can see it. So, you can build your website on a free trial, but when you are ready to publish it, you have to get a paid Squarespace plan.

Huge BTW:  If you purchase one of our mini Monster Websites templates, that fabulous two-week free trial turns into a massive six month free trial. We’re cool like that.

 

So, How Much is a Paid Squarespace Plan?

You can get a Personal Plan for as little as $16 per month and the top commerce plan can run as high as $65 per month. Pretty good pricing when compared to other all-in-one website builder and hosting solutions.

With any of the four Squarespace plans, you have the option of paying monthly or paying yearly. If you plan to keep your website up and running for at least a year, the yearly plan will save you anywhere from 25% to 30%. All of the prices mentioned in this post are current as of 08 February 2023. 

 

The Personal Plan

$23 per month if paid monthly 
$16 per month if paid yearly

Need to create a website to showcase your work or services? Have some knowledge to share with the world and want an easy way to start a blog? With the Personal Plan you can create a website incorporating multiple portfolios, multiple blogs, and unlimited pages. It’s sometimes called the Basic Plan, but it’s actually quite capable and often it is the only plan many people will ever need.

Included in the Squarespace Personal Plan:

  • A Free Custom Domain for the First Year
    After the first year, it will cost you $20 per year. Not sure what a domain is or how it works? Check out our ‘What’s in a (Domain) Name?’ post.

  • SSL Security
    SSL is the technology used to keep an internet connection secure, and safeguard any data sent. If your website incorporates this tech, it will have a digital SSL certificate assigned to it, and your site will be published as secure, using the HTTPS protocol, rather than the old HTTP.

    Back in the early days of the web, setting up SSL security used to be a confusing mess and pricey. Now, Squarespace just tosses it in for free. All you have to do is click a button to turn it on.

  • Unlimited Bandwidth 
    This feature provides a lot of peace of mind. No matter how many people visit your website, your subscription price won’t change, and your website won’t crash. Sooooo much better than worrying about either a huge hosting bill or simply having your site shut off if a popular influencer links to it!

  • Unlimited Blog Entries
    Squarespace is a great platform for blogging. In the Personal Plan, you get access to all of its blogging features and unlimited blog entries.

  • Built-in Contact Forms 
    These make it easy for people to get in touch with you without exposing your email address to spammers.

  • 30 Minutes of Video Storage
    This is a new feature and a great help when you are starting out. You can upload 30 minutes of high-quality video directly to your website. No more hosting your videos on YouTube and worrying about a competitor’s commercials interrupting your video while someone is trying to watch it.

  • Built-in SEO Features
    Anything that helps your website show up on search engines like Google is a good thing!

  • Add A Contributor
    You can authorize another person to make changes to your website, so you don’t have to do it all by yourself.

  • All Websites are Optimized for Mobile
    Every website is fully responsive and mobile friendly, so your content will look great on any device.

  • 24/7 Customer Support via Email and Online Chat

  • Basic Website Metrics
    Allow you to see how many visitors your website is getting, where they are coming from, and what content on your website is most popular.

  • Access to Squarespace Extensions
    These are extensions created by other companies to provide additional functionality to your website. You can see the extensions offered at Squarespace Extensions.

  • Limited Access to the Squarespace Video Studio App
    Squarespace provides easy video tools and templates for beginners and pros. Learn more about Squarespace Video Studio.

 

The Business Plan

$33 per month if paid monthly 
$23 per month if paid yearly

The Business Plan is the most popular on Squarespace. It offers quite a few ‘nice to have’ features that are missing from the Personal Plan and it allows for ecommerce on your website. With this plan, you can sell both physical and digital goods on your website (including digital gift cards) and you can also accept donations.

In addition to commerce functionality, you get access to more advanced website analytics, and advanced Squarespace service integrations like accepting reservations and scheduling client appointments. The Business Plan also allows for unlimited contributors, which comes in very handy should you have more than one person working on your website with you.

This plan is also a great fit if you already use Mailchimp for email marketing or if you run a restaurant and use services like OpenTable or ChowNow.

Included in the Business Plan is everything from the Personal Plan, plus: 

  • Ecommerce Features 
    The Business Plan lets you sell unlimited items on your site for a 3% transaction fee. If you only have a few items that you want to list, this might be the plan for you.  However, if you expect to sell more than $150 per month, you will save money moving up to the Basic Commerce Plan, which eliminates the transaction fees altogether. Do some quick estimating, because it doesn’t take many sales for the transaction fees to add up to more than the price difference between the Business Plan and the Commerce Basic plan.

  • Donation Blocks
    Accept donations for you organization easily. Keep in mind, the 3% Squarespace transaction fee we learned about earlier applies to donations as well. If you expect your monthly donations to exceed $150 per month, you will want to upgrade to the Basic Commerce Plan to save some money.

  • Advanced Website Analytics 
    Get basic sales reporting and button conversion rates in addition to the website traffic reporting that is provided with the Personal Plan.

  • Professional Google Workspace Email Features 
    Squarespace has a deal in place with Google where they will pay for your Google Workspace account with email for one year. This has a value of $6 per month. After the first year you will have to pick up the tab yourself.

  • MailChimp Integration
    If you have a MailChimp account for email marketing, then this plan lets you automatically add anyone who signs up for your newsletter to that MailChimp mailing list. Learn more about the Squarespace MailChip integration.

  • Menu Blocks 
    For restaurant websites, this is an option well worth the price. Don’t ever use a PDF menu again! Learn more about Squarespace Menu Blocks.

  • OpenTable Integration
    Another feature created specifically for restaurants. A great option if your restaurant makes use of the OpenTable service. Find out which countries and languages are supported.

  • ChowNow Integration
    Yet another restaurant-focused feature, for easy integration of the ChowNow service. (I think the Squarespace folks really dig their food.)

  • Code Blocks
    If you know how to code and want to add a little something special to your website, Squarespace makes it easy with these blocks.

  • Site-Wide Code Injection
    Take your coding a step further and inject CSS and JavaScript into any page or the entire website.

  • Unlimited Contributors
    Have a team of people working on your website with you? The Business Plan will save you a lot of money on this one. Other website-builder services charge up to $25 per month for each contributor. With Squarespace, no charge, no matter how many you need. Think about how much of a savings that would be with 15 contributors! (Answer Key:  $4,500 a year)

  • Zapier Integration
    Not everyone needs this service that automates and integrates multiple software services with each other and your website. If you do, then Zapier can be a lifesaver.

  • Google Ad Credits
    The amount of credit that you will get for a Google ad campaign will change from time to time and is dependent on where you live. But, if you are planning to run Google ads anyway, a couple hundred bucks saved is a couple hundred bucks.

  • Promotional Popups and Banners
    A great way to draw attention to an offer or increase conversion rates. Just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to drive people away from your website or look like a bad used cars salesman.

  • Full Access to the Squarespace Video Studio App
    All of the easy video tools and templates for beginners and pros are available with the Business Plan. Learn more about Squarespace Video Studio.

  • Limited Integration with Facebook and Amazon

So yeah, you get quite a few extra features with this plan. It’s no wonder the Business Plan is Squarespace’s most popular.

 

The Basic Commerce Plan

$36 per month if paid monthly
$27 per month if paid yearly

The Basic Commerce Plan is the overlooked middle child. Maybe it’s because it is sandwiched between Squarespace’s most popular plan and its most powerful plan. Or, maybe it’s because it’s called Basic Commerce, which seems almost insulting these days.  But, think of it as the Business Plan with a couple of really nice upgrades for only a couple of dollars a month extra and see if it makes sense for you.

The big selling point is the elimination of Squarespace transaction fees with ecommerce purchases and donations. Some quick math tells us that if you are selling $5000 worth of products on your website each month, then a Business Plan that charges a 3% transaction fee will cost you $150 a month, or $1800 a year.  It’s going to be hard to find a better return on a $4 a month investment of moving up to the Basic Commerce Plan.

Included in the Basic Commerce Plan is everything from the Business Plan, plus:

  • No Squarespace Transaction Fees
    If you are selling more than a couple hundred dollars in product each month on your website, this alone justifies moving up to the Basic Commerce Plan.

  • Point of Sale
    You can sell in-person with the Squarespace Commerce app, all while keeping your products, inventory, and customers in sync. Afraid this one is only available in the United States.

  • Customer Accounts
    If you have repeat customers, they can create customer accounts to speed up their future purchases.

  • Checkout on Your Domain
    With the Business Plan, your website will switch over to the Squarespace domain when a customer goes to check out. The Basic Commerce Plan creates the entire checkout process on your own domain. Most people won’t notice the difference, but some people find it more comforting to stay on the same domain for the entire checkout process.

  • Product Reviews
    Let your happy customers tell the world how happy they are with their purchases.

  • More Powerful Commerce Analytics
    Gives you more data to help you understand your sales trends and market opportunities.

  • Additional Merchandising Tools
    Show customers products related to the ones they are interested in, allow customers to join a product wait list, and take advantage of some additional inventory editing features to help save you time.

  • Limited Availability Labels
    Add these to your product listings to help create a sense of urgency, or just to let people know if a product run is, ya know, limited.

  • Shipping Zones
    Create shipping rules with different prices for different parts of the world. It may cost you a little more to ship to Lebanon than it does to Kansas, or maybe it’s just the opposite. Whatever the case, you can set up shipping rules that make sense for your business.

  • Facebook Catalog and Instagram Integration
    Sell products from your Squarespace store directly on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about selling products on Facebook and Instagram.

  • One-Time Import of Product from Etsy, Shopify, and Big Cartel
    This isn’t going to sync your Squarespace site with these other sales sites to maintain an update inventory, but you can do a one-time import of thousands of your products, descriptions, prices, and images from other sales sites. Your carpal-tunnel will thank you!

The elimination of transaction fees, point of sale capabilities, and creation of customer accounts by themselves make the Basic Commerce Plan one of the best deals that Squarespace offers.

 

The Advanced Commerce Plan

$65 per month if paid monthly
$49 per month if paid yearly

The most powerful of the Squarespace plans, the Advanced Commerce Plan is also the most expensive. But in the right situation, it’s worth it. This plan is intended for larger businesses that move quite a lot of product, especially physical products that need to be shipped.

This plan adds abandoned cart recovery, (which can increase conversion rates 10% - 15%), subscription sales, and advanced shipping options, making this a valuable plan for many businesses.

In addition to all of the features in all of the other plans, the Advanced Commerce Plan also includes:

  • Abandoned Cart Recovery
    If someone fills up their shopping card but never checks out, you can have Squarespace automatically send a reminder email after 24 hours with a link to complete their purchase. Boost those conversion rates!

  • Sell Subscriptions
    You can sell both physical and digital products on a weekly or monthly schedule.

  • Advanced Shipping
    Integrate with FedEx, UPS, and USPS to generate real-time shipping rates based on size, weight, and destination in the US and Canada. Learn more about carrier calculated shipping.  

  • Advanced Discounts
    Create automated discounts for particular situations, such as free shipping on orders over $35 or 10% off on a particular product category.

  • Commerce APIs
    Build custom integrations of third-party systems and software.

 

Is There a Free Version of Squarespace to Host My Site?

Not really. Squarespace offers a free trial (14 days, or, if you purchase a mini Monster template, six whole months!) so you can get a feel for how it works and start building your site, but at the end of the trial period, Squarespace will cut you off unless you pony up some cash. And, you can’t publish your website online with a free trial version.

If you really need a free service to build and host your website, and you are willing to go with the bare basics, Squarespace isn’t the service for you. In that situation, you might have a look at Wix.com or Wordpress.com. Both offer free versions with limited feature sets. Just be aware, both will show ads for their service on your website. 

For a free, simple online store, you might try Square Online. They offer a stripped-down ecommerce plan with no monthly fee. However, you will pay a commission to Square on every sale you make.

One final caveat:  Wix, Wordpress, and Square Online (along with the free plans from a lot of other companies) don’t allow you to connect your website to a custom domain.

 

Optional Squarespace Apps to Power-up Your Website

In addition to the features included in the plans discussed above, Squarespace offers a couple of other apps that you can add on that provide even more functionality to your website. These apps are sold separately from the website plans mentioned above.

 

Squarespace Scheduling 

Easily integrate appointment scheduling with your Squarespace website. If you work with clients one-on-one and spend a lot of time juggling appointments, this will make your world much easier. Shows your availability right on your website and lets your clients schedule their appointments themselves. Even lets your clients reschedule their appointments themselves. Sweet!

Squarespace Scheduling integrates with Stripe for payment processing and can sync to calendars from Google, Office 365, Outlook, and iCloud. There is even a Squarespace Scheduling plan that is HIPAA compliant. Not bad for $14 - $45 a month. Learn more about Squarespace Scheduling.

 

Squarespace Email Marketing

Simple email campaigns are just a few clicks away with Squarespace Email Marketing. No need to go off and learn another piece of software and figure out how to move subscriber lists out of one platform and into another. Squarespace offers low-cost, easy to use plans, great Squarespace design tools, and integrated analytics to help you easily communicate with your audience.

Pricing starts at only $5 per month, which is a great value. Squarespace Email Marketing is also a pretty good deal when send larger numbers of emails per month. For as little as $48 a month, you could send 250,000 monthly emails. That many emails would cost several hundred dollars per month on some other email marketing software out there. Learn more about Squarespace Email Marketing.

 

Tock from Squarespace

Tock is a unified system that allows businesses to manage reservations, events, takeout orders, wine tastings, and more all on one platform. This is obviously for a rather specific type of business:  restaurants, bars, wineries, breweries, and the like. But if you are that type of business, it can prove insanely useful. Prices start at $199 per month plus 2% per pre-paid reservation. Learn more about Tock from Squarespace.

 

Squarespace Member Areas

Create private, members-only areas of your website and sell access to it with Squarespace Member Areas. You can create up to 10 different membership areas on your website and host up to 50 hours of video content without using external video hosting services like YouTube or Vimeo. Without Squarespace Member Areas, Squarespace websites can only host 30 minutes of video content.

The Starter Plan costs $10 per month plus a 7% transaction fee, and includes one membership area and five hours of video content. While Member Areas might not be as powerful as other, more expensive, dedicated membership software, they are easy to start and integrate effortlessly into your Squarespace website. 

 

So, Which Squarespace Plan is Best for You?

A quick review:

The Personal Plan is a good choice if you are creating a blog, portfolio, or brochure-style website to showcase your services, if you don’t need more than one additional contributor to help you out with the site, and if don’t need integrations with other software.

The Business Plan gives you the ability to integrate other software with your website, set up an online store, add your own CSS and JavaScript with customer code blocks, and add unlimited contributors (so you can have as many people as you like helping you out with your website). Plus, a free year of email with Google Workspace.

The Basic Commerce Plan drops all of the transaction fees for online sales and adds point-of-sale capabilities and additional marketing and analytics features for your online store, for only $3- $4 per month extra over the Business Plan.

The Advanced Commerce Plan is the one to go for when you are serious about your online store. Features like abandoned cart recovery, integration with major US carriers for real-time shipping rate calculations, and the ability to sell subscriptions make it the best option for larger online stores.

Remember, Squarespace offers a free 14-day trial so you can take it for a test drive and get a feel for what you need to make your website everything you need it to be. And, that free 14 days gets turned into half a year if you purchase a mini Monster template! Seriously.  6 Month Free Trial of Squarespace, just because our monsters scare them a little!

 
 

More Blog Post You Might Like

Next
Next

7 Premium Squarespace Template Designers You May Not Know