Squarespace 2024 Pricing Explained
Which Squarespace plan and add-ons to choose, and how to pay less for more
Squarespace is an amazing platform that is rich with features and solutions for many different businesses that need an online presence. From simple one-page websites to blogging to running an e-commerce website with CRM and scheduling all built in. We have a whole other article where we dive deep into what you can do with Squarespace nowadays, check it out here - Squarespace as an All-in-One Solution for Business.
It’s great to have a platform where the team behind it is trying to meet most needs of online entrepreneurs. And yet that creates a whole host of features some people will just not need, at least not out of the box or at the beginning of their business journey. That is why Squarespace is constantly adapting its pricing model. In this article, we’re going to explain everything there is to know about Squarespace pricing in 2024 - plans, additional options, and how to make sure you’re paying for what you need.
Squarespace pricing plans explained
Squarespace has no free plans, yet does offer a 14-day free trial for new subscriptions. But, there’s a way to extend that - if you start with one of our premium Squarespace templates, for example, we will be able to provide you with a free 6 month trial to tweak your website before you launch it, and have to pay anything for your subscription.
As of summer of 2024, Squarespace is offering four plans: Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, and Commerce Advanced. The only notable difference in annual and monthly pricing (besides the price, obviously) is that you can get a domain name from Squarespace for one year for free if you go with any annual Squarespace plan.
Squarespace pricing in 2024:
| Plan Name | Monthly (as of summer 2024) | Yearly (as of summer 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $25 | $16 |
| Business | $36 | $23 |
| Commerce Basic | $40 | $28 |
| Commerce Advanced | $72 | $52 |
To see the latest prices, check the Squarespace pricing options here.
Digital products on Squarespace
Squarespace decoupled some of the features of their infrastructure and are offering them as addons (more on that in a bit). Also, since we’re going to talk quite a lot about e-commerce, let’s first set some things straight about what Squarespace understands as “digital products”.
Right now Squarespace differentiates between many types of digital products, which we will separate into two groups:
“Basic” products:
Digital downloads - think PDF, mp3, e-book formats, or other files
Services that don’t require a booking
Gift cards
“Membership” products:
Courses
Memberships
Video-on-demand
Access to restricted content like blogs or blog posts
We make this separation because depending on which digital product we’re talking about, different rules will apply. For example, Squarespace will charge you a different processing fee for selling “membership” products vs “basic” ones. Although you can mitigate that if you get one of the add-on subscriptions, but more on that in a bit.
Right now, let’s look at the core pricing plans:
Squarespace Personal plan
In a nutshell, on the Personal plan you get a website builder, access to the default Squarespace template library, client invoicing, basic website traffic metrics, and basic support for selling digital products (not physical ones though). You can integrate Google Analytics (here’s how) if you want to track more website traffic stats.
The selling experience is limited (as of the writing of this article you can only have a set number of digital products, for example) and is not what we can call a fully integrated e-commerce experience. You can host your courses though, but more on that later.
You also get only 2 contributors - meaning if you want someone else to have access to your website and don’t want to share your password with them, you can provide access to two people only.
Overall, this plan is great if you need a website for yourself, your portfolio, personal brand, or if you are a small business providing some digital products and services.
Squarespace Business plan
Everything in the Personal plan, plus more advanced built-in analytics (which you can use alongside or instead of Google Analytics), you get to sell physical products and a wider array of digital products (like downloads, for example) and can have checkout on your own domain. Plus you get built-in integrations with third-party services.
Squarespace Commerce Plans - Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced
First, on both Basic and Advanced Commerce plans there’s no transaction fee for the sale of “basic” digital products or physical goods (payment processing fees for Stripe or Square would still apply, again, more on that in a bit). Secondly, you should consider either plan if you need the specific selling tools Squarespace offers.
Commerce Basic will give you the ability to sell in a physical store or even in person with a point of sale integration, features product reviews, display related products, will allow you to offer product waitlists, show low stock alerts, etc. On this plan, you will also be able to sync your online store with Facebook and Instagram to simplify selling through those platforms.
Commerce Advanced has everything in Commerce Basic, plus abandoned cart recovery emails, the ability to sell subscriptions to physical products, support for advanced discounts, and the commerce API. So, for example, if you are running an online wine store and would like your customers to subscribe to bi-weekly or monthly delivery of select wines, you would need to go with this plan.
Despite being packed with features, if you opt-in for even the most advanced and pricey Squarespace plan, there are still features you will need to pay extra for if you need them. The good news is that since they are decoupled from core plans, you end up only paying for what you need - which in our book is a great way to set up pricing. Additional functionality is referred to in Squarespace as add-ons, which should not be confused with extensions (we mentioned them above).
Important note on Custom code and Squarespace pricing plans
Before we jump into add-ons though, we need to talk about custom code. Let’s say you want to add Facebook Pixel, some additional site-wide CSS for styling, and a third-party JavaScript plugin to a particular page of your website. On the Personal plan, you will be able to do some of it, on the Business plan, and above - all of it. Let’s untangle this knot:
On the Personal plan, you can:
Add custom CSS (styling) code site-wide and to individual pages via the Code block.
Add custom HTML code (like an HTML table, for example) to individual pages via the Code block
Add Markdown code to individual pages via the Code block
Add embeds (like YouTube, for example)
On the Personal plan, you can’t:
Add custom JavaScript or HTML code site-wise; also no JavaScript code for individual pages. So you won’t be able to add Facebook Pixel code or use the Google Tag Manager, for example, but will be able to integrate Google Analytics - because the latter can be integrated without code into Squarespace websites on any plan.
Embed iframes, except for those cases where Squarespace provides an embedding interface for most popular services like YouTube or Instagram, for example.
It’s easy with the rest of the plans because, with Business and onward, you get access to all of the above.
Squarespace Add-ons Explained
Digital Products add-on
Out of the box, Squarespace charges a 9% transaction fee on all “membership” (see this product terminology explained above) product sales it processes. If you are located in the U.S., you can consider using the built-in Squarespace Payments service to process the actual credit card payments of your customers. If you opt into using Stripe, PayPal, or Square instead, which are other payment processing providers you can choose from, be prepared to pay additional transaction fees to the payment provider you choose. Plus you are limited in what and how you can sell - there are certain limitations with selling things like courses or memberships.
For example, you can create and sell courses on any website plan - let’s assume you chose the Personal plan. Your courses are selling great and you don’t need to change or add anything to your website. Then getting the Digital Products add-on will allow you (depending on which plan you chose) to pay smaller transaction fees (up to zero), and have other perks like more storage space for your videos.
Here’s a good breakdown of the Digital Products add-on pricing.
Acuity Scheduling
Every Squarespace plan comes with a 14-day trial of Acuity Scheduling. Initially, Acuity used to be a separate business that Squarespace acquired back in 2019, which is why it’s still referred to by a separate name. Since that acquisition Acuity Scheduling has been integrated into Squarespace and the two are merging more and more, so nowadays Acuity is quite seamlessly built into the Squarespace editor and website admin interface. This is why you might not even notice you are technically using a different tool when you edit your Acuity Scheduling settings.
What is it good for and how is it for? In a nutshell, any scenario where you need to juggle multiple appointments and calendars. You can mark specific time slots in your calendar as available for booking and sync that with your Apple, Google, or Microsoft calendar. Then add a booking form to your website and voilà - when someone books an appointment with you, a spot in your calendar gets automatically booked, and both you and your client get a confirmation email and necessary details. You can further sync with tools like Zoom or GoToMeeting to generate unique meeting URLs, and you can even charge your clients for paid consultations setting up paid appointments.
Email Campaigns Plan
Striving to be the one-stop-shop for all your core business needs, Squarespace also offers robust email marketing tools to create, manage, and grow your email lists and send targeted email campaigns when needed. The tool is flexible enough to satisfy most email marketing needs and allows you to grow naturally. Plus the four payment plans give you yet more flexibility to only pay for what you need.
Members Area
One of the more recent additions to Squarespace, with the Members Area add-on you can create and manage access to individual pages or even whole specific parts of your website. This is a great solution for giving people access to paid content - be it selling online courses, providing access to paid insider or analytical articles, or anything else you deem with charging for or otherwise limiting access to. You can even have a paid newsletter with this!
Special Squarespace Pricing Options
Any payments for domains you purchase through Squarespace or transfer to Squarespace to have them manage it, are processed separately (except for that deal where you get a domain for free for one year with a new yearly subscription)
If you are a student, you can get Squarespace for 50% off in most cases (read more here (https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206537277-Squarespace-student-discount))
If you decide to use Google Workspace to manage your email accounts, that is also priced separately by Google
Conclusion
Whether you're building a simple blog or a complex e-commerce site, Squarespace offers a robust suite of tools that cater to a diverse range of business needs. The platform continually adapts its pricing to provide flexible options that ensure you only pay for the features you need at each stage of your business journey. Despite its cost, Squarespace remains our top recommendation for those seeking the most comprehensive, all-in-one solution for their online presence.
