Squarespace is a hosting and website design platform that allows you to create professional-looking websites easily without design or coding skills. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, award-winning customizable templates, and fully integrated tools for ecommerce, blogging, social media, and email marketing.
Squarespace isn’t just one of the original no-code website builders. It continues to be the best for users with great design sense but perhaps not the web-building chops to match.
Squarespace has always been popular among creatives and entrepreneurs for its sleek look and feel and user-friendly features. But its burgeoning ecommerce and marketing features are now expanding its appeal among small and medium-sized businesses needing a complete internet marketing solution.
Squarespace Pros and Cons
Squarespace is a very versatile solution for most small-scale, entrepreneurs looking to create an attractive, fully functional site. And even though our Squarespace review highlights its many uses cases for different business types, it’s not for everyone.
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Key Squarespace Features
Like many website builders in the marketplace, Squarespace uses a drag-and-drop interface which Squarespace has termed Fluid Engine. This allows users to grab element types like text or image blocks or functional widgets like appointment schedulers from a palette of objects and deposit them on the page directly. Pages are added to the overall site structure in a page builder interface.
In addition, Squarespace has developed powerful AI features known collectively as AI Design Intelligence. Though many web builders offer AI features, Squarespace focuses on content development. It extends the reach and power of its AI Design Intelligence by infusing it into numerous areas of its platform including analytics, SEO, and marketing.
- Drag-and-Drop Builder: Simple, user-friendly interface to build pages with objects in Fluid Engine
- Responsive Design: Optimized for mobile devices automatically
- Customizable Templates: For numerous industries (art, ecommerce, blogs, retail, etc.)
- AI Analytics, Automation, and Content Development: Assistance in developing site structure and content (Blueprint AI), SEO keyword and metatag suggestions, email automation, and enhanced analytic insights
- Ecommerce Tools: Integrated payment options, product management, subscription, donation, and shipping features
- SEO Tools: Built-in SEO features including keyword and metatag optimization
- Marketing Features: Social media integration, video tools, email marketing tools, and analytics
When starting in Squarespace, users can build with AI or browse their large selection of designer templates. 
Templates in Squarespace are organized by industry and type. 
Squarespace’s AI Design Intelligence generates website copy almost instantly from prompts. 
Images can be uploaded or selected from the included stock photo library with both free and premium images available. In my opinion, the testimonials it generated were quite authentic and moving. 
While Squarespace automatically formats your website for mobile view, some tweaking is often needed to get the optimal layout.
Squarespace Pricing Plans
Cost:
- $16 per month (billed annually)
- $25 per month (billed monthly)
Who It’s Good For:
Creatives and professionals seeking to create a custom website and build a brand presence online.
Features:
- Beautiful templates and powerful tools for any website
- Free custom domain for one year*
- Squarespace AI
- Up to 2 contributors
- Credit card rates start at 2.9% + 30 cents
- Online store transaction fee of 2%
- Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 7%
- Sell products and services
- Send invoices for free
- Sell content and memberships
*Terms and conditions apply. Free custom domains are only available in plans billed annually.
Cost:
- $23 per month (billed annually)
- $36 per month (billed monthly)
Who It’s Good For:
Small business owners who want an array of business features to start growing.
Features:
All the Basic features, plus:
- Unlimited contributors
- Advanced website analytics
- Complete customization with CSS and Javascript
- Professional email from Google Workspace
- Credit card rates start at 2.9% + 30 cents
- Online store transaction fee of 0%
- Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 5%
- Professional shipping and tax services
- Sales funnel analytics
Cost:
- $39 per month (billed annually)
- $56 per month (billed monthly)
Who It’s Good For:
Those looking to lower payment processing fees as sales continue to grow.
Features:
All the Core features, plus:
- Credit card rates start at 2.7% + 30 cents
- Online store transaction fee of 0%
- Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 1%
- API integrations for advanced sales functionality
Cost:
- $99 per month (billed annually)
- $139 per month (billed monthly)
Who It’s Good For:
Entrepreneurs looking to maximize revenue with the most advanced commerce tools and low transaction fees.
Features:
All the Plus features, plus:
- Credit card rates start at 2.7% + 30 cents
- Online store transaction fee of 0%
- Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 1%
- API integrations for advanced sales functionality
Who Should Use Squarespace?
Squarespace is an excellent website builder, especially favored by small and medium-sized businesses seeking an elegant and sophisticated look to support their brand presence. This is easily possible in Squarespace without the high costs of professional design and coding.
While builders like Wix boast a bigger selection of templates, Squarespace’s range of beautiful custom templates is far more than adequate at 200 plus free templates and countless premium templates available on the marketplace.
In particular, artists and creative entrepreneurs have gravitated to the platform for years, as Squarespace strikes an excellent balance between creative flexibility and ease of use. Today, some of the most common Squarespace users include artists and online retailers.
- Professional Services: Entrepreneurs and professionals who need to brand their companies can stand up a professional-looking website quickly and easily.
- Artists & Creatives: It’s ideal for portfolio-based websites because of its clean and attractive templates for image presentations. Content creators will find its blogging and social media features such as Unfold and Biosites especially useful.
- Online Retailers: The platform supports online storefronts, especially for small businesses but also includes features such as digital products (software or music), product subscriptions, and multiple payment methods and shipping options.
- Bloggers & Personal Brands: Squarespace is great for bloggers and individuals focused on personal branding and offers significant tools to support them including the Unfold social video creation and editing tool and Biosites.
New Features: Squarespace Refresh 2024
Recently, Squarespace launched Refresh 2024, an initiative that significantly enhanced most of the features in the Squarespace platform.
The Refresh campaign is intended to build awareness around this major product overhaul with existing customers, while also attracting new customers who may have previously perceived Squarespace as limited to attractive but basic websites. And it includes several major features across all areas of the product.
- Fluid Engine Updates: Improved drag-and-drop flexibility plus predictive image adjustment that aligns and resizes based on intent to reduce manual design tweaking
- Design Intelligence: Personalized structure, content, design, and layout suggestions based on user responses to questions, brand, and industry as part of Blueprint AI; improved SEO and analytics insights driven by AI
- Enhanced Ecommerce: New payment options and product management tools, expanded availability of transactions in the EU, and client invoicing integrated with payment methods
- Advanced Analytics Dashboard: More detailed insights using AI on website performance
- Membership Areas: Expanded options for gated and paid content and subscriptions
- Donations: Ability to make donations for non-profit organizations or crowdfunding campaigns
- Video & Social Media: More customization options for dynamic background videos, plus its social media video maker Unfold is greatly enhanced in version 9.0, offering dynamic video effects and editing capabilities
Top Squarespace Alternatives
If you’re considering Squarespace against some of its other competitors here are some quick points of comparison to help you explore further.
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| Visit WordPress | Visit Wix | Visit Shopify |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is Squarespace so popular?
Squarespace is an all-in-one solution with easy-to-use, sleek, award-winning design templates and robust marketing, analytics, SEO, and ecommerce tools. As one of the original website builders, Squarespace has continued to innovate and improve, building a strong and growing following with small business owners and web designers for over two decades. With the continued enhancements of Squarespace Refresh 2024, this trend looks set to continue.
What are the downsides of using Squarespace?
While Squarespace creates beautiful sites, it lacks flexibility for extensive customization. Web designers seeking truly bespoke designs might find Wix or Webflow offer greater creative freedom. Furthermore, Squarespace’s limited selection of third-party integrations, though high-quality, may be a drawback, especially for those needing specific ecommerce plugins, where Shopify excels.
Shopify is generally recommended for managing large product catalogs, integrating physical stores with online shops, or selling globally. However, you could leverage both platforms by using Squarespace for branding and marketing and connecting it to Shopify for a robust ecommerce solution that achieves the best of both worlds.
Does Squarespace own your website?
Like any website builder with hosting capabilities, Squarespace hosts the site and maintains certain rights to the digital assets, such as the right to take down or suspend service for non-payment or inappropriate or unlawful uses.
Site creators always retain ownership of all intellectual property used to create the site such as the content, assets, and domain. Squarespace does reserve the right to use subscriber sites to promote Squarespace and possibly feature them in promotional campaigns. But, hey, publicity for your site is probably positive, right? As always, read the Terms of Service to make the best decision for your business.
What is Squarespace used for?
Squarespace has long been known as the first choice of creative entrepreneurs needing a portfolio, blog, or basic ecommerce and business website. With its increasing focus on marketing and ecommerce functionality, it’s now gaining traction with retail users and professionals needing niche selling features like digital products, appointments, invoicing, donations, and product subscriptions.
Is Squarespace easy for beginners?
Squarespace’s user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop builder make it very easy to build a professional-looking (and functional) website. Though there may be simpler website builders, Squarespace strikes an ideal balance between usability and design control and their award-winning templates give you an excellent starting point for customization.
Bottom Line
If you’re a creative entrepreneur with great taste but without copious experience in web design, Squarespace offers you an excellent balance of creative freedom within curated templates. But there are a few use cases where Squarespace may not be the perfect solution.
For small businesses with complex product inventories, variations, and global selling needs, solutions like Shopify may be a better fit. For vast content libraries or mult-contributor blogs, a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress is worth consideration.
Artists, life coaches, small retailers, professional services, and health and wellness businesses are just a few areas where Squarespace really shines. For creators and artists looking to showcase and sell their work, there is probably no better solution. You even have excellent ecommerce capabilities for digital products, subscriptions, and appointments.
Squarespace stands out for its refinement, ease of use, and versatility. If nothing else, you can try a 14-day free trial of Squarespace. See if it doesn’t just break your web design world wide open.
