Squarespace Review 2024: Is It Right for Your Business?

Squarespace is a great fit for both entrepreneurs with multiple revenue streams and small business owners who need advanced tools for an online store. The platform is a simple-to-use website builder that offers templates or AI guidance.

With several features to help promote your services and products, Squarespace can easily accommodate nearly any business need. Read our Squarespace review to see how it stands out, any drawbacks, and if it's the right choice for your business.

Squarespace review at a glance

Price	$25.00-$139.00/mo
Free plan	No
Free trial	Yes — 14 days
Money-back guarantee	No
Number of collaborators	2 - unlimited
Storage space	No limit
Custom domain	Free for one year with all plans
Site analytics	Yes, for all plans
Ecommerce tools	Ye,s for all plans
AI tools	Yes, for all plans
Learn more	Get Squarespace

We last tested Squarespace on November 26, 2024.

Our experience

Squarespace has many tools to help any type of business. You can schedule appointments, collect donations, sell products, publish a blog, and more. It's easy to set up and get assistance if you need help.

While Squarespace is easily customizable to suit your business needs, it can be overwhelming to face so many features initially. However, Squarespace's website builder does a good job of walking you through the steps to set up your own site.

When you first sign up, Squarespace asks about your industry and what you want to do with your website.

Squarespace gives you an option to choose a website template or build a website with AI. I chose to test out Squarespace Blueprint AI. The process starts with prompts to determine your branding. You can choose from a variety of personalities to set the tone for your website.

The next step is to build your home page. Blueprint AI will recommend templated sections as well as a few other choices you could add. You can choose to customize the layout of each section and add any additional web pages.

From there, Blueprint AI will recommend some preselected color palettes and font pairings. This is great if you are still unsure of your branding. However, if you already have colors and fonts picked out, you can't add them here. You need to finish the AI website, then go into the editor and change them at that point.

Overall, Squarespace was easy to set up. Even if you skipped the AI, the templates are visually appealing. If your business heavily relies on photos, Squarespace templates do a great job showcasing them.

Squarespace has many different features to sell services, digital products, and physical items. It's a suitable choice for any entrepreneur, whether you are a photographer or an online store. Since there are so many tools, it's a scalable option for the future of your business.

Squarespace prices and subscriptions

The Basic plan is a good fit for entrepreneurs who are selling services and not products. However, if you are selling products or subscriptions, you'll want to choose one of the premium plans, which have tools to help you fulfill those orders. The more ecommerce tools you need, the higher the price.

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, which gives you enough time to determine if it has the tools you need to grow your business online.

Features	Basic	Core	Plus	Advanced
Price	$16.00/mo (billed annually)	$23.00/mo (billed annually)	$39.00/mo (billed annually)	$99.00/mo (billed annually)
Money-back guarantee
Number of collaborators	2	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Custom domain
Site analytics	Yes — traffic, sources, geography, and popular content	Yes — Basic + ecommerce analytics	Yes — Basic + ecommerce analytics	Yes — Basic + ecommerce analytics
Ecommerce tools	Yes - send invoices, sell memberships and content, customer accounts, checkout on domain	Yes - all of Basic + selling unlimited products, fully integrated ecommerce, 3% transaction fees	Yes - all of Core + POS, product reviews, advanced merchandising features, sell on Facebook and Instagram, limited availability labels, 0% transaction fees	Yes - all of Plus + abandoned cart recovery, sell subscriptions, advanced shipping and discount features, and Commerce APIs
AI tools
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan	View plan

Squarespace may provide good value if you sell products online or have multiple revenue streams you want to manage from one platform. The pricing is comparable to competitors like Square Online, which offer similar ecommerce tools.

However, if you only need a basic website with a contact form, Squarespace is a costly choice. Other platforms like Ionos or the free version of Square Online may be more affordable options.

The main difference between the different Squarespace plans is the ecommerce tools. You may want to upgrade to a premium plan to get access to advanced ecommerce analytics and tools like a POS for in-person sales, abandoned cart recovery, and APIs.

If you use Squarespace for selling products, we'd recommend the Commerce Advanced plan if you want more control over a customer's online experience.

Squarespace features

Squarespace is easy to use, even if you are a beginner. But that doesn't mean it has only simple tools. Squarespace has many robust features that can make it a powerful online selling platform. Let's look at its website design editor, extensions, ecommerce tools, and marketing features.

Building a website

When you sign up, you can choose one of Squarespace's templates or use AI to build your website. I chose the AI option to create a custom template.

The prompts helped me build a brand personality, which was then used to create the template. I still had control over the layout design, but the AI recommended sections that I should add, like a contact form.

Customizing the layout was very simple, as Squarespace offers a drag-and-drop function. With this, you can just drag elements of the site around until they’re placed exactly where you want them.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't choose my own colors and fonts. I had to pick preselected options initially, and then go into the editor later to change them to my preferences. It was extra work on my end, which, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of AI.

As I was experimenting with the design editor, I was surprised that I couldn't change the template once I had selected it. I would have to make changes to the design manually.

However, it's easy to make changes to the layout, add images, and create new pages. Even if I was confused about something, the knowledge base provided extensive information and I never needed to reach out to the support team for help.

You can even take the custom templates further if you have the technical know-how. Squarespace’s Core, Plus, and Advanced plans allow for CSS and Javascript customization, giving you a lot of freedom in how your website looks.

Overall, Squarespace is an intuitive website builder. But I recommend caution when choosing a template, as it takes effort to change the overall design.

Using and editing media

It's easy to add media to Squarespace. You can insert photos or videos, and Squarespace can recommend different layouts. The platform can host up to 30 minutes of video, and you'll need to get an add-on if you need more storage. For photos and content, there doesn't seem to be a set limit.

Squarespace doesn't offer any photo editing tools, which is a small downside. You'll need a different tool if you want to edit photos. However, you can add effects to images, which can add some animation.

Widget library

All Squarespace plans can use extensions. Extensions are third-party tools that can add increased functionality to your website. Squarespace offers extensions to help with sales, marketing, shipping and fulfillment, inventory, finance, and general business.

Store owners may gain the most value from extensions, as they can provide additional resources for customer support and ecommerce growth. Some of these extensions are an additional cost, but you may find them valuable for growing your business.

Ecommerce tools

Squarespace’s premium plans have plenty of built-in ecommerce tools to sell digital products, physical items, and subscriptions. It even has tools to collect payments for retreats, camps, and consulting services. Basically, if you can sell it, Squarespace can help you with the order, payment, and fulfillment.

I've always found ecommerce tools to be overwhelming, but Squarespace makes it easy to add and edit products. The Help Center also has extensive guides on topics like setting up tax rates and creating discount codes.

You can also connect extensions for dropshipping connections, syncing inventory across multiple POS, and processing returns. Overall, Squarespace is a robust site builder that can handle many ecommerce demands.

SEO and blogging tools

Blogging is an important tool for search engine optimization (SEO). The higher your SEO score, the more visitors your site will have, and Squarespace offers some SEO tools to help with this.

Besides a built-in blog, Squarespace also provides an SEO checklist and access to keywords. These tools can help you discover what people are searching for and how to incorporate them into your site. There are also SEO extensions to help improve your rankings.

Beyond SEO, you can monetize your blog by adding a paywall. Alternatively, you could give access if visitors share their email address.

Marketing tools

Squarespace offers numerous marketing tools to improve engagement, increase lead generation, and promote newsletters, such as:

• Capture email addresses
• Audience management
• Promotional pop-ups and banners
• Collect product reviews
• Sell on Facebook and Instagram
• Abandoned cart email campaigns
• Automated email campaigns
• Featured announcement bar

There are also tools like discount codes and gift cards to incentivize purchases and reward loyal customers. Overall, Squarespace can help optimize websites for conversion and enhance their marketing strategies.

Bonus features

Of course you can build a website with Squarespace AI, but you can also write an email campaign. To test it out, I had to describe the business and pick a tone. Squarespace AI uses the information to create a brand identity.

From there, I went to the blog page, clicked on the text element, and chose Squarespace AI. I inserted a prompt to write a brief post encouraging people to shop on Black Friday. This is what it looked like when Squarespace AI was writing the content:

Like any other AI writing tool, the more specific the prompt, the better results you will get from the generator. You'll still want to review it and make any edits to ensure it's aligned with your brand.

Security and bandwidth

Security is crucial for websites, especially if you are collecting payments and email addresses from visitors. Squarespace provides several guides to help you design a website that covers various data privacy laws.

Squarespace uses protocols to ensure compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). The industry-recognized standard ensures that Squarespace is taking the necessary precautions to protect your data.

SSL certificates and unlimited bandwidth are included in all Squarespace plans. Ultimately, Squarespace has the necessary tools to protect your website.

Create a free cookie policy for your ecommerce business

As a business owner, you need a cookie policy to disclose what you do with user data. You also need privacy policies, a refund policy, and others. With TermsFeed, you can quickly create legal provisions for GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and more.

Squarespace customer support

Support type	Squarespace
Email or live chat
Phone
Online guides or forums

Squarespace offers extensive guides on how to use the platform. During my testing, I had various questions and the Help Center managed to answer all of them. I never needed to reach out to customer support, because the guides were detailed and easy to follow.

If you do need to reach out to customer support, you can reach them by email or live chat. While email is available 24/7, it's unclear how long it will take to get a response. The live chat is available on weekdays only and has limited hours. However, they offer live chat in English, French, and German. They also have live chat hours for Australia and New Zealand.

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Squarespace good?

Squarespace provides visually appealing templates, and the drag-and-drop function makes it an easy-to-use website builder. Behind the scenes, you can customize the features to fit your specific business needs. From an appointment scheduler to selling products, Squarespace has you covered.

However, if you have a large shop, you may find better value with a different website builder like Square Online or Shopify. Squarespace may also be too pricey if you only need a basic portfolio site.