SQUARESPACE IN 2026 · PRICES READ 4 NOVEMBER 2026
Is Squarespace worth it in 2026?
Squarespace raised its prices in July 2026. Here is what it costs now, what changed, what a year really adds up to once booking is counted, who it's still a good buy for, and the two limits to know before you commit or renew, from Squarespace's own pages and help centre and PetaPixel's report of the change, each dated.
US prices, dated · Sources linked · No affiliate links
The short answer
Squarespace is worth it in 2026 if you want a design-led website or a small online store and you're happy to build it yourself: its Basic to Plus plans cost $228–$588 a year billed annually, after a July 2026 price rise of up to 26%. It's harder to justify if you take bookings, because booking is Acuity, a separate subscription that takes a booking business on Basic to $420 a year, or if you might want to move to another template or another platform later: a version 7.1 site can be restyled but can't switch templates, and Squarespace's export leaves out store pages, product blocks and your design settings.
Today's prices were read in US dollars on Squarespace's and Acuity's own pages on 4 November 2026, before tax; the prices from before July are PetaPixel's, from its 17 July 2026 report. The yearly totals are our arithmetic, shown in the tables.
So the honest answer depends less on Squarespace than on your business. If the site's job is to look good and sell a few things, Squarespace still does that well, and many owners are right to stay. If the site's job is to fill a calendar, price the second subscription before you decide.
Squarespace in 2026, one line each
- Price now: $19, $29, $49 and $99 a month billed annually (Basic, Core, Plus, Advanced), or $25–$139 a month billed monthly. No free plan; a 14-day free trial.
- What changed: in July 2026 the annual prices of Basic, Core and Plus rose by 19% to 26%, told to customers by email (PetaPixel); Advanced didn't change.
- Booking: Acuity, a separate subscription, from $16 a month billed annually.
- Built in on every plan: hosting, invoices with no transaction fee, and proposals and estimates sent from a client project.
- Two limits: no template switch on version 7.1 sites, and an export that carries layout pages, one blog, text and images, but not store pages or your design.
THE PRICE NOW
What Squarespace costs in 2026
Squarespace's four website plans as its US pricing page prints them. The annual price is the lower one, and it's paid for the year up front.
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | What the plan adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $19 a month ($228 a year, paid up front) | $25 a month ($300 over a year) | 2 contributors; invoices, proposals and estimates; selling, with a 2% fee on online sales of products, services or donations |
| Core | $29 a month ($348 a year, paid up front) | $39 a month ($468 over a year) | Unlimited contributors, no store transaction fee, a Google Workspace account free for the first year |
| Plus | $49 a month ($588 a year, paid up front) | $65 a month ($780 over a year) | Core, with lower card rates (from 2.7% + $0.30) |
| Advanced | $99 a month ($1,188 a year, paid up front) | $139 a month ($1,668 over a year) | Plus, with the lowest card rates (from 2.5% + $0.30) |
A plan bought for a year includes one year of a free domain (on available domains at its cheapest pricing tier), which then "will renew at our standard rate, plus applicable taxes". Card payments through Squarespace Payments cost from 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core. Selling courses, memberships and other digital content carries its own fee: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus, none on Advanced.
JULY 2026
Did Squarespace raise its prices in 2026?
Yes. In July 2026 Squarespace raised three of its four plans by up to 26%. PetaPixel compared the old and new pricing pages on 17 July and reported that Squarespace "has seemingly not published a specific memo about its price changes, instead communicating directly with customers via email".
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $16 → $19 a month (+19%) | $25, unchanged |
| Core | $23 → $29 a month (+26%) | $36 → $39 a month (+8%) |
| Plus | $39 → $49 a month (+26%) | $56 → $65 a month (+16%) |
| Advanced | $99, unchanged | $139, unchanged |
Before and after prices from PetaPixel, 17 July 2026; today's prices match the "after" column on Squarespace's pricing page, read on the date at the top. Percentages are rounded to the whole percent.
Why some renewal emails showed a bigger jump
If your renewal notice showed a bigger rise than the table, PetaPixel's explanation is the likeliest one: "someone may have been on a significant promotional discount for the first year of their subscription, and if they are renewing later this year, the price bump they see could be massive" (PetaPixel). A first-year discount ending in the same year as a price rise adds the two together.
The useful number is not the percentage. It's what you paid for the last 12 months next to what the renewal will charge, both in your Squarespace billing details. Put that difference next to what the site brings in, and the question answers itself.
THE YEAR'S BILL
What a year of Squarespace really costs, by kind of business
The plan price is only the start for some owners. Here's the year on annual billing for four kinds of business, with the second subscription counted where there is one.
| Your business | A year | How we worked it out |
|---|---|---|
| A design-led site or portfolio, nothing sold online | $228 a year | Basic at $19 a month × 12 |
| A small online store | $348 a year | Core at $29 a month × 12, with no store transaction fee. Basic is $120 a year cheaper but takes 2% of online sales, so Core pays for itself once those pass about $6,000 a year |
| A one-person service business that takes bookings | $420 a year | Basic ($228) plus Acuity Starter at $16 a month × 12 ($192), 1 calendar |
| A service business with a small team taking bookings | $672 a year | Core ($348) plus Acuity Standard at $27 a month × 12 ($324), up to 6 calendars |
Our arithmetic on the prices above, billed annually, before tax. Not counted: the domain from year two (Squarespace's standard rate), Google Workspace from year two, and Email Campaigns, which is its own subscription priced by how many emails you send a month. On monthly billing every figure is higher: Basic alone is $300 a year.
Who Squarespace is worth it for
Squarespace earned its name on design, and that hasn't changed. It's a good buy when:
- The look is the business. Photographers, designers, studios, florists, restaurants with a strong brand: Squarespace's templates still start from a high design bar, and its style settings keep a site consistent.
- You sell a modest range online. Products, a checkout and card payments are on every plan; Core removes the 2% store fee and pays for itself once online sales pass about $6,000 a year.
- You already use its client tools. Invoices are included on every plan with no invoice transaction fee (Squarespace pricing), and proposals and estimates go out from a client project on every website plan (Squarespace Help). If those run your paperwork, moving means replacing them.
- The site works and you'd rather not touch it. Secure hosting is part of every plan. If the site brings in work and the new price is a small share of it, staying is the cheapest move: no rebuild, no learning curve.
Who may do better elsewhere
- Businesses that live on bookings. Squarespace's booking is Acuity, a scheduling product with its own plans: Squarespace says you can "embed your Acuity scheduler" in your site, and that Acuity's payment processors are "separate from any other payment processors you use in Squarespace" (Squarespace). Squarespace's website plans don't include appointment booking. Acuity is $16, $27 or $55 a month billed annually (Acuity pricing). Some builders include booking in the website plan, so a booking business should price both before deciding.
- Owners who expect to want a different template. A version 7.1 site can be restyled a long way through its site styles, but it can't move to another template (more below). If you like the template you start with, this won't matter.
- Owners who might want to leave later. The export carries some of the site, not all of it (more below).
- Tight budgets. There's no free plan: every site starts with a 14-day trial, and keeping it after that means a paid plan. Our cheapest website builder comparison has the prices of eleven builders from year two, each read on its own page.
- Heavy email marketing. Email Campaigns is its own subscription, priced by how many emails you send each month (Squarespace Help).
If that's you, we scored eight builders on the reasons people leave in the best Squarespace alternatives.
Two limits to know before you commit or renew
1. You can't change templates on a version 7.1 site. In Squarespace's words: "It's not possible to change templates on a version 7.1 site." What you can do, "in both version 7.1 and 7.0", is "use your site's built-in style settings to adjust its design and structure without starting over" (Squarespace Help). Fonts, colours and section layouts change; the template underneath stays.
2. The export carries part of the site. "You can export certain content from your Squarespace site into an .xml file. Many features rely on our platform's JavaScript and CSS, so some content doesn't export." The file is in WordPress's format, and Squarespace says you can't import it into another Squarespace site (Squarespace Help).
- What comes with you: layout pages, one blog with its posts, text blocks and image blocks, and the text from embed and similar blocks.
- What stays behind: store pages and product blocks, portfolio, album, cover, index, info and calendar pages, more than one blog, dropdowns, audio and video blocks, drafts, page-specific headers, footers and sidebars, your style settings and custom CSS. You also can't export from a trial site.
None of that is unusual for a hosted website builder, and it isn't a reason to leave on its own. It's a reason to know, before you sign another year, what moving would involve.
BEFORE YOU RENEW
Five checks before your Squarespace renewal
Fifteen minutes in the account you already have, and you'll know whether the new price is worth it for you.
Find the renewal price
In your Squarespace account's billing details, note the renewal date and what the plan renews at, and put it next to what you paid last year.
Check the plan fits
On Core or above but not selling online? Basic may do. On Basic and selling more than about $500 a month online? The 2% fee then costs more than moving up to Core.
Count the second bills
Acuity for booking, Email Campaigns, and Google Workspace after its free year each renew on their own. Add them to the plan price.
Look up the domain renewal
The free domain lasts a year, then renews at Squarespace's standard rate. Find the domain's renewal price and date in your Squarespace domain settings.
Save a copy first
Export what Squarespace exports, save your images and product details, and copy any text the export leaves out. Do it while the plan is active.
Is Squarespace worth it: common questions
Squarespace is worth it in 2026 if you want a design-led website or a small online store and you're happy to build it yourself: its Basic to Plus plans cost $228–$588 a year billed annually, after a July 2026 price rise of up to 26%. It's harder to justify if you take bookings, because booking is Acuity, a separate subscription that takes a booking business on Basic to $420 a year, or if you might want to move to another template or another platform later: a version 7.1 site can be restyled but can't switch templates, and Squarespace's export leaves out store pages, product blocks and your design settings. Prices read in US dollars on Squarespace's and Acuity's own pages on 4 November 2026.
Yes. In July 2026, billed annually, Basic went from $16 to $19 a month, Core from $23 to $29 and Plus from $39 to $49, rises of up to 26%; Advanced stayed at $99. Billed monthly, Core went from $36 to $39 and Plus from $56 to $65. PetaPixel reported the change on 17 July 2026 and found that Squarespace told customers by email, with no public memo it could find.
Usually one of three things. The July 2026 price rise; a first-year promotional discount ending, which on its own can make a renewal look much bigger; or the extras billed separately: Acuity for booking, Email Campaigns, the domain from its second year and Google Workspace after its free year. Your Squarespace billing details list each one.
Yes, for what it has always done well: design-led sites, portfolios and small online stores, with hosting included and invoices, proposals and estimates on every plan. What changed in 2026 is the price, so whether it's still good value depends on how much the site earns you and whether you also pay for booking.
There's no free plan, booking is a separate Acuity subscription, a version 7.1 site can't switch templates, and the export only carries part of the site (layout pages, one blog, text and images, but not store pages, product blocks or your design). Basic also takes 2% of online sales of products, services or donations.
A domain registered free with an annual plan "will renew at our standard rate, plus applicable taxes, after the first year", in the words of Squarespace's pricing page. The rate depends on the domain's ending (.com, .co and so on); your own domain's renewal price and date are in your Squarespace domain settings.
Yes, on price alone: several builders cost less from year two, and some have a free plan. Price the plan you'd actually need, though: on many builders, online booking and payments start a plan or two above the cheapest one. Our cheapest website builder comparison lists each builder's price from year two, read on its own page in October 2026.
Yes, with some work. Squarespace's export is an .xml file in WordPress's format that carries layout pages, one blog, and text and image blocks; store pages, product blocks, other page types and your design settings stay behind, so most moves mean rebuilding the site. Keep your Squarespace plan active until the new site is live and your domain points at it: Squarespace warns that images imported into a self-hosted WordPress site can stop working once the Squarespace site is cancelled.
Where these numbers come from
Squarespace's and Acuity's prices were read in US dollars on their own pricing pages on 4 November 2026, before tax; Squarespace's pricing page was read from a US location, because it shows other currencies elsewhere. The July 2026 before-and-after prices are PetaPixel's, from its 17 July 2026 article; its "after" prices match today's page. Every quote from Squarespace's help centre was read the same day. Totals are our arithmetic. Prices change; check the page before you buy.
- Squarespace — Pricing (US) — read 4 November 2026
- PetaPixel — Squarespace Is Increasing Prices By Up to 26% — page dated 17 July 2026, read 4 November 2026
- Squarespace — Acuity Scheduling — read 4 November 2026
- Acuity Scheduling — Pricing (US) — read 4 November 2026
- Squarespace — Email Campaigns — read 4 November 2026
- Squarespace Help — Email Campaigns pricing, billing, and invoices — read 4 November 2026
- Squarespace Help — Sending proposals, estimates, and contracts to clients — page dated 22 October 2026, read 4 November 2026
- Squarespace Help — Switching templates in version 7.0 — read 4 November 2026
- Squarespace Help — Export your site content — read 4 November 2026
- Hostinger — AI Website Cloner — read 4 November 2026
If you decide to move
If Squarespace still fits, the cheapest move is to stay and trim the plan. If it doesn't, most moves mean rebuilding the site, because the export carries only part of it. Some builders rebuild it for you from its address. Hostinger's AI Website Cloner recreates a site "as an editable site you can build on", which its page calls "a close starting point, not a pixel-perfect duplicate", free to start and a paid plan to publish (Hostinger).
Zarla does that too. Paste your Squarespace site's address and it rebuilds your pages, words and photos in a new design, with booking, quotes and invoices on the website plan. It's free to see and edit; you pay when you publish, on Premium. Keep your Squarespace plan running until your domain points at the new site. Bring your Squarespace site across, or read Squarespace vs Zarla, head to head first.
See your business on a new website before you renew
Describe your business in one line, or paste your Squarespace site's address, and Zarla builds the site: pages, words, photos and booking. Free to build and preview; you pay only when you publish.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.