Squarespace Pricing in 2026: Plans, Commerce Fees and Hidden Add-Ons
Squarespace has always sold itself on looks, and the pricing page follows the same playbook: four clean tiers, a big annual discount, and a 14-day trial that doesn't ask for a card. What the page doesn't show up front is how much the bill moves once you add a domain renewal, email, scheduling, or a real store.
Squarespace also renamed and repriced its plans this year. If you've read an older review quoting "Personal" and "Business" plans at $16 and $23, those numbers are gone. Here's what you actually pay in 2026.
The short version
- ▸Basic: $19/month billed annually ($25 month to month)
- ▸Core: $29/month billed annually ($39 month to month)
- ▸Plus: $49/month billed annually ($65 month to month)
- ▸Advanced: $99/month billed annually ($139 month to month)
- ▸Free plan: none. You get a 14-day trial, then every live site needs a paid plan
- ▸Card processing: separate from your plan, charged per sale by Squarespace Payments, Stripe or PayPal
The monthly-versus-annual gap is big. On Basic it's $72 a year. On Advanced it's $480 a year. If you know you're keeping the site, pay annually.
What changed in 2026
The old lineup was Personal, Business, Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced. Squarespace replaced it with Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced. The entry price went from $16 to $19 per month on annual billing, and the plans now line up more around how much you sell than whether you sell at all.
The practical effect: a portfolio or brochure site costs about $36 more per year than it did, and anyone who only wanted the old Personal plan for a simple site is paying for selling features they may never touch.
What each plan is really for
Basic ($19/mo annual) is the brochure-site plan. Custom domain, SSL, unlimited bandwidth and storage, all templates, basic analytics. You can sell on it, but Basic is the tier where Squarespace adds its own transaction fee on top of card processing. If you sell more than occasionally, that fee is the main reason to move up.
Core ($29/mo annual) is where most small businesses land. It drops the Squarespace transaction fee on sales, adds the fuller analytics, and opens up the commerce tools a small shop needs. For a service business or a store doing a few thousand dollars a month, this is the sensible default.
Plus ($49/mo annual) adds merchandising features like product reviews, subscriptions and selling on more channels. It makes sense once your store is a real revenue line and you want recurring orders or better product pages.
Advanced ($99/mo annual) adds abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping rules and more discount options. Abandoned cart emails alone can pay for the upgrade on a busy store. On a quiet one they won't.
Commerce fees: the part people miss
There are two separate charges on every sale, and it helps to keep them apart:
- Card processing. Squarespace Payments, Stripe or PayPal charges a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction. In the US that's roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 for a standard online card payment, the same ballpark as Shopify or Wix. You pay this on every plan, and you'd pay it on any platform.
- Squarespace's transaction fee. On Basic, Squarespace takes its own cut of each sale on top of processing. On Core and up, it doesn't.
Quick math: a store selling $2,000 a month on Basic pays processing (around $60-70 at typical order sizes) plus the Basic transaction fee. Once that fee costs you more than the $10/month gap to Core, upgrade. For most stores that point arrives early, somewhere around $500 a month in sales depending on the current fee rate. Check the rate on Squarespace's pricing page before you do the math; it has changed before.
The add-ons that grow the bill
This is where a $19 plan turns into $60 or more a month.
Domain. A custom domain is free for the first year on annual plans. After that, renewal runs about $20-70 a year depending on the extension. A .com sits near the low end; fancier TLDs cost more. You can also keep your domain at a separate registrar and point it at Squarespace, which is often cheaper.
Email. Squarespace doesn't host mailboxes itself. Professional email comes through Google Workspace, sold per user per month. A two-person business adds a meaningful chunk to the bill here, and you can buy Workspace directly from Google for the same or less.
Email Campaigns. Squarespace's newsletter tool is a separate subscription with tiers based on how many campaigns and emails you send. Small lists can get by on the entry tier. If you already use Mailchimp, Kit or Beehiiv, you don't need it.
Acuity Scheduling. Squarespace owns Acuity, and it's the built-in way to take bookings. Acuity's own plans start at $16/month (Emerging, one calendar), $27/month (Growing, six calendars) and $49/month (Powerhouse, 36 calendars). A solo coach on Basic plus Acuity Emerging is already at $35 a month before email or domain renewal.
Member Areas. Gated content and paid memberships are another paid add-on, priced by tier. Useful for course creators, but compare it against a dedicated tool like Kajabi or Podia before committing.
Extensions. Squarespace's extension marketplace has shipping, tax, inventory and marketing apps from third parties, many with their own monthly fees. Each one is small; three or four add up.
What a real site costs
Here's what typical setups look like on annual billing, before card processing:
| Setup | Plan | Add-ons | Rough monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photographer portfolio | Basic $19 | Domain renewal after year one | ~$21 |
| Solo coach with bookings | Basic $19 | Acuity Emerging $16, Workspace 1 user | ~$42 |
| Small shop, $3k/mo sales | Core $29 | Email Campaigns entry tier, Workspace 2 users | ~$55 |
| Growing store with subscriptions | Plus $49 | Email Campaigns, Workspace 3 users, 1-2 extensions | ~$90-110 |
| Busy store needing cart recovery | Advanced $99 | Email Campaigns, Workspace, extensions | ~$140-170 |
None of that is outrageous. It's just a lot more than the $19 people remember from the ad.
What's genuinely good about it
The design floor is high. Squarespace's templates are the best-looking in the category, and the section-based editor makes it hard to build an ugly page. For a photographer, restaurant or consultant, that matters more than flexibility.
Hosting is a non-issue. Unlimited bandwidth and storage on every plan, SSL included, a global CDN, and no hosting decisions to make. Compare that to self-hosted WordPress, where hosting, backups and plugin updates are your problem.
One bill, one login. Site, store, scheduling and newsletters can all live in one account. For a small business without a web person, that simplicity is worth something real.
The trial is honest. Fourteen days, no credit card, full editor access. You can build the whole site before paying anything.
Where it falls short
No free plan. Wix and WordPress.com both let you keep a basic site online for free. Squarespace doesn't. If budget is the main constraint, that's a dealbreaker.
Basic's transaction fee. If you sell anything regularly, the cheapest plan is a false economy. Budget for Core.
Fewer integrations. The extension library is a fraction of what WordPress or Shopify offers. If you need a specific tool connected, check it exists before you build.
Store features lag Shopify. Squarespace commerce is fine for a small catalog. Once you need complex variants, multi-location inventory, or a big app ecosystem, Shopify is the better fit, and it often costs about the same at that stage.
Monthly billing is expensive. Paying month to month costs 25-40% more. If you're testing an idea, the trial plus one month is fine; beyond that, annual is the only sane option.
Squarespace vs the alternatives
Wix is cheaper to start, with a free tier and a Light plan at $17/month annually. It gives you more freeform layout control but makes it easier to build something cluttered. Wix's renewal and add-on costs creep in the same way Squarespace's do.
WordPress.com starts at $4/month for Personal, but plugins need the $25/month Business plan. Self-hosted WordPress is free software on hosting you pay for, which gives you the most control and the most maintenance.
Shopify is the better pick if the store is the business. Squarespace is the better pick if the website is the business and the store is a side line.
Carrd is $9 to $49 a year for a single-page site. If all you need is a landing page or a link-in-bio, Squarespace is overkill.
Who should pay for Squarespace
Squarespace is worth the money for creatives, restaurants, consultants and service businesses who care how the site looks and don't want to manage hosting or plugins. Basic covers a portfolio. Core is the right plan for almost everyone selling something.
It's a weaker choice for anyone who needs a free plan, a large store, or deep integrations with other tools.
Bottom line
The 2026 lineup runs $19, $29, $49 and $99 per month on annual billing, up from the old $16 starting price. The plan price is only part of it: card processing, Basic's transaction fee, domain renewal, Google Workspace and add-ons like Acuity or Email Campaigns are where the real bill comes from. Price your actual setup before you commit, pay annually, and if you sell anything at all, start on Core.
Prices checked against Squarespace's pricing page in November 2026. Add-on prices change often; confirm on the vendor's site before you buy.