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Squarespace starts at about $19 per month when billed annually in the United States, but the subscription is only one part of the cost. In 2026, the current plan family is Basic, Core, Plus, and Advanced. Your real cost can also include billing-cycle differences, Squarespace commerce or digital-product fees, payment-processing fees, domains, email, marketing, and scheduling services.
For most new sites, Basic is the lowest-cost choice for a portfolio or brochure website, Core is the practical default for a team or small store, Plus suits growing sellers and digital-content businesses, and Advanced is mainly for higher-volume commerce operations. The important exception is that existing customers may still be on legacy Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, or Commerce Advanced plans.
Squarespace pricing at a glance
The following figures are current working figures for a US-facing comparison. Annual prices are shown as monthly equivalents; monthly prices are commonly displayed reference figures and should be confirmed on the checkout screen because Squarespace pricing varies by country, currency, promotion, account, and plan-transition status.
| Plan | Annual-billing equivalent | Common monthly reference | Squarespace fee on physical commerce | Digital-product fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $19/month equivalent ($228/year equivalent) |
About $25/month | 2% | 7% | Personal sites, portfolios, blogs, small shops, and simple memberships |
| Core | $29/month equivalent ($348/year equivalent) |
About $36/month | 0% | 5% | Teams, custom-code users, and small ecommerce businesses |
| Plus | $49/month equivalent ($588/year equivalent) |
About $56/month | 0% | 1% | Growing sellers and digital-content businesses |
| Advanced | $99/month equivalent ($1,188/year equivalent) |
About $139/month | 0% | 0% | Higher-volume stores and businesses needing advanced shipping or unlimited video storage |
Squarespace says plans start at $19 per month when paid annually and that annual billing can save up to 36% compared with monthly billing. Exact pricing and feature availability can vary by location and account. Check the official Squarespace FAQ and the checkout page before purchasing.
The plan subscription does not automatically include every Squarespace-related product. Domains, Google Workspace email, Email Campaigns, Acuity Scheduling, and other services may be billed separately.
For a final feature and plan comparison before starting a site, review compare Squarespace plans on Squarespace’s official site. The advertised plan price should not be treated as your complete cost until you check the transaction category, payment method, add-ons, and domain renewal.
What each Squarespace plan includes
Basic: the lowest-cost entry point
Basic is aimed at users who need a professional web presence without the requirements of a larger team or complex store. It can work well for:
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- Portfolios, blogs, personal sites, and brochure websites
- Small online stores with limited sales volume
- Invoices, donations, subscriptions, and customer accounts
- Paywalled content or other digital products, provided you account for the higher digital-product fee
Basic supports unlimited products, but it is not necessarily the cheapest plan for a business that sells regularly. Its main commercial disadvantage is a 2% Squarespace transaction fee on applicable online commerce transactions and a 7% digital-product fee on applicable digital-content sales.
Basic allows up to two contributors and includes 30 minutes of video storage. Those limits may matter more than the subscription price if several people need to edit the site or if the site hosts substantial video.
Core: the practical middle tier
Core is generally the strongest default for a small business that has outgrown a simple brochure site. It removes the Squarespace transaction fee on applicable physical-commerce sales and adds capabilities that Basic lacks, including:
- Unlimited contributors
- Custom code and code injection
- More detailed commerce analytics
- Third-party commerce integrations
- Shipping labels
- Automatic discounts
- Carrier-calculated shipping
- Product waitlists
- Promotional pop-ups
- Google Shopping integration
- Five hours of video storage
Core still carries a 5% digital-product fee. That makes it attractive for physical-product stores but less compelling than Plus or Advanced for a business whose main revenue comes from downloads, courses, memberships, or other qualifying digital content.
Plus: lower digital-product and payment costs
Plus keeps the online-commerce fee at 0% and lowers the applicable digital-product fee to 1%. It also raises included video storage to 50 hours.
For eligible US merchants using Squarespace Payments, Plus publishes a lower standard-card processing rate of 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction. This can make Plus useful for a growing store even when the savings from the digital-product fee alone do not justify the higher subscription price.
Plus availability and payment-processing eligibility may depend on the market, account, and payment setup. Premium cards, international cards, ACH, Klarna, Afterpay, and currency conversion do not necessarily use the standard-card rate.
Advanced: for higher-volume or more demanding operations
Advanced is the top current plan. It has no Squarespace transaction fee for applicable commerce sales and no digital-product fee. It also provides:
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- The ability to connect a carrier for carrier-calculated shipping
- A lower published US Squarespace Payments standard-card rate of 2.5% + $0.30
Advanced is most defensible when the business has substantial digital-product revenue, high payment volume, demanding shipping requirements, or enough video content to make lower-tier storage limits impractical. It is usually difficult to justify for a low-volume portfolio, service site, or small store that rarely processes payments.
The five layers of Squarespace cost
1. Website-plan subscription
This is the advertised Basic, Core, Plus, or Advanced price. The annual figures in the table are monthly equivalents, not a promise that every customer will see the same total. Squarespace’s official FAQ says the starting annual-billing price is $19 per month and that prices vary by plan and location.
Before you pay, check whether the displayed amount is:
- A monthly-billing price or an annual-billing equivalent
- For a new website or an existing legacy-plan account
- In US dollars or another currency
- Before or after a limited promotion
- For the website plan alone or a checkout containing add-ons
2. Billing-cycle choice
Annual billing lowers the effective monthly price and can save up to 36% compared with monthly billing, according to Squarespace. Monthly billing costs more on an equivalent basis but may be preferable when you are testing an idea, expect to change platforms soon, or do not want to commit to a full year.
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Do not compare a $19 annual-billing equivalent with a $25 monthly charge as though they were two equivalent recurring options. Compare the full annual commitment, cancellation terms, introductory promotions, and any separate services attached to the account.
3. Squarespace commerce or digital-product fees
Squarespace’s own transaction fee is separate from the fee charged by a card processor. On the current plans, the published fee schedule is:
| Plan | Applicable commerce fee | Applicable digital-product fee |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2% | 7% |
| Core | 0% | 5% |
| Plus | 0% | 1% |
| Advanced | 0% | 0% |
The commerce fee applies to applicable sales of physical products, download products, service products, and donations. Digital products are treated under a separate fee schedule. Do not automatically add the commerce percentage and digital-product percentage together; identify the transaction category first.
Older plans can have different rules. For example, an older plan without a digital-products add-on can carry a 9% digital-product fee, while older Digital Products plans have historically ranged from 7% for Starter to 0% for Pro. A legacy customer should use the fee information for the actual account rather than assuming the current Basic-to-Advanced table applies.
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4. Payment-processing fees
Even when Squarespace’s own commerce fee is 0%, the payment processor normally still charges for processing a payment. For US users of Squarespace Payments, the published standard-card rates on the current plans are:
| Plan | US Squarespace Payments standard-card rate |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Core | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Plus | 2.7% + $0.30 |
| Advanced | 2.5% + $0.30 |
These are not universal rates. The actual charge can differ for premium cards, international cards, ACH, Klarna, Afterpay, currency conversion, and other payment methods. If you connect Stripe, PayPal, Square, or another third-party processor, that provider sets its own processing charges. Review the processor’s terms for your country and payment mix.
A useful way to model a card sale is:
payment-processing cost = percentage rate × transaction amount + fixed per-transaction fee
For example, at the published Basic US standard-card rate, a $100 card order would generate a payment-processing charge of $3.20 before considering any other applicable fee. If the sale is an applicable physical-commerce order on Basic, the additional Squarespace commerce fee would be $2.00. The two charges are separate.
5. Separately billed products and services
Squarespace’s individual-subscription model means that website plans, domains, email, marketing, scheduling, and related products may appear as separate subscriptions. A realistic budget should therefore distinguish the website plan from optional services.
- Google Workspace: Professional email purchased through Squarespace is a separate service and is not automatically included in every website-plan price.
- Email Campaigns: Email marketing is separately billed unless the specific plan or promotion shown to you says otherwise.
- Acuity Scheduling: Scheduling is a separate product. Acuity payments do not incur a Squarespace transaction fee, although a payment-processor fee can still apply.
- Member Sites and related products: Treat these as separate subscriptions unless the account’s checkout explicitly includes them.
- Domains: The domain has its own registration and renewal schedule, even when the first year is included with an eligible annual website plan.
How much do Squarespace domains cost?
Eligible annual website plans include one free custom domain for the first year. This is a first-year benefit, not a permanently free domain.
Squarespace says domain prices depend on the top-level domain and other factors. Its support documentation gives examples of approximately:
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- $20 per year for common
.comand.orgdomains - $30 per year for
.photography - $50 per year for
.media
These examples are not a universal price list. Premium domains, currency, eligibility, and the selected top-level domain can change the amount. Check the Domains panel for the exact registration and renewal price. Squarespace’s documentation covers starting with a Squarespace domain and registering Squarespace domains.
For a domain registered under the applicable free-domain offer, Squarespace’s current registration guidance states that renewal is $20 after the first year. Other TLDs may renew at different prices.
Domain auto-renewal warning
Squarespace-managed domains auto-renew by default. Squarespace generally charges about 15 days before the official renewal date. If the payment fails, the domain can remain active but past due for 15 days before expiring. After that grace period, redemption fees may apply.
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If you do not intend to keep a domain, review its auto-renewal setting well before the renewal date. A website-plan cancellation and a domain cancellation are separate actions.
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Physical-product store: Basic versus Core
At $5,000 per month in applicable physical-product sales, Basic’s 2% Squarespace commerce fee would be approximately $100 per month, before payment processing and other costs. Over a year, that is about $1,200.
Using the annual-billing-equivalent figures in the table, Core costs about $10 more per month than Basic, or roughly $120 more per year. On those working figures, the 2% Basic fee alone exceeds the Core subscription premium once applicable physical sales are above approximately $500 per month:
$10 monthly plan difference ÷ 0.02 = $500 monthly sales break-even
This is a planning estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Your actual result depends on the checkout quote, discounts, refunds, taxes, payment mix, order count, and whether every sale falls into the fee category being modeled.
Digital-content business: Core versus Plus
Core’s digital-product fee is 5%, while Plus’s is 1%, a difference of 4 percentage points. Using the annual-equivalent subscription figures, Plus costs about $20 more per month than Core. Ignoring other differences, the digital-product fee savings reach that premium at approximately $500 per month in applicable digital sales:
$20 monthly plan difference ÷ 0.04 = $500 monthly digital sales break-even
Plus may break even sooner when the lower published US standard-card rate also applies, or later if the sales are not classified as digital products under Squarespace’s fee schedule.
Digital-content business: Plus versus Advanced
Advanced removes the 1% digital-product fee that applies to Plus. On the annual-equivalent figures, Advanced costs about $50 more per month. A simple fee-only break-even estimate is therefore about $5,000 per month in applicable digital sales:
$50 monthly plan difference ÷ 0.01 = $5,000 monthly digital sales break-even
Advanced can still be worthwhile below that volume for unlimited video, advanced shipping, or the lower published US standard-card rate. Conversely, a low-volume business may not recover the higher subscription cost from fee savings alone.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which Squarespace plan should you choose?
Choose Basic if:
- You mainly need a portfolio, blog, brochure site, or personal website.
- You have few contributors and do not need custom code or code injection.
- You sell little or nothing online, so the 2% commerce fee is not material.
- You can work within the 30-minute video-storage allowance.
Choose Core if:
- You run a small store with regular physical-product sales.
- You need unlimited contributors, custom code, or third-party commerce integrations.
- You want shipping labels, automatic discounts, waitlists, Google Shopping, or more advanced shipping tools.
- You want to remove the current 2% Squarespace commerce fee without paying for Plus or Advanced.
Choose Plus if:
- You sell enough digital content for the 1% fee to matter.
- You need up to 50 hours of video storage.
- You use eligible US Squarespace Payments processing and can benefit from the published 2.7% + $0.30 standard-card rate.
- Your store is growing but does not yet need Advanced’s unlimited video or carrier-connection capabilities.
Choose Advanced if:
- You sell substantial volumes of digital products and want the applicable digital-product fee reduced to 0%.
- You need unlimited video storage or advanced carrier-calculated shipping.
- Your payment volume makes the lower published US standard-card rate meaningful.
- You have modeled the higher subscription cost against actual sales, payment methods, and operational requirements.
Legacy Squarespace plans: Personal, Business, and Commerce
Squarespace is transitioning new websites to Basic, Core, Plus, and Advanced. Existing eligible customers may remain on legacy Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, or Commerce Advanced plans, and the public 2026 plan table may not match the amount on their invoice.
Switching the billing plan or billing cycle can move a legacy customer onto a current plan. Squarespace says that a customer generally cannot return to the legacy plan afterward. Before changing anything, compare the site’s actual invoice and features in the Billing panel. The Squarespace plan-selection documentation notes that each website has its own billing plan and that available plans depend on the account and region.
For a legacy account, the safest sequence is:
- Open the website’s Billing panel and record the current plan, renewal amount, billing cycle, and included features.
- List the features and fees you would gain or lose by switching.
- Check the applicable commerce and digital-product fee schedule for the proposed plan.
- Confirm whether changing the billing cycle itself triggers migration to a current plan.
- Switch only after confirming that you cannot return to the legacy plan if the result is unsuitable.
A practical Squarespace total-cost formula
For budgeting purposes, use this formula rather than relying on the headline subscription price:
total cost = website subscription + separately billed services + domain cost + Squarespace transaction fees + payment-processing fees + applicable tax-automation fees
For a website that does not sell anything, the total may be close to the plan subscription plus a domain renewal and optional email or marketing services. For an online store, add the applicable transaction fee and payment-processing charge to every relevant order. For digital content, use the digital-product percentage rather than automatically adding the physical-commerce percentage.
Automated tax calculation fees
Automated tax calculations can add a plan-dependent fee per applicable transaction. Squarespace’s pricing information lists tiers of 0.15%, 0.10%, and 0.05%; the exact tier and eligibility depend on the plan and setup. Squarespace explains that this fee is combined with the total payment-processing fee. It is separate from the website subscription and should be included in a high-volume store’s model.
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- Confirm the checkout price. Verify the country, currency, monthly or annual billing choice, promotional period, and total charge.
- Identify your account type. Determine whether you are starting on a current plan or changing an existing legacy plan.
- Classify your revenue. Decide whether you will sell physical products, services, downloads, memberships, donations, invoices, Pay Links, or appointments. Different categories can trigger different Squarespace fees.
- Check payment availability and rates. Confirm whether Squarespace Payments is available to you and whether your customers will use standard cards, premium cards, international cards, ACH, Klarna, Afterpay, or another processor.
- Price every add-on. Include Google Workspace, Email Campaigns, Acuity Scheduling, Member Sites, and other products that your operation needs.
- Record the domain renewal price. The first-year free-domain offer does not remove the renewal charge in year two.
- Review auto-renewal settings. Website, domain, and add-on subscriptions can have separate billing settings and renewal dates.
Frequently overlooked costs
- Assuming 0% commerce means 0% payment cost: Core, Plus, and Advanced remove the current Squarespace commerce fee, but a processor can still charge a percentage and fixed fee.
- Adding digital and commerce fees together: Squarespace uses separate categories. Determine which schedule applies instead of assuming a universal combined percentage.
- Counting a free domain as free forever: The first year may be included with an eligible annual plan, but renewal is billed separately.
- Ignoring video storage: Basic includes 30 minutes, Core five hours, Plus 50 hours, and Advanced unlimited video storage.
- Changing a legacy plan casually: A plan or billing-cycle change can move the site to the current plan family, with no general route back.
- Budgeting one all-inclusive Squarespace bill: Email, scheduling, campaigns, domains, and other products may be separate subscriptions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Squarespace really $19 per month?
$19 per month is the current US-facing annual-billing equivalent for the entry-level Basic plan. It is not the universal monthly price, and the amount can vary by location, currency, promotion, account, and billing cycle. Confirm the final charge at checkout.
Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?
On the current plans, Basic charges a 2% fee on applicable commerce transactions, while Core, Plus, and Advanced charge 0%. Digital products use a separate schedule: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus, and 0% on Advanced. Payment-processor fees can still apply on every plan.
Is the Squarespace domain free permanently?
No. An eligible annual website plan can include one custom domain free for the first year. The domain renews separately, and Squarespace’s current guidance lists $20 after the first year for domains registered under the applicable free-domain offer, although other TLDs can cost more or less.
Can a legacy Squarespace customer switch back after changing plans?
Generally, no. Switching a legacy plan or billing cycle can move the site to the current plan family, and Squarespace says customers generally cannot return to the legacy plan afterward. Check the Billing panel and compare the account-specific options before switching.
Are Google Workspace and Acuity Scheduling included in the website plan?
They should normally be treated as separate products unless your specific checkout or promotion explicitly includes them. Their subscriptions and billing can be separate from the website plan.
The Bottom Line
For 2026, Basic is the economical choice for a low-transaction site, Core is the best general-purpose choice for many small businesses and physical-product stores, Plus is aimed at growing sellers and digital-content businesses, and Advanced is for higher-volume or more demanding operations. Compare the annual or monthly subscription with the fee category that matches your revenue, then add processor charges, domain renewal, and any separate email, marketing, or scheduling services. The final checkout quote and your account’s Billing panel—not a generic pricing table—are the authority.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
