Squarespace Actual Pricing After Fees and Extras

Bottom line:

• Squarespace Basic costs $300 in the first year, or $228 if you pay annually, before fees and paid extras.
• Self-hosting your website delivers massive savings. Compared with Squarespace Basic (including service fees), our example saves $268 in the first year and $1,204 over three years.
• Squarespace's sales fees can make the cheapest plan more expensive. With annual billing, the next tier's lower fees offset its higher price at about $500 per month in store sales for Core, $10,000 for Plus and $25,000 for Advanced.

Squarespace pricing starts at $25 per month, or $19 per month when you pay $228 upfront for a year. Over three years, Basic's subscription alone adds up to $684 with annual billing. A business using bookings, email and online sales will spend more, as our example below shows.

A business website you own can avoid the platform subscription and extra sales commission. The comparison here shows both what Squarespace charges and what you can save by paying for your own website instead.

Fast forward: See the total cost over 3 years, then compare it with a self-hosted website.

Prices checked October 22, 2026. Calculations use today's rates throughout, before taxes and introductory discounts.

Squarespace pricing plans start at $228 a year

Here is what Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced cost. Each higher tier includes the previous tier's features, and every plan includes hosting.

Source: Squarespace pricing.

The annual price is paid upfront. A $25 month-to-month Basic plan costs $300 across a full year; the annual plan costs $228. Older Personal, Business and Commerce plans have their own prices and terms, and we don't cover those here.

Extrapolating the cost over the course of 3 years

The price difference between monthly and annual billing grows each year:

Domain and email renewals add $40 and $168 over three years

An eligible annual website plan includes a domain for its first year. At Squarespace's listed $20 annual rate for a standard .com, renewals add $40 across years two and three.

Core, Plus and Advanced offer one eligible new Google Workspace Business Starter mailbox free for the first year. Renewing at $84 a year adds $168 over the following two years. On Basic, paying for that mailbox for all three years costs $252. Additional mailboxes are charged separately, and you can keep using an existing email provider.

Sources: Squarespace domain prices, Workspace prices and email offer eligibility.

Acuity adds another $576 over three years

Acuity is Squarespace’s appointment-booking service, sold separately from its website plans. It lets customers choose an available time and book online, so businesses such as salons and tutors do not have to arrange every booking by phone or email.

Acuity Starter adds appointment bookings for $16 per month with annual billing, or $192 a year. That is $576 over three years on top of the website subscription. Paying monthly costs $20 per month instead.

Sending newsletters through Squarespace Email Campaigns requires another paid plan. A business email inbox does not include that marketing subscription.

Basic takes 2% of store sales before payment processing

For every $100 physical-product order paid with a standard US card through Squarespace Payments, Basic charges $2 in service fees and $3.20 in payment processing. That is $5.20 out of the sale, in addition to the website subscription.

Source: Squarespace transaction fees and payment processing rates.

A 0% service fee on Core, Plus or Advanced still leaves the card processing charge. These rates apply to standard US cards; premium cards and other payment methods have different rates.

Paid online classes and members-only content have a different Squarespace service fee: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and 0% on Advanced, plus payment processing. Use that fee instead of the ordinary store fee for those sales.

Squarespace Core beats Basic above $500 a month in store sales

For ordinary store sales, Core's lower service fee covers its higher subscription price at about $500 per month with annual billing. Plus and Advanced need much higher sales to pay for themselves through standard card-processing savings alone.

These calculations compare the extra subscription price with the reduction in sales and processing fees, keeping the number of orders the same and using standard US cards through Squarespace Payments. Paid classes and memberships have different break-even points because their service fees differ.

For example, Core costs $10 more per month than Basic with annual billing, but removes the 2% store fee. At $500 in monthly store sales, that saves $10. Above that amount, Basic costs more in subscription and sales fees combined.

Total cost with Acuity, email, a domain and $1,000 per month in sales

This business setup costs $3,424 over three years on Basic, or $2,980 on Core. At $1,000 in monthly store sales, Core's lower fees outweigh its higher subscription price.

The example includes ten $100 store orders each month, paid through Squarespace Payments with standard US cards, plus Acuity Starter, one Workspace Starter mailbox and a standard .com domain. Subscriptions use annual billing and eligible first-year domain and email offers. The sales go through the online store, rather than Acuity or paid classes.

Basic and Core's card processing is $32 per month: 2.9% of $1,000, plus ten $0.30 charges. Basic adds $20 per month in store service fees. The example keeps sales at $1,000 per month for all three years.

Acuity rates: Acuity Scheduling pricing. Domain, email and sales rates are listed above.

A $200 self-hosted website saves $1,204 over three years in our comparison

The opening chart compares a $200 build with free hosting against Squarespace Basic. Both sides include $7 a month for email and $32 a month in card processing. The self-hosted website has no platform subscription or extra store service fee.

That puts the self-hosted website at $668 in year one and $1,604 over three years. Squarespace Basic reaches $936 in year one and $2,808 over three years. The difference is $268 in the first year and $1,204 over three years. This comparison excludes domain and booking subscriptions on both sides.

Our business websites start at $200, including initial hosting setup, full ownership and account access. Most simple business websites can be hosted for free. You can manage the hosting yourself, keep working with us or move your site to another provider.

Paying for Squarespace does not buy you an independent website

After three years of subscription payments, the Squarespace website still depends on its platform. Paying a designer to build it does not change that.

Squarespace's export leaves out the finished design and features such as store pages. Leaving can mean rebuilding the website instead of moving the existing site to another host.

Many features rely on our platform's JavaScript and CSS, so some content doesn't export.

“Export your site content”

Owning your website gives you control over the finished work and where it runs. Read more about the ownership risks of Wix, Shopify and Squarespace, or tell us about the website your business needs.

For general build prices, see What Should a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?.