Squarespace has earned its reputation for making website building painless. Whether you’re running a business, showcasing photography work, or just need somewhere to dump your thoughts, the platform handles the heavy lifting. Templates are ready to go, AI can design things for you if you’re feeling lazy, and everything stays under one roof.
But pricing is where things get interesting. Not complicated, just worth understanding before you commit.
The Trial Period and Payment Structure
You get 14 days free to mess around with everything. No credit card demanded upfront, which is nice. After that, you’re looking at four different plan tiers, and you can pay monthly or annually.
Here’s the thing about annual payments: the discounts are actually substantial. Basic and Core plans drop by 36%, Plus cuts 30%, and Advanced saves you 28%. That’s real money if you’re willing to commit for a year. Monthly payments keep you flexible but cost more over time. Simple math.
What Each Plan Actually Gets You
The Basic plan is stripped down. No surprise there given the name. You get a website, sure, but you’re missing CSS customization, advanced analytics, and some other bells and whistles. For someone just starting a blog or showing off artwork, it might be perfectly adequate. Transaction fees will sting if you’re selling anything, though.
Core bumps things up with better features and importantly, it drops those nasty transaction fees while cutting digital content fees by 2%. If you’re making even moderate sales online, that $11 monthly difference starts paying for itself quickly. The math tips in your favor faster than you’d think.
Plus and Advanced keep climbing the ladder with lower payment processing rates. The question becomes whether your sales volume justifies the jump. Advanced completely eliminates transaction and digital content fees plus gives you the lowest credit card processing rates. That only matters if you’re actually processing enough sales to make those savings meaningful.
Figuring Out What You Actually Need
Most people overthink this decision. Look at your monthly sales income first. If you’re barely selling anything, paying for Advanced makes zero sense. You’re funding features that won’t benefit you.
Small business owners with steady online sales should run the numbers on transaction fees. Take what you’re actually selling each month, calculate the fees at each tier, and see where the plan cost gets eaten up by fee savings. Sometimes Core is the sweet spot. Sometimes you need to jump higher.
Artists and bloggers without major sales operations probably don’t need anything fancy. Basic gets you online with Squarespace’s polished templates. You won’t have every tool in the shed, but you also won’t be paying for things you’ll never use.
The 14-day trial exists for exactly this reason. Poke around, see what features you actually touch, imagine your typical month of activity, and then decide. Squarespace isn’t trying to hide anything about what each tier offers, which makes the choice straightforward once you’re honest about your needs.
The real question isn’t which plan is best overall, it’s which plan wastes the least of your money while giving you what you’ll genuinely use.
