Squarespace's templates are the best in the business, and that is what you are buying: a design system, and then every word, every photo and every mobile fix yourself. In July 2026 the bill went up again — Core from $23 to $29 on annual billing — by email, with no announcement. Three years of Core is $1,044; Plus is $1,764. The page we build for you is $199, once, and the files are yours.
Four plans, no free tier, a 14-day trial. The page prints two prices per plan — month by month, and the yearly rate it leads with:
Core is $348 a year; Plus $588; Advanced $1,188. In the first week of July 2026 Squarespace moved the prices up without a press release: Basic from $16 to $19 a month on annual billing (+19%), Core from $23 to $29 (+26%), Plus from $39 to $49 (+26%), and month-to-month Core from $36 to $39. On 23 July it emailed some customers to say the increase on “certain plans” had been an internal error and was higher than intended — without saying which plans or by how much. That is why every article you read quotes a different Squarespace price, including this one: the only figure that matters is the one on your own renewal notice.
The fee structure is two ladders, not one. Goods, services and donations: 2% on Basic, 0% from Core up. Courses, memberships and member areas: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus, 0% on Advanced — charged by Squarespace on top of card processing, which starts at 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic and Core. A shop selling $1,000 of memberships a month pays $50 in platform fees on the $29 plan that was sold as the plan without fees. If an article you read quotes “Business at $23” or “Commerce at $28”, it is describing the legacy plan names that old accounts still sit on; new sites are sold Basic, Core, Plus, Advanced.
The 40 hours is the one number here that is not Squarespace's, and we label it rather than dress it up: no builder publishes how long a first site takes, because the answer depends on whether you stop. We cost it at a low $25 an hour. Delete the $1,000 if your evenings are free — the subscription is still $1,044 to $1,764, and the site still is not a file you can move. Card processing is excluded on both sides; we do not touch your sales.
A Squarespace template is a beautiful starting point and an empty one. This is the list between the two:
None of that is a criticism of the product. It is what a design system is: the parts are excellent, the assembly is yours. The template cannot know that your Tuesday is closed, that the lunch menu stops at 2:30, or that the phrase your regulars use is not the phrase on the website. Someone has to type all of it, and on a self-built site that someone is the owner, usually at 11pm, usually twice.
Same job — putting your hours, your prices and your phone number where a customer looks — with two very different bills.
| Squarespace (Basic / Core / Plus) | ShopLaunch | |
|---|---|---|
| List price today | $19–$99 a month on annual billing; $25–$139 month by month | $49 / $199 / $499, once |
| What you pay in year 2 | $228 (Basic) · $348 (Core) · $588 (Plus), plus the domain from year two | $0 |
| Who builds it | You do, in the editor — the template is the beginning, not the site | We do, from your hours, menu and photos |
| Time to live | As long as it takes you to write every word and fix the phone layout | 24 hours from a completed form |
| What you end up owning | A site that runs on Squarespace's servers | A URL and the files: HTML, CSS, images |
| Can you take it elsewhere | One WordPress-format XML. Style settings and custom CSS are on the do-not-export list, and there is no HTML export | Yes — that is the deliverable |
| Edits after handover | In the editor, on a desktop browser | An edit key on the same page, or an email to us |
| Platform fees | 2% on goods at Basic, 0% from Core; 7% / 5% / 1% / 0% on courses and memberships | None |
| Card processing | 2.9% + 30¢ (Basic, Core) · 2.7% (Plus) · 2.5% (Advanced), via Squarespace Payments | Yours, untouched |
| Store, bookings, blog, courses | Yes — this is what the plan is for | No. Those stay exactly where they are |
| The mobile page | Your layout, reflowed — and reviewed by you, section by section | One column, built as a phone page first |
| Cancelling | Paid up front on an annual plan; the trial is 14 days | Nothing to cancel |
Squarespace figures are the US prices on squarespace.com/pricing read 11 November 2026 — $25/$19, $39/$29, $65/$49, $139/$99 as month-by-month and annual billing, before tax, with no free plan and a 14-day trial. Squarespace prices each billing country separately and changed its US prices in July 2026, so your renewal may not match any article. We are not going to print a Lighthouse score for Squarespace: it moves per template and per image. Run PageSpeed Insights on the site you are considering, then on ours.
This page would be dishonest if it claimed to replace everything Squarespace does. It replaces one line of the bill.
If you are selling online, keep Squarespace — a store is a real product and we do not sell one. The narrower question is the one that pays: is the part of Squarespace you actually use a five-section page with hours, prices, photos and a QR code? If it is, you are paying $348 a year and forty evenings for a design system you will use once. That is the line that can go.
Not a template you fill in. We take your hours, prices and photos, build each piece, and hand back files and a live link.
One form, five minutes. Live the next business day. No app for you or your guests, no monthly fee, and no cut of anything you sell.
The page and the menu are the Local Pack. Nothing here is a subscription, and nothing renews.
Less than two months of Core, and nothing after it.
The one most shops order.
Everything, plus 30 days of us on call.
Payment is taken by Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, on their checkout page — we never see your card. By ordering you agree to our terms and refund policy. The files are yours to keep and reprint.
For a one-page shop site, yes. For a store, courses, member areas, scheduling or a blog you intend to keep writing, no — we build a static page from your hours, prices and photos and hand over the files. We do not sell hosting, checkout, a calendar or gated content.
The one on your renewal notice. In the first week of July 2026 Squarespace raised US prices: Basic $16 → $19, Core $23 → $29 and Plus $39 → $49 a month on annual billing, with month-by-month Core $36 → $39. On 23 July some customers were emailed that the increase on certain plans was an internal error and higher than intended. On top of that, old accounts still sit on the legacy Personal, Business and Commerce plans, which is why articles quote numbers that no longer appear on the site.
One file, in WordPress format. Squarespace's own help page lists what does not export: style settings, custom CSS, store pages, additional blogs, events, product and video blocks, page-specific headers and footers. There is no HTML export, and you cannot import the file back into another Squarespace site. The design is the part that stays behind — which is why leaving is a rebuild, not a transfer.
Often, yes — the templates are genuinely good, and that is the honest reason people choose Squarespace. What a template does not do is write your menu, pick your photos, decide what a first-time customer needs to see, or fix the phone layout for a 40-item price list. You get the design system; the work is yours. We skip the system and do the work.
Yes — if you sell online, keep it, or use Shopify, which does less and does that less well. We do not build checkout. Plenty of shops run both: a page from us for hours, menu and phone, and a store somewhere else for the products. Nothing about the page requires you to cancel anything.
Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, takes it on their checkout page. Your card details are entered there, never on this site, and they handle the receipt and the tax. We never see your card number.
The four plans, the July 2026 increase, the two fee ladders and the export rule, on one printable A4 page.
Fourteen more, each priced over three years from the vendor's own page — restaurant POS, ordering, and the booking apps barbershops use.
Everything on one page: the 2026 cost comparison · the fee calculator · barbershops & salons.
Send your shop once. We build the page, the menu, the posters and the posts, and hand it back the next business day — with the files. No subscription to forget, and nothing to export later, because it was never locked in.